Things are grey in Hungary!

We went to Kecskemét on Friday with Fulbright -- it's a small town (okay, there are maybe 120,000 people there, so it's more of a small city) with a ceramics studio and the Renowned Kodály School of Music. Apparently the Kodály method is very influential and unusual, although I have to admit that from the presentation we attended I couldn't totally gather what the method entailed... I think the belief that everyone should have access to music, and more singing in classrooms? I would support that. My early music education was more or less mediocre (although I did learn a number of patriotic American songs, which I remember to this day).

I leave for Berlin this Saturday. There is a Europe-wide Fulbright conference, although the participants are predominantly from Germany (there are SO MANY German Fulbrighters!) I think it will be good for me to travel. I am lazy and not good at organizing such things myself.

What else? I'm more or less set on staying in Hungary next year, although I have yet to line up a job... My friends here seem nonchalant about it, but talking to my parents stresses me out. I don't know how I will pay for health insurance, or where I will live, or how I will afford a ticket back to the States, or when... Oi vey.

Now I have to go try and talk to the registrar... Again... I have been trying for three weeks... The office is open two hours a day, four days a week, and the last time I went the woman I needed to see had taken an hour and a half coffee break. I don't get it.

Strange things about learning a new language: punctuation!

It wigs me out that not everyone uses the same punctuation I do. For example, Hungarians use the semicolon sparingly, if at all; however, they are extremly profliage with their exclamation points. For example, you use an exclamation point to begin a letter, even a formal one. You would also use it at the end of a statement like, "Prove this is true!" It makes my homework sound really exciting!

On the other hand, without the semicolon, we couldn't have English-language academia; how would people write their pretentious titles?

[Did I use that correctly? I thought it might be a stretch.]

I've been back in Budapest for three weeks now. It's been snowing on and off for most of that time, so things are pretty beautiful (and also rather cold). I walked home last week around two and things were perfect: big globules of snow everywhere, clinging to cars and buildings and blocking out the sound. I woke up the next day hoping to take pictures, but it was gone...

First thing's first! Here are degu:


I am getting one, pronto.


Classes this semester look like they'll be more or less good -- the ones that aren't shouldn't be complained about online. It's nice that I'm getting to a point where most of the material I'm covering overlaps; I feel almost competent.

Bullet points:
- I'm helping a friend with English. Teaching is hard!
- She is helping me with Hungarian. That's hard, too. I'm really going to put a lot of effort in this semester, though. I'm talking flashcards, workbooks -- the whole nine yards. I am going to be fluent in this language some day.
- I'm also going to take lessons once a week with some people from the Pecs summer program. Woot!
- I am working on making Hungarian friends. I went to a concert last Tuesday. It was great! Also a guy from class invited me to watch a seven-hour Hungarian art film at some point in the indeterminate future...
- February is getting a little slumpy, similar to November... I need new, fun things to do! Suggestions are welcome.
- Last but not least, we went to a pork festival:

Three days of Pechsi language school left to go... I can't say I'll be sad to stop waking up at six every morning, or throwing myself futilely against the Hungarian language, but I will be sorry to leave Pecs. I actually made a friend! Or, another friend, and one who is neither American nor a math student. I'm also learning a lot more Hungarian than I will next semester.

Apparently the director of our program gave my name to someone who works for the University newspaper -- she wants to interview me about the Winter Language School. In Hungarian. We'll see how it goes? If she asks me where I'm from, what my family does or what kind of beer is my favorite, I'm in the clear.

My other project for today is eating ostrich in a vaguely Western-themed restaurant with straw on the floor and two degu (a rabbit-sized rodent indigenous to Chile; it looks like an oversized gerbil) on display.

Still in Pecs at the moment. I was wrong about McCafe being the only place with internet cafe -- it turns out that cafes don't advertise internet around these parts is that all cafes have internet broadcast from the main square. Silly us!

Language courses are going well. The teachers even refuse to speak English to us (more or less), which is a treat. It does mean I'm pretty exhausted after six or seven hours of class. The main downside is perhaps that I eat breakfast around six and we don't eat lunch until two, but if that's the worst that's happened I'm doing pretty well.

We're also getting to know one or two (actually two) of the students -- I wish both of them lived in Budapest, rather than just one of them.

Today was a BAD Hungarian day. I went to the post office to pay for the language course (you pay bills at the post office) and tried to use a credit card, but they wanted a pin code... I had forgotten that American credit cards don't have pin codes but European ones do, so I just got flustered and confused and ended up paying with a different card I hadn't wanted to use.

I then went to another woman. I wanted to 1. buy stamps for two letters and 2. see if she had any tape I could close one of my letters with. I don't know the word for tape, or glue, or stamp, so I mimed some stuff unsucessfully. At least I understood when the woman got an attitude and said, "I don't know what she wants" to the man behind me in line. It's a post office, woman, and I'm waving letters around! What do you think I want! I did manage to get stamps but I only had enough change to pay for one letter... Hopefully it gets sent.

Over and out!

Subtleties of the English language, part I

The difference between:
-It was important for you
-It was important to you
-It is important to you
-It is important for you

Or,
Did you see...? Versus, Have you seen...?

I tried to explain why you use "did" rather than "have" for talking about riots.

Sziasztok mindenki! I am currently updating from McCafe, Pecs. Surprisingly it seems like this is one of two cafes with WiFi-- the other being the other McDonald's.

Almost done with exams, I'm vacationing (if you will) in the South, taking a three-week intensive language course before my intensive math courses start up again in February.

Not too much else to say at the moment; I'm here with my friend Sarah, another Fulbrighter, who looks a bit bored at the moment. Just wanted to break my radio silence.

Happy New Year!