Birthday!

Last night, we were invited over to our principal's house for "a talk".  We were a little bit worried as having "a talk" with the boss is always a bit worrying.  I asked our colleague Ili what it might be about but she said that she didn't know.  It's been really hot over here at the moment with most days hitting the high thirties with very little wind.  So when five o'clock rocked around we really didn't feel like going out into the heat to possibly be yelled at, but we went anyway.

Sanji, our principal, lives in the nearby town of Pócspetri which basically begins where Máriapócs starts so it was a quick 2 minute drive to his house.  Once we got there, we discovered that it was a surprise birthday party for me and all the teachers were invited.  It was really nice of them to organise it, there was an awesome Hungarian soup... wait... have I talked about how awesome Hungarian soups are?  I don't believe that I have.

Hungarian soups are awesome.  They are relatively simple to make, they just involve chopping the ingredients into chunky bits then adding them to water at the right times.  Sure there are some spices or other herbs that are added but they just come out really well.  I've never been one for soups, truth be told.  Back in Australia, Amanda and I tried to go through a soup stage and we boiled all sorts of things in a pot in order to get something that could be called soup but it just never worked out.  Hungarian soups work out.  Enough said.

Anyway, in addition to the soups, there were steaks, chicken, potatoes, greek salad and a swath of cakes and sweet cake like things called sütemény, which seem to include everything from a slice to a cupcakes.  Wonderful stuff.  Ili made this peach slice sütemény which was wonderful.  I ate heaps of it.  In addition there were plenty of welcome drinks of palinka (home made from grapes) and plenty of beer.  It was a great night, all in all.

Today, was my birthday, and it was pretty cruisy.  I practiced my new citera that heaps of people went in for (Thanks Mum and Derek, Dad and Deb, Dave and Anthea, Christine and Danni!).  It's a great citera, a tenor, which is larger than I was used to with the prima. So I have to learn to play it, but once I do I will be able to play harmony a lot better.  I really love it.  

- Daniel.