Beyond Budapest -- Pécs and Eger

With my time as a Fulbright Hungary grantee coming to a close much too quickly, I have been busy trying to explore as many corners of Hungary as possible. One place I really wanted to go that I hadn't been yet was a city called Pécs, where one of my Fulbright friends, Tanya, lives. Tanya is an artist who works in ceramics as well as other media, and Pécs is a hub for ceramics. As a bit of a hobby-ceramicist myself, I really enjoyed getting to see the city that is home to the famous Zsolnay ceramics factory. The train ride down to Pécs was beautiful, and the city was pretty breathtaking as well.

Main square, where they happened to be having some kind of a biker convention -- hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles lined the streets and then all loudly zoomed by as we walked.

The picturesque grounds of the university, where Tanya works, next door to the Zsolnay factory.

Zsolnay is famous for roof tiles, among other products. These types of tiles can be seen all over Hungary, such as on the famous Mattias Church in Budapest, and are on seemingly every building in Pécs. So colorful!

Perfect spot for a selfie!

Here is Tanya with some of her work, preparing to set everything up for an exhibition.

In addition to visiting Pécs, several of my Fulbright friends also wanted to visit Eger, a small city famous for its red wine, known as Bull's Blood. If you are an avid reader of my blog, you might remember that I have, in fact, been to Eger before. However, I liked it so much that I tagged along and visited as well. This time, since I had seen the city before, there was no pressure to see all the sights and do all the things -- we arrived, and basically ate and drank until we left.

We started with a Turkish coffee in a traditional Turkish tent, then ate an amazing palacsinta (basically crepes) with chicken, cheese, and a creamy dill sauce, and then we walked out to the Szepasszonyvolgy ("Valley of Beautiful Women") and spent the afternoon tasting seven eight different types of wine. From there, we wobbled back to the bus and slept all the way back to Budapest. It was a lovely day trip, and I was so busy enjoying myself that I only took two photos all day:

Egészségére! (Cheers!)

There was a cat at the bus station, apparently this was the only other photo-worthy event of the day. 

17 days left until my grant officially ends :-( I'll miss this place and these people.

Igazgyöngy: The Real Pearl Foundation

I am very lucky to live in the middle of bustling Budapest. My apartment has appliances, heating, and running water, and there are countless stores, restaurants, and cafés within a stone's throw of my doorstep. Every day, something different is going on, from parades and protests to festivals and fairs. My life here is not so drastically different from life in the United States (just with more walking, less obesity, and a distict lack of tacos.)

However, many people in Hungary do not live like I do. Outside of the city, especially out in the countryside, there are entire towns that lack running water and basic grocery stores. Last week, I, together with a few other Fulbrighters, traveled to the far  east part of Hungary to visit a foundation that works in places like this.

The organization is called Igazgyöngy, or Real Pearl Foundation. It began as an art school and has since branched out into community development work (through art and otherwise) in underdeveloped areas of Hungary. Last week, a group of Fulbrighters and I, together with a representative from the Embassy, took a cushy Embassy car out to the town of Berettyóujfalu, where the foundation has its headquarters. There, we learned about some of the work they do, from artwork to social work and community programming. Afterwards, we visited Told, a village that is home to their pilot program. We toured the village and the Real Pearl's community house in the area.

The village of Told was tiny, and I say that as someone who spent two years in Mavudzi-Ponte, Mozambique. Told is home to less than four hundred people. There is no store, the houses are all in various states of disrepair, and the inhabitants (most of whom are of the Roma minority ethnic group) live in extreme poverty.

What impressed me most about the work of the Real Pearl Foundation was their attitude. Instead of coming in and deciding unilaterally what the community needs (the pitfall for so many "development" organizations), the staff of the Real Pearl Foundation work closely with members of the community, as equals, to do needs assessments and respond with adequate programming. The two staff members that we met with were originally from the area and had no intent to leave anytime soon. We were able to watch a community meeting, and the rapport between the Real Pearl staff and the community members of Told was easily visible.

Here are some photos of our visit. There are more photos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Some of the art that the Real Pearl children made.

"Pearl One" community house in Told.

The village of Told. This is most of it.

Photos: Slovenia

Last weekend, I took a trip with friends to Slovenia. Rarely have I had the joy of visiting a country of such natural beauty. Enjoy these photos from our trip!

Ljubljana, Slovenia's tiny little capital city., and it's charming river.

Slovenia made me think "WOW!". Tanya too.

These guard dog statues cracked me up. Looks like the moment right before you throw the ball.

Ljubjana from above -- view from the castle.

Lake Bled, one hour north or so of Ljubljana -- beautiful lake with a tiny island in the middle, complete with church.

View of the Slovenian countryside from the Bled Castle.

Three intrepid travelers at Lake Bled! The same three that featured in a recent journey to Bosnia.

Chcek out my bubble-monacle.

Stunning Lake Bled at sundown.

This is the second lake we went to, just a few kilometers from the first one. Lake Bohinj.

Happy hikers! We walked 13+ miles on this day.

Another little church by the lakeside.

Picturesque Slovenian house with the Julian Alps in the background. Still snow-capped!

On the way to a waterfall - found a river! Such a green color!

Tanya and I take a break on the way up to the waterfall.

The waterfall itself wasn't THAT exciting, but this view from the top sure was!

Feeling naturey and hikey!

Slovenia was restful and beautiful! Until next time!

Up next: Visit to the Real Pearl Foundation

Fulbright Hungary Student Conference 2018

Each year at the end of the academic year, all the Fulbright students gather together and present about their grants at a conference. We (students) are here for nine months, longer than scholars (whose are only a few months) so we do these presentations and our scholar friends all came to support us.

The nice thing about the presentations is that we can see what everyone has been doing for the past academic year. Everyone knows who is the mathematician and who is the economist, and I know fairly well what Tanya and Jasmine have been up to, but no one knows everyone that well, so it was nice to hear these 15-minute summaries.

Of course, as a "student" myself, I also presented. I talked about teaching my courses (which are almost done for the semester!) and what kinds of activities and assignments we do in class. I also talked about my work with EducationUSA -- the workshops, outreach fairs, newsletter, individual appointments, etc. I mentioned some success stories and some challenges, and even this blog!

Summarizing all of that helped me to realize how busy I have been this year -- it started slow, but now it has really picked up. Now, I rarely have a truly free day -- something is going on every day, and it's always different and usually interesting and/or fun. I have almost every day until the end of August, when I return home, planned out because the calendar is just that full. What a way to live! What excitement! Expect lots of blog posts.

Congratulations to all my fellow Fulbrighters, who have been doing such interesting and impactful work this year!

One of the scholars kindly took my photo while presenting (Proof!)

All of the presenters, plus beloved Fulbright staff member Annamaria in the middle.

 Next up: May Day weekend in Slovenia!

My Weekend in Belgium: Brussels and Bruges

Each year, the EU Commission and the U.S. Fulbright program team up to bring 50 young leaders together from all around Europe -- half Americans, and half Europeans -- to discuss a relevant problem at length. Each Fulbright Commission in Europe selects one grantee to attend, and I was honored to be chosen to represent Hungary this year. The topic of the conference was "The Future of Work" -- a topic relevant to me, both as someone who will soon be rejoining the workforce as well as an educator whose responsibility is to prepare students for the future.

The seminar itself was really rewarding. Essentially, the topic was broken down into three subtopics, and we heard a panel of experts speak about each subtopic, and then broke into smaller groups and discussed amongst ourselves. I volunteered to be one of the group moderators, so in conjunction with my co-moderator and new friend Joao from Portugal, we led our group's discussion to identify trends, problems, and possible solutions.

One of the most interesting aspects of the seminar was getting to know Fulbrighters and Europeans from all over the EU. The group gathered there was highly intelligent, motivated, and engaged, and it was a pleasure to be able to work with them for two and a half very intense days.

Look at me, I'm a young leader!

The only photo I took of my fellow conference-goers... not a very good one at that.

Of course, when Fulbright pays for you to fly to Belgium, you take advantage of it, so I flew into Brussels a day early and took a train to Bruges to explore some unfamiliar territory.

Bruges was... incredible. It largely escaped bombing during the second World War, so its medieval city center is still intact. It was like transporting back in time, wandering around the old town. Bruges' tiny winding cobblestone streets are flanked by centuries-old buildings with traditional crow-stepped gables (a vocabulary term I learned on this trip). I took a canal boat tour of the city, walked for ages in the inner city, indulged in a  waffle, and even took part in a Belgian beer tasting. (The determination: I like Belgian beer. Like, a lot.)

Beautiful medieval old town of Bruges, with the stepped roofs.

Super touristy but super fun canal boat tours!

How is this place real life??

Mmm, waffles.

This very flanders-y windmill was right behind my hostel.

Hello from Belgium!

Photos: Szeged and Gyula

Things are happening faster than I can blog about them! This time, I'll let my photos speak for themselves. We recently had our monthly Fulbright excursion and we headed southeast, to the university city of Szeged and the spa town of Gyula, right on the Romanian border.

Behold! Szeged.

In Szeged, we went to a laser research lab. Our friendly tour guide showed us this model of the complex and then took us on a tour where we saw exactly zero lasers.

Here I am with a bust of  Eötvös Lorand, a famous Hungarian physicist. The university where I teach is named after him.

Creative and colorful way to accept that urban areas are not always perfect.

Enjoying traditional fish soup together.

My only photo of the fun bus ride we had.

The peaceful canals of Gyula, lined with weeping willows.

Tanya and I love Gyula!

Gyula is home to the most stereotypically castle-y looking castle that ever did exist.

Greetings from all of us at Fulbright Hungary! (photo credit: Tom Tobin)

Next up: Adventures in Belgium!

The Parental Visit: Two Weeks of Cake and Prosecco

Immediately after returning from Berlin, I had two weeks of vacation and my parents came to visit. It was nice to be able to show them around -- the beautiful sights of Budapest as well as the everyday places where I live and do my thing. I specifically avoided doing some of the touristy things in Budapest before so that I would have some new things to do when I have visitors.

Unfortunately, the weather was not super cooperative, and the whole time they were here it was cold, and many days it was also rainy -- not what I was hoping for for late March! But we had a grand old time exploring Budapest -- we went to all the important places, and of course, in between each activity were plentiful coffee and cake breaks. The wonderful thing about Budapest is that we went to a different káveház every day (sometimes two in one day) and didn't even make a dent in the total number of coffeehouses here. Budapest's cafe culture is something I really love about living here.

Mmm....cakes.

I took this opportunity to do some exploring outside of Budapest. We started off small, by taking a day trip to the north, to Visegrád. I had been there with Fulbright when I first arrived in country, but it was nice to go back and be able to explore at my own pace. The Danube Bend is a place where (not surprisingly) the Danube bends around a corner, and it affords this beautiful vista from a castle on top of a mountain.

Click to enlarge -- beautiful!

At the bottom of the mountain, there is a Renaissance Restaurant which provides "traditional" (and delicious) renaissance meals, and of course, gimmicky crowns. For some reason, we got lucky and were seated at the royal table, complete with thrones. There I enjoyed a lovely lunch with Their Royal Majesties, although I had to behave myself or I may have found myself beheaded by Royal Decree.

Papa is thinking "If you show this to anyone, you're dead."

In addition to heading north, we separately took a two day road trip southward, toward Tihany Peninsula on Lake Balaton. At Tihany, we stayed in a traditional Hungarian house, complete with thatched roof and miniature Hungarian mop dog (the kind that has dreadlocks). Said dog was so bouncy that I failed to get a non-blurry picture, but she was cute.

Knowing how much my mom likes boats, I asked our host to help us set up a sailing trip. She told us it was all set up, and to meet some guy named Peter on the pier at a designated time. We got there, and some dude pulls up in a car and asks if we are looking for Peter -- he tells us his name is Marten, and apparently Peter's boat is broken, so we should come with him to go sailing. Eyebrows raised, not knowing what to expect, we follow him.

It turned out to be a wonderful sunset sail on the lake, and Marten was really friendly. He brought wine for us to drink and told us all about his life sailing around the world. He even let my dad steer the boat (granted, there was very little wind, and we were moving extremely slowly). It was a beautiful evening!

The sun sets over Balaton.

On the way home from Balaton, we stopped in Veszprém, a very old little city near the lake.

Veszprem's famous view from the castle.

Our exploring wasn't limited to Hungary, either. I am still on my quest to visit 30 countries before my 30th birthday, so I took this opportunity to check another country off the list: Poland. Everyone in my family likes trains, so we took the night train to Krakow. What an experience! I love night trains -- the sound of the train tracks underneath you, the feeling of being rocked to sleep. We booked a first class sleeper cabin, so we had fold-out beds and space for all three of us to sleep. (Notice I said just sleep, not sleep comfortably -- those mattresses are rock hard!). Considering the round trip ticket was around 40 Euros per person, it was a great deal considering you get transportation and two nights of accommodation for that price.

Krakow was a stunning city, like something out of a storybook. The walled inner city could easily be the next filming destination for a Game of Thrones episode. We spent a whole day walking around the inner city and its surroundings, checking out museums, the market hall, the castle and cathedral, and, of course, eating a lot (noticing a pattern here?).

We also spent a day visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was a very sobering experience. A lot of what was said there resonates even now -- alienation of people who look, act, eat, or pray differently certainly still occurs today, both here in Hungary and back home in the United States. Remembering the darkest times of history are important to ensure that nothing like the holocaust ever happens again.

Upon returning to Budapest, my parents' visit was almost over. On their last day in town, we did a dinner cruise of the Danube. We ate, drank, and conversed for three hours while floating past the beautiful landmarks of Budapest. Not a bad way to spend an evening!

It was really nice to have my parents here to visit, and the two weeks flew by. But I didn't have much time to be sad about their departure, because just four days later I embarked on another journey, which will be the subject of my next blog post!

Thanks for visiting!