Girls with skills

"You should learn to crochet or knit so you can make us cool scarves and hats."  That's what my husband said to me this week.  And I could actually respond, "I know how to crochet."  I grew up crocheting.  It's one of the skills my mother taught me.  What else is there to do during a long, cold Alaskan winter?  Alaska girls got skills!  Now-a-days not many girls learn to sew or knit or do all those "domestic" things.  Women want to be "empowered".  Not curtail to our grandmother's generation.  But I have to say, those skills come in very handy!  So today I'm thankful for the domestic skills my mama taught me.  When all the other girls have to take their trousers to a seamstress to be hemmed, I feel very empowered!

A stranger's helping hand

Tonight on the way home from work I watched a mom with two kids and a baby in a buggy getting on the tram.  A man on the tram grabbed the two kids (about 3 or 4 years old) and pulled them up the tram steps while another guy grabbed the front of the buggy to pull it on.  The mama settled herself and her kids into the tram seats.  I thought... "In an America city, if some guys grabbed a lady's kids like that, she would freak out."  I love that Hungary still has that helping-hand-I'm-not-here-to-kidnap-your-kids mentality.  I'm realizing that all those people who stare at me on the tram are really just watching out for the strangers around them.  A great cultural trait!

Snow Day!

What every teacher and student dream about...
Too much snow.
No school!

On my morning commute I got all the way to the Bus 63 stop, the last leg of my trip to school, when I got the call... No school today.  Good thing because the bus was nowhere to be seen after a 20 minute wait.  Way off schedule.  So I hopped back onto the tram into town, along with everyone else.  It was quite a crowd!  The rest of my morning involved a walk around the neighborhood (thus the pictures), breakfast at our corner cafe and a nap.  Then it was noon, and I still had the whole day to relax.  It's evening now and it looks like things are warming up.  The bus will probably be running on time in the morning.  But one snow day is better than no snow days.  Thank you Mother Nature for a day off!

Voices from Hungary

Bronze shoes along the Danube.
A Holocaust memorial.

"A significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence.  They are not fit to live among people.  These Roma are animals and behave like animals."

This was a recent quote from a Hungarian politician.  He's part of the political party that holds the most power in Hungary right now, the political party that conservative Hungarians support.  The theme of prejudice and anti-semitism is becoming more and more prevalent in Hungary.  As I read article after article and hear some Hungarian co-workers express their pro-government stance for this current administration, it scares me to death.  Their words sound a lot like those that led to the execution of millions of Europeans in the 1940s.  In a country that survived Nazi invasion and Russian communist control within the last 70 years... In a country that houses a Holocaust Museum and The House of Terror...  In a country that has memorials throughout the city, bronze baby shoes on the edge of the river to remind themselves of the innocent who were killed and thrown away... It baffles me that people actually still think this way.  A lot of people.  And I'm scared to think what all this hateful talk and thinking might lead to.

Recent News in Hungary

It's coming!

January and February were the coldest months in Budapest last year.  It got down to -22 C (-8 F).  The last place I lived that was that cold was Alaska.  As a child.  So after 16 years living out of Alaska, including the last three years living on the equator... it was a bit of a shock.  This year I'm a little more prepared.  I own wool socks, long underwear and the warmest coat North Face sells for women.  So in the next week or two when the Danube looks like this...

Will took this picture last February near our house.

... I'm prepared!

Prepared to stay in my warm cozy house with "Fireplace" playing on the TV.