You will not believe what happened. I had been working on this since back in early April and went to add something today and accidentally erased everything! Now there is no way I can remember everything I wrote and I shall not even attempt it; and early April is so long ago I could not possibly recall even major events, let alone the trivia which I often include in these. Well, let me starts with the current news. It is very, very hot here, in the mid-90s, would you believe it? It was that way yesterday in Hajduszoboszlo, and I thought it was a fluke; but it seems it will be that way for the next several days. I shall check---I was going to anyway---because we (Anna, I, and a friend) leave for a week on Lake Balaton Saturday morning. We return on the 7th, then Anna prepares to depart for USA on the 18th, and I follow on the 27th. I had not intended to travel to USA this summer, and had instead thought of going to Bulgaria, to which I have never been; but something came up, and Anna asked me to come to USA, and when I demurred, she asked me again several days later, so I agreed. Meanwhile, the bad news is that all tickets to Wagner's Ring Cycle, which will be performed in concertized form from 19 thru 22 June, are sold out. I cannot say this is a great surprise, but I held out some hope. We were up to Budapest this past Sunday to attend a program of Bulgarian students and members of the Bulgarian community (not large, as you may imagine); Anna 's cousin teaches there, or at least she did, for she has been declared excess. This is not a school of the Hungarian government, but rather one sponsored by the Bulgarian Consulate. I do not know the technical details, but suffice it to say that last month they announced that she was being terminated, along with other non-Bulgarian teachers. I do not know the law here, but it would seem to me that you would not be able to dismiss someone solely on the basis of their nationality, especially after they have taught there for fifteen years.
In other news, Anna and I were to Prague with a group of retired teachers for a weekend. We had been to the city several times, and each of us recently, but never together. It was a very warm weekend---the Pentecost Holiday weekend, as it happens. which is celebrated here on Sunday and Monday, as are Easter and----well, I cannot think of another, but Christmas is also celebrated on the 26th. We left Friday morning and returned Monday evening. We were billeted in a dormitory of the Czech version of MIT, on a high hill. Since the group walked everywhere, this immediately gave rise to a problem for me, for although I love to walk and will walk any distance on level ground, I do not climb hills. The problem was solved by taking the subway to Dejvicka station and a bus from there to the University. I was familiar with Dejvicka station, having taken the metro there to get a bus to the airport the last time I was in Prague, and I saw at the bus stop in front of the University that the buses ran to that station, so everything became easy, except finding exactly where the bus left from in the plaza above the station, which we managed to resolve, though not always in the same way.
A friend of Anna's---some of you may know Karen, with whom Anna worked---came to Hungary, and she and Anna went to Venice and to Transylvania. I went to neither; I had no interest in going to see Bran Castle again, which is famous (?) for its connection with the Dracula Legend, and while one can never go too often to Venice, I would rather go in what comes closest to being the "off-season", for there is never really an off-season for Venice.
We have been following the Presidential campaign---who hasn't---and are relieved that we are at last nearing the end of Phase One. You will not believe how many persons here follow the results as though it were the World Cup in soccer. Most wonder if Hillary will get the nomination, for they feel that the odds are greater against a woman getting the nomination than against a black. This, notwithstanding the fact that under normal circumstances, our President here in Hungary would have been a woman, Szili Katalin, who is President of the Parliament, which corresponds to Nancy Pelosi being Speaker of the House. She isn't because SZDSZ, which was a coalition partner at the time, urged that the President should not be someone politically connected, but someone not identified with any political party. Also, I need hardly point out that most persons would dismiss as ludicrous the suggestion that a gypsy could become President of Hungary. And bear in mind that the position is a largely ceremonial one, which does not begin to bear the authority and power of the American Presidency. Mind you, the most important thing to people here is that whoever it is, it will not be Bush. They have never heard of McCain, and cannot imagine that a Republican could get elected for the next fifty years. If only they were right!!!!!
Well, the primary season is finally over, and the unlikely winner won. I must say that although I was a Clinton backer virtually until the end, I became somewhat disenchanted with her in the later stages of the campaign. You simply do not say that your opponent in the primary is unqualified to be President, but that the person whom you know is to be the candidate of the other party in the general election is highly qualified. I think everyone acknowledged that Hillary was more qualified than Obama; but that depends upon what you were looking for in a candidate. Nixon arguably was more qualified than JFK, and Gore was clearly more qualified than Bush Jr.
We are back from Lake Balaton---it is June 18th, and Anna left for NYC this morning. We have been to Keszthely numerous times, so it was mainly a change of scenery and rest. We went to Zalaegerszeg and Nagykanizsa, and I had never been to either of them before, for they are in that part of Hungary to which I have gone least often. In late September we shall go for a week to Nemesnep, which is on the Slovenian border; this will give us the opportunity to drive over to Slovenia, one of those small former autonomous republics of Jugoslavia which I have not been to, although I have been through it on the train to Venice. As I said, I shall leave for NYC the 27th and return the 26th of August. I am there primarily on business, so you should not become offended if I do not get to your part of the country. If you live somewhere near NY, then there is a good chance I will see you; if not, the chances are not good, for I do not know just how much of my time will be taken up by the business I am going there for and I have no idea whether the business will be concluded even by the time I return in August.
This will mark the end of this entry. The next time you hear from me on this site will likely be in late October. Until then, I wish you good health and good cheer.
