Szekszard

This past weekend I went to the Szekszard Wine Festival. The city of Szekszard, located in Southern Hungary, is known for its wine (by the way, "sz" in Hungarian is pronounced like an "s" in English). I traveled in a minibus with about 20 people from Lugoj; a group of kids from the Lugoj Kid's Club had been invited to perform at the festival (and I was invited to tag along).


We arrived after about 6 hours, ate lunch and were shown around town by some of the locals. We were even given a private tour of the history museum--I didn't understand what the curator said, but luckily a couple people in our group spoke Hungarian and could translate into Romanian.

The official opening of the festival was held later that evening in the main town square. They had a showcase of traditional Hungarian dancing on a large stage. I was impressed how the women danced with decanters of wine on their heads, and the men clapped, stomped and slapped their boots in time. The rhythmic effect of the men stomping and pounding was quite powerful. I liked the music too, mostly violin and acoustic bass.

The next day we went to a function at the town hall. All the local officials were out, wearing cloaks (traditional costume I suppose). Speeches were given, and then an important-looking man took a glass and went over to the fountain in front of the town hall. He put his glass up to the spicket, turned it on and--get this-- out poured red wine! In fact there were two spickets on the fountain, one for red wine, the other for white. Glasses were handed out to everyone there, and we obligingly filled them. Imagine that, a wine fountain!

After that, there was a long parade down the main street. All the local wine producers were represented, along with all the schools, several organizations and many dance troupes. I was also surprised to see the mayor of Lugoj marching in the procession! Like us, he was an invited guest (probably because Szekszard and Lugoj have some economic partnerships).

Later on the second day, our kids performed. One group did a breakdance routine, the other was a rock band; they were both really good. By the time their acts were over, it was cold and we were all very hungry. We had meal tickets for one particular restaurant, which had set up a tent amidst all the wine tents. The only problem was that we had to sit outside. But I, for one, was too hungry to care; I ate despite the icy mist and stinging breeze. Luckily, the food was very good (turkey shish-kebabs, a pork cutlet, french fries and a sour cream sauce with cucumber, onion, and garlic). And, for a little added warmth, we drank hot mulled wine.

On the morning of the third day the kids performed once more. Next to the stage was a kiosk selling candies, so I took the opportunity to buy a few things. I bought some honey biscuits/cookies, some dianas cukorka candies (pronounced "deeoh-nash tzookorko," which are filled with a cough-syrup sort of liquid) and some krumplicukor (a hard white block; I was told it's a mixture of sugar and potatoes-- kind of disappointing as it turned out).

All in all, it was an interesting experience. Not only did I get to see another part of Hungary and bond with some of my fellow Lugojeans, but I also got a bottle of Szekszard wine!

See all the pictures HERE

Back to School

Primul Clopotel. It means, "the first bell," and is the ceremony that marks the start of a new school year.

This morning was gloomy and damp, but the rain held off just long enough for the ceremony to take place in the school courtyard. In attendance were all the teachers, the students (including the trembling hordes of 9th graders), the principal, the mayor (who just last year was the school's principal, but ran for office and won), a few graduates from last year, several parents, and numerous other important community members.

There was a blessing given by an Orthodox priest. Then came a speech by the principal, followed by the mayor's speech (coincidentally the same speech he gave last year when he was principal) and another speech I couldn't hear or understand because the speaker was talking too softly. The main focus of the ceremony was the pairing of the new 9th graders with their class teachers (dirigintii).

The ninth grdae, like other grades, is split into 5 different sections (9A, 9B, 9C, 9D, 9E). Each section specializes on a certain subject. For example, 9A focuses on mathematics and information technologies, 9C is a section for students who study sciences, 9D is the bilingual section (they have an intensive focus on English), and 9E is for the German-speaking students (several of their subjects are taught in German).

At the ceremony, each of the groups of 9th graders gathered behind their respective diriginte. This person acts sort of like the class's "home-room" teacher from the time their freshmen until they graduate. Thus the diriginte and their class tend to become quite close; the matching of a class with a diriginte that takes place at the opening of the school year is the start of a long relationship.

After the opening ceremony, all classes met with their diriginti for an hour or so. Then, the teachers met in the meeting room for a general start-of-the-schoolyear meeting. Classes officially start tomorrow, but I still don't have a schedule, nor do I know which classes I'll be teaching. The same thing happened last year-- school began with a chaotic bang. Everything was so new and confusing, and I wasn't even sure what classes I was teaching or when for the first few weeks. I was so stressed out by all the uncertainty and seeming chaos. Now, a year later, I realize this is just how they do things here. Rather than preparing everything before school starts, they sort of figure it out as they go. Which certainly is a different approach than what I remember from school in the States. But, that's all it is--different--not neccessarily better or worse. So, tomorrow I'll go to school and just go with the flow; I know things will be worked out in the end.

It's hard to believe that today essentially marks the start of my second half of Peace Corps service. I feel prepared for what lies ahead, with a year of experience under my belt and a better understanding of how things work. In fact, after a summer of sleeping in, I think the biggest challenge I face right now is re-training my body to get up in the morning.

Spor la treaba to all my students and colleagues!

I just found out about the recent death of Iosif Constantin Dragan--Romania's wealthiest man. He was born in Lugoj, and studied in Bucharest. He moved to Italy after the Communists rose to power. Not only was he a businessman, but he also wrote some controversial historical works. His legacy includes a University in Lugoj, several newspapers and the gas distribution company Butan Gas.

I happened to stumble upon his obituary, "Romanian Billionaire Buried in Transylvania," while reading through google news articles about Romania. (despite what the article indicates, Lugoj is not technically in Transylvania, nor is it even remotely close to central Romania).

Time Flies

The past month has been a blur. It seems like most of it was spent traveling or hosting people, and my bank account certainly shows it. But, the highlight of it all was my family’s visit, even if it was too short. My mother, brother and nephew arrived in Budapest on the 16^th. It had been over a year since I’d seen them. It was comforting to see that little has changed (except, of course, my nephew Evan had grown quite a bit. I’m proud of how brave he was and how well he handled the experience).

After their arrival, we hung out in Budapest for a day and a half, and were given a high-speed, super-condensed tour of the city by a local American ex-pat that happened to make Jack’s acquaintance. After Budapest, we took a train to Timisoara, went out to dinner with a few of the local PCVs and stayed the night. Next, it was on to Lugoj, our final destination. I introduced my family to some of my local friends (at least the ones who weren’t away on vacation). We were treated to typical Romanian hospitality (which is never short of amazing) and had several wonderful meals.

We spent a few days in Lugoj, cozily crammed into my apartment, after which we had to head back to Budapest. Their flight back home was on the 23^rd, so we went back to Budapest on the 22^nd, stayed the night and caught a little more sight-seeing in the morning with the same guy that had showed us around the first time. Then I went with them to the airport and said goodbye.

It’s too bad I didn’t get to show them more of Romania; they were here for such a brief visit. But, at least they did get to see the important parts—my stomping grounds, my everyday life. In any case, it was just nice spending time with them.

So, it's been quite some time since I've written here. Here are a few noteworthy items:

About two weeks ago I hosted a Jazz group from NYC in my apartment. They were on an Eastern European tour, which included stops in Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. They ended up coming my way because the drummer is a friend of my colleague in Sighisoara, and she referred them to me. I ended up hooking them up with a gig in a little bar here in Lugoj. It went off quite well. They played for practically no money (we just passed around a hat so that people could throw in some money if they wished). The members of the band were really cool guys, too (check out their website, Catapults and Parachutes).

The following Saturday I was visited by the 'big boss,' the country director of the Peace Corps program in Romania. He was passing through Lugoj on his way to a meeting in Arad, so he picked me up and we went out to dinner in Timisoara. I then tagged along for the meeting, an assembly of the VAC (Volunteer Advisory Committee). VAC is composed of a group of PCVs who discuss issues and policies that affect the volunteer community; they act as an intermediary body between the volunteers and the administrative staff. It was interesting to sit in on the meeting (well, some of it anyway). One of the big issues that was discussed was the PC budget crisis. With the devaluation of the US dollar, the Peace Corps has lost about $8.5 million. To deal with this, posts around the world will have to tighten their belts. Some posts have actually decided to close down altogether. PC Romania certainly isn't closing, but we're not yet sure how this whole thing will affect day-to-day life here at post. The other interesting thing about the meeting was that the VAC members used Skype to communicate with VAC members and country directors from other posts in the area (such as Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria). It was interesting to see how our programs differ, and also what we have in common. It seems we're all dealing with the same sorts of issues, more or less. As in Romania, depression seems to be an issue that volunteers from both Ukraine and Moldova are dealing with. Also, several of the people spoken to mentioned their concerns about keeping PC relevant in Eastern Europe-- their approach seemed to involve sending volunteers to smaller, less-served communities (something we're trying to focus on here in Romania as well).

The VAC meeting was hosted at a natural park in Arad (Parcul Natural Lunca Muresului). The park is on the banks of the Mures river and the grounds themselves are quite peaceful. The facilities at their eco-turism center include scientific labs, a conference room and even guest bedrooms. They also rent out canoes and kayaks. Some of us took the opportunity to go for a 25km canoe ride down the river, which was certainly the highlight of the meeting for me.



After the VAC meeting I came back to Lugoj. Martin's family was visiting, so I went over to his place to meet them. We watched a movie and then went out to dinner. The decision was to go to the most expensive restaurant in town, where we ate, guess what.....steak! I had almost given up all hope of finding decent steak in Romania, but it turns out it's been right here in Lugoj the whole time. I was so excited about it that I thought it merited a mention here.

last Friday I went down to Ploiesti to meet the new trainees and give a short presentation. I met up with my buddy Zach down there, and we traveled back to Lugoj together. Our plan was to storm Belgrade for two short days. However, someone forgot their passport in Sibiu, so we had to scrap that (In fact, in light of recent events in Belgrade --see here-- perhaps it's best we didn't go). Instead we ended up going to Hunedoara to visit the Hunyadi Castle (aka Castelul Corvinilor, www.castelulcorvinilor.ro) It was extremely well-preserved and quite impressive.


Well, I think that about brings us up to date. It seems like I've been on the move for a while. Indeed, tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Timisoara to check out the new Batman movie. We'll see how that is.

The World Keeps on Spinning

...And so do the potter's wheels at Clubul Copiilor in Lugoj.

A group of Danes arrived this Monday for a ceramics camp, which is being hosted by Clubul Copiilor (The Kid's Club). One of the Danes is Ole, a fellow I've mentioned before. He's had connections in Lugoj for years, mainly through the orphanages. For the past few years he's been organizing this ceramics camp in conjunction with Clubul Copiilor, and this year I'm participating, since I'm here.

Activities last until next Friday. We have two potter's wheels, two kilns, a variety of clays and about 20 kids. I've already made a clay whistle, a candle-holder and three bowls. Next week we'll experiment with a special method known as Raku (we had to build a third, wood-burning kiln just for the Raku pieces). Its been fun so far. I'll have to post pictures of the things I've made when they're finished.

In other news, I just got word that some of my family is coming to visit! My mother, brother and nephew will be visiting August 16th-23rd. I'm really glad they're taking the opportunity to come while I'm here. I think it's important they see a little of what life is like here so that they can better understand my experience. I've often thought that I haven't seen my family or friends in over a year now. It would be a shame if we were out of touch for two years; so much can change in that time. Of course we think of each other, and we talk on the phone or AIM, but I feel like we still don't really know what's happening in each other's lives. In a way, their lives are going on as usual, but my lifestyle and experiences have changed quite a bit. I think I have some idea of what they're going through on a daily basis. Their lives probably aren't terribly different from what I remember. At least I can draw from my memories to imagine what's happening back home, but the folks on the home-front don't have any mental conceptualization of my life as it is now. I mean, how can they without actually seeing it? That's why I'm happy they're coming. If they didn't, I'd return home and the disconnect would be all too apparent--they'd have Mike back, but they'd also notice a blind-spot the size of two years. What exactly happened during his time in Romania? What exactly did he do? Where did he live? What sorts of people did he meet? Did he take his vitamins? (or at least that's how I envision it).

Green Acres

I was finishing up at school today when I got a call from a phone number I didn't recognize:

"hello?"
"Mike, it's Tibi. Remember you said a while back that you'd like to help out at the village?"
"yeah..."
"well, I'm leaving now, do you still want to come?"
"uhhh, ok. (I would have preferred a little more notice) I can be ready in 30 minutes."

So we met half an hour later, and drove off to the village of Tipari (pronounced 'Tseepar'). Tibi grew up in the village, and his mother still lives there. The village was once exclusively Hungarian, but many Hungarian families left after the Revolution. However, Tibi's family remained and they still strongly identify with their Hungarian roots. In fact, I was greeted at the door with a bowl of paprikash, bread and home-made sour cream.

I was wearing shorts, so Tibi's mom found me a pair of her husband's old pants for me to borrow. They were about 3 sizes to big around the waist, so I used a bungee chord to cinch them tight. We loaded up the cart, attached it to the tractor and headed out to the fields. Sitting in the back of the cart, I waved to Tibi's mom as we exited the gate. But, she didn't wave back. Instead, she made a sign like "no no, hang on, I'm coming with you guys." And sure enough, she closed the gate, and jumped on the tractor.

So, we were off like a hurd of turtles. The sun was shining brightly. I bounced around in the back of the cart as we made our way down the dirt path. When we arrived at the first field, I noticed that the grass had been cut, and was laying in rows. I soon found out that our job was to flip the piles so the hay so they could dry out in the sun (it had rained the day before). We got to it, and nearly immediately the storm clouds rolled in. Just our luck, right?

We decided to keep going, in spite of the threatening skies. We saw bolts of lightning to the south, and felt the occasional drop of rain. But, nevertheless, we kept going. Sure enough, our persistence paid off, because the storm passed just to the south (but it was still pretty overcast, so it didn't seem like the hay would dry out very quickly). We moved on to the next field and did the same. Thunder continued to rumble in the distance.

The scenery was really nice. We had a lovely view of the mountains to the east. At one point I stopped to just look around and get my bearings. I pointed and called to Tibi, "this way is west?" He said, "yeah, everywhere you want to go is that way." I thought for a moment, 'that way is home...I wonder what my family and friends are doing right now...'

The sky cleared just in time for the sun to begin setting. It was about 7:30pm. We were nearly done with the 3rd field. The field was on a hill, and we were working on one side of it. Little did I know that there was another group working on the opposite side. As we reached the top, we met the other group. I found out it was Tibi's uncle, aunt and cousins. They all started speaking in Hungarian, and, for a second, I forgot I was in Romania.

By 8:30 we had finished the 3rd field. We went back to the first field to see if the hay had dried out enough to load on the cart, but alas, no. So we just went home. Once back at the house I ate some cherries, bread and sour cream. After I went out in the yard to pick visine (sour cherries, pronounced 'veesheenay'). I stayed out till 9:40 or so-- gotta love the long daylight hours!

I left Tipari by 10, after a good day's work, with visine-stained hands and a bottle of fresh milk given me by Tibi's mom.

2008 Concordia Cup

Today was the 12th annual Concordia Cup, hosted by Clubul Concordia, Lugoj. It took place just outside town, near a village called Poganesti. There were nearly 70 participants (a new record) and they were from all over Romania. I volunteered to help out with the organization, and was assigned to check-point 2, which was the half-way point of the trail. It was a lot of fun, and luckily the weather held out until the very end (when we were cleaning up it started to rain).

More pictures can be found HERE

Euro 2008

Later that evening, after the bike race, I went to the center of town with Martin (a Danish guy living in town, and my pseudo-sitemate).

The attraction was a new giant LED screen that they had recently installed in front of the Lugoj 'House of Culture' (Casa de Cultura), which is a sort of performance hall. The Euro 2008 football championship is on, and here in Lugoj they're using the big screen to show the matches-- quite a cool idea (better than 24/7 adverts). They set up a beer garden in front of the screen so that people can watch the games in comfort. Tomorrow night is Romania vs. France, so I expect the whole town th show up.

Here are some pics of this new-fangled contraption:

The new monstrosity


A closer view


The beer garden they set up in front of the screen


Martin

Re-Cycling

my new-old bike

Last week I was talking to one of the physics teachers at school, and I happened to mention to him that I've been looking for a second-hand bike, something not too expensive. Without a moment's hestitation he said, "I have an old bike at home that I don't use anymore. You can borrow it for as long as you need." What a sweet deal! A free bike! Almost too good to be true. In fact he had his son bring the bike to the school that very same day so I could see it and decide if I wanted it.

It hadn't been used in a few years, but it was still in pretty good shape. In fact it was quite a beauty for a free bike, complete with white-wall tires, shiny white fenders, a dynamo-powered lighting system, and a bell (certainly a cruiser). It's a Motobecane 'Mont Blanc,' circa early 90's. The tires hold air, and everything is in decent working order (except the rear derailleur needs some adjustment, but luckily I know a mechanic at the bike shop in town).

I took the bike on a little trip today to a colleague's home on the edge of town. She has a huge garden, full of onions, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, peppers, celery, carrots, squash, cherries AND strawberries. Strawberries! Needless to say, I spent most of my time picking the strawberries (one in the basket, two in the mouth).

On the topic of bikes, there's a big mountain bike race just outside town tomorrow. It's being put on by the outdoor club in Lugoj, Clubul Concordia, and I'm meeting them early in the morning to help set it up. I hope to take some pictures...