The sphinx at the opera house.

  What mystery does she guard?

          Oooh!

Those exciting currency markets!

I just came back from paying the rent for our second month here. Our rent is valued in Euros, but we can pay in Hungarian Forint(HUF) based on the official conversion of the day. Because of the bounce over the last month in the value of the dollar against the Euro and HUF (which according to the NYTimes is due to weakening in the rest of the world's economy to match the US's) we paid about USD$66.00 less than we did a month ago! (A month ago the dollar was at the bottom of a looong decline against the Euro)

There's a lot that's unsettled about the economy in the US and Europe right now, and this makes those currency charts exciting and personal to watch like they haven't been before. 

OMG Honeydew!

Forget all those honeydews you just tolerate as you're eating them. Maybe they just make the fruit salad look bigger, they make you feel healthy, or on rare occasions you win the lottery and get one that's pretty good.

I didn't know what kind of melon this was when I pointed to it at the market, but once home we were knocked over. Just like any other unpretty melon on the outside, not overly soft yet. But it was so intense and sugar sweet and wet-juicy we had to hold our head over the bowl while we slurped it. I always USED to think it had a ridiculous name. It's my favorite fruit now.

Kossuth ter

Across from the Hungarian Parliament Building in Kossuth ter stands Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs, heroically calling the nation to arms. He overcomes the viewer with his power and decisive authority. 

...until a fat pigeon is comforted by his gentle offer. He now becomes a caring man of fellow creatures a la Uncle Remus. Hear the whistle.

Trollybuses

Wanting to cross the street, if you see one roaring at you, step back and wait. That's when you are close enough to hear the light-saber noises coming from their powerlines and witness the trail of sparks and hope they don't shower your head.

Hungry visitor

Sitting on the couch late last night I saw a bird fly into the living room and swoop into the bedroom. I often hear pigeons right outside the windows flapping wings and cooing, and wondered if they would ever come in. 

It swooped out again and down the hallway, which was when we recognized it was a bat about the size of a pigeon. This made sense since it was 2AM. In a way it was a relief knowing it wouldn't be blindly bumping into the walls and hurt itself panicking. It flew up and down the hall several times, making a couple of circles in the living room before expertly leaving our cave. 

Hopefully it took a few flies with it.

Nem beszelek magyarul.

I saw two men communicating across the street from each other today. They were speaking in elevated tones and thrusting their hands around sort of passionately. Were they arguing? -or agreeing about something mutually unsatisfactory? I don't know. 

I'm insulated from so much because of the language barrier, although I've starting to erode that. Last night I started to actively study the noises people keep spilling at me since my language tapes arrived. It's a fog I'll gladly step out of, but I have to admit the insulation has sometimes been relaxing.

Urban picnic food

It's taking a while to learn how to eat within our budget. ...or it's just been too easy to keep eating takeout with so many cheap options close by that allow us to sit at a sidewalk table in the company of dogs, pigeons and other people. With several doner kebap places near home,600-forint($4) gyros have become a bit of a staple. Then there are places that specialize in a type of thick soup/stew that I haven't encountered anywhere else called fozelek. As I understand it, it's more or less made of vegetable that's been cooked into a puree and is eaten with croquets of all sorts. Don't quote me about this one. I'll get back to it in a later post after I figure it out a little better, but we do keep going back to Fozelekfalo Etelbar because it's so interesting and the whole cross section of Hungarians seem to be eating there. 

Anyway, I think I'll be able to get us back within our budget now that I found the Hold utca Market for fresh food about ten-minutes' walk from home. Yesterday I bought a half-watermelon for 100 forint (65 cents).

Waiting at the Customs chute

I went to the airport yesterday to meet Jenifer getting off her flight. With a minor delay and flights from New York, Kiev and Amman, Jordan funneling through Customs all at once, the waiting crowd and I ended up standing in the meeting area for about an hour and a half. It was actually quite a blast. Nervous excitement locked the room with many choked-up and pacing, cameras hanging around their necks. The doors which arriving passengers emerge from slide open from a mirrored wall, and then they walk down a runway created by railings, past all of the waiting people, one or a group of whom would be gasping and waving for the person. It's dramatic. Every couple minutes the doors slide apart and out pokes... a cart of suitcases. Pushed by... _______! 

The hero does a victory march down the runway as if the whole crowd was clapping for them. Some couldn't wait to get that far, hugging and crying over the railing. Once, a mother and her young son and daughter came through the stage-curtain doors and the kids spotted their father standing next to me and made a bee-line through the railing, in fast-forward, plowing into him kissing and hugging and crying. It was a bigger emotional ride than many movies.

Coming together, after who-knows-how-long, reminds people how dangerous the wide world can feel and to be safe at home just means having your family together again.

The electricians

The electricians came to fix the bathroom yesterday. Perhaps it was because I've been alone for so long, but it was like they brought a little party. The two of them bounded in and it seemed like they were joking and laughing the whole time. We played charades to communicate as they spoke no English and of course I'm still at "yes" "no" and "thankyou" with Hungarian. 

They found the other fuse box 12 feet up by the ceiling, so had to drag my desk over to balance their ladder on top. After their little whirlwind left, I found that they had replaced a burnt out light bulb in another room, and my newspaper that had been spread out to prevent scratching the desktop had been reassembled in order and tucked away.