SEPTEMBER 15
It has been, as you know, three months since I last wrote. During that time I have been in USA, entirely in the NYC area. If you live in that area, then I probably got to see you at least once. If not, then we did not see each other at all. I spent a relaxing and very satisfying time and got to see old friends and dear colleagues, which is something of a redundancy, since my old colleagues are all dear friends. I arrived back to Hungary the very end of August and have been understandably busy since then, as I am going away on a one-week holiday to a village on the Slovenian border at the end of this week.
In the course of a few days our temperature here dropped from the mid-90s to the mid-50s! It feels like November, and I have packed mostly late-summer and early-fall clothing for my trip. (I even included my swim suit, and the pool is outdoors). I shall add that area to my daily weather briefings on my home-page and keep my fingers crossed.
USA is not the only place with hot political news. While having ebed (a midday dinner), I watched our Prime Minister deliver a defense of his administration in Parliament prior to a Confidence Vote. The Opposition party is demanding new elections, which need not be held until two more years, and boycotted the Confidence Vote because they knew the governing party would win; the governing party will definitely not hold elections because they know they would lose badly. So we had the charade of speeches by the PM and his supporters to a chamber packed with their supporters, and speeches by representatives of the other parties, applauded by the two or three of their supporters who showed up.
I am going to go out on a limb and give you my feeling about the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Republican Party.
She is without a doubt the most ignorant (including Dubb-yah), the stupidest, the kookiest, and the most grandiose figure I have had thrust upon me in my years of observing the political scene in USA. I cannot believe some of the things she says: that her "preparation" to deal with the problems of our relations with Russia is that "you can actually see Russia from some islands in Alaska"; that our troops are "doing God's Will" in Iraq; and that her never having met a leader of a foreign country is because she was "close to the people" and not getting corrupted by being in DC. Until last year she never even had a passport, but she insists that she is ready to be President, because being President is about "knowing what the mission is about", and not cluttering your head with a lot of irrelevant DC-speak. No offense to him, for he is an old friend. But do you think that Dave Kauffman's being Mayor of Monticello (same size as Wassilla, and he was Mayor for 20+ years, mind you)
is adequate preparation to be President? At least some important people came to the Concord, which would have given Dave the opportunity to meet them at least; but who ever went to Wassilla? Let me drop this before I have to increase my blood-pressure medication!
OCTOBER 7
We had a grand time at the timeshare in Nemesnep. It is a quite new place, part of a chain; we have been to one of its other resorts, in Keszthely, several times. It was two kilometers down the road from the border crossing to Slovenia, which was unmanned. On our second day we went to a spa, Teplice, which has two grand hotels, in one of which we had coffee. From there we went to Sobota, a fair-sized town (about 75,000, I would guess) with no special architectural attractions. On the way home we stopped at Lendvara, a town of 5000+ in a small triangle that is about five miles from Hungary and five miles from Croatia. Astonishingly, it had a very large shopping mall and some attractive buildings, not all of which we went to. But we did go to the theater, a striking architectural gem you would never expect to find in a town of 100,000 in the US, let alone one of only 5000. On Monday we went to Maribor, a major city of Slovenia, with very impressive buildings and squares, and a very attractive park as well. And of course churches. On Tuesday we stayed in Hungary and went to a national park and several sights, including a church dating from the 13th century, that is still in use. On Wednesday came the greatest surprise of all. We visited the Croatian town of Varazdin, which can't be much larger than Hodmezovasarhely, but which had stunning buildings and squares, churches, and a magnificent castle dating from the 13th century. The weather also happened to be the best on that day, warm and sunny; on other days, though it never rained, it was cloudy for the most part and slightly on the cool side. On Thursday we visited Lenti, a Hungarian town with a large open-air market, which Hungarians call a piac (pronounced pee-otts), and some surprisingly attractive buildings, and also an old fortress on the edge of town. On Friday we went to Csesztreg (CHEST-reg) in order to mail some letters, among other things. And then we drove home the following day, a long drive as Nemesnep is clear across the country and there are no expressways going there from here, unless you are willing to go up to Budapest on the M-5 and the M-0, and then take the M-7, after which you still have about 1-1/2 hours to go on so-so roads. Once home I had lots of things to take care of. Saturday I went to Anna's class re-union, an annual affair; they have grown accustomed to my coming in Anna's absence, so even though I was not a classmate, they accept me as though I had been. In the evening I went to a magnificent performance of Tosca in Szeged. She sang magnificently and was ravishingly beautiful. My only complaint---if you want to call it that---is that Baron Scarpia was so handsome it was hard to accept him as a villain; it would have been easier had he been old and fat. Now I am preparing to leave Thursday morning for a weekend in Sarajevo, in Bosnia-Herczegovina, where my very dear friend, Peter McDermott, is doing a Fullbright this semester. For those who do not know Peter, he is Professor of Education at Russell Sage and our friendship dates back to 1974. He was a witness when Anna and I were married. So I shall have more to say when I return.
OCTOBER 15
I am back from Sarajevo and rather tired, as it is a sixteen hour trip by train, with three changes of train and a layover long enough to get a sandwich only in Pecs. I left home at 5.00 a.m. and arrived there at 9.15 p.m.; returning, I left at 7.15 a.m. and arrived home near midnight. Peter met me at the station and we walked to his flat, which is a quite attractive house overlooking the old city. We did quite a bit of walking during the three days I was there, which is not in itself a problem, for I love to walk, as those who know me well well know. But I am rather averse to walking uphill and Sarajevo is a quite hilly city, so I had to take it a bit easy now and then. Peter got tickets to the symphony for Saturday evening and we attended a performance of Carmina Burana, along with some unrecognizable but quite satisfying works. I was very impressed, both with the orchestra and with the hall where it was done, though it was not a traditional symphony hall but rather appeared to be a sports stadium which had been adapted to meet the needs of a symphony hall. But the acoustics were quite good, which suggests that I may very well be mistaken about that. We went to two very fine restaurants and attended a get-together at the home of a young couple employed at the US Embassy, where I met several other Fullbrights. It seems strange to see minarets and European Muslims in Europe, but otherwise it seemed like any other European city in the sense of the general atmosphere. There are numerous Christian churches, mostly Roman Catholic, and there is nothing in the general demeanor of persons to suggest that you are not in Slovakia, Hungary, or any other European country. People were very friendly, and their opinion of the US, and in particular of Bill Clinton, is extremely favorable.
I am not, however, one of those Americans who is greatly concerned about whether or not the locals like Americans. I have never been ill-treated by reason of being American, even in places where the inhabitants tended to sharply disagree with American policies. Like intelligent persons everywhere, they realized that I am not an official of the US government and Bush does not seek or act upon my advice, so I am not responsible for what he does.
OCTOBER 17
I enjoy doing this every now and then. What famous event in US history took place on this date? You have no idea? I'll give you a hint: the year was 1777.
Still no luck? General Burgoyne surrendered to the colonials at Saratoga, a victory which led to open support of the American cause by France and other nations.
Today is a cool rainy, typical autumn day, in contrast to yesterday, which was sunny and quite warm, about 70 compared to today's 51. I chanced to read in a local newspaper today an announcement that there will be a Mass Sunday evening here by the Bishop, the occasion being the acceptance and blessing of two paintings donated by an acquaintance of mine, Dr.Moldvay Sandor, in honor of his late wife, who was a classmate of Anna's. Naturally I shall attend. If I had not glanced through the paper at a friend's I would have known nothing of it. I have my car back. Alternator. Fortunately it did not happen while I was on vacation. About six years ago it did happen, while I was in Transylvania, in the course of a trip to Italy. Fortunately (because there probably was no Toyota dealer in all Romania with one in stock) it happened in a small town where a passerby directed me to a mechanic who built me an alternator in the course of six hours. It lasted me the entire trip to Italy and back, but once home again I immediately went to the local Toyota dealer and got a new one, which is the one that just went on me.
Next Wednesday begins the Oszi szunet, the Autumn Vacation in all schools of the country. The 23rd is a national holiday anyway, and the szunet ends after All Saints Day, which is a big family day here, when persons come from all over the country to visit the graves of deceased family members. Some do it on All Souls Day, the following day, as many Catholics do in the US; but All Saints Day is the most widely observed.
Well the election is almost upon us and at this moment it appears that Obama is headed for a rather convincing victory. I said long ago that he would either win by a wide margin or lose in a close election, but it appears that this will not be a close election, even traditional Republican states seem to be going for Obama. We shall see!
OCTOBER 19
Astonishingly, the BBC is carrying Obama's campaign speech in NC in its entirety.
For me, at least, one GOOD thing has come out of all this economic chaos: the dollar has actually risen in value against almost all European currencies. Here in Hungary its value has risen from 143 forints two weeks ago to 198 now----and climbing! Ditto the Euro: only $1.33 vs $1.60 two weeks ago. Today I filled my tank. It used to cost me $64 to fill my tank (I have a Toyota Corolla); today it cost me only $51, even though gasoline has declined in price by only .25 a gallon, thanks to the shift in currency exchange values. If you are wondering about my math, my tank was virtually empty today, whereas I usually fill it when it is about 1/4 full.
I usually watch the NFL on TV Sunday evenings, but since I have to get up at 04.00 and the game does not start here until 22.00, I shall have to get the results on my computer when I get up. It is almost 21.00, so time to go!
OCTOBER 22
I am back from Debrecen. My trip had a very bad beginning. The train from here goes directly to Szolnok, where I change and take a train to Debrecen. Since it is a 2-1/2 hour trip, I settled in and began to listen to my MP-3 player and to read. We arrived to Szentes, and after a few minutes I noticed that no one had gotten on the train and that everyone had gotten off. I got off and asked the stationmaster, and he said that there was no thru service between Szentes and Kunszentmarton, that one had to get off the train and take a bus and then re-board the train in Kunszentmarton. My problem was that the bus to take me there had already left and the next one would come in two hours. I considered taking the train back to Hodmezovasarhely, where my car was parked at the railroad station, and driving to Debrecen. Problem: the train just left. Next train: two hours. You would think they would have placed notices on the train, and in all the stations; but, no, this is Hungary. There were notices in the station in Szentes, as well as in Szolnok, where they also made announcements; but if you boarded the train before you got to Szentes, going toward Szolnok, then you just had to know in some other way. Apparently other passengers did know, but I did not, the result being that I arrived to Debrecen at 12.00 noon instead of at 10.00
I have taken to "watching" the US network news programs on my computer, as well as listening to the National Public Radio news broadcasts, along with other news programs, such as 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, etc. I have sort of known about them all along, but never thought about watching them until I watched them with Peter in Sarajevo. Just as I know about reading the local newspapers and listening to WQXR. the latter is less appealing because, using Media Player, I can created my own musical programs from the music stored on my hard drive, which amounts to scores of symphonies, operas, and other selections, and thus enjoy my favorite music all the time. I am writing this, by the way, while resting up from house-cleaning; I have done all the mopping, and now need only do my living-room and bedroom, the latter being the more difficult of the two and therefore the one I shall do last.
OCTOBER 26
It is a cloudy and cool Sunday morning. Yesterday I rode my bike home from the friend's where I had left it back in June before I left for USA. Although I go there several times a week, I never bothered to ride it home until yesterday. Let me explain the economic crisis here and how it came about. It actually has to do a great deal with----yes, mortgages! Believe it or not, it is possible here to buy a house or flat in many instances with no down payment. Or at least it was. Many persons borrowed money for home purchases, car purchases----again, no down payment----from Hungarian banks that were acting as agents for foreign banks. In short, they handled the paperwork, but you were borrowing the money from a Swiss, Austrian, or German bank. You got Hungarian forints, which is what you needed for the purchase; but your loan was in euros or Swiss francs, and---get this---had to be repaid in euros or francs. This was no problem so long as the value of the forint against the euro/franc remained about what it was when you borrowed the money. But it did not. The forint declined in value, therefore it took more forints to pay your monthly payment, with the result that payments jumped as much as one-third. This could not happen in USA, of course, since we borrow in dollars and re-pay in dollars, and the fact that the money is being borrowed from HSBC or Natwest (British banks) does not affect the amount of the payment because of fluctuations in the exchange value of the dollar against the British pound; but for Hungarians it is similar to having an adjustable rate loan, in that the amount of your payment is adjusted according to the exchange-rate every six months.
We are still in the long holiday weekend. I have a light schedule this week, but then there is the All Saints Day holiday weekend, during which I shall go to the cemetery and take flowers to the graves of Anna's parents and those of friends who have died. This is a very major holiday here, and people come from all over the country to go to the cemeteries where relatives are buried.
NOVEMBER 8
As you can see Election Day has come and gone. I was called by a newspaper reporter who wanted to know if I were going to vote in the election and how I would do so. I explained that while in USA in the summer I went to the election office of the county and had them mail me a ballot, which I then filled in and mailed to them in mid-October, as it had to arrive before November 4th in order to be counted. There were Americans here teaching English in the public schools for an organization that sends teachers here every year and they also appeared in the article which appeared in the newspaper; I have never met either of them, however.
As for the results, well, I had predicted that Obama would win by 375-163 electoral votes, which was very close to the outcome, the difference being caused by the fact that he narrowly lost Missouri by about 5000 votes out of about 5 million cast. As for my reaction to the fact of his victory, all I can say is that it is something I certainly never expected to happen in my lifetime. But then so many things have happened during my lifetime that I never expected to happen. I do not expect any miracles; after all, the Great Depression was ended by World War II, not by the New Deal. However, the New Deal provided people with the tools of survival during the Great Depression, and---more important----it gave them hope. People felt that they were better off, even if in fact they were not significantly so. The good part is that there exist today means for the government to address the problems of economic turmoil that did not exist in the time of the New Deal. The bad part is that the enormity of public and private debt may prove too crushing for sustaining a stable currency. So we shall see.
With this I shall end this, for it seems a natural breaking point.
