an online writers' course and other things

The link is here.
I thought I'd give it a try.
More on that later on.
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Right now I am polishing a 10+ page scientific paper I have translated to English. Some of the most frequent words reveal my state of mind these days: farm regulation, inheritance law, turnover, material resources, measures. Had enough I guess. I, too :) - please tell me it's not 'me, too' here, right?

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About the photos:

They were made in Poland, where we had a nice performance with the choir.

(more photos may come on request)

Keep well,

SzF.

Hungarian success

you may not be watching Britain's got talent all the time, but the seventh season has just started and with a massive success from a Hungarian dance company.

here's the video, it takes only 4 minutes and your breath away.

:)

school has started today

the kids are now going to a high school in the town where we live.

my daughter (b. March 2000) has started grade 5 and her education will last for 8 years.

my son (b. December 1996) has started grade 9 and will graduate from high school in June 2015.

they commute by bus.

unfortunately there are no school buses here, so they have to take the town's own bus system.

today was like this:

we got up at 6:00 am, they took off at 7:10 am. they arrived home by 2:30 pm.

this is the first time my kids are going to the same school at the same time.

my daughter had 5 classes, but my son had 6.

she waited in the hall for her brother and they went home together.

i know i am being sentimental, but it warmed my heart up :)))

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there is a new job on the horizon... more on that later :)

propaganda :)

why yes, this is a propaganda for Jason's contest, which now has 40 entries, with number 33 being mine :)

at the same time i dedicate this post to draw your attention to THIS POST.

below are my notes, just my two cents about the subject - the same lines i commented to the post mentioned below.

my lines might make you want to read the original post... ;)

it can't be that easy to balance between showing bad and good characters of a certain nation/religious group/community when there's a definite negative air (of media) around that group. if the author goes all negative - it's another pro-group voice in the mainstream. it's propaganda, as you said, and no one wants to read that, either. if the book is all positive then the author might get accused of being partial...or writing propaganda...

at the same time no one likes people who sit on the fence....

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oh, and the time and difficulty i had choosing the name of the boy in that short story for Jason's contest.
i wanted a male name that means 'light'.
i surfed the internet.
i found tonnes of Hebrew names.
i said no.
i found Indian names. i discarded them because i thought those would have been misleading as to the setting and time of my story.
i found an Arabic one. i liked it a lot. i discarded it because... i thought it might provoke unwanted directions in the reader's head.
so i chose a Japanese one.

go figure :(

elemental contest :)

Jason is having a contest this Wednesday.

There is a photo for inspiration, which I already have because he let us peek into it :)

Today I wrote my contribution as well. It is clearly influenced by a book I’m reading right now (by the way, I’m reading it for the second time), but I digress.

If you visit Jason's site you may read lots of great entries. You may even write your own story, for the rules are clearly set, and enter the contest. You may enter to try to win, but if you arelooking for literary enjoyment, you’ll be having one for sure.

And then there’s the supportive community of published authors and damn good amateurs.

Go!

By the way, the photo is titled ’elemental’.

anthology

and yes, the anthology that contains pieces written by the members of the local writers' group is ready and published.

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as some of you may know, there is a special series of cultural events called "the week of book" in Hungary. it is a nationwide event. most publishing houses come out with lots of different books. new and well-known authors, all kinds of genres alike: this week is to celebrate reading and books in general. most libraries have at least one special event, larger ones have a whole week filled with a series of events like meeting the author(s), discussing a special book.

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i have three entries published in the anthology, which was introduced on 2 June, as the first event of the week, they are: Winter Fairy (a 4 stanza, abab rhyming poem about the natural wonders and the harsh reality of winter) , Fellas (a short story about the end of a friendship between a blackbird and a hen - of course this one is a parabole) and Homeward bound (a short story in three pieces about a roadside mistery and about at least 3 deaths)

i translated the latter and put it up here a while ago. for the first piece click HERE.

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so, on 2 June, the authors were seated in front of the visitors and the professional leader of the group (an acknowledged young poet) introduced us and the book. this quite formal talk was followed by a short, informal meeting between the readers and us, and the evening was finished off in a pizza bar with lots of friendly discussions. we just simply enjoyed that we reached this stage.

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if i had to choose one word to describe the evening it would be: 'unbelievable'

i translate and write articles to magazines, so i frequently do see my name in print. it can't be that. my poems and short stories are being published in a virtual writers' site. people can read and comment on my writing... so it can't be that either.

is it the form?

that this anthology is a book, a good-old fashioned, REAL book?

:)

this feeling makes me happy, makes me want to learn more about good writing, makes me want to write more, makes me excited and horrified at the same time.

:)

wow, i had to face potential readers...

Finland 2 - Kangasniemi 2

a toilet, a small kitchen where organic waste is separately collected and a friendly recreational area, ... nothing really exceptional for the ecologically and socially conscious... except that all photos were made in the state high school of Kangasniemi.

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please share your thoughts - here are mines.

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toilets are as basic to urban life as electricity or running water. you have it and you have it well equipped and clean. i don't own an office, but if i had, i had its toilet kept as clean as the one in my family house. because it is just the way things operate.

at the same time however, and i know it's a shame to admit, but most public toilets in my country are the ones people tend to avoid. they are dirty and neglected. and i don't really understand.

the same applies to collecting organic waste.

just until recently, organic waste was just mixed into communal waste, paper got mixed with metals and glass...

whereas our family follows the easy steps of composting organic and collecting separately.

i wonder when people will follow the obvious and stray from the unsustainable...

thoughts...thoughts...

from the 47' to the 62'

dear all,

between 11 and 15 May our choir is having a good time in Finland.

on Wednesday we fly to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, but after a short sight seeing tour we are heading Forssa, where we are put up with Finnish families. on Thursday we are heading Kangasniemi to visit the local church and give a concert there.

the next day we are going back to Forssa, have a day for recreation and perform the second time there, in a local church. we fly back to Hungary early Sunday.

Kangasniemi is by far the furthest northern destination of my life. it lies along the 62th north parallel, whereas my hometown (that is, where i live) on the 47'.

one of the pieces we are going to sing is over here: it is not us singing, but a famous Hungarian children's choir. this piece was written to be sung this fast and the kids are doing a really-really great job.

these days i'm busy arranging things before i leave and also i'm revising a translation i've just finished.

i feel tired and not everything's quite allright.

i'm looking forward to the trip.

making pasta

looky!
a post with a subject other than my accident and related dental problems.
whoa.
here, here!
we bought a simple hand-made machine that can turn a loosely formed dough of flour and eggs into useful shapes of fresh pasta.
they are much more delicioso than those one buys at the shops.
hear pasta!
imagine the smell of tomatoes!
the smear of olives!
the fall of freshly grated cheese from a chinaware!
the feel of the outer peel of garlic!
the onset of unwanted kilos!
loads of fun!
the kids involved in something useful for the household!
a hearty, meat sauce with hungarian paprika!
some morekilos!
whoa!
hear us eating!

(how come i still managed to fit those magic words into this completely non-related post. i deserve a good surprise.)

looking back on 2010

here are some photos as i promised in the last post. while taking the bad into consideration, i also wanted to have a small collection of positive memories of the past year.

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this one here was made on June 5, when we travelled with the women's choir to give a concert at Nagyszalonta. the trip was awesome, we saw museums and wondered around the streets of a lovely small country town.

the second one is a tribute to the chicken and the garden. if you click on the photo you will be able to see the chicken yard with animals of various age, color and gender. in the background, behind the chicken yard, there is the vegetable garden. you can see the purple echinacea bordering the lines from the left and a bunch of calendulas on the right. in between the two valuable herbs, there are small bushes of tomatoes.

heavy rains resulted in a humid autumn with lots of mushrooms - the third photo was made when the family (we, as four and my husband's mother and my kids' three cousins) went on a mushroom-hunting trip to the nearby forest. the photo depicts what the kids found beside lots of mushrooms.

in november we had a kind invitation from a friend of us, who took me to the Hungarian Krishna valley. some other day i will make a short collection of the photos i made there, but now here's only one of them.

goodbye 2010....
it was nice to have you - but now, filled with the hopes and the changes inside me, i already feel much better.

a bad balance

dear all,

i feel somehow in need of retrospecting 2010.

i have to go back to a year earlier.

last december i summarized 2009.

putting all the good and bad, all the events, experiences, influences into consideration i found a somehow happy balance.

why do i write about it now?

why do i contemplate 2009, why do i do it now, a few hours before the beginning of a party that is supposed to bid farewell to 2010?

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at the first glance 2010, as a year seems to be one of the bad ones.

i know my vision is blurred by the unfortunate accident of early october...

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you know, i still can't get some of my memories i gathered that evening out of my head.

i can still recall hearing the crackling of my bones inside my skull, and can still re-live the fear i felt when i first dared to look into the mirror.

it was the inevitable turn of events that petrified me the most.

i felt that because of the unfortunate fall, my face will never look the same again.

i felt i lost something.

something that used to be me.

i know that 2 of my 4 front teeth were of irregular shape and i didn't particularly liked the way they looked.

but the moment i met my new face on the mirror, blood mixed with saliva drooling out of my mouth, splashing everywhere in the handwash basin of the bathroom - i knew this was a moment that had a 'before side' and an 'after side' and the two sides would never meet.

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perhaps i am wrong.

deep down i am well aware that it is just the physical that was changed and i am still the same.

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this year i had another unexpectedly bitter experience.

i had a highschool friend who got married.

this is great news, isn't it?

this friend has been suffering from the lack of a permanent relationship in his last 15 or so years. i knew he was suffering. he shared some of his struggles.

our lives don't really cross each other's often...

we mean a lot to each other, or so i thought...
for in march he got married and forgot to invite me. all right, it was an intimate ceremony. not a big deal.
he forgot to mention to me that he was to get married.
i had to get the information from his online diary, which makes me feel abandoned. left out.
perhaps i overestimated the importance of our friendship. i mean he was important to me, but there was not a balance. i was not as important for him as he was for me.
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and here comes a twist.
since i felt neglected i was unable to feel positive towards his new-found happyness.
and i miss it.
i think it has been rude of me to not radiate some positive thoughts, virtual or otherwise towards him and, see - it's still difficult for me to say it, for his partner, a young and lively lady (i met her in person, because he did brought her to us in the summer).
and i think my rudeness deserves some punishment.
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just lately i have been thinking about this 'need for punishment' type of thing is kind of streching my mental health.
just lately i have been gathering that there are other areas of my life.
i'm in a kind of struggle, and right now as i'm typing my heart aches.
perhaps i'm taking it too far on me, and perhaps i also should stop whining and self-pitying.
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working outside in the cold helps, playing with my kids helps, writing helps, and the list is endless.
perhaps this relationship should have ended anyway.
we might have been lovers, but as a married, and happily married woman with two kids this was not a realistic option for me, even with an exceptionally understanding husband :)
and yes, i talked about it with my husband.
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and now, some positive words about 2010.
to get any, i have to look through the photographs i made this year.
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to be continued in 2011 :)

k

you may have, or have not heard about this website.
at times it is downright hilarious, and at others, highly spectacular. sometimes, at its bests, it's both.
basically, it is about wrecked cakes.
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however, this is not an advertisement.
i came accross a post.
if you have time please read it.
below is a letter i wrote to the keepers of the site, with great respect towards the jog they are doing and with great curiosity as well :)
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dear editors/moderators,
this is a private message - you don't have to actually post it. (just contemplate...)
english is not my native language, i think you got it by now :)
i had no trouble of whatsoever of finding 'spooky' where the wreckerator wrote 'spooy' instead.
i have read quite a number of comments, possibly from native speakers of english.
none of them seemed to have found the connection between spooy and spooky.
they all come up with fun explanations and suggestions.
no-one mentions 'spooky'. not ever.
please, i am seriously intrigued by now:
how come this?
why me - and no-one else?
you may leave a reply in a comment over one of my websites (BOTH are in english) for i will ask my readers, too about this strange phenomenon.
thank you for your attention and keep up the good work.

socializing event

in hungary you basically will never find those no-fence, lawn-frontyard, come-to-my-house setting that are so common in certain parts of the usa. we all have tend to have high, strong fences, where most of the fences are so formed that you just can't see through them.

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for an unexperienced foreigner this expressed need for safety may seem an unfriendly, a get-outta-my-place attitude.

i know that there is alienation, but not where i live :)
where i live and in many other communities, where the original hungarian hospitality is still alive, this is just the surface.

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i have already mentioned some of the activities (like plum jam, see the post below) we, the community that has formed in our street do together.

and now, i'm going to illustrate another event: a street party.

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there is a street just one street up from ours, where people do parties every year. this year it was the 8th gathering. they set up a large tent for stage performances , they bring tables with snack food on them, they make a large pot of goulash enough for at least 40-50 people. they gather in the evening and enjoy the performances. the night ends with dancing. it is usually rock and roll, or disco-whatever.

now this year, our community was invited to take part.

we rehearsed and came up with a performance that lasted about 20 minutes. we sang three folksongs - the one we chose were funny.

after that we improvised a short folk-tale, where there were three princesses (played by three of the little girls, one of them, the biggest was my daughter), an old king (played by one of the fathers) and a dragon (*coughs*). the story was highlighted by musical performances: traditional flutes and a doromb. (i don't know if that one has an english name at all...)

we needed three boys to make all ends meet, so we borrowed them from the audience. they enjoyed their role-playing. we received lots of applause and laughter.

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after our performance we stayed to watch others. there was a trio that played classical music on instruments, a play making fun of the story of Cindarella, and various singing activities.

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we arrived as one group and left as one, too.

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this is my husband and my daughter minutes before our performance has begun. you may want to click on the photo to see her hairdo better. this hairdo is quite common for folk dancers. dh is sporting a linen shirt with a straw hat. this combo is a traditional menswear in hungary.

this is us, our family, having some fun - my son is not dancing, for he was engaged in bicycling with his friends. no, i'm not having digestive problems :) - i think we were dancing the twist. my husband and my daughther were keen on dancing. i simply got tired :)
also pictured: the other two princesses, and the stage-tent in the background.

plum jam

dear all,
we are done.
it lasted for three days.
one for travelling to the plum orchard (located at a farm), picking and collecting from under the trees.
one for pitting the crop.
one for making the jam.
three days, four families, loads of fun. tiredness.
a plum jam made the traditional way, a jam that contains nothing but the fruit. no sugar, no preservatives, nothing else, but plum. worth quite much.
will please four families throughout the winter.
sunshine bottled for the hazy days.
this to the friendship between the four families.

a great event i'm not attending

erm...
this is a short film about the upcoming Pest Megyei Szala (Szala of Pest County, where szala is an ancient Hungarian word rarely, if at all, used nowadays, with a meaning of 'assembly', or 'gathering'; that is, of a nation.)
this video gives you a glimpse of this festival, where old traditions are displayed. it is quite a dense video, with lots of different elements of our old heritage are shown by people who practice these things on a regular basis.
i hope you'll like it.

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my husband will attend the event by holding a small lecture on the role of traditions in our thoughts. unfortunately i can't be there, for i am travelling out of the border to the town of Nagyszalonta. the town used to be a Hungarian town for a thousand years, but it now belongs to Romania. Arany János, one of the greatest Hungarian poets was born here. Arany wrote a number of great ballads, based on Hungarian history and folklore. he is also famous in Hungary for translating the works of William Shakespeare. i read Shakespeare in both languages, and although I've got some difficulties understanding the original version, the Hungarian version has an excellent and noble language, too. Here's a link to one of his ballads called 'The Bards of Wales'.

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the reason i'm travelling there is that our choir is to sing at a mass in a church on Sunday morning. i'm so excited about it :)

erm...

i am alive :)

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elections are due this sunday. keep your fingers crossed. i can imagine all sorts of outcomes.

people are so easily talked into things upon the logic of their wallets.

a beer or two for the masses.

the current g'ment is handing out money for all sorts of organisations. the reason?

an 'x' at the right place on a small slip of paper this sunday. nothing else.

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easters holidays were fine. we colored lots of eggs just like in previous years. we hid chocolates all over the garden on the early morning this monday and the kids went out and searched for the treats.

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this tuesday was the last day of the eastern school holiday. we went to see a great memorial event at the village of isaszeg. in 1849, during the hungarian revolution of 1848/49, the hungarian army defeated the austrians. this success has been celebrated in the past 22 years by enthusiastic volunteers. in a well-guarded field, people ride horses, others fight on foot with traditional weapons of that time. cannons are shot.

the fight lasts for 45 minutes; the original one lasted for 3,5 hours.

there are women and kids among the participiants, but about 80% of the fighters are adult men. there are austrians, hungarians wearing various types of clothes, according to their rank and class, all mimicking original clothing.

the battle is in the afternoon and there are folk dancing and other events starting in the morning.

it was a great fun day.

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unfortunately my camera has given up. i have to buy another one. hence is the lack of my own photos, but what the internet is for? the photos included are a painting by a famous painter than mór called 'the battle at isaszeg', and two postcards from the early 1900's about the celebrations of the memorial place. you may want to click on the photos to get some interesting details.

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happy new year!

photos made by the wife of the host of the party that was held to celebrate the ending of 2009 and the arrival of 2010. these New Year's Eve parties are called Silvester Parties in Hungary. enjoy the photos. the first one (above the text) was made with long exposition. it's me and my husband dancing. it's amazing how the wall behind us is visible through our bodies. I find it quite amazing. the other three photos were made in the garden.

what happened to Santa Claus

it is a Hungarian tradition to put shoes into the windows on the evening of 5 December.
it is also a nice way to motivate kids to clean up their shoes for themselves.
along comes the night, when Santa Claus visits us silently and fills up the shoes with fancy chocolates, candies, peanuts, tangerines and other fruits. in some families, non-edible presents are also bought by Santa.
it's not for us.
all we get from St. Nicholaus is edible.
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also incorporated into our family's activities for 6 December was a visit from a 'real' Santa. it was the neighbour on the opposite side of the road. on a side note - unlike many other Hungarian families, we do know who our neighbours are, and we organize get-togethers every month or two. but that's another story. back to Santa Claus.
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our kids are not really small. they noticed two years ago that 'Santa' had a black sweater underneath his usual red costume. last year they noticed the fake moustache.
we told them Santa was generally busy, so he asked a man to come instead. i think they accepted it quite well.
this time we started suggesting our kids that they were growing bigger and that Santa had many other, smaller kids to visit.
we did polished our shoes however and put them into the window.
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so we, the parents filled up the shoes during the night and went to bed. we knew the kids would be up against the curtains on the dawn of 6 december - to see what they got from St. Nicholaus.
(we usually go to the windows together - it's not a race, after all... there are just enough delicacies for everyone in the family)
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I was kind of ill so i stayed in bed in that morning. i usually get up at 6 or 6:30, but now i was tired. we waited for the kids to tell us to go and see the soes in the window - just like they do every year. or the way they used to do.
because this year it was different.
my son came up to us and whispered: 'we can get to see the shoes now, because i have placed my presents there as well'.
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upon examining the contents of the shoes we did find a small pack of candies that were unknown to us, parents. it was what my son bought.
he never asked anything like: 'do you put the chocolate there?'...
he just grew up.
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for an earlier post on traditions around St Nicholaus in Hungary click on the tag 'Santa Claus'.

autumn break

Here in Hungary, there's a one week school holiday.

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This year it starts with 23 October and ends with All Saints' Day.

23 October is a national holiday to honor the brave of 1956. The movement falied, but the spirit lives on.

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All Saints' Day is the first Sunday of November.

The tradition is to visit the cemetary and light a candle for the deceased. This is usually the time for an annual checkup for graves and their surroundings.

If you happen to visit Hungary on the first Sunday of November, be sure to visit one of the older cemeteries in a larger village. You'll be surprised by the ongoing cleaning arrangements during daytime and fascinated by the candlelight when night falls.

In the evening, many families light one or more candle at home as a rememberance to anyone they loved and lost. It might be one candle for all, or one candle for each.

These families might say a prayer, too.
In our family, we light one candle, recall the names of the loved ones, recite some of their best features and their role in the well-being of the family as a whole and say a little prayer as well.

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Halloween is not celebrated over here, although there has been a significant rise in events and parties associated with Halloween in the past years. It's coming from the American culture. I'm not against newcomers at all - as long as old traditions are left intact.

Carving pumpkins is fun, even kindergartens make their own lamps these days.

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I chose some close-ups of autumn's presents to accompany my words. How many objects can you name?

summer has gone

School has started.
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My daughter is in the third grade, my son is in the seventh. He now starts in a yet another school. After our attempts to get him into a church-based school failed (reason: we, as a family do not attend services of any church. See? it's not your stand, but your reputation that counts. too bad for pagans like us, heh.) So I opted to remove him from his class, that did him no good at all. His classmates were underachieving and/or undergifted and/or disabled and/or of bad background. The level of education, for various purposed was extremely low and my son adopted himself to that low level. Which means he did not develope quite well.

This new school is an average state school, but his class is having extra singing lessons. I don't think *that* could be that bad.... There are 17 pupils in his class, and only 4 of them are boys. A much smoother atmosphere I guess. No more agressive behaviour from overaged mates I trust.

We'll just see.

My son has two more years in elementary education and at the age of 14 he'll be directed to a secondary school. Perhaps we'll head for the one state secondary school I wanted to avoid in my thoughs about his future this spring. But times are changing - and so are my thoughts. I want him a peaceful and strong community where he can boost up his abilities to his maximum.

Here they are, after the opening ceremony, still wearing their nice clothes.

Some photos of our summer menu:

the first one is a picture of an evening meal. bread slices are covered in egg and then are fried in oil. as a side dish, slices of eggplant are sauteéd and a ligth vegetable salad is there to balance off the juicy fat of the other two components of the meal.

this one here's a lunch. roasted chicken with sauteéd potatoes. and guess what, some salad. I love summer salads - they are so easy to make, so delicious... with a pinch of fresh hot pepper, there's a tint of spicyness to them just to tease the mouth.

this one's a cake, with apricots on top.

oh, what, another salad, yes.

summer offered lots of fruits and yes, we did take care of them - so that we don't have to worry about having a taste of summer in the winter :)

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and yes, the fourth anniversary of blogging has peacefully gone. I would like to express my thanks for all your heartfelt comments and good wishes I recieved during these four years. There were times when a simple 'I hear you - no matter how far away you practically are' meant half the world to me....

there were times I hope when my simple words were able to contribute to someone's faith in the ultimate good will and turn of events.

Even if my English sometimes has some hiccups - I'm sorry for that.

I learned a lot from you. and I do not confine to the language at all.

I will keep on blogging and continue to use the potential of this surface to connect people and keep those precious friendships and/or relationships I have been given over the past four years.

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with a view to another four years - God bless you all,

your crazy and indefinite tree...