Eger Day 2 - Touring the City

On Friday, we had the opportunity to tour Eszterházy Károly College and the city of Eger. My favorite part of the tour of  Eszterházy Károly College was seeing the Camera Obscura.  At the very top of the college, there is a small dome with a room on the inside.  This room is completely black  with a large white table in the center. Using mirrors and natural light, the camera obscura reflects a view of the area outside onto the table.  The camera obscura was built by the Hungarian astronomer Maximillian Hell in the late 18th century.  Here is diagram of how it works.

When the image appears on the table, it is basically like watching live video footage. Our tour guide explained that the camera obscura was built for fun.  I can imagine that it was incredibly fun in the 18th century because we enjoyed it as well.  The camera can be pointed all around the city.  We watched people walking down the sidewalk and cars driving down the street. It was hilarious! Unfortunately this photo doesn't do it justice.

After our tour of the college, we went to the fortress of Eger and the Basilika.  We learned about the history of Eger and the significance of István Dobó.  In 1552, the Turks attacked Eger and István Dobó led the successful defense.  The book "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" is an important novel by Géza Gárdonyi which chronicles this event.

Our final event of the day was a wine tasting at Sike Winery in the Valley of the Beautiful Women. Since I'm not a wine drinker, it was interesting to learn so much about wine.  We learned how to properly hold, swirl, smell, and taste the wine.  We tasted five types of wine, including Bikavér ("Bull's Blood").  The name of this wine is connected to István Dobó.  Here is the story we were told.  When the Turks were unable to defeat the Hungarians in Eger, even though they outnumbered them 40 to 1, they were astonished.  They saw István Dobó standing on the walls of the fortress. He was drinking heartily with red liquid flowing down his beard.  Although he was actually drinking wine, the Turks assumed he must be drinking something powerful to give him strength...the blood of a bull. This story led to the development of the name Bikavér.

Eger Day 1 - Internationalization Conference

I'm getting a little behind with my posts because we've had a busy schedule. Last week, we spent three days in Eger.  It was a wonderful trip! On Thursday, we caught an early morning bus to Eger where we attended the Internationalization of Higher Education conference at Eszterházy Károly College. We participated in two lectures by Hans de Wit. You can read his bio here.  He discussed the meaning of internationalization and a strategies for implementation.  Although the focus was on higher education, I feel that I could use the same concepts with my private horn students.  The goal is to assist all students, not just those with the privilege of studying internationally, in becoming global citizens.  I enjoyed the lectures and hope to continue learning about internationalization in the future.

That evening, we attended an extravagant dinner.  First, we had snacks in the courtyard while traditional musicians and dancers performed.  Then we went inside to begin the program.  In addition to several award presentations, we witnessed the graduation of the students of the Master of Business Administration program of the Open University of Malaysia. My favorite part of the program was a performance of Robert Schumann's "Carnaval" by Gábos Judith, the head of the music department. After her performance we had a delicious four course meal.

Now let me come back to the traditional dancers and musicians.  They were my favorite part of the evening. I took these short videos so everyone can enjoy the experience. This first video is two men playing flute and bass.  The bass player is not using a traditional technique. Instead he is striking and tapping the bass more like a percussion instrument.

In this video, we can see a trio of string instruments playing a traditional Hungarian song. I have heard this before but I cannot remember the name.

The final video shows the dancers. Some of the men's movements included leg slapping, snapping, jumps, and kicks.  The women were more often spinning and swaying.  Part of the video shows the women dancing with wine bottles on their heads.

Hajvágás

It must be two-post Tuesday.  There are just too many good things to share.  Today, Dan and I got haircuts.  Hajvágás = haircut in Hungarian. It was an interesting experience. We found a place right near our apartment so we decided to go there. Yesterday, we stopped in to ask about making an appointment. I used my Hungarian phrasebook and we were able to get a time for today. As we went today, we were armed with the phrasebook, our dictionary, and pictures of what we wanted our hair to look like just in case. All in all, it worked out well. To me, the neatest part was watching the guy cut my hair.  It was different than at home.  After my hair was washed, he combed my hair straight up. Then he would cut the ends diagonally.  He did this for a while. When it was almost done, he would brush all of my hair into a tight tight ponytail.  He twisted the ponytail and then pulled up and away from the back of my head. My hair would fall out of the twist and then he used his fingers to pull the front forward into the style.  I've never seen this done before.  I don't know much about haircutting techniques but I like the final product.  I'm sure we'll go again sometime while we're here. Here is the final look!

Hidas Analysis

The first part of my research is getting to know Hidas' music to the best of my ability. I have been listening to recordings and studying the scores individually. I wanted to share a few of the pieces with you.

Two pieces that I have been studying this week are Negyesfogat (Four in Hand) and Hét Bagatell (Seven Bagatelles).  Negyesfogat (Four in Hand) is a 5 movement work for trombone quartet. I had the opportunity to hear the Corpus Quartet (a Hungarian trombone quartet) play this piece on their tour last spring.  They were fantastic!  It was neat to hear Hidas' music played by Hungarian musicians at my own school.  I shared my research plans with them and they were excited to know that I was studying Hidas.  They enjoy his music as well.  If you visit their website (click here), you can hear them playing the piece. You will see a music player on the left side. Scroll down the list of pieces to click on Frigyes Hidas - Four in Hand.

Hét Bagatell (Seven Bagatelles) is a seven movement piece for 12 trombones. This piece was commissioned by the International Trombone Association in 1980.  I enjoy this piece because the sheer number of trombones allows for broader chords and more contrast between melody and accompaniment. Here is a video performance by the Eastman Trombone Choir. Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter

Before coming to Budapest, I had often heard people say that one of the foods they missed while traveling in Europe was peanut butter. Dan and I assumed we wouldn't be able to find any.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a small jar at the Spar near our apartment.

We both eat it and it does the job, but it's definitely different.  The texture is not as smooth and it actually doesn't spread well.  It seems less sticky than peanut butter in the United States.  For example, when I try to spread it across a banana, it doesn't want to stay on the banana. It can easily fall or be picked off. We did a little bit of researching. The Spar peanut butter has 65% peanuts, various oils, and salt. In the US, there is actually a law that peanut butter must be at least 90% peanuts. No wonder. The Spar peanut butter is not even as good as the cheapest off brand of peanut butter at home. We heard that there are a few places in Budapest that have imported some peanut butter. It's part of the "foreign food" selection. Maybe we'll have the chance to get some while we're here.

Shopping and Desserts

Here in Budapest, stores are more specialized.  Before moving here, I was so used to going to HyVee or Walmart to get anything I needed.  Now, we've adjusted to shopping at several different stores.  For groceries, we have been shopping at Spar (a Dutch grocery chain). For toiletries and cleaning supplies we can go to Müller or DM (both German retailers).  For any medicine or vitamins we have to go to the gyógyszertár (the pharmacy).  It takes a bit more planning to purchase everything we need. On the other hand, it is fun to explore new and different stores when we find them.  Right near our apartment, there is a new shop, a cukrászda. This means a "sweet shop."  They have all sorts of desserts and pastries. The other day, we got some fancy desserts to celebrate being together for three years. It was delicious.

Yesterday, we got even more delicious desserts. This time, we went to the Gundel Patisserie. The Gundel restaurant is a very famous, and fancy restaurant near the Budapest Zoo in City Park. We chose the Chocolate Mousee and Sacher Torte. They were both amazing!

Luckily, we spend a lot of time walking around the city to balance all of the chocolate we've been eating!

Not Quite the Same

Wow, I can hardly believed that we've lived in Budapest for a month! Time has gone by so quickly. Each day is still an adventure. I don't know that I'll ever grow tired of it. There was the immediate culture shock, and jet lag, after arrival but the longer we are here we notice more tiny differences. I wanted to share one example. 

I've been going to the Budapest Music Center almost every day to look at Hidas' music and to use their computer to access the National Audio and Video Archives. Using their computer means using the Hungarian keyboard and the computer all in Hungarian. It's funny because the computer looks just like our computers. It has the same functions and software but it's also completely mind boggling. From a distance it looks the same but it's not. Thankfully, I have been able to access what I need. That is, after frequently typing Hidas Frigzes by mistake. Here is a picture of a Hungarian keyboard for comparison. Enjoy!