The Taste of Summer in Hungary

Cherries are the taste of summer in Hungary for me. I know from this day forward, any cherry I eat will bring me back to a lazy summer day spent in the Hungarian countryside. There is something so relaxing and carefree about strolling down a quiet street and picking a few cherries here and there and watching the seeds slowly roll on the pavement after you've enjoyed the sweet fruit. Or when invited into a friend's home, spending hours on end chatting in the garden and picking (and of course eating) cherries to make the company and conversation that much sweeter. Cherries have been present during so many of the wonderful memories I have made in the last month or two. It makes me happy to know that something so simple, a cherry, will help bring back these memories and allow me to remember the amazing people I have met here, time after time. 

Shopping Gluten-Free in Budapest

It’s been nine months since I started eating and therefore shopping gluten free. At first, my shopping time almost tripled because I had to read every ingredient on anything I was interested in buying (and of course the ingredients are all written in Hungarian). After a month or two, things became a lot easier. I became an expert speed reader of Hungarian ingredients, and I settled into a routine of knowing which products I could eat.

I can do most of my shopping at markets and typical grocery stores, but I cannot get everything I need there. In order to make baked goods or certain meals at home that would normally contain gluten, I must make my way to specialty shops to get the ingredients. There is one specialty shop, Diet ABC, that has been an absolute life saver, and I would recommend it to anyone in Budapest who needs to eat gluten free or is faced with the challenge of cooking for someone who is celiac. They carry a wide variety of alternative flours, flour blends, pastas, crackers, cookies, breads, cereals, and other snacks that are all gluten free. The shop also has a bakery and café on site that makes fresh bread, pizzas, baked goods, cakes and ice cream (with GF cones!!). I expected the prices to be astronomical, but to be honest they are very reasonable; only slightly higher than what you would be paying for the same gluten-filled product in a supermarket. Their location has proved to be very convenient as well. It is one minute from the Ecseri utca M3 metro stop, which just happens to be the stop that Bill gets off at to go to work. He’s been so wonderful and supportive about picking up strange ingredients like sorghum flour for me and adding in the sweet surprise of bringing home a slice of gluten free cake every now and then.

Diet ABC

Address: 1091 Budapest, Ulloi utca 149

Hours: M-F, 7:30-19:00; 7:30-18:00

Our Next Big Move

Bill and I are excited to announce that we will be moving to Hangzhou, China at the end of July! It is going to be a big change, and it's difficult to leave a city that we have absolutely fallen in love with, but there is much to look forward to as well. Hangzhou is 110 miles southwest of Shanghai, and is a main city on the Yangtze River Delta. There are about 3.5 million people in the urban center of Hangzhou, and around 6.2 million when considering the surrounding suburban areas. Hangzhou is considered one of the most livable cities in China due to its beautiful natural scenery, and appears to have a long and rich history as well.

A couple months back we received job offers at Hangzhou International School. Bill will be teaching middle school history. I am so happy that he will be teaching something he is so knowledgeable and passionate about. He will finally have a chance to teach about so many of the things we have learned during our time in Europe (now I know the 100+ photos we took of the WWI Italian trenches in the Julian Alps of Slovenia were totally worth it). I will be doing college counseling and various teaching assignments as needed (there was mention of teaching a few sections of art, and some substitute teaching across all grades and subjects). As of now the school does not have an established college counseling program, so my hope is to be able to develop that during my time there. 

Just as we did two years ago, in two months we will be adjusting to a new city, culture, language, workplace and lifestyle. It will be a lot different coming to learn and understand about a country that is made up of over 1.3 billion people, rather than a small country with just under 10 million people. To be honest, with just one more month to spend in Budapest, it is hard to look towards the future and think about what our new life in China will be like. I want to really focus on the here and now. I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in a country that is filled with a unique culture and incredible people. Although we are leaving, this will always be home to me. 

Reconnecting

My first internship I ever had was working at EF International Language School in 2006. I spent the summer  working in an environment where there were students from all over the world. At that moment it became a priority of mine to be immersed in culturally diverse environments, whether it be professionally, educationally or socially. One challenge to being internationally minded and working with internationally minded people is that there seems to be a constant state of mobility. This means that friendships can quickly be made and a level of comfort established in seeing someone nearly everyday, but then just as quickly as the friendship came to be, someone is already leaving to go back to their home country or to a new location entirely. It can be tough becoming close to someone and then having to say goodbye, but there is always the strong hope that you will meet again at some point; the location undetermined. 

One thing I was most excited about when moving to Europe was knowing that friends I made in the past, who were typically a 10 hour plane ride away, would soon be within reach via a cheap and fast flight. I got to see my roommate from when I studied abroad, several of my favorite students from EF, a close colleague of mine from Northwestern and even a close family friend whom I had not seen in over 15 years. All were such gracious hosts and so open in sharing about their country. There really is something special about getting to catch up with someone you have not seen for years and realizing how much they've grown and changed, while at the same time seeing that the core of who they are is still very much the same. When seeing someone in the place they grew up or the place they really call home it is even easier to see someone's true spirit, more brilliant than ever.  Travel possesses a wonderful balance between meeting new people and reconnecting with those you've already met and have good reason to meet again. I am extremely grateful to have met so many wonderful people from around the world and feel very lucky to have reconnected with so many, with the hope to meet and reconnect with many more in the future.

Alexia (Roommate, Study Abroad Oxford, 2006)

(Tel Aviv, 2014) 

Malou (Student, EF Oakland, 2008)

(Copenhagen, 2014)

Hungarian Greetings and Farewells

One of my favorite things about Hungarians and the Hungarian language is their avid use of greetings and farewells. There are many different ways to say hello and to wish someone a good day, just as there are many ways you can say goodbye. There are formal greetings, informal greetings, abbreviated versions, ones to be said from a man to a woman, ones to be used when addressing more than one person, ones that are used for both hello and goodbye, and others to only be used at a particular time of day. When I first moved to Hungary and would see someone in my building I would panic inside for a moment as I tried to decide which greeting to use, and typically settled for just repeating the greeting that was said to me (that way I wouldn't offend anyone in being too informal or formal). Well this form of mimicry stopped quickly when about a week into my stay an elderly man in my building  kindly said to me "kezed csokolom" (meaning "I kiss thy hand"), and I quickly repeated this back to him. I had not heard this greeting before, so when I got to work I asked my colleague what it meant and soon learned its true meaning and that it is a formal greeting that essentially older men use towards women, or a man would use towards an older woman. After learning this I decided responding with my own greeting would be better received.

I have come to love this regular interaction with complete strangers, store clerks, colleagues and good friends. The proper question is not IF someone will say hello or goodbye to you, but how many times will they say hello or goodbye. No farewell is more prolonged than those which can be heard over the phone. I cannot count the number of times that I have been privileged to overhear one side of a phone conversation where the end to the call inevitably sounded like this: "szia, szia, hello, puszi, puszi, szia" (bye, bye, bye, kiss, kiss, bye). After I shared this observation of the long goodbye with some of my Hungarian friends, they became aware of how prevalent this was among Hungarians, and now we joke about it and exaggerate our goodbyes to a point of laughter. I rather like the long goodbye. It definitely beats no goodbye at all.

Until next time...szia, hello, szia, puszi, szia, szia

Morning Commute

The concept of a commute typically has a negative connotation. The words traffic, waste of time, exhausting, and frustration often come to mind. I always associated a commute with something negative until I really thought about my own morning commute. On paper, my commute really doesn't sound very good. It involves walking about five minutes to the closest metro station, a 15-minute metro ride, catching a 15-20 minute bus, and then ends with a 7-minute walk.  In total my commute is typically 50 minutes door to door. Some people would say this is really long, while others would say this is short. For me, it is what it is. It doesn't feel long or short, it feels like mine; my daily routine.

I have found that I actually enjoy starting my day like this. There is something stable and reliable about it, but then there is always something new and different. I pass the same stores, the same buildings, every now and then even the same people. Depending on the weather or the season I see the same things but from a different perspective. The early morning light reveals parts of buildings that are normally covered in shadow, and grey cloudy skies allow for the paint on buildings that is normally washed out by the sun to show off their vibrant hues. 

When I sit and observe my surroundings on the metro or bus every morning I notice the changing trends in clothing as the weather warms and cools, and take note of the new advertisements that pop up in the metro or on the sidewalk. I may be simple, but I like having these 50 minutes in the morning that I can notice the small changes within an environment that from day to day can be seen as fairly steady. There is also a sense of quiet and calm, because when living in a country where you don't understand much of the language, it is very easy to tune out the conversations around you. I really became cognizant of how liberating this was when I had a short business trip to New York in March. It was very distracting sitting on the subway and hearing everyone's conversations. I forgot how much I would unintentionally eavesdrop on conversations happening next to and across from me. You almost feel as though your attention is held hostage because as much as you want to focus on something else, it's impossible to completely shut out the noise. As someone who doesn't like popping in headphones for my morning commute, living in a country with a very challenging language easily solves the problem.

Art Nouveau in Budapest

The majority of art nouveau or secession style architecture in Budapest dates from 1895-1915. Buda was the second capital in the Austro-Hungarian empire and in 1873 Pest and Obuda were combined with Buda to form one city. Soon after this Budapest saw an influx of money from Emperor Franz Joseph, with the intention of building up and beautifying the 'other' capital. At the end of the 19th century select artists and architects in Europe shed the shackles of traditional architecture and brought in styles unseen in the past. Cue the architecture we now classify as art nouveau.

Lucky for me there is secession style architecture scattered throughout Budapest which I get to enjoy on a regular basis. There are more than a few buildings worthy of particular praise, with one of them being a mere two minute walk from my apartment (building of the Museum of Applied Arts). Two of the most prolific architects in Hungary during the secessionist movement were Odon Lechner and Karoly Kos, both of whom had an affinity for colorful Zsolnay tiled roofs (Zsolnay tiles are manufactured in Pecs, Hungary).

Museum of Applied Arts (Lechner, 1896)

Bedo House (Vidor, 1903)

Postal Savings Bank (Lechner, 1901)

Gresham Palace (Quittner, 1906)

Budapest Zoo (Kos, 1910)

Elephant House, Budapest Zoo (Kos, 1910)