Practice with the national women's team

CLARIFICATION: I was trying to go for a punchy title and just ended up being confusing. The women's team I'm on has ~5 members of Hungary's national team on it - so that's who I'm playing with. Don't expect to see me in Vancouver in 2010, unless it's to sell pins. ;)

Just got back from my first hockey practice with the women's team tonight. They're currently having a pre-season training camp in Székesfehérvár, a town about 60km/40mi southwest of Budapest. (I have been saying the name of the town over and over and over to myself to memorize it - it's a big hockey town - but I have utterly no ability to repeat it.) I said I'd be happy to go to the night practices at the camp (9-11pm), so some nice girls on the team gave me a ride this evening.

Now, one thing to note is that you can tell which members of our team play for the NATIONAL WOMEN'S TEAM by who wears green hockey pants. (Hungary's flag is red, white and green.) There was a great crowd - about 25 women. I hadn't been to a practice quite like this since I played travel hockey with with the Little Capitals women's team in high school - then, we'd often practice with a guy's travel team, so we'd have a lot of bodies on the ice which enabled really fast-paced drills.

So, we did a pre-practice run and hit the ice. The coach told me after the first drill that "I had a place on the team" and told me after the second drill that it was clear I'd been playing for 10 years. Phew. The last 30-45 minutes were a 5v5 scrimmage on the Olympic Ice - two lines of better players against each other followed by two lines of other players. I got put on the pair of lines with the green pants players, so that was sweet. They play well, and practicing is going to be great for me. (I haven't been to a hockey practice since college.)

All of the instructions were in Hungarian, naturally, but several players and the coach took turns giving me quick translations. I learned the colloquial version of "excuse me" quickly - everyone said it whenever they knocked into each other. :) There are also some things in hockey that you don't need to speak the same language for - when 3 players on the other team jabbed at a puck my goalie just covered, I made a joke about fighting them off.

So, this is going to be fun. I'm going to get back in great hockey form, meet some fun Hungarian women and keep working on the language. I'll keep you all posted as interesting things occur.

Big wins today (Warning: perhaps anticlimactic)

To begin: I really, truly appreciate the comments and the emails you guys have been sending me. Can't begin to tell you how much it means to me. So, thanks! :) Now, onto business--

There was a major victory today. Here's some background:
1. There are only 1.5 English-speaking TV stations in Hungary
2. You can't play US DVDs on European systems because DVDs are "regionalized"
3. It takes about 1.5 hours to download a movie on iTunes with my internet connection (I tested that out last night with "The Bourne Supremacy.")

Win #1: I'd been wondering about this, but the tiny DVD shop two doors down actually has a SLEW of English options! Most of the DVD jackets are completely in Hungarian, but all had English viewing options. This is also excellent, because having watched Bournes #1 and #2, I now get to wrap it up with #3 right away (#3 is unavailable on iTunes).

Perhaps this was a pretty obvious outcome - most DVDs have language options, and most of the films I'd want to see were initially filmed in English. However, a few things made me wary:

• The instruction manuals in my apartment are written in Hungarian, Finnish, Czech, German, Icelandic, Russian, Polish, Swedish, etc. but not English or Romance languages. (Win #2: Discovering that my dishwasher comes with a French instruction manual. Yes!!!)
• English can be somewhat limited in the city. Budapest's major English newspaper is only published once a week.
• You have to search movie listings to learn whether they're dubbed in Hungarian or only subtitled in Hungarian. Dubbed is more frequently available than subtitled.

Win #3: Hungarian is hard, but I'm making progress. (Example of "hardness": You're supposed to change around the order of the words in a sentence in order to emphasize your point, but you can only rearrange them in certain ways, and these correct ways rarely map to an English-/French-speaker's idea of normal sentence structure!) The woman at the DVD shop could only speak Hungarian, and I was able to successfully fill out paperwork, discuss the price and due date and answer her questions that "yes, I do live in Budapest" and "I am not a student, I am a businesswoman." Finally, the guys at hockey taught me how to say "good game" yesterday (and they all laughed when I tried it, but that just made it more fun).

Finally, an enjoyable sign from earlier. It is either describing perilous scaffolding or reminding you to stay true to yourself.

A home-cooked meal (or, "Call the locksmith!")

This morning, I stocked the apartment. I'd been warned about the lack of one-stop shopping, so I was not overly surprised that this process involved stopping at five different stores. (Everyone who was on the Park City 2008 ski trip should know I learned my lesson then and diligently ventured to-and-fro to find non-hand-wash cleaning liquid.)

This afternoon, I thought I would re-tape the video of the apartment to include some footage of my courtyard. When I stepped outside my front door, the wind coming in from the open balcony doors in the back of the flat blew the front door shut, locking me out. The only things I had on my person were jeans, a tank top and a camera (no shoes, phone, wallet, etc).

So, I made friends with my neighbors. While the mother didn't speak English, her son in high school did, and he was awesome. I hung out there for about two hours: we watched a lot of Hungarian kayakers and canoers and I helped the son work on his English. (Hungary got a gold, whew! People have been pretty up in arms about how poorly the country has done at this Olympics.) The mom also insisted on feeding me, which was delicious.

It turned out the owner of my apartment was in the countryside (NOTE: when used by someone from Budapest, this term describes anywhere in Hungary that is not Budapest), so we called the locksmith. He had a fairly difficult time opening my door, which was rather reassuring.

I was still able to catch the end of the Karen Carroll & The Mississippi Grave Diggers set at the wine festival. My first glasses of wine weren't so good, but I realized this was likely because I was only sticking to wine types I'd heard of before (merlot, etc.). I then stumbled upon a wine I absolutely had to try:

BULL's BLOOD (Hungarian: egri bikaver): "As the story goes, back in 1552 the Eger fortress was under attack, and [its Hungarian] defenders were badly outnumbered. To fortify themselves and give themselves courage, they drank the local red wine in large amounts, and the wine spilled on them while they did so. When the [Ottoman] attackers saw the men running towards them with red liquid all down their chests, they thought the locals had been drinking bull's blood, and they fled in terror."

To wrap it up, I'll just paint a quick picture - I was hanging around, looking at Hero's Square tonight, drinking a coffee and having potentially profound thoughts about immigration, Emma Lazarus's poem on the Statue of Liberty, America and what it means to be a welcoming society. Then, a normal-looking young man wearing shinpads and riding a tiny unicycle cruised by. Hahaha.... (Incidentally, I don't think I'd ever read the full poem on the Statue until I just looked it up.)

Moving in + Foreign living

I have moved into my flat! There's some work to do to get it up to snuff, but I am very happy to be here. It's truly a Hungarian apartment - I'm certainly one of the few (maybe the only) expats in the building. Multiple people (hockey friend, real estate agent) went out of their way to help me lug all my stuff from my temporary flat over to this one, which was incredibly nice of them. Finally, I threw together a short video tour (2min) of the new flat; email me and I'm happy to send you a copy. (Thought it'd be a little stalkerish to put on a publicly available website.)

Picturesque aside: On Thursday, I took the funicular railway up to Buda castle with one new friend - here's a shot of Parliament from the Buda side.

Ok, time to recap a couple recent expat moments. These items truly haven't been a hassle, I just thought they'd be interesting to point out. Because after all, I came here to get a different experience!

• Given that a lot of my money is going to be tied up in wire transfers (and taxes! 50%!), I did a fair amount of research to pick the best option. While opening an account at the branch, I duly handed the agent my documents. She then printed out a form with that information on it and asked me to sign it. She seemed a little annoyed when I insisted on looking it over before signing, and fairly exasperated when I refused to sign that particular form given that it listed me as a Hungarian citizen, misspelled my middle name and also botched my Mom's maiden name. (Every important form in Hungary requests the individual's mother's maiden name.) Now, I don't want to jump to conclusions about customer service levels - I could also have been cutting into the agent's lunch break. Just figured my bank info should match my passport!
• After moving in this afternoon, I headed to the 24-hr supermarket (two blocks away, woo hoo!) to stock up. My Hungarian lessons have been progressing, so I went to the deli and said, "I would like some cheese" and was in the midst of pointing when the deli worker scoffed and muttered, "of course, but what kind." Agh, point more quickly next time!
• So, I was getting ready to leave my flat tonight to go meet up with someone. However, the oven I'd just used for cooking was blinking "H" at me about the burner I'd just used. I figured it meant the surface was still hot, but wanted to check just to make sure. Unfortunately, the 3 instruction manuals I have covering ~10 languages do not cover English or any Romance language. So, I typed in Danish (fewer accents) instructions from the instruction manual online to translate them. :)

But here I am! New flat by Oktogon in Pest! Hurrah!

Szent Istvan's Day

So, I've mentioned St. Stephen (Istvan in Hungarian) a lot in this blog already. He was the great-great-grandson of the chieftain who initially led the Hungarian tribes into the Carpathian basin. (See two blogs ago, the guys around the column who looked like the Nazgul.) The pope sent St. Stephen a crown for his coronation as Hungary's first Christian king in the year 1000, the effective birthdate of the Hungarian nation. (This was reenacted in front of the parliament building, see above.) This crown is on display in the parliament building, and the US kept it safe during the 20th century in Fort Knox.

Today, Hungary celebrated St. Stephen in many, many ways. The streets were mobbed, and every square was over-run with a different kind of spectacle. I didn't even see half of it. One big thing I missed was the outdoor mass held in front of St. Stephen's basilica (the largest in Hungary, pictured), which I understand ends with a parade where his mummified hand is carried around the church.

However, I did see trick cyclists, breakdancers, far-right political orators, medieval impersonators, Brazilian percussionists and (per usual) marimba street performers. The finals of the Red Bull Air Show happened as well, and 600,000 people lined the banks of the Danube to see them. The end of the day was capped off with a massive fireworks display, with fireworks being launched from multiple bridges, the middle of the river and the Citadel (atop one of the Buda hills).

One final pic to leave you with: Yes, you are witnessing a scene from the "Pied Piper." This is a parade of children walking underneath the stilts of costumed men. Fittingly, the second man is playing a pipe. As you might imagine, the children are being led by a guy who is dressed to look like a centaur (also on stilts).

Red Bull Air Race!

First, a life update: I had my first brush with palinka (Hungary's liquor of choice) this evening. As was said at the time, now I have been officially welcomed to the nation. Also, today I was served french toast with sour cream. When in Rome?

Moving on:
Conveniently co-located with St. Stephen's day (a national holiday, Wednesday), the Red Bull Air Race is going on in Budapest. The first of two days was Tuesday, with 12 pilots duking it out on an obstacle course on the Danube to determine which eight would battle it out Wednesday for the top prize.

Step #1 (above): Fly really, really close over the Chain Bridge. (They were originally supposed to fly underneath, but rains in Austria caused the Danube to swell too high.)

Step #2 (below): Go through pylons that are very close together either parallel or perpendicular to the water (based on the color on the pylons). Do a few loop-de-loops as required. And do them quickly, as this entire race is timed.

Step #3: After you go through the last pylon, do some sweet pilot celebration. If you are the Hungarian pilot, you must do something exceptionally awesome because this is your home turf. Perhaps you should cause your plane to flip end-over-end front-to-back from a dizzying height until it looks like you are going to plummet into the Danube, but then pull yourself out of it at the last second. The crowd will go wild.

Random facts:

• So, you know the Senate's seniority system encourages incumbents to be re-elected (you want your state's senator to have a good position on a committee, abundant institutional knowledge, etc.). But how much might this skew the composition of the Senate? Let's use a proxy. Of our US senators, 26 are over 70 years old. You have to be 30 to be elected as a senator. So, 26% of the Senate-electable population of the Senate (i.e. the entire Senate) is over 70. In the general US population, 16% of Senate-electable people (>30 year olds) are over 70. So, there is a 10% gap in age distribution between the Senate and the general population. Furthermore, this does not take into account that there are only 16 women currently in the Senate. While 18% of Senate-electable women in the general population are over 70 years old, only 13% of Senate-electable men in the general population are over 70 (compare these numbers vs. the 16%). The disproportionate number of men in the Senate mean that this 10% gap is actually even wider. Granted, one exception/limitation to using age as a proxy for seniority is that you could win a first-term Senate position as a 71-year-old. While I couldn't find a good source to validate this quickly, this has certainly happened rarely at most. Also, a 55-year-old senator could certainly be more senior than a 75-year-old senator, depending on how many terms he/she served. Regardless, a >10% gap between the Senate's and the general population's age distribution is a sizable one, and something I found kind of interesting.
• Nuclear energy provides ~75% of France's energy, and ~20% of America's.
• The US pays Cuba $4,085/month for the land at Guantanamo Bay, based on a 1934 agreement (not indexed to inflation). Cuba's Castro-led government has refused to cash all but the first check.

Flat: Leased! Hungarian: WIP! Sites: Seen!

Flat: Leased

Yes, I have an apartment! A few blogs ago, I mentioned how I was bummed that the "perfect place" was nabbed by someone who wanted it for 18 months. However, through my agent's powers of negotiation (and 50 more Euros/month), I have a great 2BR overlooking a semi-quiet square, one block removed from a massive public transportation hub and from an even bigger pedestrian thoroughfare with tons of restaurants and fun establishments. And yes, this transportation hub is called "OKTOGON." I'll be moving in this weekend - wooo!

Hungarian: Work in progress

So, I have had two language lessons at this point. While I've known enough to find my way around Japan and Romance-language countries (and to order beer in Prague), I haven't really tried to learn a language since high school. And this is an intense language. As one example, Hungarian does not have prepositions. They are actually included as suffixes at the ends of words. And, these suffixes change based on the vowel sounds in the preceding root word. And Hungarian has a lot of vowel sounds (14). But I'm making progress, as judged by using the semi-right words in the semi-right situations. At hockey tonight, I was able to yell how many people needed to change and such. People are talking to me in Hungarian too, so at least I look like I blend in! As you might expect, my vocabulary is incredibly random - I know how to say "rocket ship," "Y-chromosome" and "auto mechanic." Challenge: Combine those in a sentence!

Sites: Seen

Hero's Square: Now this is a monument. It's located on the Pest side, at the entrance to City Park (square km of green that houses an outdoor ice skating rink in the winter). The pillar in the middle has the angel Gabriel holding the Hungarian crown and a cross. Around this pillar are sculptures of the seven chieftains who colonized Hungary in 896. They are very intimidating. (Nerd alert - They kind of look like the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings.) Underneath the middle pillar is a stone slab and empty coffin representing unknown insurgents who unsuccessfully rose up against the Soviet Union in 1956. Between each of the columns in the background is a famous and influential Hungarian leader, beginning with Hungary's first Christian king in the year 1000 and ending with a man who led the confrontation with the Habsburg empire in the 19th century.

The Citadel: Located on the Buda side, on top of a tall hill. The Habsburgs built this to defend the city after the unsuccessful Hungarian War of Indepence in 1848-49. It was never used. As you can imagine, it has a sweet view (see pic). The other famous thing up there is the "Independence Monument." The monument was actually originally designed for an ultra-right Hungarian leader who sympathized with the Nazi cause, but then was repurposed after WWII to commemorate the Soviet soldiers who died successfully liberating Budapest from the Germans in 1945.

Europe's Largest Music Festival

I have survived Sziget, Europe's largest music festival. It takes place on an island in the middle of the Danube for one week every August and 350,000 people visit while it's going on. ("Sziget" means "island" in Hungarian.) A massive number of people camp for the whole week, and there are tents popping up pretty much anywhere there isn't a main thoroughfare or a stage. It is positively, absolutely insane and of a completely ludicrous scale. There are supermarkets, bungee jumping, people tightrope walking just for fun and at least 10 full stages.

The interesting thing about moving somewhere new is that when tentative plans fall through you don't have a back-up. So, when it turned out I wouldn't be heading to Sziget with the folks I was intending to, I said "tally ho!" and got ready for an adventure. It was a blast - I linked up with a group of Dutch students who were absolutely great. In the course of our eight hours together, we saw REM, the best blues band I have ever seen (Karen Carroll and the Mississippi Grave Diggers), a crowd go absolutely mad over Goran Bregovic and his Serbian-Croatian band (who I hadn't heard of before) and we finished it all up with James Brown's saxophonist's band. There was also a rather unsafe amusement park ride in the mix.

As mentioned, the blues band was great and the frontwoman was quite a performer. One exchange, after the crowd had been calling and responding to her singing "got my mojo working" a few times:
Karen Carroll: "Now, I know you're European, but I need you to sing this how we sing it in the South (of the US). We do not say 'ING' in the South. If I hear one more 'ING," I will be incredibly angry. So, let's try this again with 'got my mojo workIN.'"

My new Dutch friends and I also talked about everything from immigration reform (also a pressing issue in the Netherlands) to the electoral college to why churros are so delicious. A few interesting items:

1. They were amazingly fluent in English. For instance, we discussed the difference between a tendon and a ligament, and they were able to easily comment on the lunar eclipse that was occurring at the time (surprise!). They thought their fluency might be due to the fact that they get a lot of US TV (Grey's Anatomy, Friends, etc.) and that it is subtitled, not dubbed. As a result, they hear spoken English a lot. The whole time I was around, they rarely spoke in Dutch - it was rather impressive.
2. The one thing they all associated with Americans was "enthusiasm." (I kind of fit the bill on this one.) Those who had been in the states actually said it was rather disquieting - after every single shop owner and restaurant worker had been overly friendly, it was hard to tell who was genuine and who wasn't. This seems reasonable, having been to my fair share of TGI Friday's.
3. When I responded "pas de probleme" to a French man who bumped me, I got mercilessly called out for my American French accent. Oh well!

So, the festival certainly lived up to the hype. When I went to catch the ferry home, I just missed the boat and had to wait for the next one. I talked with an English guy for awhile - he'd worked in Budapest for six months last winter and had a great time. He invited me to go go-karting with him and his buddies tomorrow, so that may be on the docket. (As one wise former expat told me, never turn down an invitation!)

All in all, a fairly preposterous day.

24-hour update

In the past 24 hours, I have:

• Seen a human-sized avocado walk down the heavily-touristed street in front of my current apartment, advertising a bar (I think?)
• Paid $40 for contact solution
• Stumbled into an anti-Russia/pro-Georgia demonstration
• Been thrilled and then confused to see American football on my TV (commentary in Hungarian) - it was a Pats-Colts game from Nov 2007?
• Frequented a Native American-themed teahouse at the invitation of a new Hungarian friend
• Chuckled when ordering cheese at the market (cheese = "sajt," pronounced "shite")
• Been instructed by my language teacher that being too uptight about attempting to learn the rules of Hungarian will not work out well (I studied math! I want rules!)

In semi-major news, I've nearly closed on a really cool apartment. The contract should be signed in the next few days. It has a balcony overlooking a pretty quiet square, lots of natural lighting and is two blocks away from a really central traffic/public transportation hub. Incidentally, the metro stop is called OKTOGON. Unfortunately, this will probably force me into habitually telling visitors to "Step into the Octagon" and other UFC references. Admittedly, I don't think I know any other references to make, but perhaps I'll look it up. I also should publicly give my parents all sorts of "thank yous!" for answering lease-related questions on very short notice across a sizable time zone difference.

Finally, http://www.pestiside.hu/ will give you a pretty good/funny idea of what is going on in Budapest. Check it out!

A contest!

To set the stage, as I write this, I am undertaking my first attempt to use my washing machine. The machine is making unfamiliar noises, and my clothes are spinning in ways that they are not used to spinning. However, I have great confidence that this will all work out.

Now, TO THE MATTER AT HAND! If you can name this animal (at right), I will name my new bicycle a name of your choosing. If this is actually a pig with fur, you must explain how it came to be so. [Source: Picture of a picture in the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography - can't believe I forgot to post it yesterday.]

Went apartment hunting today - the guide was really helpful and my hockey friend Abel came with which was incredibly nice of him. The one place that would have been perfect got snatched up by someone who wanted it for 18 months, so, I'll be back at it later this week. Also, I start Hungarian lessons Friday - woo! I picked up a few more words in conversation today, but having a teacher should make this a ton easier.

Some random facts:

• American Eddie Eagan is the only person to ever win gold at both the Summer (1920 - Boxing) and Winter Olympics (1932 - Bobsled).
• Georgia (the nation) has the third largest contingent of troops in Iraq. (I didn't know this, and was interested because the ceasefire is heavily in the news here. However, the troops may withdraw due to the conflict with Russia.)

Running / Walking

RUNNING:

• First, some context. People in Budapest do not run outdoors (with one exception - see bullet point #2). I ran across a few of the bridges a couple days ago and elicited many stares. When I asked some Hungarian acquaintances about this reaction, they claimed that one possible question that was running through the bystanders' heads was, "Where is the sale at the supermarket?" It has been confirmed by multiple sources that a sale at the opening of a Home Depot-like store caused massive running in recent Budapest history. (Sounds similar to the day after Thanksgiving back home.)
• With this in mind, I took the 10-minute tram ride to Margit-sziget (Margaret Island) to run around the sweet 5km track that circles the island. I am normally pretty competitive when I run (honestly, on busy days I'll track the +/- of how many men/women I pass - does anyone else do this?), but there are two things that bring it out more than any other: (1) a crowd of people watching, (2) a lot of runners to try and beat. This island has both in spades. This is going to be fun, and the extra effort will be utterly necessary if I am going to keep playing hockey on an Olympic sized rink! (FYI - In the US and Canada, we normally play on "NHL rinks." In Europe, they normally play on "Olympic rinks," which are 15 feet wider. You skate more, pass more and generally get a better workout on the Olympic rinks.)

WALKING:

• I got my work permit at the immigration office this morning. It would've been much, much easier to take public transportation there.... but I chose to walk. This was somewhat foolish, as it was four bridges down the Danube from where I live. (Thankfully, my Irish friend had blister-preventing bandaids.) On the up and up, I found a sweet coffee house! It would sort of be like Guthrie's on Addison, if Guthrie's served espresso in addition to beer. For the non-Chicagoans, Guthrie's is a bar with board games. My "learn Hungarian" conquest continued at this establishment.
• Went around town with my new friend from Belfast and caught an old church, lunch and the "Museum of Ethnography."

Finally, you should be aware that this article about a recent happening in the countryside has hit the news stands:

"One László Komor, who edits the "village website" of Szemely, in Baranya County, has filed a police report against the hamlet's mayor , Pál Kovács. In his complaint, Komor alleges that Kovács was angered by some negative comments Komor posted about him on the site, and retaliated by assaulting him with a bikacsök, a weapon/dog toy made from a dried bull penis. Komor apparently suffered minor injuries to his abdomen, back and right arm, which are definitely the places you'd want to get injured in an attack with a weapon like this, and police have launched a probe into the incident." --pestiside.hu

Europe's Biggest Handmade Carpet, More Hockey, New Friends

Let's begin with the most important thing I did today: witness Europe's largest handmade carpet, in Budapest's Parliament building (chamber pictured at right). The building was completed in 1896, 1000 years after the nation was founded in 896. I also learned, intriguingly, that there are 3.5km of red carpet within its walls. Finally, I saw the ancient crown of St. Stephen, who was crowned Hungary's first Christian King in the year 1000. I got singled out as the only American in the crowd, and thanked because we kept the crown safe in Fort Knox during WWII.

I played some more hockey tonight - it was 5v5 on Olympic ice against a group of good players. Also, I may end up playing with a women's team soon - their colors are, quite conveniently, purple and white. I will highlight one item from today's scrimmage: At one point, I carried the puck out of the zone along the boards and was about to pass it up, but not before getting bear hugged by two guys on the other team and taken out of the play. Apparently, one of them said in Hungarian that it "made his game." It was pretty funny, and I did note that this tactic was not tried against any of the guys on the ice. I plan to make good on my threat to drop the gloves next time. :)

Operation "Learn Hungarian" proceeded according to plan today: I used both forms of "excuse me" convincingly in conversation (the "I'd like to get by you" version and the "I'd like to get your attention" version) and am awesome at asking people what their names are. I also learned to distinguish between "goodbye," "goodbye (slightly more formal)" and "sleep well" from the nice guy who drove me to hockey. Hungarian is a pretty tricky language.

Finally, I'd figured that it would be pretty easy to meet people if I sent enough emails and talked to enough strangers. I made friends with a girl from Belfast outside Parliament, and am going to go sightseeing with her tomorrow (after my appointment at the immigration office). I also facebook messaged two friendly seeming folks in Hungary expat groups on facebook. They both got back to me within hours with offers to grab dinner and bring me along with their friends. Sweet!

Castle Hill, Hockey and Other Observations

Headed to Buda's Castle Hill today - went to the top of the rotunda of the National Gallery (the building you see in the title picture of the blog), and then stuck around to see the paintings. There was a big street festival going on the Chain Bridge (behind my left shoulder) all weekend - lots of booths and music. Heard everything from traditional Hungarian music to a percussion master to a string quartet to a trumpet fanfare ensemble to a high school band (which had a bari sax, which I was happy about) and so forth. Also, percussionist friends: I saw a street musician playing A MARIMBA. That strikes me as a very difficult instrument to transport.

Fourth night in, and I've already played ice hockey. It was a lot of fun - half-court 4v4. I was the only woman and the only non-Hungarian speaker, but the guys were really nice and I got the puck a lot. I also learned that "non-check" hockey at Johnny's Ice House in Chicago is a little rougher than "non-check" hockey elsewhere. I think I led the teams in hits... I will need to work on that if I want to make friends. Also, apparently the other half of the rink was being used by some famous Hungarian musicians.

Now, a few items:

• I need to learn Hungarian, and I need to learn it now. My goal is that every day I will have a conversation incorporating new vocabulary where the other person thinks I am Hungarian. Mission complete yesterday with "thank you" and today with a grocery store check-out. The only English language channels I have are CNN and TCM (and commercials on EuroSport), so I went to a bar to watch the China-US bball game. (I got to see both teams play live in Athens!)
• Zimbabwe's central bank is removing TEN ZEROS from the currency in an attempt to cut back on inflation. Perhaps someone more economically savvy can help me with this... but won't that only change how much people are paying absolutely for items, not how quickly prices are increasing as a percentage of an item's nominal value? Perhaps I need to do some more reading on this topic.
• Chicago isn't as green as one might think - Trees cover 37% of metropolitan ATL, 21% of Boston, 17% of NYC and only 11% of Chicago.

I have arrived!

Thanks to a fantastic amount of help from roommate Chris, Kili climber Leslie and good friend Meri, I somehow managed to pack 5 large bags, hockey sticks and carry-ons into my van cab and head to O'Hare on Wednesday. Unlike the trip to Kilimanjaro in July, no bags were lost.

I'm renting a temporary apartment from a very friendly person at work, and her fiance (Abel) picked me up at the airport. Turns out he plays hockey! As background, I hadn't planned on bringing my gear as I didn't think there would be much of a chance for me to play in Hungary. However, a night or so before I left, I emailed the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and they got back to me right away, saying that there were actually two women's teams in Budapest. So, turns out I may play on a women's team and/or scrimmage with Abel's team very soon.

The flat is incredibly nice and it's right on the main shopping street in Pest (a one-lane cobble-stone pedestrians-only affair), immediately next to a gelato stand. I'm a two-minute walk from a great view of Buda across the Danube river (essentially the view you see in the picture above) and a ten-minute walk from the office. I'll be living here temporarily until I find a more permanent apartment.

I went into the office on Friday to pick up my computer and blackberry, as well as get a general orientation. Everyone seemed friendly - it was a Friday in August, so there weren't many people around. I don't officially start until September 1, but it was nice to meet people in advance.

The definite highlight of the day was watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies real-time (8:08pm Beijing, 2:08pm Hungary, 7:08am Chicago) in Hungarian with a few people at the office - thankfully they translated parts of it for me! It really brought home how the games bring the entire world together. Interesting fact: Though Hungary is a nation of only 10 million people, it is ninth ALL-TIME in medal count at the Olympics. This is mainly driven by fencing, canoeing, wrestling and swimming - all summer sports, so watch for them in Beijing!

Finally, my first official blunder/"welcome to Europe" moment - I went to an Italian restaurant. They gave me bread. I couldn't figure out where to put the olive oil, as I had no plate. The only option seemed to be the artsy square-like thing in the middle of the table. I asked the server if olive oil holding was indeed the thing's intended purpose. Turns out it was an ash tray. I got the impression that this was not a question he received very often.

Introduction

Hi everyone -

First of all, thanks for reading! I will do my best to make this blog entertaining, descriptive and somewhat pithy. From my experience journaling, I will readily admit that the regularity of my postings may vary.

As general geographic background on Budapest, the Danube runs through the middle of town, splitting the city into two parts - Buda on the west, and Pest on the east. Buda is the older section of town and is incredibly hilly. Pest is more modern and is where my office and apartment are located. After failing to come up with an exceptionally excellent blog title, this struck me as as good a one as any - the Romans crossed the Danube, Napoleon had a difficult time doing so and as of 8/7, I am living right next to it.

I will also come clean that I plan to take advantage of this open forum to list very random, non-Hungary related items. For instance: In order for a male sport to be added to the Olympics, it has to be practiced in >75 countries on at least 4 continents. By my calculations, a lot more people are curling and luging than I would have expected.

On that note, thanks for reading. I'm hoping this will be a quick and easy way to keep you all updated this year. And by no means should this take the place of emails, phone calls, skypes (?) or holiday visits!

Jenny :)