The sound of ...

Birdies!

Every day I hear a symphony of birds. I notice more species here than in Colorado. Maybe it's because it's wetter here, and there are also more trees. They sing all day long and some of them sing at night.

My bedroom window is open all night and every night the audioscape is different. The first night I heard dogs barking on and off all night. The next couple of nights I heard a  puppy mournfully howling. I was so sad to hear his loneliness! The next few nights were absolutely quiet. Then I heard a few birds, or maybe frogs, bleating all night long. Last night it seemed to be the same motorcycle driving round and round the city every few minutes for a couple of hours.

Just about every block has hens, and lots of folks also have roosters. They start singing early in the morning, and they sound off all day long. The most amusing thing I’ve heard is a rooster crowing while I was getting a mange. The masseuse is just a couple of houses down the street. The weather is very nice, so everyone keeps doors and windows open. I was relaxing under her capable care, and I clearly heard the sound of a rooster talking to his buddies. I giggled internally. I wondered if it was fair to say that I hadn't lived untill I listened to a cock crowing during a massage. It gave me additional perspective on how different this city is to my own!

I don’t know the names of all the birds, I know we have doves, larks, sparrows, and crows. But there are many more which I don’t recognize. Below please see a picture from the national park which shows some of the local birds. We also have “dragon airplanes“ which are ultralights. That is, a giant kite with a motor, and a chair for the pilot. Sometimes in the evenings we see them flying overhead and I’ve seen two playing together. 

Some cities place platforms on top of the light posts, and storks build nests there. I tried to get a picture of a stork in a nest, but so far I have only gotten the nests. This picture is from our trip to Balaton last weekend.

Baja has a canal, called Sugovisza, where people go for recreation. I think it was originally built for shipping, and barges still use it. People sunbathe on the banks, and swim or boat in the canal. I swam there one summer when I was training for a triathlon. There is an island, with jogging trail around it. (You can see my route in Strava.) The island is well-covered with trees and so there are lots of birds.

The town has plenty of green spaces and parks. Two blocks away from our house is a big park where kids play soccer. It has a playground with play equipment: swings and slides and other toys. I never met a swing I didn’t like, so I’ve been swinging serval times already.

I practice imitating some of the birdsong. One day I fooled a dove into thinking there was another bird nearby. It kept flying from tree to tree overhead in the courtyard looking for me. After a bit I stopped because I didn’t want to frustrate it. 

I love all of the birds singing day and night. We have plenty back home, but not the same cacophony. I will miss them when I return. 

My favorite things

My last post was about things that scared me-they are everywhere! Lest I come across as a big scarcedy cat here are some things that I love.

I love the house with a walled garden, it is kind of like having a little city all to myself. The courtyard is full of flowers and trees, and it has a big table with an umbrella where we often eat outside. I can run around in my jammies, or sunbathe French Riviera style, and nobody sees me.

Lots of trees and flowers, flowers, everywhere! Inside, outside and all around the town. Everyone loves flowers. Every time we go to the market we buy more flowers. They bloom in window boxes, in planters, in gardens, and public spaces. This is a bloomin' paradise and zillions of birdies orchestrate a soundtrack to the day. 

Conserving just about everything. We keep a bin for refuse that the chickens like, such as vegetable greens and leftover pasta. We don't have a garbage disposal so dregs of organic matter go into the back garden to enrich the soil. Walls two feet thick save a lot of energy. Last week I mended tea towels, and darned garments. No reason to get rid of them if it just takes a stitch (or nine). Big electrical sockets that accommodate plugs wth ridges, a person can get a good grip to pull them out of the socket. Um, saves on replacing appliances because of ruined electrical cords? I dunno, I just like the plugs and had to fit them in. I also like that the toilets let me regulate the water. This is the glam life.

Little shops all over the place mean that what I need is just around the corner. There is a teeny general store just two blocks away. It is about the size of a bedroom and has a little bit of most everything we need. We go there for fresh vegetables and cheery conversation. The feed store is in my husband's classmate's garage just three blocks away. The massage therapist is four houses down. We can walk or bike to get anything we need. 

Food is a big topic. Family constantly ask what I want for the next meal. It's a little stressful because unless I'm hungry I don't think about food. Plus, I hardly know anything about the cuisine. They do have my number on the potatoes. Today at lunch we had the piled potato dish with hard boiled eggs and sausage. I admit to having two large helpings. Every morning I make a pot of espresso and drink a double shot latte with honey.  Now that I know how to not burn the house down I'm getting pretty good at making coffee. I've graduated to grinding the beans and filling the jar with fresh grounds to use over the next few days. Every Wednesday and Saturday I go get fresh langos (fry bread made of potato flour) at the piac (market). Langos is hot out of the fryer and perfect served plain. Sometimes I have it with a thin schemer of garlic. Today I had it with garlic and sour cream. When I get brave I'll top it off with grated cheese. That's a lot of fat so I have to be ready for it. 

Bicycle sidewalks keep bikes off the roads and keep them safe. Not the roads, the bikes, jeez! Oh... you are right, that does make the roads safe too. Whaddyaknow. Plus, drivers are also cyclists so they are careful and courteous of bicyclists. This week I actually saw a bike helmet. It was on bicyclist riding a fancy bike, dressed in full mufti with sleek shorts, clip-in shoes, and bike jersey. He really stood out among the little old ladies in house dresses carrying wicker baskets.  

To that point, traffic is manageable and I learned to walk down the middle of the street. I walk to church with a neighbor who is about a million years old. She takes my arm and we amble several blocks. At one point the sidewalk is under construction so she said we should walk in the street. She's holding my arm but I'm the terrified one! Cars come zooming toward us and they move over for us without any fuss. No honking or gesticulating or funny looks. Wow, so cool and so bizarre! She doesn't even bother to get immediately back on the sidewalk when she can, she stays in the street like it isn't a thing. My head is about to burst from trying to be as nonchalant as she is!

I explore the neighborhood when I jog and bike and I found a couple of networks of dirt roads right around the corner. They go through fields and houses and gardens and intertwine with asphalt and concrete and cobblestone. Cobblestone is called "cat stone," what a cool name! It's rough for biking and running but so picturesque. When I'm on my bike I sound off, "ahhhhhhhhhh," as I bounce over the stones, making that fun ululating sound you get when your body is going boing, boing, boing!

I can't get lost. The Danube is to the west and a canal to the south so if I'm "exploring" and I come to large running water then I know where I am and can reorient myself. All the cities have signs indicating when where the town starts and where it ends. So far I've used those boundaries to keep my bearings. Yesterday I crossed the Danube and found a big park with a network of bike trails. If I read the map right (see photo below, we are at the right end of the red segment at the bottom) then maybe there is a bike route around the whole country. How much fun would that be, to bike the circumference. Food for thought. To go along with the piled potatoes. 

This whole town is clean. We have plenty of little trash cans around town and folks use them. In our home we wash our hands before and after just about every activity. Almost everything is divided into a clean and a dirty version of the same thing. In the kitchen wee have towels for dishes, different towels for hands, and paper towels for drying fruit or veggies after we wash them. That is, after we wash our hands. We have more types of cleaning products and cloths than I ever imagined. We use one set of slippers for the house, different slippers for the garden, shoes for the street, and muck boots for the henhouse and back garden. Floors so clean you can eat off of them is a real thing. I can't count the number of times per day I'm admonished that something is "piszkos," dirty, and I need to change what I am doing. Use a clean spoon for cleaning coffee grounds from the espresso maker, even thgh the grounds are going into the trash. Do not sit on the ground or cement in the courtyard. Only a chair will do. And wash off that garden chair before sitting on it. Preferably place a clean cushion on it too. My friend Amber's famous sit-upons would be a hit here! 

It's fun running around discovering all these cool things!

Danger, Will Robinson

This town is old. This country is old, the dominant cultural group has a thousand years of history Most of the rest of the world is older than my native country. So I can't take anything for granted. Nothing. Not the way to water flowers, not the way to cook a meal. Not the way to clean house, or do laundry, or dust, or regulate the interior climate. Nor park a car or drive, or bike, or even how to enter a shop. I have to figure out how to stay out of trouble. How many ways can I get hurt or destroy something?

Fire is not my friend. I burned the tiny little pot holders, I burned the rice. I left the empty espresso pot on the fire. Every time I use a match to start the burner I have to be careful not to burn my hair.  Now I understand why my husband told me not to burn the house down. 

I pocket dialed my cousin in Budapest while he was in a business meeting.

I nearly caused an accident when cars had to stop fast to let me cross the street on my bike. There are cars parked on the side of the road-which means parked IN the road. When a vehicle comes toward me, it has to move into my lane in order to pass the parked cars. I stop my bike for a construction zone and didn't know there was a cyclist behind me who could have run into me. I said "I'm sorry," and he said he would have done the same thing. Whew!

I'm grateful I can go for a daily run. It is one thing that I can control. But sidewalks can be treacherous and the dogs in the gardens are scary.  Dogs seem to exist for security, and some of them  bite. The sidewalks run right along the garden walls, the dogs bark viciously, and walking or running past is scary. Not all roads have sidewalks and sometimes I have to walk or run down the street. Surfaces are uneven, the sidewalk or paving changes or buckles. Sometimes it's cobblestone and sometimes it's concrete. A sidewalk slopes up, then has stairs down. This place is so non-ADA compliant!

What I would do I in an emergency? I can ask to go to the hospital with my awesome language skills ("Help please we go hospital.") How would I communicate with the intake staff? I don't have a dictionary or translator software while jogging. I do have Find my iPhone turned on and I can use Strava or Nike Run Club to map my route. It could help to find my body in case I don't return.

Stress, stress. I'm glad I'm headed home, where I am safe. But wait, that's where I keep burning things, knocking things over every time I turn around. I have to consider everything before I touch it because I don't know what lies underneath, behind, or in it. Where am I safe? What am I doing here? What are an of us doing here? Wait, that's another kind of blog. 

Inside the house are crystal and pottery over a hundred years old. Breaking them would be a tragedy. Vacuum cobwebs from these ceiling. Dont brush them because it will cause plaster to dust down. I dropped the vacuum cleaner handle and nearly hit one of them. Will the near-misses never end?

Be careful in the rain. I closed everything up in a hailstorm, but forgot the little we window in the pantry and rain got in. I was relieved that the pantry has a tile floor and was easy to to clean up.

I wonder if it is stressful for my family to work so hard to communicate. They are very patient and kind, and we laugh a lot. But it must take an effort on their part.

I started crying for no reason during FaceTime with my husband. We were taking about the trip in general, and how I hope it will rest my brain and help me embrace the future since I've lost my job. I just burst into tears. I didn't know why I was crying! But I let it out and he was sweet about it. 

Every night I am grateful for sleep. I need the restoration to have energy for the next day. I am not complaining, I am soldiering on, looking forward to how this will help me grow into the new phase of my life. Evidently it will be a phase wherein I will be a lot more careful than I am now. 

A little speak I Hungarian language

That's the literal translation for a way to say "I only speak a little Hungarian." Famously, "everybody" knows that it is difficult to learn a new language as an adult. So I am grateful to my friends who encourage me and say they're confident that I will pick it up. Thanks, folks! I like to think positive, as "everyone" knows. But this is one area where it's hard to cheer myself through the rough spots. Oh, yes, I sing a bit, I crack really dumb jokes using my baby talk Hungarian. But here is a little info about what I'm swimming in now.

Nouns and verbs can each have more than a dozen variations.  I've read that Hungarian has potentially millions of variations on words, That's because almost every word has multiple endings, depending upon the formality of the conversation, with whom one is speaking, whether it's past, present or future, and how the vowels harmonize. Yes, they almost rhyme-it can making speaking Hungarian fun.  They do have some very funny words. One of my favorite is "HEY-ba-ho-ba." It means "sometimes." Another is "FEN-ky-pez-o-gape," meaning "camera." Oh, and another is "HEP-a-hoop-a," for "bumpy." And "FRE-go-li" is a folding rack for air drying clothes. I get the giggles sometimes listening to a conversation. The family know I like funny words so they give them to me whenever they think of good ones.

Anyway, back to grammar. Let's use "to go." I go, you go, we go. They go. A person goes (no gender based pronouns). Nothing new here, right? But that's just the verbs. Nouns are conjugated as well. And that depends not only on who is speaking, but also the person or thing in relation on to the noun. For instance, my money, your money, our money their money, a person's money. The word "money" changes, not the indicator of whose money it is. Pronouns apparently are generally used for emphasis. Or, if a person doesn't know how we to conjugate anything and has to use a pronoun with the root word of every verb and noun. A person, say, like a dumb American (ahem).

Thus I speak in the infinitive with pronouns, and it sounds ignorant. Which, obviously, I am.  I bet it's irritating so I'm working on learning the endings. But my brain can can only take so much each day. I feel like I did when I was learning SQL-burnt out at the end of every day. Thank Isten for Google Translate app!

Here is an image of a song in the church songbook. It is beautifully old fashioned. You might be able to see examples of the words and diacritical marks. Learning all those vowels can be pretty funny as the family exaggerate prounounciation so I can hear and replicate it.

Home, Hungarian style

As you might expect, this is a modern home with all the conveniences: washing machines, fridges, dishwasher, microwave, vacuum cleaner, gas ranges, gas heating, etc. However, it is probably a hundred years old, made of brick, and lots of housekeeping tasks are totally different than my experience in the USA.  I am enjoying learning new ways to do things.

The house is really three cottages on a central courtyard. Each cottage is complete, two of them have their own kitchens. All of them have their own baths. There is also a large kitchen on the courtyard which all of the cottages use. It is the life of the compound when guests abound. There are flowers everywhere! It smells heavenly when the night air wafts through the house!



The cottages generally have tile, wood, or linoleum flooring. When we enter, we take of our outdoor shoes and put on slippers, similar to some homes in the US. All homes thus far in my experience here do this. The advertising circulars prominently feature slippers, so I think the practice is widespread. Anyway, it's important to keep the floors clean, so there are also small mats at the entrances. We wear slippers in the houses and in the courtyard. We put on street shoes when going out. We wipe our feet on the mats when we come into the house, and again when leaving the entrance and going into the main part of the house.



Coffee here is always espresso. On my first day in Baja I learned to make coffee. I don't know the names of things, so I'm using the closest word I can think of. See the photos for clarity. First fill the metal espresso pot with water. We will end up with two shots of espresso. Pack the filter with fresh ground coffee. Screw on the lid which has a nozzle attached. Place the porcelain coffee pot on top of the metal pot with the metal nozzle pointing into the porcelain spout. Start the gas burner and put the espresso pot on the fire. It will boil and send steam up the nozzle into the porcelain. That is a silent process. When it's about done it will start gurgling. It only gurgles for a little bit, so when it's about done then turn off the fire. Use teeny pot holders to grasp the nozzle and the porcelain pot, tilt them toward each other, lifting the outer edges, in order to disengage them. Then pour out a rich, black brew that will get your day going! I am used to an 18 oz carafe of latte with honey every day, so here I drink the entire pot of espresso, with milk and (local) honey. Deeeelicious!

Have yogurt, or pastry, or sausage with peppers, or fresh-laid eggs for breakfast. The family's hens produce a few eggs each day, so there are plenty of rich, free range, organic eggs to enjoy. After that, wash up the dishes. We wash by hand in my cottage, the dishwasher is across the courtyard.  To wash, put dish soap on the sponge, and run some hot water on it, making lots of foam. Turn the water off, and wash a dish. Turn the water on and rinse it, then set it aside to air dry. Repeat with each item till everything is clean. I've taken dishwashing as my chore, since the family are doing the cooking. (I can heat up leftovers, so there is no danger of starvation when folks aren't around. Starvation is scandalous in a Hungarian household.)





Every morning we open each of the houses to let in air and light. They have special rolling shutters on the outside of the houses. These shutters are both shades and security. Older ones are made of wood, newer ones are metal. They close to keep out the bright sun, and to keep out naughty people. They open to let in light and air. They roll down from the top of the window, accordion-like, and can be used as solid or permeable barriers. The shade in the photo is partially open, to allow in light, and still provide security. We keep the windows on the shady side of the hous open all day long to let cool air in. We close the sunward windows when it gets hot in order to keep hot air out. Since the houses have thick brick walls they retain the cool air and are pleasant all day long. When the weather cools off in the evening we will re open the sunward windows.



My sister-in-law recently renovated her grandparents' house and moved in. It is big, bright and sunny. She created a effective design! All of the internal walls and doors have windows. This creates a sunny interior without having to turn on lights. (Don't worry, the window in the bathroom door is frosted.) Many of the windows open to allow the air to flow freely and keep the house cool in summer. My external window opens on to the enclosed garden, so I don't have the external shutters. It didn't yet have a screen, so we all pitched in to install one. Now I can have my window open all night and most of the morning. Perhaps you can see from the photo that all of the windows are dual - I think that aids in insulation, but I haven't figured it all out yet. Over all I think the house design is very energy efficient.

By the way, people here are very private, that's why I seldom post their pictures. I feel that people are more interesting than things, but I respect their privacy.