Warm Hearts and Cold Rain

At  the Fulbright orientation the Embassy Cultural Affairs staff asked me to attend the International Night sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine. I was directed to make arrangements through American Corner. On Thursday Reka and I decided we'd meet at my flat at 16:15 on Saturday afternoon and go together via bus. Yesterday morning on Facebook I got a message that she was ill. We exchanged a couple of phone calls -- I'm almost getting used to my Europe phone and indeed it's nice to have one.

By mid -afternoon the somewhat sunny morning had changed to rain. I wasn't excited about walking 10 minutes to ride a bus alone for the first time to a place I'd never been. However, part of being a Fulbrighter is to be an informal ambassador, so I gritted my teeth and went. I got there via bus without any difficulty. By now I know the drill. At an event in Hungary, one always checks the coat, and this is done graciously without any sign of a tip jar!

I was glad I showed up, for the chair of the event knew Dr. Wedeking was to be there. Another person said, "Ah you are representing the Embassy." Well, no, but explaining would have caused more trouble than help. We never represent the Embassay; our role is informal only.

The first item on the agenda was a presentation about Pecs being one of the European Capital of Cultures for 2010. It started with a surprise, for I've never before been at an event where the speaker begins: "Esteemed Ambassadors and Respected Professors." And how did I know? Because the whole presentation was done in English.  Sometimes I really have to stop and remind myself where I am.

The presentation was very interesting. I learned why the EU does this activity. But more importantly, I learned how hard Pecs had worked to create this year. The designation was made in 2005. First, consultations were done with previous Capitals of Culture to ask for their advice. Then, they began to practice creating events.

And what do we have this year? Nearly 400 events divided into 6 different areas. Under General Art Festivals, I'm looking forward to the Golden Routes Festival in late April. This one brings photos, music and dance based on the work of Celebi, one of the greatest Turkish historians. Under Music one that made me laugh, and at the same time be glad I live so close to the National Theatre Square so I can easily go, is the 1st International Hungarian French Horn Contest. This one, yum! includes also a gastronomic festival. I don't know what food one eats for a French Horn contest. Watch for blogs in late June!

Coming up in early April is the start of the Romany Musical Performances. This is an example in the Popular, Folk, and World Music area. Under Theatre, Dance, and Film I looking forward to Wednesdays in June when there will be outdoor dance houses where people can learn traditional dances of the various ethnic minorities living around Pecs. Visual and Applied Arts includes an Icon Exhibition from Bulgaria that I plan to see later today, before it disappears on February 28. Scientific Programs has a program that intrigues me: 3rd European Conference on Migration and Health. This is part of a meeting of the European Public Health Association held here in late May.

Literature will probably defeat me for I lack the ability to read in most of the target languages for the planned programs. However, there is plenty more in the catalog of events that I've not mentioned. I thought this would be a good time to come to Pecs and indeed that is true.

Next the International Night was opened with the appropriate speeches. I learned that the Faculty of Medicine began its English langugage Medical School 36 years ago. From that emerged a student body representing something like 54 different countries this year.

Here are some of my favorite phots from International Night.

I spoke with a USA student who was busy making milk shakes. I talked with a Canadian student who was from Winnepeg. The student chair of the event, who was from Norway, said "This is an evening we omit our political and religious differences." Thus, I saw students from India and Pakistan next to each other, as well as students from Greece and Cyprus next to each other. There were plenty of Warm Hearts.

And speaking of Cyprus, oh the food. This photo doesn't do it justice. I had difficulty dealing with all the artificial light in the venue. But the fruits soaked in honey and cinnamon certainly looked good to me.

Now for the Cold Rain. When I left the building there was light rain along with some snow flakes mixed in. I got back onto the #2 after a wait of about 10 minutes. I counted back 5 stops just as I had counted 5 stops to get there. The weather made the windows all steamy and I couldn't see anything outdoors. When I got off, I most definitely was not at the Arkade. In the distance ahead I could see a McDonald's and I knew that was one at the edge of the city, not the direction to walk. So I backtracked. This was about 7PM and of course everthing was closed. After walking about 4 blocks I recognized the Sopiane Hotel, so I knew basically where I was. In another block I found the Arkade and then proceeded toward my flat, definitely stopping at McDonald's to have bite to eat and warm up before making the final trek home.

I got out the bus schedule to see what might have happened. Ah, one stop is omitted on the eastward route. That's how I ended up in the wrong place.

Walking Around on Saturday Morning

I start again with a helpful photo for anyone planning travel to Hungary. The one forint coin is no longer in circulation so all transactions have to be done at the 5 level. Today I purchased two oranges and a red pepper at the produce shop over on Kiraly. The total came to 392 forints. I gave the clerk 400 forints and she made change from 390. Some receipts such as the one I get from Interspar (see above) show this difference on the receipt, but this doesn't often happen. Notice above the change was made from 2495.

Here is something I see nearly every day. The sculpture is on the corner where I turn onto Kiraly. Now that she is out of her "snow coat" I can see what the sculpture really looks like. At the lower left, there a glimpse of some graffiti. This is handled much different in Europe than in the United States. Here, meaning every place I've been in Central Europe -- comments not limited to Hungary, it is simply left alone. I've been puzzled about this on other visits, but then I saw a TV program at home about this is considered the poor man or people's art.

I saw a sign of spring this morning. A church on Szechenyi Ter has been shrouded in a blue renovation screen since I've been here. Yesterday I noticed the screen was gone. And today I saw men taking the scaffolding down. I was pleased for I want Pecs to look nice when the other Minnesotans come.

And I was delighted to find that doughnuts exist in Hungary. This really looked -- and also tasted -- good to me this morning. A doughnut is called a fank.

Learning and Exploring

This blog begins with some helpful pictures for the students from Minnesota who will soon be visiting Hungary.

Water is Europe usually comes plain, stille as the Germans call it, or sparkling, gazowana as the Poles call it. In Hungary one doesn't have to learn difficult words to make the choice. Plain water comes with pink tops and sparkling water comes with blue tops. In most countries I drink the plain version, but I really like the Hungarian sparkling water. It doesn't seem to have quite the bite that some gas waters do, and it very refreshing.

After drinking there becomes the inevitable stop. Men in Hungary should look for the sign that says Ferfi, and women look for a sign that says either No or Noi. There you have it, all the necessities of life.

Now to the learning and exploring. Yesterday one of the Hungarian professors drove me to the Immigration Office. Her schedule allowed her to pick me up at 11:00.  We got there at 11:08 only to find the office closed at 11:00. Later in the day I e-mailed the Fulbright project officer in Budapest to tell her the sign said non-EU people could be seen only Monday afternoon or Thursday morning. About an hour later she called back to say the office would see me, this morning Friday. That didn't work, however, for just this one Friday I had a special lecture to give for MS students in nursing. So Monday, I'll take the paperwork over to the office when it opens at 14:00. Again the day is usually complicated, for just that one Monday only I have a lecture to give at 16:30. I'm hoping I can leave the paperwork for review and come back another day to pick up the resident permit.

Walking back from this disappointing morning, I took a new route. This took me by the Jakovali Hazzan Mosque. This is reputed to be the best preserved mosque and minaret from the Ottoman Rule between 1526-1686. Not only is this preserved, but it still is open for services upon occasion.

I've been visiting restaurants, trying to decide which would be the best choice for the Minnesota students when they come here on a daytrip. My landlady urged me to try one near the flat, right next to the National Theatre. I went there for breakfast yesterday. Fine, fine food! Notice the homemade bread and then the butter served in its own little dish. Where's the silverware? Out of sight on the left on its own little plate. In Hungary an omelette is made from eggs! This is unlike Poland where I got into trouble telling the students we didn't have an omleette for breakfast, only to discover that a crepe like pancake filled with jam is called an omelette!

Here is a picture of the restaurant interior. It is in fact typical. Many restaurants here have very modern interiors. I may be in trouble. This restaurant is close by and the food is wonderful. I will just be "forced" to stop there many times.  I'm anxious now to see what it will all look like too when restaurants like this open their sidewalk serving areas.

This morning was a wonderful spring morning. The sun was shining and it was very clear. I could see the TV antenna up in the Mescek Hills for the first time in about a week.

After the class was done I went wandering. The first thing I found was this monument which would be dear to any Minnesotan. It shows the weather data. The first day I was here, a professor walked me about and  urged me to follow all the lanes into courtyards. Today was warm enough that doing so seemed like fun. I'm glad I have a long stay here, for it will take me awhile to explore all the little areas like this in Pecs.

And I'm close this entry with the most charming scene I've ever seen in Europe anywhere. Here are preschool children, ages 4-5 is my guess, being served a beverage outside a restaurant. I tried to give them their privacy. I couldn't decide if it was apple juice or tea from my distant view, but what amazed me is that they all had real glass glasses! This is how Hungarian culture becomes so elegant -- children are taught it from the very beginning. They were well behaved, not running around, just enjoying a break on what was probably a field trip of some sort. This picture should easily demonstrate why I like exploring the nooks and crannies of Pecs.

Found Csik

Readers may remember that I went to a concert by Csik. I found a video of them. Now you can hear the music. Yesterday I went to pick up a letter that I needed for the residence permit. People asked what I've been doing and I told them I went to the Csik concert. Oh Csik! I could see on their faces that they wishes to have been there, too. I was lucky.

Signs of Green

Wednesay is my longest day. I went to the office around 9:00 so I could do a few things before my Hungarian class. I learned a lot. This language is NOT the hardest one in the world by any definition. One of the things that suddenly dawned upon me is that unlike most European language, but not English, every vowel in Hungarian has at least two sounds and some of them have four. Most European languages one can do the vowels with only Ah[for a], A[for e], E [for i] O,  and U. Hungarian also keeps it root words together. For example, nap can mean either sun or day, which right there makes sense. But then napi = daily, and a standard greeting during the day is Jo napot.

I began the class asking help to develop some vocabulary so I can manage going to the office for my resident permit tomorrow. The professor said she would drive me there. I told her I was concerned this would be a bit inconvenient, for I had received word from another Fulbright family that they had to wait at least one hour in the office after everything was verified to be correct. She still insisted she would drive me there and make sure everything was OK and then leave me until I have the paper in my hand and then I could walk home.

I packed my lunch, for then at 13:00 I work with the same instructor for one of the English as Special Purpose classes. This group wanted to know the working conditions for a nurse in the United States. I asked them to define what "nurse" met and found the only definition they have is that a nurse works in a hospital. So I discussed that. However, on Monday I am doing a lecture with a Bachelors of Nursing class about nursing models in the United States. I didn't quite know what this meant, it just appeared on my schedule. I'm going to discuss all the different options for nurses in the United States and I think they will be surprised.

The sun was out and made quite a bit of difference in the snow level. I walked out of the building and noticed something green where a snowback had been yesterday. I don't know what it is, I'm just happy to see this sign of spring.

I walked toward the Arkade for I needed to do some grocery shopping. Along the way I stopped to take a photo of the apartment building that I've been noticing. I really like the balcony rails on this building, and notice the arrangements of the windows below, too. This is all another sign of the love of the Hungarians for great design.

The sidewalks along the street near the Arkade were very crowded. I thought, "Well, it's the time that school is out." But was I surprised. I wanted to stop for an ice cream sundae at one of my favorite places in the Arkade and could hardly find a seat. It wasn't just teens either. Who knew 2:30 or so was rush hour!  I found a seat and had a wonderful cherry sundae and did my homework for my Hungarian class.

Shopped for groceries and brought home a couple of new items. One is mayonnaise in a tube like toothpaste, the same packaging as I got for mustard, and the same that will be for ketchup if I ever carry some home. I wanted to get some sausage to go with the saurkraut that I bought at the market last week. There are so many kinds and I don't know what anything is! I ended up on the canned foods area thinking I was getting canned kielbasa, called kolbasz in Hungarian. Well, I opened it and it had kielbasa all right. What I purchased was actually like a bean casserole with kielbasa. Put it on the stove with a little extra water so it didn't scorch while it was warming and it turned out to be quite good. I'm not unhappy there is some in the refrigerator for another meal.

Watched some TV tonight by doing a go around. NBC Olympics won't allow me to open any video, but I got some interesting stuff by going to the web site for the Today show directly. Also got the idea to look for the Daily Show and get those, but with a few days delay. However, the one from February 11 about health reform and that Hawaii already has it and the Republicans who went there for a meeting didn't even know it and were clueless that things have been working fine in Hawaii in 40 years is just funny beyond belief.

Wish me luck for getting the magic piece of paper tomorrow so I'm legal.

Walking Around

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Above is a lovely video about Pecs. I'm getting anxious for the snow to melt and sidewalk cafes to appear. I'm glad to share some of the anticipated views with you all. Right now Szechenyi Ter is still under renovation and doesn't look truly elegant with a large fence around it. In the past couple days I've seen some signs that work may soon begin on this renovation. I do hope that it will look nicer when the Minnesota visitors arrive.

I decided today to share a couple pictures of things I see on the way to and from the university office.

Every day I wonder what is the story that goes with this bear.

And today on my way back I noticed the above in a store window. What's this?

Oh, it became clearer when I looked at the next shelf. The answer is wallpaper borders. Displayed as these are creates a great visual image.

In the class today I discussed what a refugee is and then spoke about the refugees who come to Minnesota. Now I have to think of a topic for the class next week.

I stopped for lunch at the Elephant restaurant, wanting to try this restaurant as a possible place for the Metropolitan State students to eat when they come here. It is called Elephant because there is an elephant statute on the sign on the building. The story is that once this was a store that sold "Eastern products" and so an elephant was added to the building as a sign of the exotic.

I had bean soup and panna cotta. This restaurant will definitely stay on the list for the students' dinner. My landlady neighbor also highly recommends a restaurant somewhat closer to my flat.

One thing that is unique to Hungary, according to my experiences in other countries, is how elegantly that silverware is presented. This above picture shows how the dessert fork arrived on my table.

From here I walked over to the other Faculty of Health Sciences office and picked up a letter from the office that I need for my long-stay residence permit. While there I copied my insurance card and also a special form my landlord had to provide to show that he indeed owns the property. (One of my Fulbright colleagues shared it is much more complicated to get such a visa here than it was when they spent a lengthy time in China and also needed such a permission from the government.) My goal for Thursday is to file all these papers and hopefully getting my long-stay visa.

I came back to my flat for bit, and then walked back to Szechenyi Ter and spent an hour with the English conversation circle offered today at the same site as the American Presidents' exhibit.

Getting Out of Town

I left my flat about 8:30 this morning to walk to my office where the language classes are held. When I turned to lock the door I was surprised to find a "Christmas tree." I taped it up on the cupboard door that covers the washing machine in the flat.

I spoke with the class about university life in the United States. One aspect that is very different is the cost. Students here receive governement support to attend universities. One of the students observed, "This [meaning the cost] must cause stress." Under recreation, since this is a class that is to have students of recreation management, I also discussed Binge Drinking.

When done I walked quickly back to my neighborhood and grabbed a sandwich at McDonald's. Then I walked down to the end of Kiraly, turned right a couple of blocks, and used my mobile phone to call Thomas and Carol and let them know I was at their flat. Their buzzer doesn't work, so they don't know when someone is standing outside on the street trying to get in.

We quickly left for Mohacs. A large Winter Festival is held here for several days, but as we discovered, not much on Monday. We noticed the building above held the tourist information office, so went in. Carol quickly discovered that the woman at the desk spoke German so they had a great conversation that way. We were directed to the 2nd floor to see a photography display of the costumes used for the winter festival. They are truly amazing. I bought a small button, like we sell in St. Paul for the Winter Carnival, so that I have a visual reminder of the great costumes from Mohacs.

We wandered around some. I took the above picture to add more evidence to my claim that Central Europe is not gray and drab. The colors of the buildings in Mohacs are amazing.

I noticed this monument. The woman in the toursit office explained the three women symbolize the coming together of the Hungarian, Croation, and Serbian people in this part of the world. Elsewhere in Mohacs there is a similar monument of three men. As you can from this picture and the one above, buildings in this area have domes that make  you think you are indeed entering a Serbian area. Behind this monument was a very large, quite newly constructed, church. It also had a very round dome top. We noticed even churches in very small villages had the rounded tops.

Mohacs is on the banks of the Danube. In fact, one of the brochues I brough home, says that Mohacs acts a water border station on the Danube. We walked up some very snowy and icy steps to get to the top of the levee to see the river. And we found a much safer way to get down! The area on the other side is called New Mohacs. Most of the structures were very small, and caused us to wonder if these were summer cottages along the river.

On the way back we took a side trip into the small village of Barbarc. Just outside this village is the area in which Thomas led an excavation project. We decided to go to Villany, too, so that route took us through another somewhat larger village in which he was the best customer of the hardware store while this excavation was going on. In Villany we just drove around. The afternoon was getting late, and also it looked like things were quite closed up, perhaps since it was Monday. Villany was quite a surprise to me, not at all what I expected.

This rural area of Hungary is very, very flat, and out of the city we found there was a good bit more snow. Yet there were times when I thought I might be driving on a road in rural Minnesota.

It was a very pleasant way to spend an afteroon.