That's Entertainment?

The last week or more have been extremely taxing with only a few spots of light and pleasant activity tossed in here and there, but even then there were bumps in the road. Perhaps one reason is that for about 15 days the weather was miserably uncooperative in terms of elevating one’s mood by providing rain and/or snow showers almost daily.

I had thought we would get some refreshing entertainment by attending a play in English, performed by a local troupe. A British ex-pat authored the play, so we were prepared for some language issues. You know how Brits speak. Our friend Dan was the only one we could convince to join us, though we did try our best to corral others into shelling out the 2,100 Huf for a ticket.

As it turned out, those who held out were the smart ones. Although the play was advertised as an English production, written by an Englishman, sponsored by an English language company, half the cast were Hungarian and a chunk of the dialogue was in Hungarian. The “theater” was makeshift, not allowing the professionalism of super-titles, but the least they could have done is have someone stand by with the translations on large sheets of cardboard. The only laughter came from those who seemed to be native Hungarian speakers.

As entertainment, it was a disaster. There were few smiling faces amongst the crowd (regardless of the graphic in this post), but when the cast came for their accolades, it was apparent the audience was staggeringly stuffed with family and friends like a 3rd grade dance recital.

I am almost tempted to learn enough Hungarian just to be able to enjoy the theater here without feeling abused or for that matter deprived of culture. Thankfully, there are dance performances aplenty where language is not needed.

This post should have been titled "No Laughing Matter".

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Oh Christmas, Oh Christmas Market

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A Day With Students

One of the students who I advised for her thesis wanted to meet with me for a coffee. We arranged to meet at one of my favorite cafés at 11:00. We chatted about a dozen different topics and then she presented me with gifts as a ‘Thank you’ for my advisor role. I was so touched. She used one of her sister’s photos of a sunflower and transferred it onto a t-shirt. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers, but she had no idea until today. She also made me a picture hanger and had my travel photos that I had shared with students printed and placed. I will put this in the kitchen as a constant reminder. She is also part of a small orchestra, so my gift included 2 CDs of their music. I had attended one of their Christmas concerts a couple of years ago and was enthralled even not being a music lover.

We continued talking until the second student came along who also wanted to meet with me. I had a CD to share with her, so she was coming to pick it up. The first student left a half hour after the second student’s arrival. Then I received an SMS from a third student who also wanted to meet with me. After arranging the third meeting, I said good-bye to number 2 and moved on to student number 3. We finally parted at 6:00 pm. A seven hour day with students, tiring, but fulfilling to know they want to spend time with me. One of the joys of teaching!

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