The Earnings of a Pro

We watched the movie 42 last night. It is the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to be signed in the major leagues. What was startling is that I now earn the exact same money each month that Jackie earned in 1946. 

Regardless, it was an exceptional movie. I wished I had shown it in my Race and Ethnicity class.

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• Jackie Robinson

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Italians From All Over - Unite

This is just a quick note to share with fellow Italians who are not YET citizens of the land of wine and olives. We had a guest here who is exploring her Italian heritage and we were sharing stories. I had learned quite some time back that I could possibly be eligible for Italian citizenship or a passport since my mother’s father was born in Italy. My maternal grandmother popped out just as her parents reached NYC. Since my grandparents and parents are no longer around, it has been one wall after another. Finally, I gave up.

This is what our guest shared. There is a website called www.myitaliancitizenship.com where they lead you through the matrix of eligibility, how to source the records needed and more. I just quickly glanced at it today, but have it book marked for the future. There are some records in my files, but it is far from complete. This is a treasure chest for researching Italian backgrounds.

Related articles

• How To Obtain The Italian Citizenship If You Are Italian

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Műcsarnok x 2

Ron missed the exhibit "What is Hungarian?" at the Műcsarnok Hall. Our new acquaintance Dan had not been either. I returned with them today, so I took some photos of the displays that really appealed to me using my phone.

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Fall Break Work

It is fall break. I have spent four days working eight hours a day preparing courses for next semester. Under normal circumstances, it would seem logical to do this during the Christmas break. Fortunately or unfortunately, we will be gone from December 18^th until January 17^th. That will only leave me with three weeks when we return to get things finished. That is not enough time.

Next semester, the teaching load more than doubles due to new regulations of the university. There are no promotions in sight for me since there is a moratorium on promotions, so my course load increases due to my peon status. A doctorate degree does not come into play here. My classes for spring will be:

• Language Practice 4 – I will most likely use a curriculum I have already written and just revise it. The LP classes are American Culture classes with an emphasis on academic English.

• Ethnicities in the U.S. II – Have to write the curriculum for this one. I am teaching Part I this semester. Part II will focus on Jews, Hispanics, and Native Americans.

• Critical Thinking – I am teaching this this semester so there is little to do. I have the curriculum done, I just need to revise the syllabus.

• Gay and Lesbian Film in the U.S. – This is where much of my time and attention has gone. I have had to research the films, find them, watch them, create study guides for each, make decisions on which to use, and so on. I have close to 60 movies, but they are not all American films. I am trying to decide if I will have each student watch a different foreign film as well to do a comparison to the U.S. one. This is much more work than I ever anticipated, but I expect the course will be great.

• Survey of American Culture – This is available and mandatory to freshmen. We have had 300 enroll this semester, but none of them have been eligible for my classes. My first introduction will be with this course. My co-teacher and I will both be teaching sections of this, but based on the time slot, one of us may have more than ½ of the group. I usually teach my freshmen class at 8:00 am, while he has his at 9:30. Since the students take so many classes, it is more an issue of class conflict, rather than sleeping in. This course will be 1 ½ hours a week, but all lecture. I ordered a survey book from the States and will lecture on a different chapter each week. There is no chance of making them write essays. I will never have time to read all of them. They will have weekly quizzes instead with homemade scan-tron answer sheets and then a TA can grade them for me. I am dreading this. It has been years since I have had to lecture.

Then to complete my teaching hours, I will offer a two hour tutorial for the survey course for students who cannot keep up with the lecture. This is a glorified office hour, but it prevents me from having to offer yet another course.

I spent days looking at film reviews, book reviews, and ordering books and films from the US. The university does not buy the books and the students don’t either, so it is my responsibility to make sure they have the materials they need for each course. This is how I spent my four eight hour days of vacation. The method has a “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy agreement.

Now I am hoping beyond hope that the books and movies arrive before we break for winter. I could not find anyone that was coming over to bring them back with them or I would have ordered them and had them sent to these people. Everyone coming back or coming to visit someone is arriving after we leave. Time is of the essence.

I am going to be a bear next semester.

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The Faculty Meeting

We had a faculty meeting today to learn the state of affairs of our department. The university is bankrupt and the administration is trying to cut corners everywhere. Like most large organizations, they are penny wise and pound foolish. They cut the minor things while letting the large expenditures continue needlessly. This is not only evident to me, but to my Hungarian colleagues who are just as helpless to do anything about it. Government at its worst, the country does not matter.

We are still fighting to maintain a department at all, the university wants to combine departments, thus lessening staff at the same time. Our American Studies major has been reduced to a concentration within the English Department as of this September with the advent of the Bologna Plan instituted within 44 countries.

We were informed that the perception of the public as well as the administration is that we are just another glorified language school without any other purpose. Therefore, we must do whatever is in our power to change that perception. We are after all, a program to teach about American culture, history, and literature in the English language, not a language school. The options for my colleague and I are limited since neither of us speak Hungarian, but we will brainstorm what we can do in the English press.

The other unfortunate news was that our teaching load will increase starting next semester. Although I am one course short this semester, due to the new programs, it behooves me to have to add yet additional courses. Needless to say, the lower the rung on the ladder, the harder hit one becomes. We lectors will have to teach 14 hours a week, the associate professors 12 hours a week, while the professors have 8 hours a week. Now, I do understand that this is the same way in the States, but it is lop-sided. Those at the bottom need the extra time to do the work to move up the ladder. With an added burden of extra classes, this does not give them that luxury to fit in the needed research and writing to be upwardly mobile.

The real shocker was that one of our classes would be a lecture and could conceivably be up to 150 students or more. This lecture will be divided between my colleague and myself, but there are 300 new students this semester. In reality, the scales of equity could be unfavorably tipped by the time offering of the course. One of us could have 200 students, while the other has 100. There is no way we will require papers due for this course with that many students. Added to this course, we will have six other courses to teach at a higher level than freshmen. This is going to have a dramatic impact on the quality time I am able to spend with my students.

Next semester looks like this.

American Culture Survey lecture

American Culture Tutorial

Language Practice IV – A cultural themed based class

Ethnicities in the US II

Critical Thinking

Gay Films in the US

On top of all of this, I am supervising six teaching thesis students and two Masters thesis students. I will be praying for summer break starting in March.

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Life Has Been a Bit Hectic

Life has been a bit hectic lately with our B and B guests. May has been exceptionally busy with guests leaving from and going into the same room on the same day. I am not complaining since all of them have been outstanding human beings that have enriched our lives in some way regardless of how long or short their visit has been. This is one joy of running a B and B. The other side of the coin is that I have not had time for things that I wanted to do, like write, label my photos, visit museums, and so on.

The other interruption thus far is the administration of State exams. This is the equivalent to the Masters Thesis defense in the States. This would not be such a problem if it were organized, but I have learned that is not a concept here. I was told to arrive at 9:00 sharp. At 9:15, I was the only faculty member ready to start. We started at 9:30. One faculty member read and graded a thesis, but refused to be the examiner since she was not an authority on American culture, so it was deferred to me, who had not read the thesis. There were only two exams today, but on the 14th of June, there are eight. Ugh!

As I left the campus, I had to stop at the Fulbright office to drop off a package for an American professor that was leaving something for them. A half hour later, I get a call from them asking me if I would consider being a reviewer for the Hungarians who have applied to go the States. I said I would; however, we are leaving on Saturday for Germany. They need them done by next Thursday, the day we return. Being soft, I offered to go in on Friday and read as many as I could then. On my way to a different bus than I usually take, I passed by this building, which has intrigued me. It is the home of an old, dead Hungarian painter that has been neglected for too long. It is a shame and a waste.

Before going home, I stopped at the used English book store to pick up some books that arrived and had to go by Keleti train station. I love the building and had my camera with me.

Tomorrow is the day we go to Immigration for what should be the last time, getting our five year Residency. I have a student lined up to go with us to the local office to get our photo I.D. card giving us almost all of the rights of a Hungarian citizen.

We will be going to Dresden and Berlin, so you can read about them here.

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The Last of the Whine

The Last of the Whine

One of the California wine growers has or had the slogan “No wine before its time”. One nice thing about ex-pat living is that you are not infiltrated with advertising slogans to the point of mental numbness. But, I digress from the point of this note. If you have read past posts, you will know I have WHINED heartily about the Visa process here, the aggravation, the expense, and so on. This is the last of the whine. We found out last night that our 5 year Residency Permits were approved and we can pick them up on May 31st. So as of now, there should be no more whining about this topic.

With this we are fully legal Hungarian residents for a period of 5 years without jumping through any further hoops, diving through any barrels, not having to play nice with Immigration officers or shell out to overpriced agencies. We will have the same rights as Hungarians do, but since we don’t speak the language, we probably will not know all of them. Up until now, we have been legal with one year renewable Visas, but we had to have Work Permits in addition. Good-bye Work Permits.

At the end of the 5 years, we have two options. We can renew the Permit for another 5 years with a simple one page application or we can apply for Hungarian citizenship. The second option is not feasible for us since we would have to take an exam in Hungarian (ain’t going to happen folks), plus we would have to relinquish our U.S. citizenship and Social Security. I still have fantasies that there will be Social Security when I am retirement age. If not, I better get more serious about my writing and start to pump out something publishable.

For those of you who are not familiar with Hungarian, there are 44 letters in the alphabet. It is part of the Finno-Ugric, which comprises Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian; however, Hungarian is off on a branch of its own. It is one of the languages which is agglutinative, which means word meanings are modified by adding different and multiple endings or suffixes to the words, rather than using prefixes. It is not easy to learn and not easy for native speakers to understand when foreigners try speaking it.

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Following Don and Patricia

Ron and I both love this city, but as with anywhere you live, you get overwhelmed with life and the tedious tasks that are involved in it so one does not often take time to appreciate the surroundings. Having guests on a regular basis refreshes our love for this city and we cherish being able to see it through others’ eyes too. It is so insightful. With this said, let us see where Don and Patricia ventured to yesterday.

After breakfast, their first stop was the Great Market on Vámház körút 1-3. This market is one of five built in the city at the end of the 19^th

On the second floor of the market are places to buy souvenirs and food. My choice is to pass-by the restaurant, which is a bit overpriced and venture to the food booths along the right side. For an authentic taste of Hungarian food, I highly recommend the langos. This is fried dough with grated hard cheese, ham if you choose, and garlic juice. There are other varieties to entice tourists, like Mexican langos, but this seems like a contradiction to authentic culture to me.

The great synagogue on Dohány was their next stop. With a seating capacity of 2,964 seats (1,492 for men and 1,472 for women in a separate gallery) it is the second largest synagogue in the world. The largest is in New York City. The beautiful structure is a combination of Moorish, Romantic,They close at 2:00 pm, so it is important to arrive early if you want to visit or take the tour. There is a museum on the premises and it is highly recommended. Hungary has a unique Jewish history during WW II. Don was intrigued that their tour guide was simplistic in her explanations, describing her memorized speech as Judaism 101. For those who have no knowledge of the religion, it could be refreshing, but for others stilted. Patricia would have preferred to have had time alone in the sacred space to sit in silence meditation. However, with tours in various languages continually dotting the interior, it is not possible. It occurred to her while there that no member of her family has been to a synagogue service since 1939. She lost family members in the Holocaust. With this in mind, it was pertinent and heartwarming for her that people like Raul Wallenberg stood up to the Nazis and others with malicious intent to aid so many people.

For a virtual Jewish history tour, visit this link.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Budapest.html

After lunch, our wandering South Africans went to the Museum of Applied Arts, one of my favorite buildings in Budapest. Located at Ullői út 33-37, this magnificent building was built for the celebration of the Millennium in 1896 by Lechner and Pártos. The colorful tile entrance is in stark contrast to the interior, which has a Moorish flavor. The style is referred to as Hungarian Secessionist or Hungarian Art nouveau. Don being a photographer had to purchase a ticket for taking pictures. When he started snapping, the woman guard lunged at him to stop until he produced his supplementary ticket. Even this did not satisfy her when he started to place it back in his pocket. Although she had seen it, she wanted him to have it readily exposed hanging out of a pocket for her discernable eye to see at a moment’s notice. He found the porcelain and interior design well worth the price of a photo ticket. http://www.imm.hu/angol/

As strange as it may seem to some, we always recommend the Kerepesi Cemetery to our B and B guests. Many times our guests will smile and nod appreciatively for the information, but secretly, I believe think we are crazy for the idea. Those who follow our advice return to thank us for the information. Don and Patricia are amongst the latter group.

They ventured to this splendid final resting garden of repose located at Fiumei út near Keleti train station. Don was amazed at the park like quality of the place with the great chestnut trees shading the residents. He was curious about the weeping angels on some of the graves wondering why the angels would weep when they had a new friend arriving in their domain. This was an interesting question that had not occurred to me. When you enter, you can get a map of the grounds. Here lie the most famous of the Hungarian elite who have build mausoleums to be remembered by. The art work is spectacular and original in many instances. For more information, visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerepesi_Cemetery

After dinner, the four of us went to the ballet at the State Opera House on Andrássy út 22. The building is considered one of the most important of Hungarian architecture, the architect being Miklós Ybl. It took nine years to complete. It is said that it was build for Empress Maria Teresa, but she ordered that it should be smaller than the one in Vienna. Looks can be deceiving as it looks small, but it seats 1,289 people. There are over fifty operas performed here a year, more than any other opera house in the world.

Ron had purchased tickets in what I consider the ‘nose bleed’ section of the Opera House. It is the top level and the balcony on the side. Tickets were only 800 Huf approximately $4.00. The ballet was Anna Karenina and a splendid performance. http://www.fsz.bme.hu/opera/bud_operahaz.html

Tickets can be ordered online and kept at the box office. For information about this, go to our website www.budabab.com and then Links.

Patricia repeatedly states she needs to return to Budapest for a whole month to see all, absorb all, experience all. Not only are they both in awe of the spectacular beauty of the city, but Patricia is amazed with the safety of walking the streets at any hour of the day or night, the absence of children begging, and the contradictions of the horrors of the history as opposed to the wonderful pieces of art.

Tune in tomorrow for Patricia and Don’s next day in Budapest.

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A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

I was walking home today and happened to notice this little old lady who must have been ten years older than God, come out of a convenience store and start to enter the apartment building next door. As I started to pass by, she stopped me. She was dressed appropriately for the weather, but her clothes were worn and stained. She was short enough for me to tower over her, but since she needed some assistance, I could not pass her by.

She immediately started a spiel in Hungarian, but before I could tell her I did not speak Hungarian, she had thrust something into my hand. It was her little one and a half shot of palinka, the Hungarian brandy. Then it dawned on me, she could not open the twist off top. As I unscrewed it for her, she continued with her monologue and showed me her swollen arthritic hand. She thanked me profusely as I walked away. Thank you is in my vocabulary in a number of languages.

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