"Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab."
-Macbeth's Witches
(IV.1.30-32)
It's picturesque, really. I walk in through a creaky wooden door with a loose brass handle, to a classroom that has nothing but the sun lighting the room, less than 15 students, a sturdy chalkboard (black as night with chalk white as snow), coat hangers against the off-white walls, caramel wooden floors, matching wooden desks with iron legs, high ceilings, naked tree branches reaching through the open windows, and a professor reciting Shakespeare's Macbeth in a Hungarian accent.
"Now," my professor looks up from her book, pauses, and says, "why should Macbeth not kill the King? What are the reasons he gives us?"
It's about time I've rekindled that old flame. I was a Shakespeare-junkie in high school, and now I'm relapsing.
My other literature class is also the quintessential, old-fashioned classroom. We're studying Herman Melville, just finished reading a few excerpts from Typee, and are now onto bigger things (literally) like Moby Dick. I honestly had no idea what Moby Dick would be like, and I am actually enjoying it. It is incredibly poetic and really an adventure. Plus, I'm so glad I finally got to experience that first-line first-hand... Call me Ishmael. I mean, come on, all those writers out there who try to think of a brilliant first-line for a novel... I think that's it. Arguable, of course... but really, I love it.
Onto my third class of the day called 'Political Culture in Hungary.' The professor for this class is very awesome. He speaks English well, is really excited about politics in Hungary (and East Africa, randomly) and we might all take a field-trip to the Parliament in Budapest. He informed us that on March 9 there is a critical vote taking place about whether or not FEES will be implemented for the first time for things like: bed spaces in hospitals, tuition fees for college students... and other controversial issues as such. My new Hungarian friend Agnus in my Melville class actually told me about this last week. She threw her hands in the air, slapped them against her hips and said, "I just could not afford the university! No one here could!" My excited Politics professor warned, with raised eyebrows, "this means protests in Budapest in a couple weeks..."
What? Protests? When? Where? What for? Okay, I'm there.
I had a one-hour break for lunch. Manasi and I walked down the street from our faculty and discovered a little hole-in-the-wall gyros place. Gyros are advertised in restaurants everywhere here. So, finally, after almost three weeks of being here, I had one. And ooh ooh so tasty! I just love that dressing stuff they put on there! It's very similar dressing Ali Baba's (one of my favorite restaurants in Tucson where Mikey always gets gyros and I get kebabs) uses on their salads. I think I found my new Tuesday lunchtime spot! I don't know if this place even had a name... just a giant wooden plank leaning against the wall on the street, and in big bloody red paint it shouted: GYROS!
And I ended my long school day with three hours in Hungarian Language class. My Magyar teacher has short, spiky blond hair with purple bangs and light blue eyes. She is a great language teacher. She is very interactive and uses all sorts of techniques and methods for us to acquire Magyar as another language. This language has some wicked pronounciation! For example, look at the word: csokola'de'. Now, upon looking at it I would have not guessed it means chocolate. But hearing it out loud and learning the pronounciation... it's one of those... "Ooooohh," moments... "I get it." And, chocolate is pretty much universal in its own form, anyway. Chocolate, chocolat, cioccolato, Schokolade, chocolade, csokola'de'...
Now, on this beautiful day in Pecs, I think I might go have the best capuccino in the world and read some Shakespeare...
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab."
-Macbeth's Witches
(IV.1.30-32)
It's picturesque, really. I walk in through a creaky wooden door with a loose brass handle, to a classroom that has nothing but the sun lighting the room, less than 15 students, a sturdy chalkboard (black as night with chalk white as snow), coat hangers against the off-white walls, caramel wooden floors, matching wooden desks with iron legs, high ceilings, naked tree branches reaching through the open windows, and a professor reciting Shakespeare's Macbeth in a Hungarian accent.
"Now," my professor looks up from her book, pauses, and says, "why should Macbeth not kill the King? What are the reasons he gives us?"
It's about time I've rekindled that old flame. I was a Shakespeare-junkie in high school, and now I'm relapsing.
My other literature class is also the quintessential, old-fashioned classroom. We're studying Herman Melville, just finished reading a few excerpts from Typee, and are now onto bigger things (literally) like Moby Dick. I honestly had no idea what Moby Dick would be like, and I am actually enjoying it. It is incredibly poetic and really an adventure. Plus, I'm so glad I finally got to experience that first-line first-hand... Call me Ishmael. I mean, come on, all those writers out there who try to think of a brilliant first-line for a novel... I think that's it. Arguable, of course... but really, I love it.
Onto my third class of the day called 'Political Culture in Hungary.' The professor for this class is very awesome. He speaks English well, is really excited about politics in Hungary (and East Africa, randomly) and we might all take a field-trip to the Parliament in Budapest. He informed us that on March 9 there is a critical vote taking place about whether or not FEES will be implemented for the first time for things like: bed spaces in hospitals, tuition fees for college students... and other controversial issues as such. My new Hungarian friend Agnus in my Melville class actually told me about this last week. She threw her hands in the air, slapped them against her hips and said, "I just could not afford the university! No one here could!" My excited Politics professor warned, with raised eyebrows, "this means protests in Budapest in a couple weeks..."
What? Protests? When? Where? What for? Okay, I'm there.
I had a one-hour break for lunch. Manasi and I walked down the street from our faculty and discovered a little hole-in-the-wall gyros place. Gyros are advertised in restaurants everywhere here. So, finally, after almost three weeks of being here, I had one. And ooh ooh so tasty! I just love that dressing stuff they put on there! It's very similar dressing Ali Baba's (one of my favorite restaurants in Tucson where Mikey always gets gyros and I get kebabs) uses on their salads. I think I found my new Tuesday lunchtime spot! I don't know if this place even had a name... just a giant wooden plank leaning against the wall on the street, and in big bloody red paint it shouted: GYROS!
And I ended my long school day with three hours in Hungarian Language class. My Magyar teacher has short, spiky blond hair with purple bangs and light blue eyes. She is a great language teacher. She is very interactive and uses all sorts of techniques and methods for us to acquire Magyar as another language. This language has some wicked pronounciation! For example, look at the word: csokola'de'. Now, upon looking at it I would have not guessed it means chocolate. But hearing it out loud and learning the pronounciation... it's one of those... "Ooooohh," moments... "I get it." And, chocolate is pretty much universal in its own form, anyway. Chocolate, chocolat, cioccolato, Schokolade, chocolade, csokola'de'...
Now, on this beautiful day in Pecs, I think I might go have the best capuccino in the world and read some Shakespeare...
2 comments:
"black as night with chalk white as snow"...wow, that is BEAUTIFUL!
I always enjoy your posts so much!
And you bring it all back, what it was like to be a student...the joy of learning...
Just wanted to introduce myself...I found your blog via Judy's and I just wanted to say that it made for some great reading here tonight. I've never been to Europe, and your stories are painting some great pictures!
Hope to see more :)
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