Remember my roommate Fakars aka Farek? Well, I finally got
to know him a bit Thursday night! I was trying to figure out what one of the
signs on our wall meant (there were words I didn’t know and didn’t have the
resources to look up at the moment) and he came wandering through and helped me
translate them. We have a Putzplan
(cleaning plan) to keep the flat looking nice and the duties rotate every week,
so he detailed what exactly the person “in charge” is supposed to do.
We sat in the kitchen and talked for a while and I learned a
lot about Hungary (where he’s from) and Hungarian history. Apparently his
family can trace their lineage back over a thousand years and his family is a
“noble family”, which he told me pretty much means nothing today. At midnight he
decided he needed more beer, so we went to the penny-market across the street
where Fakars showed me the layout and explained the German method of bagging
your own groceries and how to return your plastic bottles for money. When we
got back, Fakars showed me pictures of his family back in Hungary and his
university, as well as his work in the forest (he’s a forest engineer).
On Friday, Fakars cooked a Hungarian delicacy consisting of
sliced potatoes, copious amounts of paprika, rosemary, parsley, bacon, and
bratwurst in a huge pot. Anna had invited over two friends of hers (Enrique and
Pablo) from Spain who are studying beginners’ German at the language school and
an American (Kenton?) from California who is also in their class. Fakars
decided to feed us all his Hungarian meal so we had a feast! Enrique and I were
speaking in English and a tiny bit of German and Spanish, I translated from
German to English for Anna, Enrique translated from my English to Spanish for
Anna if she didn’t quite understand, Fakars spoke a bit of Spanish he had
picked up because his ex-girlfriend of four years was from Valencia, Fakars
later spoke a bit of Hungarian because we wanted to hear what it sounded like,
and Temel was speaking on the phone in Turkish to a friend of his, occasionally contributing to our conversation. It was
incredibly fun and rewarding to be able to communicate with everyone and to
hear all of the languages. At one point we had four different languages flying
across the dinner table! For dessert, we had a thin cake that was layered with
fruit and a sweet glaze. Another Hungarian specialty, apparently! We ended up
talking around the table until 2:30 am, when we finally decided to turn in. I
had a great time- and you can’t beat free food! Since then we’ve all sat around
the table every night and talked, some nights until past one in the morning
(like last night). I’m definitely starting to feel my age haha! :)
On Saturday a group of us took a trip to IKEA on the city
bus and bought a few necessities and decorations for our rooms. I got a couple
of towels and washcloths, a big rug for my floor, a small mall for the floor
near my sink, and bamboo swirl and cotton plant (they’re so cool!), a fleece blanket,
and a plastic bin to use as a shower caddy. Now that my room is pretty, I’ll
post pictures in a separate entry!
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