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Hi, everybody!
This was supposed to be "This Week in Hungary--Attempt 2," an
update
and reconstruction of the email I tried to send last week. But I was
just about to send it when I noticed that some of the people had gotten
cut off at the end of the CC: line. I went back to my inbox and
foolishly tried replying to a different email, to see if the same thing
happened. And the Message Composition window for that email replaced
the window for the one I had just written! I hate Carleton's
web-based
email service.
Fortunately, today I managed to secure a spot in College
International's tiny computer lab, so I'm not paying for my internet
time.
Yesterday was the last day of our intensive Hungarian course. We
prepared skits based on the dialogues we read in our textbook. The
skits were really funny. I was a surly waiter in a restaurant without
menus; Forrest was Zoltan, involved in a fight to the death over the
love of Eva, the main female character in the dialogues; Mai Anh and
Pei Zhuan were members of a chorus that sang, "Csip-Csep, Egy
Csep," a
silly song about an icicle dripping, as a moving, romantic
accompaniment to their group's skit. Death figured highly in a number
of the skits, I think because it's an easy concept to portray with
simple language skills.
After class, a number of us went to the Museum of Ethnography, near the
Parliament building. (Apparently, there was a contest at the end of
the 1800s to design the Parliament building; the first-place design
became the Parliament, and the second and third places became the
Museum of Ethnography and the Ministry of Agriculture.) I enjoyed the
museum; I especially liked a temporary exhibit about Hungary's Festival
of New Bread. According to the exhibit, many Hungarians think this is
an ancient tradition, but it was actually started in the late 1800s by
governmental decree--a harvest festival to encourage goodwill and
prevent strikes by farm workers.
We didn't have class today, so a number of us went on an English-
language tour of the Parliament. We got to see St. Stephen's crown.
Tonight I'm going to a card-game party at Natalie, Vanessa, and
Melody's apartment. (Alina, Melody says she knows you from your REU
this summer!) Our orientation for the math classes will be tomorrow.
I hope all of you are having a wonderful week. Talk to you soon!
Sziasztok,
Abra
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