Life is interesting if your only language is English and you are staying is a house where you can trade understandings with your wife, misunderstandings with your mother-in-law, and (mostly) complete lack of understandings with your father-in-law.
First of all, you are not always saying what you think you are. My In-law’s are both fluent in German and Hungarian, and my Mother-in-law speaks some English. But words in English often have bazar meanings in Hungarian or German. For example, "Bye" in Hungarian means "Trouble," so if you say "Bye Bye" as you leave, what they hear is "Trouble Trouble," which, in my case is probably pretty true. Another example, this is a beach town, and I often get a small stone in my Birks. Like most of my generation in college, I refer to this as a "rock in my ‘stock." In German, a "rock" is a skirt and a "stock" is a stick, so what I am really saying here is that I have a "skirt in my stick." Not quite the same thing. Another example. The word "Kek" (with the little line on the "e") is pronounced "cake" in Hungarian, but means the color blue. Of course, Germans hear it is "poop," so you can’t win regardless.
My wife, who has been going back and forth between German and Hungarian, and then switching to English to translate for me is developing a very cute little accent. If we ever do another production of "Fiddler" this accent is perfect for Yenta.
More language fun. Peter, Zia and I went to a flea market in Tapolca. As Peter has been having back trouble, I was again in the pilots chair. On our way home, Peter took us via the scenic route. I was given the instruction to follow the signs to Balaton - and then a sound slightly likes sneezing and snoring. No prob - I’ll just follow the signs to the town that says "Balaton" on the front of it, and I’ll be OK. And it worked remarkably well, four about 15 miles. At this point I was confronted with a sign that proudly proclaimed "Balatonszeped" and an arrow left and "Balatonreneds" and an arrow right. Needless to say I had to come to a complete stop before we got to a direction that I could understand. Turns out both directions get us there, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Which brings us to my main point, that I made to several of you before we left. Hungarian is not a real language. Hungarian is a language made up by Hungarians to mess up tourists for the amusement of Hungarians. When we leave, they go back to speaking something normal. My proof of this is that periodically, in the nature of kids playing chicken, they slip in a normal word. If you catch them at it, they deny it and make up a new word that sounds a lot like it, but of course is not really what they said.
For example, my wife regularly says "hoo ha" (as in "can I have a hoo ha, two times Tuesday"). OK, look. It was all over the TV before we left, like I am going to miss that. Or, and this was the tip off, my wife slipping "forty-two" into a sentence. Like I am not going to catch that. Oh, she denied it, but it doesn’t change the fact that she said it! In addition to the above, I have heard people say "yak yak," "car part," "Ester Short," and, this is the topper, my mother-in-law slipping "William Shatner" into a conversation. The part I am amazed by is how they can keep this joke going and keep a straight face. Oh well...
*****
We went to the spa at Hevis to take the cure. You have to rent an intertube (or bring your own), and then you pay for a period of time in the lake. The day we went it was raining slightly and the lake was slightly warmer than the air. Not hot-tub-hot, but pleasantly warm. We soaked for two hours. It was really very nice. We got out of the lake about the same time the announcement came over the PA, in three languages, that you should "under no circumstances spend more than an hour in the pool without coming out for a break." Nice of them to tell us. Anyway, we left the water pleasantly soaked and radioactive.
*****
We celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary on the sixth. Vera and Peter took us out to a local Csarda for a fabulous dinner (with a great folk band and show). The restaurant (ettrem) is an old hang out for a Hungarian Robin Hood type band, that, as they do, took from the rich and gave to the poor. There is a memorial where the leaders are buried, where people still leave flowers. From there, back to Keszthely, where we walked down to the wine fest, and then took the champagne cruise on the lake.
So, at the end of year one, thanks to all of you, near and far, for your friendship and support.
Dave
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