hungarian word of the day 2

Today's word is brought to you by SPRING!


Buttercup

Buttercup > Gólyahír > Stork's news


The stork is a Spring time bird who carries babies around....and here, buttercups are one of the first flowers to bloom...before spring has officially sprung.  Which makes them symbolic of spring coming soon, bringing babies or new life to an otherwise dreary environment!

Hungarian Easter Traditions

Here, Easter Monday is a little more Easter than Easter Sunday.  Yesterday, the town was FULL and everyone was out with their families and shopping and walking around.  Today, the town is completely desolate!

We are having our Easter dinner today also.

This brings me to ancient Hungarian Folklore traditions....

Folklore tradition says that on Easter Monday, Boys will "water" girls will cold water, and girls are supposed to give them chocolate.

When I asked my students about Easter traditions this is what they told me...The girls looked like they didn't really like Easter, But the boys were laughing and acted like the loved Easter!  Of course if this is the tradition!  They said that boys they knew would be allowed into their house to dump cold water on the girls to wake them up!

So I think young cheeky boys still do this to the girls as a joke, but now it's more appropriate for the boys to walk around with perfume and the girls to walk around with chocolate eggs.  The boys recite the following poem to girls, asking if they can "water" or spray them with perfume.  And then the girls say yes, the boys (nicely) squirt their neck, and the girls give them chocolate eggs.  (My girl students informed me that "nice boys" spray you with perfume if they like you as a friend, a girlfriend, or even as an elder--like a boy would spray perfume on his grandmother or female neighbors.  Cheeky boys get you with the cold water!  And apparently, you are lucky if you don't get ANY cold water splashed on you Easter Monday). 

There's all sorts of symbolism here, and I can imagine where this tradition came from...Men helping women to become "beautiful" and "pretty" and "smell nice" in the spring time.  Being done with winter and ready for summer.  Blooming of flowers.  An old courting ritual for springtime--You can just imagine 8 year old boys splashing the girl he likes in his class on the playground.  Only here, Adult males get to act like children too! (As if they don't already...we won't get into that, though)


"Zöld erdőben jártam kék ibolyát láttam elakart hervadni.  Szabad e locsolni?"  
>  I've been in the green forest, I saw a blue flower and it was going to wilt.  Can I water you?

--> Apparently this is the most simple, and the Easter poem can range from this to a little longer and funnier! 

Anyway, I thought this was a cute little tradition.  At first I thought it was a rediculous tradition for Easter...Splashing cold water on girls is NOT nice!  But the perfume and poem combo sounds just lovely for spring time!  Imagine getting sprayed by the boy you like on Easter?


§§§ Update:  I thought I was off the hook, but I got sprayed with perfume at dinner. Now I smell!

camping in summer

Luckily, we've had straight up summer weather the past few days....and we decided to go into the forest...and stay there!  Camping is one of my favorite things to do, and even though I thought we may be jumping the gun a little camping so early in the season, the weather was on our side, and we had an amazing little trip.

We went camping at Szilvasvárad, an awesome little place to go hiking around.  We've been there before, but only did the 2 mile short trails, and drove up the mountain to take another shorter trail to an overlook...which was awesome because we saw this last fall

But this was different....it's prime hiking season, and biking season for that matter!  We thought it would be a good idea to bike up the mountain.

We passed that first overlook within the first hour of our trip and continued to bike (slash hike the really steep parts!) for another 5-ish hours....its was about 15 KM to our destination--Bél Kő--uphill. 

One thing is for sure, though, camping, hiking, and photographing my journey is one of my favorite ways to spend time! 

I really don't mind moving and being active as long as I'm in nature and I have an ever-changing view on my way....It keeps things interesting, because we all know how easily bored I get.  This is why I can't go to the gym....I need a workout with a big finale!  And boy did I get one. 

From the top, we could see down on all the other surrounding mountains, we were about 1 KM high.  It just made me feel really, really small.  We sat, breathed the crisp mountain air, and felt like we were on top of the world. 

Our descent was fun, and that's what it felt like, a descent!  I felt like I was descending in an airplane rolling the whole way down this mountain and seeing everything we saw slowly on the way up, quickly in reverse.  It was such a good feeling to fly down this mountain like a bird...and it took a little over an hour to get down, so I had plenty of time to revel in this feeling of weightlessness. 

The camping part always includes a lot of laughs:  Somehow making a really incredible dinner of potatoes, veggies and beans over the fire, figuring out how borrowed sleeping mats work, sleeping at an awkward angle all night, figuring out how to open the bottle of wine we brought (of course no corkscrew! luckily a nice lady let us borrow hers, but we were ready to get creative), getting all the equipment back into those little tiny bags for storage.....The list goes on.

I always feel a little better after I go camping...I need to get back in touch with my inner cavegirl every now and then.  And I always get a little sad packing up our new little "home" we made....To be honest, I always have the urge to go into the forest and stay there--for a long time.  I get really tired of relying on technology so much! 

The most perfect peace is the quietness of the forest, freshness of the air and the beauty of nature--to me anyway! 

Happy Earth Day!

Hungarian word of the day 1 (egy)

So, it is becoming apparant to me how beautiful, literal and poetic the Hungarian language is.  As a student of language, and a learner of the Hungarian language, it is interesting to know where words come from.  Latin Roots are normally present in the English language, but sometimes words are completely arbitrary!  The only thing that makes a cat a cat is that we all agreed to call it that!

 I am always looking for ways to remember new Hungarian words, and it's easier to break up big words to what their root words are to understand the whole meaning.  Turns out that when you translate from English to Hungarian and then back to English, you occasionally end up with some poetic form of the original word....Or if not poetic, mildly humorous! 

I want to start recording these when I find them....I have been collecting them for a while and now I'm going to start sharing them.

Today's word is:

Tip

Tip >  borravaló  > "A little Money for the Wine"
 


Okay, so maybe this first one isn't so poetic, but it's definitely amusing. Hungary obviously has a very rich and long history with wine, and so much so that wine (or bor) is actually included in the word for "tip" (probably because that is mostly what they were tipping for back in the day!)

More to come!

spring break

It's here, and what a relief!

Good things:

-Finally legal! Officially!  All that work for a little sticker (okay, Visa) in my passport and to be "logged into the system."

- Using games in English in my classroom has been my favorite thing.  Revamping Catch Phrase, Scattergories, Taboo, Pictionary, Cranium (and possibly Balderdash in the near future!)  Has been fantastically fun for my students and I both.

- Nice weather...We have been positively lucking out with the weather, and it's only going to get better this week!  We are actually planning a camping trip for the end of this week which just so happens to land on Earth Day :)  So yes, I am aware it will be sooo cold at night, but we will be alright, the temp doesnt drop below freezing at night anymore :P  Ben is one of my favorite people to go camping with and we're already planning the menu...beans, marshmallows, sausage and baked potatoes for dinner and avocado sandwiches for the hike!

-Rasberry Soup.  Really Hungary?  But I love rasberries, I love soup, and this is quite a unique treat for my tastebuds.

- Trail mix.

-  The grooviest bum in Eger.  He is awesome and really adds a vibe to the square when he plays there!

- FLOWERS.  This city does not skimp when it comes to planting flowers.  They were ready for spring, and flowers are in bloom all over town....different colors, different flowers....just everywhere.  As it gets nicer, this town literally gets prettier every day!

Bad things:

- My time here is limited

- Airfare back to NY is rediculously overpriced and creating quite a conundrum.


But we don't dwell on negative things because everything, even good things, come and go.  So living in the moment is the best thing for any of us

And "in the moment," there is always sweet sweet lovin' in some form, isn't there?

"Surely the one thing which can bring about a fundamental change, a creative, psychological release, is everyday watchfulness, being aware from moment to moment of our motives, the conscious as well as the unconscious."-- Krishnamurti

to market, to market

Today was MARKET DAY!  I love market day. 

The antique market comes to town once a month, and when it does I really love wandering around with a coffee on a Sunday morning.  Today I wandered with a coffee and a little Avett Brothers in my ears...which was just lovely combined with the sun on my face.  It's like a little slice of "Home" in a nice little village which is no place like home.  Their tunes playing in my head as I look at really old phonographs, photos and pottery was a great way to start the day. 

Anyway, I usually take the same loop, saving my favorite vendor for last.  I always end up buying a little something from her...she's got reasonable prices and really cool looking pieces!  I'm getting quite the collection going, but only small things--I need to get it home somehow! 

I didn't buy anything for myself, just cool things I thought people back home would appreciate...and wouldn't you know, I bought it from the same lady as always in the corner...

 After the market, I learned how to cook my favorite hungarian dish--Paprika Chicken.  It contains homemade noodles.  But I think I can recreate it back in NY....I just need to bring back Hungarian Paprika!  You can't get it in America I don't think...so I will bring plenty home to cook with because they flavor everything with it here and it is SO good.


Also, I'm really feeling the need to express my love for dark chocolate ice cream.  There is one place in town which sells it...and it's literally like heaven in my mouth.  It's one of the most fantastic things I've ever eaten...I predict many many dark chocolate ice cream breaks in my very near future. 

But for anyone who knows me at all, you know that I love ice cream, so this should really be no surprise! 


Spring Break in 2 days--thank Goodness!  To be honest, I'm already in Spring Break mode.....

folk lore dancing and another castle

The other night we went to a big jolly Hungarian party at a 500 year old cellar.  The cellar was amazing on the inside, and is the oldest cellar in the "Valley of Beautiful Women" (the valley where sooo many cellars are and where people go wine tasting).  There was a really long table and carvings on the inside...I can't even imagine Hungarians from the 1500's making wine and being merry in there!  They also had some really nutty-looking really old wine-making contraptions!

The wine was a-flowin' at this party...There were several wines from several different cellars--including the one we went to about a month ago (the one who talks and sings to his grapes)!  We sampled a Rose from him, and I swear, you could smell roses off the the wine.  I am not sure if that is normal or what with a Rose wine, but my friends and I agreed that a rose scent was there!  In addition to the wine, there was tons of food of course...

Pastrys, cakes, desserts, Palinka, wine.....and a HUGE pot of Goulash!  Instead of barbecuing here, they make a huge pot of soup called a Bogacs.  It looks like a witch's cauldron, but contains really yummy food!  Seasoned with Paprika, Grey Cow Meat (only found in Hungary...It's a cow with horns and very lean/ healthy meat), and fat....this was truly a very very Hungarian Goulash!  You don't hear too much about cooking with fat in America...but it certainly adds something to the flavor. 

I should also mention that since my wine glass never bottomed out I ended up doing a little Hungarian folklore dancing...The music was blaring and everyone was dancing around in a circle with very specific well-known steps.  Admittedly, I was just sort of running and laughing around, but it was still pretty fun.  We went for a walk and stumbled upon this nearby church built in 1903...Engravings of marraiges and signings were on the bricks...Here's one from 1918!  I get excited when I find one from the 60's or 70's...but old Böske here really left his mark in 1918.

Climbed up to a castle from the 12th century the next day and played there all morning.  It was a really nice day and we had so much fun running through the labyrinths underneath to see where we would end up.  It was dark, cold, and you had to crouch down a little (Maybe ancient Hungarians were small??) but so awesome.  I could almost imagine living in one of the rooms...in it I had a book shelf, a window overlooking beautiful panorama views, and a secret exit (where I would have put my balcony and slide going down to the yard--Hope you appreciate this mom, you know that was my life-long dream as a kid!) 

Here's me looking out of "my window."

The views from up there were incredible and it was just a really nice fluffy cloud day, so we settled down with some bananas and pumpkin seeds and just enjoyed the view a while.

this photo just about sums up my weekend

  

This weekend we drank a lot of wine in a 500 year old cellar....and explored a castle with crazy labyrinths.  

More words coming soon, but this photo is all I can handle right now....bonus points to you if you can spot cheeky Bence!

adventures in the bükk

Sometimes, I realize that I don't need to travel far to see amazing things. Like this weekend, we stayed right outside of Eger and hiked in the Bükk Half the day Saturday and all day Sunday....I got to see breathtaking scenery, breath fresh air, do a little rock-climbing, and test my strength.
Here is me on top of the little point towards the left of the first picture!

Yesterday, we went to a small village, Bélapátfalva, with a church from the 13th century (Bélapátfalvi Apátság). Next to the church, there is an old mine/mountain. The weather was gorgeous, so we had a really nice hike up. When we got to the top, we found some flowers were in bloom, which was nice to see. This mountain is weird, as you can see from the pictures, because there is SO MUCH ROCK. So when we got to the top, we had to climb up this huge hill of rocks...only to get to a huge deserted platform that looked like where the dinosaurs lived! From there, we had to keep climbing up onto a gigantic rock sitting on this platform of land in order to get the best view. It was really fun and really beautiful and quite adventurous!

There is a spring there, so we filled up some big water bottles with the mineral water. When we go hiking, we always try and fill up these big 5 liter bottles for us to drink off of for a week or 2. These little springs are hidden all throughout the Bükk, so it's easy to fill up bottles and lug them back home to drink! I should say that the springs are by where you park the car, not up the mountain itself.

Today, we went to another really gorgeous area. Ben's brother Boti brought us to this awesome place he had hiked before. Again, we had perfect weather, so we were having so much fun going through the mountains getting to our spot. When we got there, the view was completely gorgeous! There were flowers and you could see a valley with a little house down below. After we explored a nearby cave (we actually went inside via a little hole), and wondered how the cavemen lived. The thing was, they found remains in this cave, and it was not ho-mosapien remains.... Neanderthals lived there! 40,000 years ago! It was pretty nuts to explore something like that!


Here is me getting out of the cave and Ben and I in the cave. (Unfortunately, Ben shaved his beard yesterday...otherwise it would have been a more accurate depiction of a caveman)

Here is the sign that says "Neanderthals lived here"











We decided then to climb down the mountain and get to the little house in the valley....There was no trail though! We literally climbed down a mountain. Using rocks as steps and to hold our balance...It took a while because we had to go pretty slow since it was so steep. I told the boys that I never would have said to myself, lets climb down this mountain and go explore that little tiny house in the valley.

Then came the climb back up. We were halfway through the hike and in a valley!! I was pretty tired, we had already been hiking a few hours and we still had to climb a mountain...with no trail! It was incredibly hard physically, and I had to keep aiming for the next tree to grab on to so I wouldn't lose my balance because it was so steep. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to make it.

Hurling yourself uphill from one tree to the next 15 feet away is crazy. I am sure I looked like a cave-girl, hunched over to distribute my weight evenly and groping onto any root or plant I could find to help pull me up. I did need help in a few spots, and Ben was able to help pull me up or push me up when I needed, but I didn't want him to lose his balance and fall down the mountain! Every time I looked back to see how far we came I couldn't really believe how steep it was or how far we came or how far we still needed to go.



Here is the view of the mountain from the valley (we climbed the smaller one). And above it is the view of the valley, (The house is the tiny white speck in the center), from the top of the mountain. Yikes.




I should also add that we found an owl's nest by accident. He flew out of a hollowed out tree I leaned on for support, and we obviously freaked out a little.

Anyway, all I know is that I better have buns of steel after this weekend, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to move at school tomorrow!