When in doubt, follow a néni

The word, “néni,” (NA-ni) is a respectful term used with the familiar form of an elderly woman’s given name. Thus, “Elizabeth “ becomes “Ergi” and if she is an elder, she becomes “Ergi néni.” (Be careful about using the term though, as I discovered one day. Do not use néni until it’s super duper obvious that a lady is a néni. Otherwise she might feel offended that you think she is old!)

It's raining, it's pouring

The old man is snoring. 

Lightning overhead when we went to bed

And flooding in the morning!

We get some fall thunder-boomers here, and they last for hours. Back home in Colorado raging thunderstorms are rare. When we do have them they last for a few hours at most. Here, the rain can come in and stay for days, raining off and on, never letting things completely dry out. I welcome the rain because it breaks the heat. But, it's kind of flat here, and so the rain pools up and floods in lots of places. 

The photos below show our street, and an intersection near the Aldi grocery store. Police closed the road near Aldi because the water was so deep and covered a long stretch of road. I was out with our niece in the car, and we drove through lots of water. I saw it lapping up against the garden walls, and running into the courtyards. I wondered if the car would stall but we got through it ok. Only a few bicyclists were out, I was impressed by the hearty folk who braved the rain. 

The dog is afraid of the thunder and lightening. So we let him in when it's bad. However, he is an outside dog and is only allowed in the mud room. He keeps trying to sneak into the house and we shoo him out. He knows better, but fear is a powerful motivator. He has a secure place behind the door where he feels pretty safe so he settles there. 

The water drained off prettying quickly after the rain stopped. It is humid here so it certainly didn't evaporate. Some ditches still contain water, and it's hard to know whether it will drain off, if it rains again tomorrow or tonight the water won't have a chance to drain. 

I like the thunder and lightening shows. It is amazing to me how long they go on, it's hours and hours. All night long, and all day long, the show continues!

I think the most recent storm was strong even by local standards. I saw folks taking photos, and there were stories on the news the next day about big hail in Budapest. How did I know of stories on the news, you might ask, since I don't have TV. Well, our niece arranged for me to join the local gym for a month! (I need it too, I can't keep up with the wonderful food our family cooks!) The gym has TVs and so I saw the report on the news. It was neat looking at the TV footage of homes and city streets. The picturesque buildings are normal to everyone here, but still very interesting to me. 

The family's Facebook friends posted lots of images and some video footage. One video showed kids playing in the water. I told my sister in law that when I was a kid in New Orleans we had similar flooding. Other kids got to go out and play in the water. But my mom never permitted it. "Right, it is dirty water," affirmed my sister in law. Thanks, mom!

"Eat, eat!" versus a soft American

I like to think I am a relatively hardy person. I'm healthy, go to the gym, participate in events such as 5Ks and triathlons. I'm not the strongest girl in Body Pump class, but I feel like I can hold my own, and, I get to hang out with the cool trainers. But, here in Hungary I cannot keep up!

The family work full time jobs. Then they come home and perform a multitude of chores. We have animals to care for; prepare feed for chickens, cats and dogs. Things to clean; there are three little houses, a separate kitchen, a big courtyard, a near garden and a far garden. From the moment they get home to the moment they go to bed there is something to do. Weekends are just as busy. Going to the bazaar is fun, and practical. There we get fresh fruit, meat, flowers, and necessities such as langos (fry bread), er, I mean shoes. We bike home, where it is time to prepare food, or wash laundry, or sweep the courtyard. 

Lucky for me, they take siesta after lunch. Whew! By then I need it and the day is only a third over. After siesta they are back at it, tending flowers, pulling weeds, or fixing something. They are very sweet and tell me to rest. I feel guilty not helping out, so I try to wash or put away the dishes. I can sew by hand so I take over mending and darning. I also need to study language, so sometimes I do that as my contribution. Sometimes I want to cry from frustration at my poor communication skills. So studying is truly a contribution to the household! (I don't want to stress them out with my tears so sometimes my contribution is just in holding myself together and not blubbering like a baby!)

All that work results in the family needing lots of calories to sustain them. They cook hearty and healthy, and enjoy the food with gusto. They enjoy plates piled high with fresh veggies, meats, potatoes, or pasta and special, thick, meat sauces. They graciously fill my plate and urge me to seconds and thirds. The food is wonderful and I love it! But my caloric need is about 1,300 calories per day, and I feel sluggish can't function on what they courteously offer me. I suspect some family members eat over 3,000 calories a day. But they are slim and energetic because they work so hard. I'm blown away at their capacity, until I try to keep up with chores. They wear me out! Then I have huge respect for how hard they work. 

The diffulcity comes in when I need to stop eating. They urge me to "Eat, eat!" But I can't! I hurt their feelings; they think I don't like their cooking. They complain that I eat too little. Hospitality demands that they feed me well. I explain that I can't eat this much; I don't work as hard as they do and I will get fat. They say that it's ok to get fat on holiday. I can loose it when I go home!!! Gee, I wish it would work like that. I know that if I go up in weight now it will be very difficult to loose at home. I explain that and they'd grudgingly agree. But every day it is a friendly battle. My husband just laughs when I tell him about it in our dialy FaceTime chats. He knows well the mind set and it has taken him years to pull back from trying to get me to eat massive amounts of food when he cooks. 

I have learned that I can get away with a small breakfast, eat a big lunch, and a tiny dinner. If I eat big at lunch I think I satisfy them. My sister in law said that a person needs a big lunch to fuel the day. So between that and trying to get exercise most days I think I can handle this. I will also start going to the gym with my niece. It was a big shock to learn how little stamina and strength I have when it comes to actually getting necessary things done in day to day life.

So much for my idea of myself as a hearty person. I am just a soft person used to an easy life. This will teach me to appreciate my decadent lifestyle!

Country mouse and city mouse

Last weekend I went to Budapest for a few days. It was Memorial weekend in the USA, and Children's Weekend in Hungary. I felt like the country mouse going to visit the city. I got on the bus going north, and we drove through several picturesque villages.

For some foolish reason I presume that everyone is going to Budapest, so when I get on the bus I just say "good day," and hand the driver cash for the fare, without requesting my city. He looks at me. Oops! "Budapest, please." He makes change and gives me the ticket, "good day." The bus is full when it leaves Baja, and it empties out as we go north. People get on and off, mostly off. By the time we arrive there are only a dozen people on the bus.

I'm getting used to the stucco houses and shops with tile roofs. The really old buildings have moss growing on the tiles. It looks like lots of the roof tiles are made of stone. Some of the major buildings in the villages are made of stone, such as municipal buildings and churches. Most shops are brick covered with stucco. I keep my eyes open for stork nests, hoping to see a stork or some babies. I finally get a picture out the bus window, see below. May Day was May first, and it is a national holiday. I see decorated tres all over the place. In one town I saw giant dolls in a tree; a boy was climbing up to a girl at the top of the tree. I think that the idea was for him to reach her and ask to marry her. It's very sweet! After about a three hours we reach the Budapest suburbs. My cousin picks me up and takes me to the house. The children will arrive in the morning, so the adults have a quiet evening at home. .

The next day the children arrive. The little girl will turn seven this weekend, she has a friend over to play, and I play with them as well. It started out as Hide and Seek, but turned into Zombies. I was naturally, the Zombie (see the post about the dog bite). But after a while the little girls turned and started chasing me. I was a very fearful zombie! I ran away howling, waving my arms in the air. We made so much joyful noise that the next door neighbor girl came to join us. Little kids are such fun!

The birthday party was the next day, Saturday. So we went to the piac (bazaar) for fresh fruit, veggies and eggs. The city piac is open every day of the week unlike the country piac. Well, except for Shopping Day, of course. We also went to the toy store to pick up a couple of presents. I told her she could choose anything within a certain price range, and she got a little doll that smells like cake. It's a "thing" here, and she has several of those dolls. Children's Day is a big deal, and is actually the whole weekend. We buy presents for all the kids, even the children who are now grown ups. 

At the birthday party I met all kinds of relatives, great aunts, cousins, and people related by marriage. One of the friends has a plan to come to the USA and ride a Harley across Route 66. A wonderful tradition! We have a home made ladybug cake, it has fondant cling and marzipan flowers and antenna. The layers are strawberry and poppyseed. I bring several pieces back to Baja for the family here. We play football I the front yard before dinner, and share a round of fruit brandy, palinka. We all have to down our drinks in one tip of the glass. 

 The next day we go downtown and have a nice walk about with some, you guessed it - ice cream!  Just like in the country there are little shops of all sorts close by, an  auto mechanic is  right beside the house and you'd never know it. Naturally there are chickens and roosters all over the place. And ice cream stores a few blocks away. A friend of the family. Runs an import grocer, bringing fancy cheeses and oils from Italy. I don't think that kind of thing is available in our small town down south. 

The are a few differences, though. Our little town down south has some tourism, but nothing like Budapest. It's easyto feel like I live in Humgary since I'm staying with family. I enjoy watching tourists eagerly contributing to the national economy. Budapest has little two-man taxis, called Tuk-Tuk. I've seen them in Belize and Peru. They almost look like pedi cabs, with the driver up front, and a fold down-soft top for the two passengers. Compared to Budapest Baja is a sleepy town. I know there are tourists in Baja, but the downtown area is small and I don't see them as often. 

The ride back home is becoming familiar, I recognize towns and landmarks and I know when we are getting close. It was nice having TV, it helps with language. But it will also be nice to be able to ride my bike all over the place.