A Taste of Culture

Today we realized that if humans only had three fingers, we wouldn’t have words for four. This is all you need to know about math to communicate with aliens. So that was our morning!

We had a slightly-longer-than-usual lunch break, and many people took the opportunity to explore more of the city. Zareef, Eric S, Aaron, Nick, and Kate H. went to the Budapest Hall or Palace of Art. Located just northeast from our classroom, we thought it would be the perfect way to become more acquainted with a different aspect of Hungarian culture. Though the building was small, the paintings inside were grand, ranging from the Golden Age of Hungarian painting to Czech and Austrian painters to modern day Hungarian painters. We appreciated the difference in styles from the pieces that might be shown in an American gallery as well as the Christian influence found in many of the paintings (yay Lutheran college!).

Mattie, Eva, Sarah, and Kate A. found a trendy little restaurant for lunch called “Paneer”. The tiny storefront had a sign on the door boasting that “real cheeseburgers” were sold inside, which the Oles soon discovered are hamburgers with deep fried cheese instead of beef. Sarah and Eva both ordered sandwiches with fried camembert cheese, beet salad, a fried slice of eggplant, and blueberry jam on a ciabatta roll...yum! Although some of us were skeptical at first (*cough* Sarah), everyone agreed that fried cheese sandwiches are delicious (score 1 for the Wisconsin gal).

Meanwhile, others of us simply wandered. After all, Budapest is a beautiful city.

After we gathered back in the classroom, we received a spectacular lecture on the history and politics of Hungary from Andras Imre Nagy. He managed to cover a thousand years in an hour, and peppered his talk with poetry, witticism, and flair. It was fascinating how similar the political climate in Hungary is to the U.S. The differences were equally as striking.

In bold: “[A Hungarian poet once said] Hungary is like a Fairy Boat country [floating between the East and the West.]” “[It was felt then that] Hungary was the Shield of Europe.” “Identity is rooted in language.” “Great genius was born in Hungary.”

In order to explore the city and still keep up on our homework, Eva and Mattie went to a small cafe called “Madal”. Interacting with baristas and waiters is an opportunity to practice the knowledge Erika, our Hungarian teacher, has taught us in the past week. Today’s word was narancs, which means “orange” in Hungarian. The barista was pleasantly surprised that Eva not only knew how to pronounce the word but also knew the translation. Eva then promptly dropped her orange bonbon on the ground (don’t worry, she ate it anyway).

After nearly a week of eating out, our room decided to navigate the grocery store a few blocks from the hotel and attempt to make dinner. While the store was similar to those back home, Oreos and chips came in shockingly small packages. We came away with ingredients for Shakshuka, a Middle Eastern breakfast dish, as well as Paprikas chips and a package of chocolate cookies.

Cooking together was a blast, even though we only had one knife and enough space for one butt in the kitchen. The green and yellow of the peppers, the red of the tomatoes, the sizzling broth, the sweet and spicy aromas mixing together… We were impatient to get started!

 

Even though there wasn’t an official “Professor’s Dinner” tonight, some of us went to a Greek restaurant with Professor Berliner and Catherine Paro. Everyone who didn’t go is jealous of the orange cake and dark chocolate ice cream that the group received as a gift from the chef.

Altogether it was a lovely day, with just enough leisure time sprinkled into the academia. Tomorrow we look forward to another guest lecture on Hungarian culture. This weekend we look forward to visiting another city. In a couple weeks, we will adventure even further out to Vienna, a trip we’re already planning! In short, although we’ve been here for over a week, and our time here is nearly a third done with, we have much to anticipate!

Sziastok!

~Jess, Mattie, Kate H, and Eva

P.S. If anyone would like to know more of what the notes say or the recipe our room made tonight, contact Jess or leave a comment!