Happy New DECADE!

I cannot be happier!

Tis the season of best-of and worst-of lists - but this time they are for the whole decade. A WHOLE DECADE OF LISTS! Nothing could make someone with a short attention span happier. SOOOOO happy!!!

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful New Year! I had a great holiday season and feel so loved as I have never received so many Christmas cards. They cheered me up a great deal and it was nice to know that so many people were thinking of me!

-I call this "love and two bottles of wine"

Reports of Vienna to follow as soon as I stop being lazy!

Merry Christmas

After a last minute decision I took the train to Vienna for Christmas with an old and her family.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas with probably my all time favorite Christmas Song!

Jimmy, Horatio, Chris, Tracy - TAKE IT AWAY!

This Clears Up Everything!

Just when I thought I would alone forever a friend sent me this video with some solid advice for meeting Hungarians.

I hate people who act too - I will fit in here perfectly.

In other news...

You know how we have the famous Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?

You don't know how lucky we are with our simple language...

In Hungarian they have a word for Who, What, Where, When, Why and How and With Who, With What, What is the Reason, Since When, For How Long, How Many, About Who, What kind of Party is it, Which pants, Who's Hair, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc... So many words.

They also like to tell time using a mathematical equation involving subtracting quarters. When I understand the formula I will let you know

Another Fail.

Remember that time I spent 45 minutes copying everyone's addresses from my Mom's address book into my ipod? Good times, good times.

Yesterday I was frustrated with the lack of Facebook on my ipod. So I reset the thing. I RESET an ipod full of addresses...

Needless to say I am currently writing everyone post cards and they won't get to you with your name and Canada written on them. So, please email me your addresses!

Thanks!

Folk Dancing and Failures

Thursday night I was invited to a night club that hosts Hungarian Folk Dance lessons twice a month. It was really cool and hot at the same time. Hot in the sense that there were about 200 people in a room spinning their hearts out and being very sweaty, not like hot in the sexy sense. Hungarian Folk Dancing is not sexy.

The club had one smaller area where they had instructors teaching the more complicated Hungarian partner dances... It looked crazy hard but it was fun to watch.

The bigger area, where we attempted to follow the steps of the person in front of us, had easier dances that I were apparently not "real" Hungarian dances but they were from another region thus much easier. You know what isn't easy? Spinning your partner for four minutes as you go around in a circle together. It was very, very, very tiring but a lot of fun. Out of the four hours that we spent learning dances I understood two. I think I lost my sense of rhythm on a surgery table in Alberta.

I don't think we would have a Canadian equivalent where young adults get together to learn something in a bar. The only time I have seen Canadians participate in any sort of group dance is maybe when The Cha Cha Slide comes on it the bar... Slide to the right... Cha Cha now y'all. We are an embarrassing group of people lacking in culture.

So this week I also failed quite a few times:

• I lit the microwave on fire trying to melt nuttela to dip my apple in (I think it was a sign to just eat an apple without dipping it in chocolaty goodness)
• I called the Hungarian police looking for the internet company and may or may not have asked them why my internet wasn't working.
• I was sent to so many counters at the post office that was the middle of nowhere I cried in public (Krista - your presents were on a shelf behind the first counter the WHOLE time).
• I bought margarine instead of cream cheese.

I successfully got a haircut. Win!

An Episode of Perogies

If you avidly stalk me on Facebook you would already know that I made Perogies for American Thanksgiving here... This was one very, very long day and I documented the entire thing. I was inspired to write this post because I read this AMAZING blog and sometimes she does cooking posts like this and imitation is the best form of flattery.

-In order to start an entire day in the kitchen one must begin with a cup of coffee with Long Lasting Tej.

- Delicious Christmas style oranges and market onions and potatoes...

-Four Eggs

-Fun Fact: You can buy six eggs or you can buy ten... Eggs are not cheaper by the dozen here. They are cheaper by the umm ten I suppose. I bought mine from a cute old lady in the "not for tourists" zone of the market. She thought I wanted apples for a long time... The tourist zone is much easier to shop in.

-We don't seem to have measuring devices in the apartment...

- But I once heard a you could measure one cup in a tea cup... Thank goodness we had tea cups.

-Salt is located in bowls in Hungary and if it is in a shaker it doesn't shake. I don't understand it and its powdery ways.

-This is the strangest peeler I have ever used...

- Here is a very deep pot filled with potatoes - the picture does not give justice to how deep that pot is and how weird that potato on the top is shaped.

- A sub-par mashing device or perhaps an entirely too large whisk.

-I made cheese and potato and onion, leek, dill and potato... A lot of the dill ones met a certain fate as you will see later.

- Dough recipe number one... Dough recipe number two was much more successful. Or it could have been that by the time I got to the second batch of dough the filling was finally cold and thus the whole process was easier.

-When rolling dough you need a rolling device... I had a wine bottle, half full... Thank goodness the cork didn't come out while making these.

-Look at me go! You must be so proud right now... Mom, Chris Popek, Brittney - I can see your tears of pride!!!

-This was Round 42. Rounds 1-41 were ummm interesting. There would have been at least 16 occasions had my Mom been in the kitchen where she would have told me to just leave already she will do it herself... That being said had Krista been there too she wouldn't have been allowed to fold more than one perogi.

-What the hell was I thinking.

- When I went to the BVS Orientation we had to cook in food groups. One of the recurring issues that we had working as a group was that I like to try every utensil in the kitchen at least once until I find the best one. The same goes for bowls.

- I then had to take two metros to the location of the dinner... Some of the perogies were lost in the long vogage.

- Boiled and tossed in butter and onion...

- Some of the fantastic WSCFers from various countries after our delicious dinner...

- Left-overs swimming in butter... Oh, did I mention they were served with fresh sour cream from the stand in the market where you can bring your own bottles to and they will fill with fresh milk? Well they were... and that sour cream was unbelievable.

-I was so proud of myself.

Homesick-ish and Learning Hungarian

It has been a long time since I have posted. I hope this isn't a trend I mean it wasn't like I was posting because I am having SOOOO MUCH FUN here... It was actually because I am just crazy busy. Some fun - Some not so much.

The novelty of Budapest has worn off slightly and I am frustrated with how different things are here. Everything takes a lot of thought and it makes me tired. Here is a short list of things that are different here: Light switches, toilets, toilet paper, toilet paper holders, door knobs, locks, fridges, stoves, food, places where you buy the food, busses, trains, the way you write the date, the way you write the time, the currency, the language, the way you have to kiss someone when you say hi and bye, the couples that make out in front of you everywhere, the constant rain, the construction sites that you are allowed to walk through, the power outlets, the coffee, the milk, the constant need for slippers regardless who's house you are in, the heating systems, the hot water tanks, the lack of recycling, the margarine, the lack of sliced bread, the lack of black pepper, the small stores, etc, etc etc...

That all being said I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I find really neat things here... They have the best homemade yogurt in the markets, delicious pasteries, rice pudding, really great chocolate, bizarre bars and lounges, unbelievably beautiful bridges and buildings, cheap beer, hot wine, interesting jewelry, cheap shoes everywhere, an interesting music scene, hot chocolate that is just a bowl of melted chocolate, huge leaves on the streets, etc, etc, etc...

Today I had my first Hungarian lesson and it is an unbelievably difficult language to pronounce and there are all kinds of vowels. But my teacher is super nice and the tea shop we were in is my new favorite place in Budapest. Behind a curtain, in a normal looking cafe, though a large area full of pillows to hang out on, through a small tunnel, up a short stair case in a mirrored hallway, along a two-by-four and up a rope ladder and onto a balcony is where we sat. Our tea came through a hole in the wall. I love Budapest!