Víz - Zene - Virág Festival (Water, Music, Flower Festival)

Each summer Tata hosts the famous Water Music Flower festival.  I went Friday and Saturday to enjoy some of the different festivities.  There were so many different things to see, I wasn't exactly sure what to do with myself.  There were water parades, stunt pilots, acrobats, musical entertainment, "American football," dance groups, an American dixieland band, and Hungarian wares and food.  It was nice to see, but the weather was a bit cruddy so I didn't stay real long.  Plus I was wandering around by myself, so phoey to that.  

the castle with the main stage in front of it.

crowds crowds and more crowds

the Tata "American football team" The Mustangs - the game was quite a let down...

get your wicker baskets here!

clothing on display - with flowers- in the Eszterházy palace

artwork out of flowers

more artwork

interesting pot for this art

wedding trellis?  I don't know.

a gulyás making table on sale

the Hungarian Army recruiting tent

Hungarian cookies with messages on them

the merchants and food

art in the castle dungeon

more flower art

art on a mannequin 

suspended art

mannequin art again - out of flowers.

Tata - the city of flowers

The "Tata dream team" has been at it again, switching flower beds again... take a look.  Remember, you can click on any of the photos to make them bigger and then hit the "back" button to return to the post.

Gotta love a sale?

This is in the parking lot of one of the small grocery stores here.  I eyed the bike, but wasn't interested in any hot appliances to buy...

Getting better!

I'm not much of a cook, but this is a picture of a meal I recently made - Rachel Ray's Greek Salad and ground beef gyros.  Yum!!!

Boo update...

Who doesn't like cute cat pictures?  Yeah yeah... cat lady yadda yadda yadda... enjoy the pics.

This is the window in the kitchen...

she likes to crawl out and sit on the ledge... three floors up... I leashed her because I was nervous - but she's wised up a bit I think.  I hope...

This is what Boo does when I close the door to the bedroom and get ready for bed.  It's kind of creepy to be honest, but she sits on the chair outside the room and watches through the frosted glass.

new favorite toy- shoebox.  Why do I spend money on cat toys?

loves to lounge in the box

relaxing... when she's right side up, she kind of blends in with the chairs

I've talked about this before I believe, but she has learned how to push the "scan" and "copy" buttons on the printer and then watches the paper come out below.  It's only annoying when she does it in the middle of the night.

Last minute lessons

I got a little creative towards the end of the school year.  I decided since I had five lessons with the 9th graders each week, I'd do some sort of unit that I could drag out a bit.  I decided on Haiku poetry.  I combined aspects from different things I found on the internet, and we gave it a whirl.  Using the construction paper my parents hauled over from the states, we created our very own poetry gallery in the 9th grade classrooms.  It ended up being a tremendous success, and though some of them are not the strongest Haiku I've ever seen, they now can say that not only can they speak English, they can create poetry in it too.  I was surprised by some of the students who really got into the assignment.  Barna (my goth boy) went home and wrote about 9 poems, and Balint (the first day fainter) created a series of insightful poems I would have NEVER expected.

 

Viki, Zsofi and Jenny

Agi's poem

 

Zsofi's poem.  

Bence Papp created his in the shape of a viking hat - though his poem was about butterflies... not sure of the connection.

their poems are so bright, they have to wear shades!

Anna, Áron and Viki

Barna and his poem.

Oreos and Peeps

Earlier this year, I received a package of gold in the mail from Molly (Cooley) Schuster.  It was Peeps and Oreos, two things I mentioned on Facebook that I missed.  Instead of downing an entire pack of gooey marshmallow things and the savory rows of Oreos, I brought them both to school to share with the 9th graders.  I have included some pictures of the Oreos - they really enjoyed them.  The peeps they were more ... curious... about, but gave them a whirl anyway.  They don't have marshmallows here, so they were fascinated by this weird creation in the shape of a blue bird.  Sadly I can't locate the "peep" reaction photos, but the Oreo ones are good too.

Bence Papp trying the Oreo - his immediate reaction, "Carla, where can I buy these?"  "You can't, they're from the USA" "Oh" he said, "I'll check E-bay then"

Jozsi giving it the smell check

Curious about the packaging and the magical cookies (I have to refer to them as biscuits - British English- because "cookie" in Hungarian refers to a small boy's penis.  These things don't take long to learn)

School closing ceremony

the 9th graders waiting for their marks

9th grade boys - Bence Papp (in the middle) pointed to them and proclaimed "Hungarian boy band!!"  I always say it's the mark of language acquisition when someone can be funny in a different language.

Some of the 9th grade girls and me - Antonia has her grade booklet in her hand.

School Closing ceremony - I was told the day before this took place, that over a week after school was over, we'd all gather again and have a school closing ceremony.  I was to wear "smart" clothes and be at school at 6.  Ok... sure, I'll be there.  It was warm out - but the sun was setting.  I thought we'd have a minimal number of fainters... boy was I wrong.  There were no less than 18 students who had to be escorted away from their class lines to "relax" or to "get a glass of water."  This fascinates me.  Sure, the students are standing for an hour - but so did I, and I never felt faint!  Afterwards, each class meets with their head teacher and receives their "report cards" which are really more like a little booklet.  They are quite fancy and the students were eager for their marks and comments from teachers.  I'm amazed since everything is hand filled in, and the headmistress signs each and every one of the 800 students' books.  Haven't they heard of the internet?  Additionally, each student who had achieved some sort of recognition since the winter break received a book.  A hardcover book about something Hungarian- architecture, history, science, dinosaurs - it was wild.  Giving books as prizes for academic recognition - what an idea!

Food experience at the Sokadalom festival

We had yet another interesting food experience while at the festival.  I have always ragged Justin about "pointing and grunting" when he wants something, and yet it's exactly what I did when I got to the front of the line.  I wanted to try something new, so I pointed to what looked like a sausage stew.  The clerk looked at me and said in Hungarian "do you know what it is?" and when I looked at her and said (in English) "no I don't" she paused and quickly responded in English with "it's rooster testicle stew"  I responded "ok, then I'll have the sauerkraut and pork."  I'm a big proponent of trying everything once, but I couldn't do a large bowl of rooster testicle stew - especially since I was really hungry.  She gave me a spoonful anyway, and I decided to try it.  Below is the photojournalistic skills of Justin at work, capturing my rooster testicle experience...

This is the sample.  I'm pretty sure it was a sausage made out of rooster testicles.  I don't think this is actually one testicle.  At any rate, I saved half of it for Justin, and though it took some coaxing (pleading really) but he tried it too.  Nothing says "I love you" like eating rooster testicles.

Here's Justin and our food.