Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Long Weekend






This past weekend was long because October 23rd is a National Holiday here. So we had Thursday and Friday off. My friend Becca and I decided about a week and a half before the weekend to go to Prague (said Praha in Hungarian) for the weekend. We were able to see some of the most famous sights. Now let me tell you that Prague is beautiful and extremely quaint and perfectly European. It has a charm that other big cities like Vienna and Budapest don't have. The main reason is that the streets and sidewalks are mostly cobblestone, the streets are narrow and the buildings talk. There are many shops lining the streets - they don't really open till around 9:00 or 10:00 am, but they stay open late. The city is quite lit up at night and certain buildings just glow. I have included some pictures of some of my favorite things. Church of our lady before Tyn - is a unique church with amazing gothic towers. At night it looked almost fake. This is the dial of the Astronomical clock found on the Old Town Hall Tower in Old Town Square. The lit up building is the Rudolfinum, a large concert hall where we were able to hear a wonderful concert of the Prague symphony orchestra. The last picture is of Charles bridge looking over towards the Prague castle. It was very crowded starting about mid morning. This bridge was full of street venders and is lined with statues. If you've never been to Prague, I recommend it highly.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Orchestra Concert



So, yesterday night I went downtown and went to the Hungarian State Opera House to hear an orchestra play Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. It was simply wonderful. What was especially exciting is that my friends and I bought the 400 forint tickets = $2.20. These tickets have limited view (and I mean limited), in that you can only see about 1/4 of the orchestra and that is if you are leaning forward. Sitting back you really can't see the orchestra, but you can hear the music. Several different people caught my eye. There was the box with 3 college boys, in their shirt and ties, as if they had come out for a bit of culture but weren't use to this style. Then there was the man in the box below them whose hand barely stopped moving. It was as if he knew or had played the piano part for these songs, or had conducted them at one time many years ago. As my eyes drifted across the rows and boxes on the opposite side of the tall auditorium, I was drawn to the box with 6 Hungarian ladies in it. They were probably in their late 60's and were dressed up and truly enjoying the music. The Hungarian people love music and are very intent listeners. They sit so still and focus on the players and conductor. To show how much they love the music they applaud and applaud. They never stand, but instead they all syncronize their claps into a very slow steady clap and then get faster and faster all together. At this point they break into normal clapping again. But pretty soon, they'll all find the beat again and start clapping together. This can go on for minutes. Last night they clapped for probably 4 minutes, then the orchestra did and encore. Then the audience began clapping all over again. They truly have a love for the arts. I have added two pictures for you. The first one is the outside of the Opera House. The second one is the inside. The stage, you can't see it, is to the right. I was sitting in the top row on the far right of the picture. The reason you can't see is because you face the other side of the room, not the stage. ENJOY!!!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Strange thoughts

Welcome back! School has begun and is in full swing, so it is now time to welcome you back to my weekly blog. I will be updating each week (sometimes more), just to give you a taste of my life here in Hungary and what goes on. Kind of a "Day in the Life" of Hannah. Living in another country brings about unique (at times awkward) situations. Like the other day a man on the street decided he wanted to talk to me. I had no idea what he was saying, so I smiled, told him in Hungarian that I only spoke a little. He nodded, smiled and and said something like "Oh, I understand dear, have a nice day." It made me smile a bit. Or yesterday when I called the pizza place, asked if anyone spoke English and got a solid "Nem" (no). So in my limited Hungarian I proceeded to order a szalami (pepperoni, but we call it salami) pizza and give my friends address for delivery. About 45minutes later the pizza showed up (I always feel like I've conquered the world when it works). Well, yesterday I had the strangest thought. Here in Hungary refrigerators are quite small, making the freezer even smaller. I had a roommate so I get half of a very small freezer. Now as I was growing up we had a giant deep freeze so we could stock up. Well, it has been really hard for me to stock up and freeze leftovers for later meals. So yesterday, I saw an aid for an upright freezer and I got so excited and wanted to buy it. Now I don't know about you, but I have never had an urge to buy a freezer before. I don't think I'll buy it, but it sure got me thinking about buying a smaller one or freeze things in the school freezers. I'll keep you posted if I decide to get creative.