Academy of Sciences Visit

On February 6, our Fulbright event was a visit to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It was a wonderful day. First we went to the reading area of the library. Here we saw the original handwritten catalogue for their collection...yikes!

Next we moved on to the fun part, the rare collections. These were amazing!!! Our group visited the Oriental collection first. The following pictures show publishing plates, ancient manuscripts, maps, dictionaries, and religious texts. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of every item we saw but these give a great summary. The script and artwork are amazing...plus they are several centuries old.

These pages are from the fourteenth century.

The Hungarian, Sándor Csoma de Kőrös, was the first person to write a English-Tibetan dictionary.

In another rare collection, we saw materials from the area in and around Hungary. These were some of my favorites. This first one is a piece of wood from the second century which was a receipt or contract.

This is artwork from a few centuries ago. You can see the Hungarian crown on the man's head.

This was a book from King Matyas' library (from the Renaissance times).

This is one page from the Gutenberg Bible. Someone decided to sell each page from the original! It was still neat to see though.

This was basically someone's autograph/memento book and this page has Isaac Newton!

This postcard (for lack of a better word) was made from tree bark when paper was too expensive and inaccessible during war time.

This book is an amazing artifact from the 17th century. No one knows what it is. It's all in a mysterious code.

After the rare book collections, we went to the art gallery where we saw paintings of famous Hungarians such as Deák Ferenc. The neatest pieces of art, in my opinion, were embroidered on silk. They were incredible!  They look like a painting or a sketch from far away but up close you could see all of the individual threads.

Our trip to the Academy of Sciences was very special because we were able to see many artifacts which are not open to the public. Many of the rare books are not allowed to be studied because they are so fragile and valuable.  You can see some of the digital collections of the library here. To finish the day, we ate a delicious four-course meal in the restaurant inside the Academy. Plus, we had beautiful views over the Danube. Our February event was definitely inspiring! 

The Flying Dutchman

This first week of February was the orientation for the new Fulbrighters in Hungary. Since all of the students are here for the year, these new Fulbrighters are all scholars and professors. Part of their orientation was an evening at the Hungarian State Opera.  The opera house itself is gorgeous. Everything is coated with gold leaf. We could have just sat in the building and stared up for two and half hours. The bonus was that we got to see a great production and hear beautiful music in this hall.

The opera we saw was Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. This was the first Wagner opera that I have seen live and I was impressed. I LOVED the orchestra. The brass were powerful and heroic so they were definitely my favorite part of the orchestra. The singers were great as well. We didn't receive a program so I didn't know what to expect. There were maybe 50 or 60 people in the chorus! They sang with a lot of power and drama, the perfect style for Wagner. The story is about a cursed man, the Flying Dutchman, and his crew who are destined to a sort of purgatory where they cannot die and they must continue sailing. That is, until he finds a woman who promises to give him her fidelity until death. The woman, Senta, has always known about the legend of the Flying Dutchman and she hopes that she can be his bride and salvation. When the two meet (after the Dutchman gives Senta's father a huge amount of treasure for his daughter), Senta leaves her boyfriend to devote herself to the Dutchman until death. The opera ends with Senta killing herself and the Flying Dutchman and his crew finally being able to die.  It was dramatic and I enjoyed it. I found this promotional video where you can get a glimpse of the performance.



I enjoyed the use of technology to create neat scenes, especially the sky at night. The large light screen on the stage was also effective in giving the sense of actually being on the coast and seeing the ships in the ocean. We were not totally sure what the meanings of the black light effects and the shirts with faces were. Yet, I really enjoyed the performance. I hope we have another chance to attend an opera while we are here.

January 27

January 27 is the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. On that day, I read several articles and watched videos of interviews with survivors. As horrific as the stories are, I believe that it is important to reflect on the unspeakable events of our past. 

I wanted to share some pictures from two memorials here in Budapest. The first is the Shoes on the Danube. This memorial was built in 2005 and it honors the victims of the Arrow Cross Militiamen shootings. Hungarian Jews were forced to stand at the edge of the river and they were shot into the Danube. This memorial depicts their shoes left on the edge. 

Part of the Dohány Synagogue in Budapest (the largest synagogue in Europe), is a Holocaust memorial. It is a sculpture of a weeping willow tree. Each leaf has the name of a victim from the Holocaust. At least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a lot of information on their website which is worth seeing. During the Holocaust, millions of people were murdered for their religion, race, political views, disabilities, sexuality, and countless other reasons. Hatred can easily grow in our hearts when we disguise it behind terms such as "different" and "other," and fuel it by fear, misunderstanding, and the thought that we are better than anyone else. We need to remember events like the Holocaust because they represent the worst part of ourselves. I encourage you to read more about the Holocaust and to visit some of the memorials around the world. Hopefully we can learn from the past and stop events like this from happening in the future. 

Applying for the Fulbright

On Friday January 30, I briefly spoke about my Fulbright experience for the University of Iowa Fulbright Workshop. I've decided to share a few thoughts in this post for anyone who was unable to attend.

My Fulbright Application Process:
 - I first learned about the Fulbright when I was an undergrad. Ever since then, it has been something that I always knew was a possibility. While working on my master's degree in horn performance, I was playing in a horn quartet and we checked out as many horn quartet pieces as we could from the library. That is when I first came across the Frigyes Hidas's horn quartet. I loved it! It was fun and interesting and I was curious to hear more of his music. After a simple search online, I found a recording of Hidas' first Horn Concerto. These pieces sparked my interest in Hidas and Hungarian brass music. For the next few years, I started to research Hidas on my own and found that few sources were available, especially in English. I had already decided to research Hidas when I was applying for doctorate programs. While at Iowa, I began looking at opportunities to travel to Hungary. I looked into the Stanley award and study abroad but I decided to apply for the Fulbright. I first met with Karen Wachsmuth around December 2012. In spring 2013, I started sending emails to find out what kinds of sources and affiliations were available in Hungary. In the summer of 2013, I traveled to Hungary for about 10 days to attend the Franz Liszt Academy Brass Week and to visit libraries in Budapest. It was during this time that I secured my affiliations at the National Széchényi Library and the Budapest Music Center. Leading up to the due date of the application, I met with several other applicants to read and edit our applications. This was incredibly helpful. Karen worked with me to make sure I had all parts of my application completed to the best of my ability. It was really exhausting! After submitting my application, I went through two interviews, one mock and one real. In these interviews, faculty members from Iowa who were former Fulbrighters asked me about my plans for the grant and its feasibility. I was also asked to clarify any parts of my essays which remained unclear. After the interviews, I was able to edit my essays and application before the final submission. Then, I was waiting for a few months to hear an answer. On January 28, I received an email saying that I had been recommended for a Fulbright Grant and that my application was forwarded for final review. I received the big news on March 24 that I had been selected. To say the least, I was emotional. After 4 years of interest in Hidas and over a year of planning and applying, I was selected. The process is long and arduous but it is every bit worth it.

Fields of Study:
The Fulbright is not limited to any specific field. Each of the current Fulbrighters in Hungary has a different area of interest. We are also all at different stages in our career. Some are doing research while others are doing classwork. There are Fulbrights for students, scholars, teachers, and artists.

Community Component:
Part of the Fulbright is engaging the community. It's hard to know how you will be able to engage with a community where you've never been, but you can at least make a guess. I was hoping to be musically involved in Budapest but I didn't know how unrealistic it was until I arrived. Thankfully, the Fulbright Commission has pointed us to several volunteer opportunities. Even though I can't perform as I originally had hoped, I have been able to play my horn and talk about music in other ways.

Tips for applying:
* Start early. You need time to get your affiliations and references plus time to write the essays.
* Contact the commission or embassy for the country you're interested in because they may be able to help you find an affiliation.
* Have others read your application and essays. It is important to be concise and affirmative without too much jargon from your field. After reading dozens of essays in preparation for my application, I would be glad to read yours as well. Just let me know.
* If you are interested at all, try! Applying for the Fulbright is great experience for future applications and grants.

Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with any questions you may have. The Fulbright is a wonderful opportunity and experience and I encourage you to apply!

Bábszínház

A few weekends back, Dan and I went to the Budapest Bábszínház, the puppet theater. It was an amazing performance. I had never seen a professional puppet show in my life. This show was much more than I could have imagined. 

We chose to see Misi Mókus Vándorúton (Misi Squirrel on the wandering road). We chose this show because Dan loves squirrels and because it was for ages 3+, the appropriate Hungarian vocabulary level for us. The show was incredibly cute and fun. It was a story about a family of squirrels who is storing up nuts for the winter when suddenly the nuts are stolen. Misi travels across Africa and meets many animals on his adventure. The dialogue was cute and it had a lot of rhymes, and there were also several songs. One neat thing about the seats in the theater was that they fold up. They not only fold up to create a pathway between the rows, but the folded seats serve as booster seats for the children. Believe me, the theater was packed with children. We could tell that they loved the show as much as we did. We weren't able to take pictures during the performance but they had photos up in the hallway from the original productions in 1961. The same puppets were used in the performance we saw.

Misi meeting a tiger.

Misi with an elephant and a giraffe. 

Misi and his squirrel family.

During the intermission, we joined the rest of the audience for treats. We have noticed that at performances here in Budapest, everyone leaves the performance hall during intermission. We tried two new types of candy which were delicious and fun. We first had cola-flavored Candy Caviar.

Then we had blue raspberry Frutta Spray candy. It's clear why these fun candies were so popular with the children!

I think the Bábszínház was amazing. Hopefully we can attend another performance in the future. 

Sometimes the little victories mean the most.

The other day I was really excited while waiting for the bus, because for the first time since we've been here, I found a sign that I was able to read...completely! It was a big moment for me even though it's not a big deal. I wanted to share the sign with you. You will be able to tell where my vocabulary priorities are...food.

Let me translate, even though it's fairly self-explanatory:

I'm lovin' it [yes, I know this one!]
Lunch time?
McDonald's time! [McDonald's is called Meki here.]
Lunch menu 990 Ft [about $3.66]
Weekdays 12pm-2pm
Eligible sandwiches
+ small drink
+ small fry

Woohoo! Most of the time, I can tell what an advertisement is saying but I can't translate the entire thing. Usually there are a few words that I don't know. Also, let me share one last thing about McDonalds here that we find hilarious. Drive-throughs don't exist except for some McDonalds on the edge of the city. Anyway, there are a few that have a drive through and they are called McDrive. It makes me laugh and I love it.

Thanks for sharing in my little excitement! :)

New Photos - Bohócok a Láthatáron

In December, I posted about our experience with the Bohócok a Láthatáron. At the time, the photos from the event were not yet ready. You can check out the original post here.  Included here are some photos from the event. We enjoyed working with the children in Letkés and we look forward to hopefully helping the Bohócok a Láthatáron again this spring.