Christmas "Karácsony"

Well, the winter holiday was definitely interesting but I had fun as well. I will first tell you about Christmas Eve, which is when Hungarians generally do all the things that make Christmas in Hungary unique.

It was a great day... The day before I spent the whole day Christmas shopping for Alex, Teag, my host mom, and Nóri, my host sister. For my host mom, I bought two elf candles since she loves candles and a bottle of Gucci perfume. She almost cried when she opened it.

Yesterdays festivities started with tree decorating. We played some modern Hungarian Christmas music and put szaloncukor, Hungarian Christmas chocolates wrapped in colorful foil wrappers on paperclips to hang on the tree. Then we hung ornaments in such an excess that when we were done, I wasn't sure whether the tree was more red or green.

An hour or so later, we put sparklers in the tree and lit two of them with the lights off. When they finished, the lights came on and we kissed each other and said, "Boldog Karácsonyt!" Then we opened gifts.

Afterwards, we had dinner. Erika cooked a salmon, fried chicken filled with plum sauce, mashed potatoes, and potato salad. Everything was delicious. Then, for dessert, she made a log cake with dark chocolate icing and little mushrooms sticking up all over it. Inside were swirls of chocolate icing and chocolate cake.

To end the nice day, Erika, Nóri, and I went on a walk. No one was out so all was peaceful. There was about a centimeter of sonow on everything so it made it feel even more magical. The lake was frozen over so Erika and I walk on it. We went to the Klinikák (where Nóri and Csaba were born) and back. It was great.

A day before Christmas Eve, my uncle took me to Budapest for a day with his family and I was able to try the traditional Hungarian fish soup (Halászlé) It was so good and it didn't really taste like fish. After going to the restaurant, we went to Parliament and to a place called Bethlehem Ház were people dressed up and told the Christmas story. They sang Christmas songs in Hungarian and it was fascinating. I really feel close to my uncle and I will be sad to say goodbye to his family. He came the day after Christmas to our house and we had another Christmas celebration. His whole family sang Christmas carols while the sparklers were lit. Afterwards, since my host sister participated in a Domino competition a month ago, my uncle made a new competition between my sister and him. It was really cute and my uncle ended up winning (until his tower toppled)

The Last Magyar Class

My last Hungarian class. It was quite sad and also really fun! The woman on the far left is my teacher and I loved her because she let me make not-so-funny jokes in Hungarian. The man standing up is from Germany with his best friend Robert on the farthest right. Danusha and Dorottya, the Polish girls (I really dont know which one is which) were always very serious, but I am going to miss them. The man sitting next to them is Janar from Turkey and the one making a funny face is Enrico from Italy.We all made dishes from our country after reviewing for the exam. It was a great party and we practiced speaking for the final time with each other in Hungarian. The day of the test, only the front row and I showed up.

Vienna

Vienna was beautiful to say the least. Picture the ideal Christmas town on a postcard and you have Vienna. It was constantly snowing, but not too cold and there were street performers down every alley, generally mimes or masked dancers.

There were many white marble statues in almost every street corner on the buildings. Also, in every square there were tons of Christmas trees being trimmed and pruned. Sometimes, it was a bit difficult to navigate because it was like walking through a forest of pines.

If you go to Vienna, go at night because it was the most beautiful sight. It could never be truly nighttime because the lights lit the entire city. My only complaint would be that there were so many tourists everywhere that it was impossible to find a place to sit inside that wasnt packed with people.

Thanksgiving and warm wine

This was where I had Thanksgiving. A couple who I met at church Ed and Syble invited Alex and I over to their house for Thanksgiving. A guy named Akim from Ethiopia who wants to be a doctor and Pablo, from Cuba also came. They are church members as well.

It was my first Thanksgiving without my family but we had a lot of fun. We had ham, cornmeal stuffing, sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows, rice and mushrooms, gravy, whipped strawberry mousse, brownies, coconut cream cake, and of course, pumpkin pie. I actually made the pumpkin pie with a weird type of squash that looks like a butternut squash but tastes like pumpkin.

The next day, I went to my friend Zsombor's house and he taught me how to make traditional Hungarian hot wine. I had never heard of heating wine before so I was very curious. Alexandra, Tegan, Carlos, from Mexico, and his host sister came as well.

Since you know how much I love to cook, I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Stir red wine, cloves, cinnamon, lemon juice, and lots of white sugar together in a pan. Boil ingredients for five to ten minutes.

When we finished making it, we went outside and sat on the deck, wrapped in blankets and listened to Hungarian Christmas music. Zsombi sang his favorite Christmas carol that went something like this: "Small Christmas, big Christmas, where is the pork? Where is the pork?" I almost died laughing.

It really has started to feel like Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving, a gargantuan pine tree was place in front of the Nagy Templom in Kóssuth Tér. Christmas lights adorn the trees and fairy lights hang from the plaza walls. In Match, my favorite grocery store, hundreds of chocolate Santas wrapped in decorative aluminum foil fill the shelves. I cannot believe it is almost December and I have been here for four months.

Venice

As a kid, I always dreamed of going to Venice. What could be more unique than a city where instead of cars, there were boats and in place of roads, water. A floating city.

Well this dream of mine finally became real when I found myself on a Rotary bus trip to Venice. We all met in Budapest October 19th. On October 20th, we arrived in Venice at contrary to the weather forcast, it was beautiful weather.

We took a boat over to the island and although many buildings looked worse for the wear, it was so historical and it made me imagine what the city used to look like when it was a major port. Did you know that Venice had a king at one time? It was almost like its own country. When we arrived, Béla told us that we could split up in groups and explore the city. The first place we went was to a big square full of pigeons. There were so many waddling pigeons that I was afraid to walk. Sometimes, it seemed they were walking on top of each other. One landed on my head which was special until I started trying to get it off. It seriously wouldn't budge!

Ofcourse I had tons of food. I snacked on the piyya which to be honest did not beat Mom's. It was circular and had only sauce and cheese on dough. The crust was good though. I had a mushroom calzone which was better and that is saying something because I generally hate mushrooms. I also ate tiramisu gelato. That was the best. It was light but sugary and you felt like you needed more.

I think what I liked most about Venice were the alleys and the canals. You could get lost for hours. Once you got past the touristy parts, Venice's true beauty cam eout. When I was in the alleyways, I felt a sense of solitude and peace. There were colorful clothes hanging from windows and oftentimes, a birdcage. Alone, I would be scared, but with a group, those long peaceful corridors were so inviting. Most of the time, they were made of brick.

One word to describe Venice is colorful. All the houses were either brick or a salmon pink. Occasionally, yellow. They weren't obnoxious colors like Romania and once the sun came out, it was beautiful. The salmon pink against the blue sky was something I wanted to paint.

Pictures of Romania

October Vásár

In Debrecen, there is a fair that happens twice a year. It's more like a market, with stalls lining both sides of a web of roads. I was there for four hours and have yet to see more than half the stalls.

Every 200 meters or so, there is a food stall where you can buy 2 foot-long kolbasz (Hungarian sausage), csirke és hagyma (chicken and onions), and bread to go along with the various meats. I could not resist the first food stand I passed because the vendors were cooking the meat right on the grill. I bought a kolbasz with two pieces of bread and it was to die for. Every 300 meters, there is also a candy stand that sells mainly gummies in various colors and shapes. I got some gumimaci (gummy bears) and some long gummy tubes filled with white taffy.


In addition to food, I bought a scarf from a scarf stall. All of the most beautiful and unique scarves that I had ever seen were before me and they all screamed Hungarian. I managed to pick one from the bunch. I choose it for its lovely design and combination of gold, black, and sky blue threads. Unfortunately, when the weather turned from sunny and 70 to bone-chilling, I realized it was time to put my purchase to use. I did look somewhat comical and my friend Teagan, from Australia decided to take advantage of that fact and take a picture of me in my pitiable state.

Besides shops, there was a live band playing that had interesting music. When I saw how they were dressed, however, I almost choked on my kolbasz. They were dressed as Native Americans, only wearing the most ridiculous outfits ever! I had to take a picture of them because their idea of what Native Americans were like was so off the mark. I wonder if they even knew what they were doing. Apparently, they come to Debrecen about once a month and are somewhat popular.