It's been a bit of a boring week here in Máriapócs. Nothing much happened until very early yesterday morning when we simultaneously received the heaviest snowfall so far in Winter and drove Dave to the airport for his 8-day trip to Scotland. The roads were pretty slippery, visibility was poor and we were all kind of cranky because we woke up at 2am. The joys of budget flights!!
Privately, I was a little surprised that Dave was so keen to secure a cheap flight. You see, this week the Australian Dollar reached a 27-year high against the British Pound. That means that in Dave's ENTIRE LIFE there has NEVER been a better time for him to travel to the UK than this week. How's that for awesome timing?
When Daniel and I got back to Máriapócs yesterday morning we were both pretty tired and seemed to separately reach the same game plan for the day - teach as little as possible and let the kids tire themselves out in the snow. So at about 10:30am, I took my Grade 1s outside and discovered Daniel engaged in a snowfight against his Grade 4 class. There seemed like only one thing to do. I gathered my Grade 1s close, taught them two new words "throw" and "snowball", then set them off to test out their new vocabulary, "Throw snowball at Daniel". Needless to say it was utterly hilarious watching my little minions join in the fight against my very tired husband. Muahahahaha.
In other news, today we finally got to attend a pig-killing. Soon after we arrived in Hungary, Daniel was invited to participate in one at the home of a colleague, but he wasn't able to go. Ever since it's been something he's regretted missing out on :(
Fast forward to this week and Daniel's music teacher, Zoli, told us about a large pig-killing festival happening today in the nearby town of Napkor. Naturally we were pretty enthusiastic about going, even if I was also a little horrified by the whole idea. But pity poor Dave who missed out this time around due to his trip to Scotland.
Privately, I was a little surprised that Dave was so keen to secure a cheap flight. You see, this week the Australian Dollar reached a 27-year high against the British Pound. That means that in Dave's ENTIRE LIFE there has NEVER been a better time for him to travel to the UK than this week. How's that for awesome timing?
When Daniel and I got back to Máriapócs yesterday morning we were both pretty tired and seemed to separately reach the same game plan for the day - teach as little as possible and let the kids tire themselves out in the snow. So at about 10:30am, I took my Grade 1s outside and discovered Daniel engaged in a snowfight against his Grade 4 class. There seemed like only one thing to do. I gathered my Grade 1s close, taught them two new words "throw" and "snowball", then set them off to test out their new vocabulary, "Throw snowball at Daniel". Needless to say it was utterly hilarious watching my little minions join in the fight against my very tired husband. Muahahahaha.
In other news, today we finally got to attend a pig-killing. Soon after we arrived in Hungary, Daniel was invited to participate in one at the home of a colleague, but he wasn't able to go. Ever since it's been something he's regretted missing out on :( Fast forward to this week and Daniel's music teacher, Zoli, told us about a large pig-killing festival happening today in the nearby town of Napkor. Naturally we were pretty enthusiastic about going, even if I was also a little horrified by the whole idea. But pity poor Dave who missed out this time around due to his trip to Scotland.
The festival started at 9am and Daniel and I decided to arrive before 10am to ensure that we'd be able to see the live pigs and secure ourselves a prime view of the slaughter (geez, I feel bloodthirsty writing that). Unfortunately, when we arrived there were no live pigs anywhere to be seen and the only evidence that they'd ever existed were large pools of blood on the ground and massive piles of fresh meat being chopped, minced, sliced and diced wherever we looked. It seems that you need to arrive pretty darn early (7am-ish) if you want to see the pigs being killed. I was disappointed, but also rather relieved.
Anyway, the rest of the festival was pretty cool. About a dozen teams, each representing a nearby town, were competing to prepare the best pork-based dishes. One team had a whole pig turning on a spit roast, other teams had massive cauldrons full of pork stew, others seemed to just be enjoying hacking their pig into as many pieces as possible. It was pretty gruesome. There were also lots of stalls selling preserved foods, handmade knives and cleavers, and various leather goods. At one end of the field, a stage showcased traditional folk dances, citeria music (courtesy of Zoli's band) and old ladies singing. We didn't hang around to see him, but one of our students' favourite performers, Fluor, was also scheduled to make an appearance.
Bloody good fun.
- Amanda
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