loomings

Spring is coming. It's getting warmer...
I am acclimating and feeling more and more comfortable here. Tomorrow I have to go to the immigration office once more to prove that I have transportation back to the United States and then I will receive my visa. This weekend I went to an Italian Ska concert at a local bar. It was very fun and I danced wildly with my Hungarian friends all night. Ska music is very very upbeat and bands usually consist of drums, guitar, bass, trombone, trumpet, and saxophone. Tomorrow I am also meeting another Hungarian friend of mine for lunch. Her name is Agnus and we sit next to each other in my Meville class.
I am not feeling all that inspired to write in my blog, I feel like I am still observing. Observing carefully, respectfully, and interacting when appropriate and when I feel comfortable. I know my way around now. I love the 30-40 minute walk to the city center. I also enjoy the 20 minute walk to my faculty. There are always Hungarians walking about the neighborhood of all ages, going to the produce stands, the market, the posta, the bank, the bakery, the deli. I have also noticed far more elderly people walking about here than I do in the United States. I understand I live in Arizona, where the sun lights your skin on fire in the summertime. But other times in the year, most of the year actually, Tucson has beautiful weather. I see elderly people walking around here all the time... walking theirs dogs, hanging up clothes, carrying bags of groceries back to their homes. Perhaps Tucson is too big and does not have such an effective mass transit system like Pecs (and all of Europe) does? And I am talking about an age of people who were most likely here during the Communist Eastern Bloc. I always watch them walking around and wonder what kinds of lives they have had.
That brings up another observation. The people here are somber. I told Manasi about this and she said that sounds like a sad word, and it is, but she agreed. People here don't really make eye contact with you walking on the streets, they don't really smile to strangers. And it isn't that Hungarians are rude or mean at all, they are just a little more quiet. They are somber. When interacting one on one, they are incredibly kind and as helpful as possible (considering the language barrier). The woman at the Posta who knows Manasi and I as "the Americans" is always very kind to us and helps us as much as she can. The couple who run the capuccino/Gyros shop are the same way. There is always this haze, hanging low, hovering in the sky. I suppose it might be fog. But really, I see it, and I am in it, and it makes me feel... war. I can feel that a devastating war to Hungarian people was here, in this country, on this land. And I also attribute this to the somberness of the people. You can still feel the affects of communism. It lingers here.