Sunday, March 30, 2014

Surprise! We Are Giving You a Pre-Wedding Party

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This is a week overdue, basically because life gets in the way sometimes. However, it does not negate the importance in the least. Months ago, our friend Kat McFadden planned for her mother and aunt to come stay with us for a visit of close to 2 weeks. Knowing we would step up to tour the ladies around, she wanted to show her appreciation ahead of time. 

Kat suggested that she would like to provide us with a pre-wedding party, timing it for when her mom, Mary Beth, and Aunt Alice could assist. This was a truly unexpected surprise, but thoroughly welcomed. Honestly, knowing Kat, she did not need the preemptive thankful for entertaining her relatives as an excuse, since she would have offered the party regardless.
 
Due to the size of her apartment, she asked if we could have it at our place. Thinking that 12-15 would be a reasonable number to cook for, Kat went forth with the preparations. We have some mutual friends, but she gathered the names and e-mail addresses of others sending out e-vites. The party was a week ago today.

Little did we realize that this was going to turn into a major production, which is proclaimed with astonishment and not the least bit of dismay. Kat was here on Saturday night to start the preparations of food with mom, Mary Beth and Alice working alongside of her. Both Mary Beth and Alice have Hungarian roots and experience learning culinary arts at their mothers’ sides. Alice also has graduated from culinary school.

Jumping on Kat’s bandwagon, our friends Dan Stroiman, Hunter Roberts, and Andrea Mitnick also provided some tasty treats to the buffet. There was enough food to feed the population of a small country and wine flowed like Niagara Falls. As most parties at our place do, everyone congregated in the living room, but there were multitudes of trips to the kitchen to replenish plates with food beyond the morsels which were spread over the coffee table and within arm’s reach.

Beyond the extraordinary party, Kat had a present commissioned specifically for us. It is the wine decanter pictured created by one of Furman University’s faculty members, Professor Robert E. Chance. Notice that it is adorned with pomegranates, which also decorate our wedding rings. This was not just coincidence, but the fact that Kat paid attention to the details of the stories we share. Kat’s mother did the personalized shipping from South Carolina to our doorstep, taking extra care so the braided handle as well as the decanter would arrive in tact.



The party was fantastic and the party assemblers were also the clean-up committee. They were the best catering service and party planners one could hope to have. Thank you for making us so appreciative.

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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Rainbow Voting

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I came across this in the metro station at Nyugati today. It is reminding people to vote in the Hungarian and EU elections.



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Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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Google and I want to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day. There won't be any corned beef, boiled potatoes and cabbage for us. Though we can have and cook the latter two, it is just not the same when you have to ask "Where's the beef?" At least we can color our beer green.

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Sunday, March 16, 2014

You Say ToMAYto, I Say ToMAHto...

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This post is the responsibility of a former student and dedicated reader of this blog. Árpád sent me an e-mail yesterday after reading the post on the rosette. 

He wrote (edited):

"What caught my attention was your usage of rosette for what we call kokárda in Hungarian. I am wearing one right now...but this one object, the kokárda, is special and dear to most of us. Therefore, I really want to know what it is called in English, which is similarly dear... to my heart. I had been under the assumption that cockade was the correct term, but you did not use it once. In your post, you kept referring to it as a rosette, which made me wonder whether the term I had known was incorrect. I have looked up both cockade and rosette, but the definitions I found were too vague. Luckily, you know the object I am talking about, so please help me decide whether cockade or rosette describes Hungarian kokárda better."

This made me wonder. I had never heard of cockade, but it did send my thoughts wandering. This is what transpired after his question. I used Google images for both words and the results were almost identical. However, this did not answer the question and left me curious. I had wondered if my education had purposefully denied me knowledge of the term cockade, at least referencing this in this manner.

Last night I asked Ron if he had ever heard of a cockade. He hadn’t. I told him about the question and he reminded me of something that happened on Friday. We were out shopping with an American Fulbright professor, Andi Mitnick, who is teaching at a Budapest university for the semester. We stopped in a little shop where the woman makes all that is sold in the store. She also has the Hungarian rosettes. Andi, who had no idea of the association with the holiday, pointed to them and said “Oh, look! Hungarian rosettes.” The woman said the name in Hungarian and her husband said in English “No, they are cockades.” None of us thought to question the English difference.

Today I found this reference at the site here: “A cockade isn’t a term we often hear in the 21st century, but my research shows that they’ve been popular since the mid 1500’s.” 



Merriam Webster defines cockade as
- an ornament (as a rosette) usually worn on a hat as a badge
Origin of cockade: modification of French cocarde, from feminine of cocard vain, from coq cock, from Old French coc, of imitative origin. First Known Use: 1709


The dictionary's definition for a rosette is here.

However, it was the Britannica that was additionally helpful. See the reference here.

cockade, French cocarde ,  a bow or knot of ribbons worn in the hat.
-Though originally ornamental, cockades soon came to be used to broadcast identification with such various organizations as a political party, a military unit, or a household (in the form of livery). -During the French Revolution the partisans of the new order wore a blue, white, and red cockade adopted from the colours of the royal family and the city of Paris. Later, French émigrés fighting against the Revolution assumed white, orange, or black and yellow cockades, depending upon the nationality of the army in which they were serving.
-In the armed forces, cockades went out of use when the army and navy ceased wearing cocked hats. A leather cockade, however, survived in the headgear of many liveried coachmen and chauffeurs.


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Dear to whom it may concern,

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I received this e-mail note, so I promised I would post the information. Truthfully, I get so many questions about the time an American can stay in the Schengen Zone, I hope this will cut back on my needing to respond. Now I can just point them to a link. Many US Americans seem to believe that since they are from the US, they have unlimited time in Europe. Not so!


Dear to whom it may concern,

I hope I am not interrupting you. My name is Kathie Dotson and I am the coordinator of a webpage that we have created and it contains info on Schengen Visas.

We have worked hard to collect info and offering quality info. The website www.schengenvisainfo.com has a lot of information for people who want to go in Schengen Zone Countries and need Schengen visa.

We need your support.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Great Regards,
Kathie

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BB Booking

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BudaBaB is now listed with Booking.com. See it here.

Soon the Feri Place apartment will be listed too as a summer rental during the months of July and August. If our current tenants decide to leave Hungary, it will be available as a long term rental starting September.

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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Possessed by a Demon and Loving It

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Remember the old scapegoat phrase "The devil made me do it"? Well, it wasn't really the devil that gave me the nudge to turn into a man possessed or a man obsessed. All it took was the reality that I am going to the US. The last time I was there was January 2003, so there was shopping to be done.

Ron generally returns annually with the exception of last year when we went to his niece's wedding in Florence. Try as I might to get all of my ordering in when Ron is stateside, it is never really fulfilling. He has this aversion to carrying things. Around Budapest, it is an argument getting him to take his smartphone with him when he goes out. "It is extra weight" that I hear him moan. Hence getting him to cart a large suitcase to and from the USA has been out of the question.

Well, my year has come and I am making up for lost time. After getting the A-Ok from friends in Des Moines to have packages sent to their house, I hit the Internet highway and drove from store to store shopping until my fingertips were calloused over. I ordered so much merchandise, I needed an Excel worksheet to keep track of it all. I also need an accountant to monitor the bills, but damn it was fun.

I keep monitoring our friends' threshold of tolerance with onslaught of packages arriving. They have admitted that they meet the delivery in person. They assured me that they are enjoying these opportunities for getting to know the UPS driver and the mail-person on such an intimate level. By the time our packages stop arriving they will all be exchanging holiday gifts and getting invited to each others' birthday bashes.

The last time we had to dig out our large suitcases from storage downstairs, um, well never. They have been stored away since 2001. We will be flying KLM and then Delta. In keeping with Delta's stricter regulations, one suitcase is 3 cm more than they allow. Normally, we would chance it, but empty it weighs 15.1 pounds. Our luggage limit is 50 pounds each, so we cannot risk a 15 lb. suitcase limiting us to 34.9 lbs to stuff it with. I ordered 6 pairs of jeans (Lee jeans for $29 I couldn't beat it), but not before I took an old pair and weighed them. One old pair is 2 lbs. exactly. There are still 2 sweaters, 2 pairs of slacks, 5 shirts, business cards, sandals, photos of our mural, and yes about 22 books, but all paperbacks. 

We will have to borrow someone's lighter, but large suitcase. This will probably be the only time we need two large suitcases, so why buy one? We spent 7 weeks in Central America with only 2 carry-on bags and a backpack.

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No Rosette For You

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Yesterday, I stopped into an Aldi store, a global discount supermarket chain based in Germany. I lined up at the register to purchase two packages of batteries. As the line in front of me was progressing, I noticed the cashier was giving each person their change along with a tri-colored rosette typically worn on March 15th. 

March 15th is the anniversary of a failed revolution. The Hungarians, led by Lajos Kossuth, István Széchenyi, Sándor Petőfi and Józef Bem started the revolt that turned into a war against the Austrian monarchy. The goal was independence for Hungary. Most of the agitators were later executed.

The Aldi cashier must have sniffed my indifference to the holiday. All I received was my change, but no rosette. Holding back until the person behind me was checked out, the man received a rosette. I thought being passed up was another revolt in a minor manner.

Even Google is recognizing the day, so I received my rosette after all is said and done.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Days of Glory

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This was posted on Facebook by the first girl I had ever kissed, Jeanne V.

This was just blocks from my parents house. If you notice the tall sign in the background, left side, I think that is the giant ice cream cone representative of Carvel Ice Cream shop. It was a Long Branch landmark. 
 
Jeanne wrote "Classic picture of Brighton Avenue in West End, Long Branch with Bruce standing outside the Turntable, the cool place to buy records. In the late 1960s - early 1970's I remember discovering and buying albums of musicians from Cream to Don McLean there. Sadly, this section of buildings was destroyed by a big fire a couple years ago."

If you don't recognize Bruce, click here.
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Circling the Drain, Customer Service Loses All Meaning

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As strange as it may seem, I often tell my Hungarian students that things in general are not better in the US, regardless of what Hollywood wants the world to believe. One life issue that arises with greater repetition than any other is customer service.

Each time Hungarians or my fellow ex-pats complain about customer service here, I share my tales of the hour I spent on the phone with my CA bank trying to resolve an issue. Then there were the six calls I had to make to the credit card company for another problem. Of course, there was also the time… I might as well be speaking to an android. They all have a scripted speech that is never diverted from, regardless of the issue at hand. If your problem does not fit into their operation manual, all 5 pages of it, you are out of luck.

The point is if I could recapture all of the time I have spent calling the US for this or that problem, I would have enough time to live another five years. Though many of these people who listen to me rant, just believe I am trying to be a US naysayer while being a cheerleader for Hungary.

Today, in my mail was an article that drive the point home “Yes, customer service really is circling the drain – here’s what to do about it” gave me a tool to use to justify my opinion. Give this article a look-see. Christopher Elliott has been a travel guru for a couple of decades, yet he is like Dick Clark, he never seems to age. What he does do admirably is expand his repertoire of advocacy and information providing.

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Sunday, March 09, 2014

The Clocks Are Rolling with the Stones

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Clocks will be set ahead by one hour tonight in much of America, as 2 a.m. will become 3 a.m. early Sunday, March 9. Among the states, only Hawaii and much of Arizona will keep their clocks set to Standard Time. Most of Europe won't begin what it calls "Summer Time" until March 30.

Hungary starts Daylight Saving Time on
Sunday March 30, 2014 at 2:00 AM local time.

Hungary ended Daylight Saving Time on
Sunday October 27, 2013 at 3:00 AM local time.

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Friday, March 07, 2014

When Type A Personalities Wed

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Okay, I admit to being a Type A personality verging on Type A+ or what others may call obsessive, but I like things to go smoothly. I also like for people to be able to plan, know what is happening, and circumvent 500 e-mails. Due to 90% of our guests coming from out-of-state and because I have not been to the U.S. since January 2003, there are a number of people that I have not seen in that many years or more.

In order to enjoy everyone's time during this celebration, it seemed wise to maximize their time and my attention by creating this newsletter with our schedule. Some guests are coming in early, others are leaving Sunday morning. I want to spend as much time with everyone as possible. Hopefully, this will be the key to making everyone as happy as possible. 






If you are coming, remember I need to know if you are planning on joining us for the State Capitol tour; I need a minimum of 10 people.

Also, if you are joining us for Easter brunch, we need to get the reservation settled.
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Thursday, March 06, 2014

Liszt Ferenc Academy Reopens

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The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music has reopened after being closed for a couple of years for remodeling. It looks stunning and quite bright since it received an overdue cleaning beside the renovations. This may be slightly old news, but I just happened to walk by a week ago, so it was news for me, though I think Ron had mentioned it earlier.


Something new has been added too. Outside to the left is this new statue. It is quite unusual, I must say. On the side of the statue is an inscription. I had to look up Sir Georg Solti. I had never heard the name before. He was born in Budapest, but being Jewish, fled in 1938.
The style reminds me of a sculpture on Nagymező utca. I wonder if the artist is the same.
 

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When it absolutely, positively has to be there...

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Sometimes I am a dunce. We spent $150 having the US Embassy notarize our marriage application. We sent it out Certified Registered Return Receipt mail from Budapest on February 24, 2014. It still has not arrived. 

Why didn't I think to send it out FedEx, DHL, or UPS? Because sometimes you just can't remember it all.

Fingers crossed!!
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Sunday, March 02, 2014

Can You Find the Error of Their Ways?

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I had one of those Aha! moments when I realized I would need travel health insurance to go to Iowa next month. Ron has Medicare and Blue Cross covering any medical needs he may have, but I have nothing that will cover me outside of Europe. I bought a policy from WorldNomads, which I have used for years, never needing to test their services. Part of the health policy included the usual coverage for flight cancellations and delays, lost luggage, and so on. 

A couple of days later, I remembered that if I had paid for the flights with AMEX, the flight and luggage issues would be covered by AMEX with my protection plan. However, I used my United Visa card. I never read over the fine printed legalese that they send with the credit cards, so any coverage was uncertain.

After sending a secure note to Chase to verify if there was indeed insurance for flight cancellations and delays, lost luggage, and so on, I received this back.

Date:    03-01-2014 16:12:08
From:    Chase Card Services
Subject:    Re: Other/Inquiry Not Listed
Message:
   
Dear Ryan James,
Thank you for contacting Chase about your travel
insurances.

You have the following travel related benefits with your
United MilagePlus Explorer card:


BIG HINT: Look at the picture and then the message.

I noticed this same difference on FlyerTalk in 4 different posts. After looking it up with an online dictionary, it seems this is an alternative spelling. Even so, in this case, it does not match the card.
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Saturday, March 01, 2014

Our Rings Are Works of Art

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I just received word from our jeweler that our rings are finished. This morning, I found these pictures in the mail.

Look at Kelly's website and you will see why I chose him for creating these. His Tree of Life ring really appealed to me, so I knew his work would be top-notch. We are over the moon. 

For the reasons for the symbols, see below the pictures.




On our first European trip as a couple in 1993, while in Athens, we happened to wander into an antique store. Our attention was immediately drawn to two objects hanging from the ceiling. They were each pomegranates created by hand blown glass. One was a cobalt blue and the other was a smoky chestnut red. Each had beads hanging from the glass stem with miniature trinkets attached. The trinkets were different on both.

When we asked the saleswoman about them, she explained that Greek custom was to hang a pomegranate on New Year’s Eve to bring prosperity for the incoming year. We were so taken with the beauty and originality of the design, we bought them both. Pomegranates became a part of our lives in various décor around the house.

Coincidentally, Ryan’s January birth stone is garnet. The origin of the name garnet is derived from the Greek word ‘granatum’ meaning ‘pomegranate seed’, which reflects the shape and color of the crystals. Although not a garnet, Ron’s July birth stone is the ruby, another red gem.

When Ryan was a child, his paternal grandparents lived in Michigan. They owned dozens of acres of land, much of

which was forest covered. One of Ryan’s greatest memories was hiking with his dad through the forest to collect acorns and oak leaves. His grandmother would paint faces on the acorn nut and add bits of material to the acorn cupule, making little people’s faces. At Christmas time, they were decorated to be Santa Claus. The phrase attributed to Chaucer, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow” became a motto to remember for achieving success in life.

Ron too has a connection to oak leaves and acorns. He went to St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, which had the Ambrosian Oaks school newspaper and theme song. It is now St. Ambrose University.


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