Janlw's Weblog

 Our building has added two new machines. We have the usual coke, candy and coffee machines.  I’ll say more on coffee later.  What was added is taking the food machine to an entirely new level as far as I am concerned. We have added a french fry machine and a fresh orange juice maker.  Zsuzsa & I were interested in trying out this new technology.  I’d call the french fry machine a failure in taste but of some technical interest. Put in your ft280($1.63) or ft300 ($1.76) for your choice of ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise on your fries. First a little light comes on and warns you that any change due will come out at the end of the process. (This fry machine works in your choice of any of 4 different languages.) Next a small sealed cardboard box slides down a chute on the left inside of the machine. In the box are a neatly flolded napkin and a plastic fork that is just a little bigger than a toothpick. This gives you something to open and play with while you wait. It seemed like heating french fries takes quite a while, at least one or maybe two full minutes. My french fries were mechanically placed, not tossed or slid, in a little paper bucket which I removed from a door, different from the chute that the napkin came down. My fries were extremely HOT. The only problem was no salt and no taste so they weren’t particularly good fries but they were VERY HOT and my change then tumbled down the money slot. I suppose taste is partially my fault.  I’m not a big ketchup fan so I probably should have paid the extra ft20 and tryed mustard or mayoinaise fries.  I think a good fry will taste good in the nude or with a little salt. 

The really great machine is the fresh orange juice machine. You watch an orange drop and get sliced by a sharp blade and it is instantly cut in half and two cupped circles hold the orange halves and then turn them over and stomp on them. This process is repeated three times I think. The last orange that drops isn’t yours. It is caught by the two cups and sits poised ready to be sliced by the blade for the next customer. The juice is good and just the right amount of pulpy for me.

This machine definitely deserves to be located in a technical university and perhaps the Vending Machine Hall of Fame. Cost for a glass of fresh orange juice is ft290 ($1.70) at the time of this writing.  Our dollar is sinking daily.  

Yesterday in my Intermediate Communications class the lesson suggested that the students give a little speech to their former secondary school class suggesting why the high school students should or should not consider attending this university. I had absolutely NO IDEA what to expect. I don’t know if our students love it or hate it here. One student mentioned that there are lots of pubs around the university and you can have a good time. I doubt that you would actually mention this in a speech to your secondary school but that was the sort of thing that I might have expected a student to comment on to younger students. I must have gotten a worried look on my face when two of the students said: “BME is the best university to go to because we have our own nuclear reactor for students to practice with, on campus.” I think the third student to mention the nuclear reactor must have looked at my increasingly worried face because he said: “The students don’t really use any materials that are actually nuclear; it’s just for practice.” I think I need to make further inquiries.

Things always go so much better when Zsuzsa leads the tour. Last Sunday she took me to Margaret Island.

I’ve just finished reading the history of King Bela IV 1235-1270. The tourist story goes like this: Hungary was attacked by the Mongols and King Bela promised God if Hungary was saved he would sacrifice his daughter to God. According to the history I just read Bela actually lost the war. Europe was saved because the head Mongol took his Mongol Hordes and went home. There was a death in the family and he needed to make sure he didn’t lose his place in the line of succession. The outcome was King Bela sent his 4 year old daughter to the nuns and eventually built her, her very own convent on the island in the middle of the Danube. She died at the age of 29 after leading a chaste, contemplative life, and refusing to allow her father to call the whole thing off and use her for some marriage diplomacy. Dying young in a convent reminds me of Galileo’s Daughter. For her sacrifice she was made a saint and got an island named after her. Not a bad deal really.

Because the temperature Sunday was almost 60 degrees after the previous miserable weekend, Margaret’s Island was a phenomena. The island was invaded by hordes of Hungarians enjoying the beautiful weather.

There is a Centenary Monument commemorating the joining of Buda, Obuda and Pest. Other highlights are ancient monastery ruins, a water tower in the middle of an outdoor theater and two fancy hotels. They are really proud of the swimming pool which was built by Alfred Hajos an 1896 Olympic swimmer. I understand the Pan-European games are held there but my swimmer sister will have to weigh in on whether is a suitable 21^st century facility. I didn’t get close enough to get pictures.

The island reminds me of a giant Manito Park with a rose garden, Japanese Garden and small zoo. There is something for everyone and there were LOTS of people. They have a bike track around the island and I understand they will run you over if you get in their way.

We walked the length of the island, went over the bridge and looked at Obuda which is the oldest part of Budapest but was ruined by the “socialist.” I’ve been told not to call them Communist. It is a little confusing because the Socialist party is part of the government now. How about the Russian influenced Socialist. Politics is even more confusing because the present Socialist Party is busy trying to sell off the public companies and trying to privatize health care. By the way the companies for sale are the electric power company and the Post Office both of which are making lots of money. 

We ended with great dinner at a Turkish cafeteria and a beer at an historic pub. I took the No. 6 tram home and it never strayed from the route but I would swear it was NOT the same route it took Saturday.  Very short slide show.  

Before next weekend I guess I better tell about last weekend’s sightseeing. Saturday I decided to take the no. 6 tram over to Pest. I think I had some vague destination in mind. I got on the number six as usual and right after we crossed the Danube it seemed to be turning the wrong direction. They kept making some long announcements and playing the music that I’ve always heard reserved for when they reach the end of the line. The no. 6 should do a big curve around the city to the Northwest. I’d swear we were turning East. I decided things had gone wrong especially when there was only one woman left on the tram. She didn’t look at all perturbed or worried. I told Zsuzsa this story & she thinks I am absolutely nuts. I mean the number six tram runs on a track line and it’s not like it’s going to jump off the tracks & start cavorting across town some other direction.

Since I didn’t have anyplace I was going I couldn’t possibly be lost even though I didn’t see the street I was in on my map. The print is small & the streets are many. I just started walking which is what I wanted to do anyway. I found a beautiful little upscale neighborhood with a strange little park. I will add the picture but it won’t do it justice. The small park has twisty paved paths and tile covered somethings in the middle. I have no idea what they are. I assumed the neighborhood was upscale because the streets were really narrow so traffic was kept to a minimum. The surrounding and nearby apartment buildings were new or rebuilt and the whole area just had a clean pleasant and quiet feel. I wonder if I can ever find the place again or if it was like Brigadoon or Camelot and has sunk into the pavement never to be seen again.

I found my way to a major street & saw a huge interesting building. Two girls that looked Asian walked in so I decided I’d check it out too. I assumed it was a church but it turned out to be the Museum of Applied Arts. I asked if there was an English guide and was handed an English list of the prices for admission. It is a very strange museum with the prime well lighted space in the middle completely empty. I bought the full regular ticket but not the special exhibit. I still don’t know what the special exhibit is. It’s just called Hungarian Private Collection. I had my Budapest guidebook with me so I learned that the exhibits change a lot but that I would probably see art nouveau and Ottoman rugs. The collection of furniture and glass was nice but most impressive was seeing the second largest collection of oriental carpets in the world. There must have been some kind of caveat because I’m sure there weren’t more than 30 carpets. It must be the second largest collection of 14^th and 15^th century Ottoman carpets having arrived in Hungary via Transylvania or something like that. Anyway there were Usak carpets, rose carpets, 4 and 6 pillar prayer rugs, lozenge(lattice) carpets and one type I could only translate as big blob rugs. After I had studied all the materials, I felt quite accomplished in the field of carpet appraising. With that I found my way home via BUS with a minimum of difficulty.

Very short slide show of some neighborhood activity http://picasaweb.google.com/Janwingen/Pest2_23

I found the links for the art exhibits you all won’t get to see because they are leaving soon.

One fairly efficient aspect of the bureaucracy was getting my medical clearance. I guess you have to be healthy enough to teach although now that they’ve got me over here are they going to consider sending me back? Anyway the day before school started I was told not to eat anything because I had a medical exam at 10am. When we arrived for the appointment the doctor was out. It was explained that he has a general practice and was called away by one of his patients. Zsuzsa did a proper huff and it was decided I could have some breakfast & come back.

We had a lot of time & I observed that the office was full of big paper file drawers, 24 drawers. I noticed they were arranged by year of the patient’s birth. Only one drawer for 1986+ but several drawers devoted to the 1920’s. That’s optimistic isn’t it?

The appointment struck me as really funny. Zsuzsa filled out my medical information the questions were pretty standard but when it came to “Do you drink alcohol? “Igen“with multiple choices. I said – bor(wine) and sor(beer) Zsuzsa was very pleased. “I didn’t know you drank beer- Do you want to go out to a pub tonight?”

Back to the doctor, when we got in, he asked if I had brought enough asthma medicine. I told him I hoped so. I think there was a debate or discussion on how to spell asthma & sulfa drugs (I’m allergic to) in Hungarian. He looked-up something in his medical dictionary. He took my blood pressure and told me to take off my shirt so he could listen to my chest. So there I was with my slightly holey undershirt. It was clean at least. My thought had been to pack an undershirt I could discard when I left, one less thing to carry home. I wasn’t expecting to have three people looking at me in it but there I was with Zsuzsa, the nurse and the doctor in my worn out undershirt. Next, Zsuzsa asked him to write a prescription for an ointment she needed. So the doctor took her blood pressure and listened to her chest. If she has any blood pressure problems they are probably due to the hassle of dealing with me. In the middle of our exams his cell phone rang then his desk phone rang. He talked for a very long time. Meanwhile the nurse was on the computer doing something that didn’t seem at all related at least she wasn’t playing tetras or anything.

I asked Zsuzsa what the long call was about and she said one of his patients called & said she had fainted & wanted to know what to do. The doctor told her she should go to the hospital. Apparently she didn’t like that idea and there was quite a bit of discussion. I got a piece of paper officially stamped which I took to the Modern Language Department office. Zsusza got her prescription. I found the whole thing incredibly Mickey Mouse but Zsuzsa commented that it was quite efficient. We both got the papers we needed and the lady who fainted got some good advice and the whole thing was done before noon less than two hours after our original appointment. I guess as far as dealing with bureaucracy goes this wasn’t bad. Besides that I had a really delicious dinner at the pub that night.