Busy Days in Pecs

Yesterday I had much of the day unscheduled. I continued to work on lectures for this month. I took myself out to lunch and found a cat in the courtyard. One doesn't see cats here very often, but many, many dogs every day. The cat is nestled against folded up umbrellas for a sidewalk cafe. She seems to be saying, "What do you want?" But when someone else walked into the courtyard she took off at 100 mph.

As I've walked about I keep noticing things that are made more artistic or beautiful than the way we would make them in the United States. Here is a door near where I had lunch yesterday. Just taking a bit of time once creates years of artistry and beauty.

When I go to the corner and turn left, I'm on a street that is not open to traffic, but there are frequently vehicles parked there that provide service to facilities on Kiraly utca. I noticed this van this morning. Again I'm confident that in the States, no one would have taken the time to do this.

As I turned the corner I thought Kiraly was looking quite beautiful this morning.

At the corner by Szechenyi Ter I got another surprise. Over night the sign fairies had been out and put up signs for the Fringe Festival. This Festival normally is in Budapest, but moved to Pecs this year because Pecs is a Capital of Culture. It features about 300 events, newly emerging acting and music groups that do about one hour performances. There are two additional signs within two blocks of my flat at event locations,so things are really hopping this weekend.

Speaking of hopping -- Today the Fulbright group came to Pecs. I went to the bus station to meet those arriving by bus and then walked them over to the train station where we met the group that had come on the train. We all went to the Rector's office (We'd probably say President in the United States) for the University of Pecs. We were warmly welcomed. Thomas and I were both asked to speak about what we are doing with the University of Pecs. We had a lovely lunch there as well

Then we all got back in the bus and went to Radnoti Miklos Economic Vocational School. This is where Mark, high school exchange teacher, is teaching. Here again we were greeted with food. After all it is Central Europe! We were welcomed by the school principal. Mark showed a video his students had made to introduce the school. Then he introduced one of his students who spoke about school activities such as Halloween, Green Day, Trade Fair, and School Leaving Day (we'd say graduation).This young man did this presentation in very good English.

We journeyed back to the center of Pecs and Thomas, Carol, and I were dropped off to walk to our flats while others went to the hotel where they are staying overnight. I re-joined the group at 5:30 for dinner at one of Pecs' very fine restaurants. We had a wonderful time.

Then we walked to the House of Arts and Literature for a Romany Concert. This photo is red due to stage lighting. And this solved a mystery for me. This is the music I hear everywhere. It plays in all the stores, it rings on peoples' phones, and it plays on the hour from the Town Hall clock. It may not be what you envision as gypsy music. It is somewhere between pop and jazz. I'll have to try to find a CD. Sometime next winter I'll probably want to hear this again. Right now I've heard it some many times (including coming out a window of nearby flat as I was walking home) that for a bit I wondered if I was having auditory hallucinations! I find myself humming it while working on the computer -- it has wormed it's way into my subconscious! At least now I know what it is. Tomorrow more Fulbright activities.