Victory is MINE!!!

Well… I’m starting to really get comfortable in town.  Sure, I’m still not much better at Hungarian than I was when I showed up, but in the week that I’ve been here, things are looking up.  Thursday night, I decided I’d venture out and “top up” my t-mobile phone and eat out.  Well, it started off rocky at the T-mobile store when I walked in and said that I didn’t speak Hungarian, did you (the lady) speak English.  She nodded and got up and left through a door in the back.  Hmmm… a minute or so later, a man came out of the back- who really had no more English than she did- but he was the one brave enough to attempt to assist the American.  After I produced a post it pad with my number (I still don’t really know it) we settled up and I had 5,000 forints worth of minutes on my phone.  I never really know how much things cost, or how much that really translates into in terms of minutes, but when the scary sounding Hungarian lady starts speaking to me when I’m on the phone, I know I’m out.  I have embraced this living by the seat of my pants and I have become accustomed to the lack of planning in every facet of my life. 

 

At any rate, I wet to dinner at a restaurant afterwards- but oh where to try?  I hadn’t been out to an eatery in Tata unless you consider the ice cream stand an eatery.  This was my first try at the real thing.  I even went to a place that had “etterem” in the title – that means “restaurant” so this was going to be exciting.  Let me fill you in on the criterion that I use in choosing places to eat in a foreign country.  There has to be at least something familiar in terms of advertising.  In this case, “pizza” was decipherable in the official title of the place (Mahagoni Pizzafutar Etterem).  Second, I have to be able to see a menu before I enter the establishment.  You never know what’s waiting for you in a foreign restaurant, and at least that way I could be prepared for the prices.  Third, there have to be other people there- both to avoid the question of whether or not it’s open, and to solidify the fact that I am not the only one who chose this particular establishment for a meal.  All three categories fulfilled, I poked my head in.  Upon first glance at the menu, I saw that the choices were in Hungarian, German and English- score!!  The waiter came out and said something to me in Hungarian and I responded with Igen (yes) thinking that he asked me if I wanted to have dinner.  Well, who knows what the hell he said, but he pointed at a table for me to sit down.  I ventured towards it and even though it was in the sun (I was eating outside) and it was really hot out – I sat down because I have not quite mastered “can I sit somewhere in the shade” in Hungarian quite yet.  I ordered a pizza in Hungarian, and not only did I order it in Hungarian, I reinforced my choice with the number of the pizza in Hungarian.  I’m so fluent it kills me.  I ordered a sausage pizza with hard boiled eggs and onions.  I figured if I am out to get pizza in a foreign country, I better at least try a new one.  I also ordered a beer, which was a bit confusing because I prefer draft beer to bottled, so when I asked for a glass with the beer, it came with the bottle of Dreher.  Dang.  Oh well – relish the small victories.  The pizza was interesting, good, but interesting and I enjoyed my meal in the blazing sun proud of what I had accomplished- despite the fact that I was eating out alone.  My friend TK told me that I should never eat alone, but in a small town like this, the percentage of people who actually know English is slim, and the only other people were a young boy and girl on a date.  Yeah, definitely not joining that table.  I managed to ask for a box “take away” is very popular in Hungary, and I headed home proud of the fact that I had mastered a meal that wasn’t from a grocery store or a fast food place.  On my walk home, I ran into one of my students, Niki and waved as she biked by.  She asked me the next day what I was doing out, and I told the class that I went out for pizza.  When another girl asked me who I was eating pizza with, I told them that I was by myself since I don’t have any friends in Tata.  Immediately the saddest look of pity came over their faces and two girls volunteered to eat pizza with me if I wanted.  Pity from 14 and 15 year olds is not something I’m used to.  Oh well.  I still claim victory.