Christmas

Christmas this year was spent with my host family in Nyíregyháza. While it was really strange to be away from my family for Christmas, almost all of the Baricskas live in Nyíregyháza, so family get-togethers are frequent, just like at home, and Christmas was no exception to this rule. On December 23rd, my host brother Norbi and his girlfriend Adri came from Budapest to stay with us for the holidays. In Hungary, presents are opened on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning, so on the 24th, we all ate Christmas dinner together (traditional Hungarian Fish Soup) and opened presents. Unfortunately, men are impossible to shop for, so I crawled into a corner and died of embarassment when my host father opened up his gift from me, which contained foot cream. (Nice foot cream, I might add, but still, foot cream.) Even though I gave him a terrible gift, Béla did not revoke my present, and I was given a bunch of new pairs of socks and a pair of pyjamas.

On Christmas day, we all went to Erika's parents' house for lunch. Erika's sister and her son were there, as well as Béla's father, an adopted aunt, and a great uncle. We ate lunch together (cabbage rolls), stuffed ourselves with Hungarian sweets and cakes, and then stuffed ourselves back into the car and went home to sleep off our calories.

The Christmas break here lasts until January 7th, so I am planning on going to visit one of my Hungarian friends who was on exchange in Calgary last year, and I am going to try to buff up on my Hungarian. Studying maybe a long shot though, as I have spent very few hours outside of my pyjamas so far this holiday, which is just the way I like it.

Boldog Karácsonyt! (Merry Christmas)

Vienna

Last weekend, Rotary Hungary took all of the exchange students on a trip to Vienna. I took the train to Budapest early Friday morning, boarded the bus with the rest of the kids, and we all drove to a Hungarian city called Győr which is only 2 hours away from Vienna. In Győr, we slept at a youth hostel, but, in truth, there was no sleeping involved. If you combined the number of hours all of the exchange students actually slept on Friday night, you might get enough hours to meet the reccommended amount of sleep in one night for ONE person. All of the exchange students get along really well and most of us spent the entire night hanging out and gabbing and laughing about how stupid Hungary is sometimes.

The next morning, bright and early, we drove to Vienna. We had free time all day and I spent the day exploring the city centre, taking pictures of beautiful old bulidings and perusing the numerous Christmas stalls set up in the main square. Budapest and Vienna are very similar cities in that they are dominated by big, old, beautiful buildings of the same era. Unfortunately, because Vienna is a big city, it is very difficult to find your way around the city. My one day in Vienna gave me a very shallow glimpse into the city's character, so I would love to go back sometime soon to visit all the museums and walk around the town pretending like I know where I am going.

Mikulás

Santa Claus, or Mikulás came to Hungary today and left a bag full of chocolate in my boot. In Hungary, St. Nicholas' Day is celebrated on December 6th, and it is Jesus who leaves the presents under the tree on the 25th.

The Disznótor

As I promised, I am here to report all of the gory details of the traditional Hungarian pig killing, or disznótor, that I attended on Saturday. Wanting to be the "good little Rotary girl who tries everything once," I woke up bright and early at 5am on Saturday so that I would be at the farm in time to witness the full meal deal (pun intended) of the disznótor. When we arrived at the farm where the day's activities would take place, we traipsed up to the barn and waited for the butcher to arrive. I expected that the barn would be full of little pink pigs, but instead I was greeted by 4 or 5 huge, hairy things that looked like a cross between a black lab and a rhinocerous. Once the butcher had chosen his pig, I watched, trying to stifle giggles, as he chased the pig around the pen trying to corner it. (Once you see the picture of the butcher below you will realise why this was so funny.) As the butcher dragged the poor pig out of the barn and I thought that my ear drums were going to explode from the wretched squeals the pig was making, I realised that I didn't really want to witness the actual death of the poor pig, so my friend Franziska and I busied ourselves with nervous giggling at the butcher who had a very big bum and the cook who was trying to wrestle with one of the pig's legs whilst still wearing his red tartan plastic apron.

Once the deed was done, the pig was tied to the bumper of a truck and dragged to the concrete pad where the rest of the action would take place. The pig was set on the ground and the butcher lit a blow torch and started to burn of all of the hair on the pig's skin. Once this task was completed, the pig was hosed down and hung by his feet on the butchering hooks. The next hour was like all of Biology 20 summed up. The butcher cut open the pig's stomach and gutted him, and then proceeded to chop him into the various cuts of meat. From there, we proceeded to prepare lunch and dinner for the Rotary guests. Pork was added to a big pot of kaposta (cabbage) to make something similar to a stirfry, most of the innards were thrown into a big pot of boiling water and later made into sausages, soup was made, and in the other pot there was a stew that the Hungarians called "blood stew".

My contribution to the meal was that I helped to make sausages. The butcher had brought a bunch of cleaned pig intestine with him which was to be used for the sausages. The intestines were soaked in hot water and then fit over the end of the valve of the sausage maker. I cranked the handle that fed the meat into the valve, and voila, we had a sausage.

The food that we made was delicious and I was exhausted by the end of the day, but my tummy was very full and very happy. I am also happy to report that I have not, nor will I ever stop eating pork. It's just too darn tastey.