OK, so the last time I was here in the good ol' internet café, my post got cut off just before all the awesome homestay details. So now you're getting a two-for-one deal, and here we go:
We spent last Thursday and Friday night in the southern part of Hungary in the city of Pécs and had our first homestay there. My fellow Flinn Wayne and I were together in the same house in Pécs and had an awesome time with our host, Ági— an English major at the university in Pécs. On Thursday night, after our big group dinner, she took us up to a hill overlooking the city and we checked out the view from above while talking about our respective countries. Then we headed down to a café-type place where her friends and younger brother were hanging out. We played a few games of foosball but then went to sit at a table outside. While out there, Ági's friends noted that they didn't want to speak English because they didn't think their English was good enough. However, later in the evening whenever one of her friends asked me a side question in English, it sounded pretty understandable to me, so I don't think they really had that much to worry about. In fact, Ági's brother, who I think was 16 years old, spoke really good English and seemed to understand what Wayne and I were saying. And that's mighty impressive. I could reference the much lower Spanish abilities I had at 16, but maybe a better comparison is that I think he was better at English now at 16 than I am at Spanish at 19.
But I digress. With Ági as the link between Hungarian and English, we soon settled into the universal teenager/twentysomething tradition of spending an hour or more trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the night. Eventually, we decided to hit up the Tesco for some real high-quality ice cream and take it back up to the hill.
Then Friday, after a day of lectures and visiting the Gandhi high school for Roma students, the three of us stopped by the pool Ági's father runs, had dinner, and also met her mom. At her house, Wayne tried some homemade liquor... twice! Then we headed out to a pub for about an hour, met up with most of the same friends from the night before plus a few new faces and soon were on our way to the mall parking lot. Why, you may ask? Because that's where hundreds of peeps, a sizeable chunk of the 150,000/200,000-person city, gather to decide where to go street racing. Ági figured out the location and we (along with bazillions of other cars) headed out to a two-lane road outside the city, parked alongside the road and then walked up a bit to where the racing went on. We watched one set of the races, which was a mighty cool experience, and then headed back to go to sleep since we (of course) had to be up early in the morning so that we could visit a nearby Roma village.
Then, Sunday night after sleeping late and visiting the Holocaust Museum, we met up with our hosts for our second homestay. I stayed with Csabi, an econ major, at his dorm room in the city, and had a very cool evening. After dropping my stuff in his room, we went out to dinner where I had a spectacular meat-filled pancake and also had my first tast of gulash, which was also superawesome! Over dinner, we discussed all sorts of things— including tales from the cops beat, similarities and differences between our two countries, the war in Iraq, and even favorite foods. While discussing the latter, I found out that Csabi had been to Lithuania and tried some kugelis (my favorite food, in case you're new to the game) and liked it... of course! :)
But after dinner, we went to a bar/club-type establishment located on the campus of the other university in town. (You hear that, ASU? A bar on campus. The State Press editorial board isn't just making up this concept. On-campus establishments that serve alcohol aren't completely imaginary!) And while we were there– Well, I think I'll let a world-famous (or at least it's about to be!) Brian.Indrelunas.com memory list tell the story:
"So what are you going to do with [insert degree here]?"
Budapest, the porn capital of Europe
Annie: Global Woman becomes Annie: Global Porn Diplomat
New vocabulary word: Spooning
Actually ordering something quasi-correctly... for maybe the second time?
More porn talk
The scale!
In closing, it's time to get all seriousish here. Now, as many of you know, I think the video for Toby Keith's "Stays in Mexico" is pretty funny and really cool. (Can we say, "Awkward sex!"?) But, truth be told and awkward sexiness aside, I just like it because of the funny story and maricachis and such. Really, I think the attitude the song actually portrays— "What happens down in Mexico stays in Mexico!"— is crap.
I really despise people who go into another country treating it solely as their personal playground with no regard for the people or the cultures they may affect with their actions and I hope to never be one of those people. Now, when we were on the metro last night coming back from the Opera House, someone jokingly suggested having an orgy and the response was, "What happens in Hungary... stays in Hungary! And when we go to Romania, what happens in Romania... stays in Romania!" The good thing is that we were joking. Although my fellow Flinns are by and large taking advantage of the lower drinking age here and consequently having a jolly old time, it's not getting out of hand and we're not acting like we own the place.
This was made especially clear to me on our way into the university bar/club Sunday night as Csabi and I were accosted by some really despicable tourists on the road. As we walked past this group of four or so apparently British, drunkish guys, one of them yells, "Hello? Hello? Hello?" with increasing intensity so that I finally give in and turn around to look at him. He then motions towards the road and asks, "Taxi?"
Csabi tells him that he can call a taxi and when I walk towards him and bust out my Essential Contact Info card to read off a texi company number and start speaking, he has the nerve to go, "Oh, good. You're American. Now I don't have to speak Hungarian anymore." Yeah. He was speaking really good Hungarian there.
Anyway, as I read him a number, he tries to figure out what to do with the 36 and the 1 and starts dialing away on his cell phone. At this point he says, "Hold this," and literally hands me his wallet. Dumbass. And when 36-1-whatever doesn't work, I read the number to him again and he tries it with 0036-1 as the prefix and goes, "Open that so I can put this money in there." Double dumbass.
So there I am, holding his wallet in my hand, opening it and (luckily for him) not taking the millions of opportunities I had to teach him a lesson and/or make some quick cash in a slightly less-than-legal way. Of course, if I did just walk off with his wallet, I kinda doubt I'd have been caught because if "Hello?! Taxi?" is this guy's idea of Hungarian, I think he'd have a hard time summoning the police.
Anyway, they ended up hailing a taxi before the guy figured out how to use his phone, which meant that they paid a higher rate for the ride (which made me very happy inside) and the guy left with his wallet safely back in his possession thanks to my general un-evilness.
But I did gain something (and it was better than money) from the encounter. That night, I got a perfect picture of what not to do, how not to act, and what not to be in general when traveling anywhere or even at home. In every moment of my interaction with him, that guy acted like he was entitled to my help.
Fortunately, even though we say that "what happens in Hungary stays in Hungary," all of us have succeeded in maintaining at least a basic level of respect for this country, its people, and its culture during our stay here.
FYI, tomorrow we leave for Romania by way of some stops in northern Hungary. I don't know how prevalent internet cafés will be or how much time I'll have to use them until we get back to Budapest in the middle of next month, but I'll try to post a li'l somethin' somethin' if I get a chance.
Peace out, peeps!
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