Snap! The current flows through Jessica’s fingers and she jumps. “Ouch!!” It was Wednesday night and after 20 hours of travel, we’d just begun to unpack our clothes, snacks, and electronics; Jess and I were trying to figure out whether to use the smaller or larger European converters. Carefully, I plugged an American surge protector into my converter and plugged the converter into a Hungarian extension cord. POP! It was 1 am in the morning and I’d blown our circuit!! Jess and I looked around and couldn’t find a fuse box, so we ventured downstairs to look and see if any neighbors might be up and about.
Luckily, when we made it to the bottom floor, we saw a handsome 40 year old man walking out the door. I called out, “Sir! Do you speak English?” Peter smiles, shakes his head, and motioned for us to follow him to the apartment which he had departed from. We are introduced to an archeology professor in his 60s who speaks some English. The men offer us wines and we try to explain our problem. Finally, after much conversation (Hungarian-English dictionaries in hand) it clicks! The kind men come and fix our electricity by flipping both circuit breakers. Our outage had made us two new contacts!
The next day, I awoke early to go and hunt for a scale. I looked everywhere - in all the little shops in the city center. Finally, I bought a Hungarian-English dictionary and a good phrase book and asked a store keeper “Hal kapok serpenyo?” I acted out stepping on a set of scales and hoped for the best. I was directed to the local Walmart-type store called Tesco. Along the way, I’d ask passerby “Hol van Tesco?” and though I couldn’t understand their answer, their pointing guided me in the right direction. I was so confused when I got to Tesco, and asked an employee “Hal kapok serpenyo?” Which I thought meant “where can I find scales?” to be directed to an aisle with electronic kitchen scales and pans. I went back to our apartment without scales, but having eaten a wonderful savory pastry which looked like it had hamburger meat filling.
Agi from Széchenyi came to help us navigate cell phone shopping and show us (once again, for me) to Tesco. As we walked, I showed her my receipt from buying my pastry and asked what type of pastry I had eaten. “I don’t know what type of pastry it was,” she said, “but I know it had chicken liver inside.” EW! Yuck! Puh! Well, the Hungarians managed to make chicken liver palatable, but I was still a little disgusted.
After many long and disappointing waits at the three cell phone providers, we found that we couldn’t have a cell phone with a contract unless we were Hungarian citizens. We could only buy a sim card with a prepaid type plan after we have an official residence permit from immigration. Thus, we were out of luck unless we could find a Hungarian citizen willing to vouch for us at the cell phone shop, putting our cell phone under his or her name. Then, we made our way to Tesco, where I told Agi what I had said to the shop keeper. Laughing, she told me that I’d asked the shop keeper where I could find a pan. My dictionary is an antique – as old as Agi’s father’s (I did buy it in a second hand store for cheap!) and serpenyo is also the two pans on an old set of scales. A full set of weighing scales is “mérlag serpenyo” and today the Hungarians call scales mérlag. Oh well!
As Jess and I made our way home, we saw our archeologist neighbor in the window – seemingly naked as a jay bird. He called out and waved to us.
The next morning, I met Éva, who took me to Teleki Blanka Grammar School. The head master showed me an English PowerPoint about Teleki, and served me strawberry tea as Éva translated what he said to me. I was then presented to the English department. All of the teachers were relatively young, excited to meet me, and incredibly kind. Erzi, a teacher in her 50s who’d taught in both Texas and Vermont, was to be my mentor at Teleki. Each teacher went around the circle and told me a bit about herself and then we decided on a time for me to come on Tuesday and make lesson plans. Erzi showed me around the school, where I met many teachers who could understand English but weren’t comfortable speaking. Everyone offered to help me in any way that he or she could! One teacher in particular was an instant friend – Zita. Zita invited me to come with her to a wine tasting that night. Zita, Erzi, and I all went out to coffee at a nearby coffee shop and they gave me a few tips about teaching at Teleki. Then Erzi (short for Erzibet) took me to Vodafone. The wonderful woman (oh how I appreciate her!) had decided that our troubles with getting a cell phone were ridiculous and that she would vouch for me. We managed to get me a cell phone and also went by the pharmacy to see about getting me a prescription. Much like Mama, she gets things done! I couldn’t have been happier with her help! After showing me where to go for the wine tasting, we parted company.
The wine tasting was a blast!! It was a blind tasting with eight different types of wine. We were poured a glass and then asked to rate by sight (the color and the intensity), by smell (the intensity, the quality, and the character), and by taste (the intensity, the quality, and the character.) To offset the effects of the wine, we were given rolls that flaked like whomp-um biscuits, but were smaller than a fist, savory, and covered with dried melted cheese.
Saturday was fabulous! Jess and made a 2 hour trip to IKEA where we bought all kinds of goodies to make our flat seem more like a home. On the metro ride back to the train station in Budapest, we stopped at Daddy and my favorite restaurant in Budapest. It was still there! We ordered a Mexican meat potato, a Mexican meat savory pancake, a curd cheese and cherry crepe, and a banana and nutella crepe. Delicious! Jess loved it as much as Dad and I had! And it only cost $7 for our food, a big coke for Jess, and a bottled water! We arrived back home around 11 pm.
Sunday was my birthday and I spent the morning trying to figure out why my phone was not working and was locked up. I went to the Vodafone store (in the mall – all the other stores were closed) and found out that I had already spent $20 credit! Apparently calling home 3 times for 20 minutes is a killer – but incoming calls are free! (So I understand through a translator – I hope it is so!) Uncle Frank and Aunt Lisa made my day by calling and wishing me a happy birthday. I also was determined to get my nightstand put together before my birthday dinner (I needed a hammer, a Phillips head, and a flat head screw driver). I went down to ask my neighbor to borrow the tools and he answered the door in his underwear and a t-shirt! He invited me in as I hung back and put on his jeans right there before my eyes – culture shock! While he was quite nice, helping us put together my nightstand, feeding us lunch, giving us books, and offering to show us around Hungary (and his excavations), Jess and I think he may be an alcoholic (as much alcohol as he offers us) and think we might put some distance between ourselves and Mr. Tighty Whitey.
(Side note – Zita says that the free show I received when knocking on his door is not uncommon here in Hungary! And I thought I wasn’t incredibly modest!)
Luckily, when we made it to the bottom floor, we saw a handsome 40 year old man walking out the door. I called out, “Sir! Do you speak English?” Peter smiles, shakes his head, and motioned for us to follow him to the apartment which he had departed from. We are introduced to an archeology professor in his 60s who speaks some English. The men offer us wines and we try to explain our problem. Finally, after much conversation (Hungarian-English dictionaries in hand) it clicks! The kind men come and fix our electricity by flipping both circuit breakers. Our outage had made us two new contacts!
The next day, I awoke early to go and hunt for a scale. I looked everywhere - in all the little shops in the city center. Finally, I bought a Hungarian-English dictionary and a good phrase book and asked a store keeper “Hal kapok serpenyo?” I acted out stepping on a set of scales and hoped for the best. I was directed to the local Walmart-type store called Tesco. Along the way, I’d ask passerby “Hol van Tesco?” and though I couldn’t understand their answer, their pointing guided me in the right direction. I was so confused when I got to Tesco, and asked an employee “Hal kapok serpenyo?” Which I thought meant “where can I find scales?” to be directed to an aisle with electronic kitchen scales and pans. I went back to our apartment without scales, but having eaten a wonderful savory pastry which looked like it had hamburger meat filling.
Agi from Széchenyi came to help us navigate cell phone shopping and show us (once again, for me) to Tesco. As we walked, I showed her my receipt from buying my pastry and asked what type of pastry I had eaten. “I don’t know what type of pastry it was,” she said, “but I know it had chicken liver inside.” EW! Yuck! Puh! Well, the Hungarians managed to make chicken liver palatable, but I was still a little disgusted.
After many long and disappointing waits at the three cell phone providers, we found that we couldn’t have a cell phone with a contract unless we were Hungarian citizens. We could only buy a sim card with a prepaid type plan after we have an official residence permit from immigration. Thus, we were out of luck unless we could find a Hungarian citizen willing to vouch for us at the cell phone shop, putting our cell phone under his or her name. Then, we made our way to Tesco, where I told Agi what I had said to the shop keeper. Laughing, she told me that I’d asked the shop keeper where I could find a pan. My dictionary is an antique – as old as Agi’s father’s (I did buy it in a second hand store for cheap!) and serpenyo is also the two pans on an old set of scales. A full set of weighing scales is “mérlag serpenyo” and today the Hungarians call scales mérlag. Oh well!
As Jess and I made our way home, we saw our archeologist neighbor in the window – seemingly naked as a jay bird. He called out and waved to us.
The next morning, I met Éva, who took me to Teleki Blanka Grammar School. The head master showed me an English PowerPoint about Teleki, and served me strawberry tea as Éva translated what he said to me. I was then presented to the English department. All of the teachers were relatively young, excited to meet me, and incredibly kind. Erzi, a teacher in her 50s who’d taught in both Texas and Vermont, was to be my mentor at Teleki. Each teacher went around the circle and told me a bit about herself and then we decided on a time for me to come on Tuesday and make lesson plans. Erzi showed me around the school, where I met many teachers who could understand English but weren’t comfortable speaking. Everyone offered to help me in any way that he or she could! One teacher in particular was an instant friend – Zita. Zita invited me to come with her to a wine tasting that night. Zita, Erzi, and I all went out to coffee at a nearby coffee shop and they gave me a few tips about teaching at Teleki. Then Erzi (short for Erzibet) took me to Vodafone. The wonderful woman (oh how I appreciate her!) had decided that our troubles with getting a cell phone were ridiculous and that she would vouch for me. We managed to get me a cell phone and also went by the pharmacy to see about getting me a prescription. Much like Mama, she gets things done! I couldn’t have been happier with her help! After showing me where to go for the wine tasting, we parted company.
The wine tasting was a blast!! It was a blind tasting with eight different types of wine. We were poured a glass and then asked to rate by sight (the color and the intensity), by smell (the intensity, the quality, and the character), and by taste (the intensity, the quality, and the character.) To offset the effects of the wine, we were given rolls that flaked like whomp-um biscuits, but were smaller than a fist, savory, and covered with dried melted cheese.
Saturday was fabulous! Jess and made a 2 hour trip to IKEA where we bought all kinds of goodies to make our flat seem more like a home. On the metro ride back to the train station in Budapest, we stopped at Daddy and my favorite restaurant in Budapest. It was still there! We ordered a Mexican meat potato, a Mexican meat savory pancake, a curd cheese and cherry crepe, and a banana and nutella crepe. Delicious! Jess loved it as much as Dad and I had! And it only cost $7 for our food, a big coke for Jess, and a bottled water! We arrived back home around 11 pm.
Sunday was my birthday and I spent the morning trying to figure out why my phone was not working and was locked up. I went to the Vodafone store (in the mall – all the other stores were closed) and found out that I had already spent $20 credit! Apparently calling home 3 times for 20 minutes is a killer – but incoming calls are free! (So I understand through a translator – I hope it is so!) Uncle Frank and Aunt Lisa made my day by calling and wishing me a happy birthday. I also was determined to get my nightstand put together before my birthday dinner (I needed a hammer, a Phillips head, and a flat head screw driver). I went down to ask my neighbor to borrow the tools and he answered the door in his underwear and a t-shirt! He invited me in as I hung back and put on his jeans right there before my eyes – culture shock! While he was quite nice, helping us put together my nightstand, feeding us lunch, giving us books, and offering to show us around Hungary (and his excavations), Jess and I think he may be an alcoholic (as much alcohol as he offers us) and think we might put some distance between ourselves and Mr. Tighty Whitey.
(Side note – Zita says that the free show I received when knocking on his door is not uncommon here in Hungary! And I thought I wasn’t incredibly modest!)
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