Dancing, an Orange Truck, and a New Country

I'm sorry that I haven't written in a while! Let me catch you up on life in Hungary.

Three weeks ago, I was invited to Gyula to watch a traditional Hungarian folk dance concert. The teacher who invited me, Olga, had a daughter dancing in the concert. This was my first interaction with Hungarian dancing, and it was so much fun! I enjoyed the folk music, and the dancing was really interesting.  The dancers stomped their feet and slapped their thighs at different points in the dance, and it added a really interesting rhythmic aspect to the music and dancing. Olga's friends also gave me a tour of Gyula, which was nice of them, and then I went home.

The next few weeks were pretty low key for me. I didn't travel, and not much happened at school.  However, last weekend I went to the mall in Békéscsaba to window shop and attempt to entertain myself.  I made it without any issues, and it was nice to get out of my apartment.

Inside the Cathedral in Szeged

This past week is when everything started to get interesting. I've still been waiting for all of my visa paperwork to be processed, and I received a letter telling me to travel to Szeged to retrieve my residence card. Szeged is around 2 hours away from Sarkad and I needed someone who spoke Hungarian to take me, so poor Szilvia had to drive me all the way there. We had to go on a Wednesday or Thursday between 1pm and 4pm, and were supposed to arrive at least an hour before they closed, so we left school early on Wednesday. We picked up the card with minimal hassle, and then walked around the city. Szilvie went to university in Szeged, so she could show me some cool places and reminisce about her time there. I was annoyed we had to travel that far to pick up the card, but Szeged was lovely and the company superb, so I had a nice time.

Trying on the firefighter uniform

Then, on Thursday, one of my students (Ancsi)  invited me to visit the fire station in Sarkad. The firefighters in Sarkad are volunteers, so it was really nice of them to take time to show me around.

Driving the truck!

The firetruck in Sarkad is from Germany and is orange! Apparently it is the only orange firetruck in Hungary, so that was really neat. The firefighters took me for a ride in the truck and let me try on one of their uniforms. It was really heavy and warm.  I also got to use the hose they use to put out fires. It was pretty heavy and the water pressure was really strong.



Then they let me drive the truck! Like all the vehicles I've encountered in Europe, it was a stick shift, so I had to remember how to drive a manual vehicle, which was entertaining. I couldn't stop smiling once I was driving around the parking lot.

It was so much fun! Ancsi's family was so nice, and I was so glad she offered to show me her father's job.



Then, to top off the exciting week, I left early on Saturday morning (around 5:30), to go to Romania! Szilvie, her husband Lajos, Lajos' cousin Tibi, and two of Tibi's friends were going to the Bihar mountains in Romania for a hiking trip, and invited me to accompany them. I of course was thrilled to see Romania, and thought that hiking sounded really fun.

Some of the lovely crocuses

Once we arrived, the views were incredible. There were crocus blossoms everywhere, and it was beautiful. We ended up hiking around 14 km and reached an altitude  near 1600 km. When I agreed to go with them, I definitely overestimated how well my joints would hold up with all that exercise. I ended up having to walk pretty slow and take a lot of breaks, which was frustrating and a bit embarrassing, but they were all really nice about it. My knees were not happy with all of that walking, and as we got higher there was some fairly deep snow that I kept sinking in and it made it more difficult for all of us. The weather was nice when we arrived, but it started to rain about halfway through our hike, so we ended up being a bit cold and wet. It was pretty exhausting, but it was a great feeling once we were finished and made it back to the vehicles! I'm really glad that Szilvia invited me even though I was so slow and sore, and I can look back now and laugh at how tired and frustrated I was, not to mention that the scenery was more than worth all of the sore joints and muscles. Plus, I got two new stamps in my passport, which is always exciting to me.

This next weekend I will hopefully travel to Debrecen where the school's men's volleyball team will play in a tournament. Debrecen is also supposed to be an interesting city with a lot to do, so I'm glad I can support my students and see more of Hungary.