The Perfect (Hungarian) Storm

Monday morning was quite… Hungarian.  I showed up to school with about 10 minutes before my first class.  I stopped in the bathroom, grabbed my papers and was off to class… or so I thought.  I was stopped in the hallway by David and Gyula who had a “woman’s day” flower for me – a little orchid.  I chatted with them for a few minutes, and then was off to class – or so I thought.  I was stopped by Anna (a colleague) and she asked if I knew about the performance.  The what?  Of course I didn’t know about the performance… apparently all the 9^th and 10^th graders were to report to the gym and see a cultural performance.  Ok – so off I went to find the 9^th graders I was supposed to have class with. 

            We waited in the gym, all lined up in our chairs for “the performance” – I still wasn’t sure what we were seeing exactly, but 20 minutes later Muzikás showed up.  They are a well known group in Hungary for their folk type music.  They were very entertaining and used some instruments I had never seen before.  One of them used a pipe thing that he blew in at the same time as he sang.  It was quite an interesting sound.  Also, there was some sort of large violin – and the man played it by hitting the strings with a reed. 

            Besides the good music, the day was amazing because so many of my favorite Hungarian things came together as if it were the perfect storm.  First of all, there was no warning as to the change of plans… how Hungarian is that?  Then, there was the way that the gym is magically transformed into a theater – and by this I mean, all the students haul their chairs from the main building to the gym to be set up for the performance.  Then there was the ever present Hungarian nose-blowing whenever it needs to be blown, despite the quiet piece of soothing music being played by a visiting performing group.  SIDENOTE: I don’t know why Hungarians do it the way they do – but apparently it’s appropriate to blow your nose at any given point, wherever you are, when ever you feel it necessary.  That’s why they always have Kleenex with them – the latest thing is to have a pack of 100 tissues with you at all times.  Next, there were Hungarians wearing thick coats and staring at me because I didn’t have my coat with me.  How was it possible that I made it all the way to the gym without a coat?  I got stared at by Hungarians, but whatever.  Next, there was the clapping in unison.  Hungarians love to clap for things – especially when they can clap together as excited Hungarian people.  And lastly, you guessed it… the two boys in front of me busted out sandwiches in the middle of the performance because they just couldn’t make it that long without them… I loved every minute of it!