Part 22: So She Dances

About a month ago, I decided to see if I could get enough interest from my colleagues to form an Irish dance group for Faculty Follies, the staff talent show.  I originally got emails back from 16 people, four of them male (which to be honest was four more than I was expecting).  In the end, I had 12 people, 3 of them male.  We put in some serious practice time to get down the céilí called “The Walls of Limerick.” 

Meanwhile, I had my mom mail me my tap shoes because I foolishly agreed to do a solo tap dance for the show.  To be honest, I have never been a performer though I love dancing.  However, I was extremely excited to get those shoes in the mail.  I have really nice tap shoes (thanks Mom and Dad!) that have really loud taps and good enough construction that they have lasted probably over 10 years now, though in the last 5, their use has gone precipitously downhill.  Anyway, they arrived, and I promptly put them in my closet.  I’d like to think it was because tap shoes scratch wooden floors, so I had to practice in different shoes, but really I just didn’t have time for choreography at the time. 

The weekend after getting my tap shoes, I chaperoned the hiking club’s hike up Lozenska Mountain.  I really loved it.  I’m not really a city dweller.  Granted, I used to live in Prairie Village (basically Kansas City), but let’s look at the figures:

·         Bulgaria:  42,855 sq mi; population- 7,037,935; population of Sofia-  1.3 million

·         Iowa (my home state):  56,272 sq mi,  population- 3,062,309; population of Fort Madison-10,715
·         Kansas (my most recent state):  82,277 sq mi; population of PV- 21,447; population the greater Kansas City metro area (including the Missouri side)- 2,035,334 (but this covers two states and 15 counties- a huge land area)

 Basically, I grew up in a state with more land area and fewer people than Bulgaria and even when I lived in “the big city” I could drive half an hour in almost any direction and find myself surrounded by corn fields and cows.  Needless, to say, I get really excited at the prospect of getting out of Sofia. 

Next week, I was really busy… again.  It was the week before Faculty Follies, so the Irish dance group really needed to get a handle on those jump-two-threes (they really blow people’s minds).  And then there was that tap dance.  I finally picked a song (“I’ve Got a Heart Full of Rhythm, by Louis Armstrong) and choreographed the entire part where Armstrong sings.  Then, I set it aside again. 

Amidst all this, I get an email from my dad telling me that my grandma died.  It wasn’t wholly unexpected, as she hadn’t been doing well and she had been struggling with Lewy body dementia for several years, but it was still sad.  Plus, I felt really guilty for not being with my family. 

My grandma and I shared the same name, though that was mostly a coincidence.  I often joke that if my dad had meant to name me after my grandma, I’d be called “Mom.”  Growing up, my poor grandma often came into the living room as my sister and I were wrestling or doing some sort of gymnastic activity and remark that she “thought she had granddaughters, not grandsons.”  However, I think she was pretty happy with the way we turned out.  Plus, we have good table manners and thanks to her, we know that the fork goes on the left and the knife edge always points towards the plate.  My grandma also had the best reaction to my sister’s nose ring.  My mom was convinced my grandma would not approve, but when she noticed it from across the table at lunch, she reached across the table, poked it and then exclaimed, “Oh!  It’s jewelry.”  She then laughed (you know kids these days) and that was that. 

Well, time stops for no man and the next day, Irish dancing mastered the tea cup turns.  It was an ordeal, but the Walls of Limerick was now complete.  It certainly wasn’t River Dance, but it was fun and it looked pretty good.  That Friday, we practiced again after our faculty meeting and then we also previewed it at the school president’s St. Patrick’s Day party. 

On Saturday, I graded some papers, went for a run, and went out for St. Patrick ’s Day.  We ended up meeting a bunch of medical students from the American University’s med school, which I had no idea existed.  On Sunday, I had to proctor the school’s entrance exam.  I know that no 12 year old boy wants to hear this, but they were cute.  I teach 11^th grade; They are not so cute at that age and some of them have a lot of attitude, so it was nice to see the younger crowd.

On Monday, we didn’t have to work, but I went to talk to a woman from the Bulgaria Charity Aid Foundation about volunteer opportunities for our students.  I found the address without any problem and then I realized that all the names for the door buzzers were in Bulgarian.  I can read Cyrillic, no problem.  However, I don’t know the meaning of most of the words I read.  So I stood there puzzled and then grateful when a lady buzzed in ahead of me and I could just follow her into the building. 

Tuesday came and we had our first official rehearsal for faculty follies.  I spent the 2 hours after school and before the rehearsal frantically finishing my tap dance.  I was worried, but I got the steps written down (more on that later).  This rehearsal was mostly for the tech crew to get their cues, so luckily I didn’t have to perform the whole thing. 

Wednesday was our second rehearsal.  By that day, they had found a board for me to dance on (the stage has a rubber cover, so it really doesn’t work for tap dancing).  The board was actually an old backboard for a basketball hoop.  I had very limited movement for this dance, but at least you could hear me.  I did the entire dance pretty well by reading my paper.  That’s right.  It was the day before the show and I in no way had my dance memorized.  However, people said the fact that I was reading the steps was impressive, so I began to try to think of ways to work my cheat sheet in as a prop. 

Thursday was the show.  I decided to use my paper as a comedic element.  I’d act like I didn’t know what I was doing.  Little did they know that it wasn’t acting ;-)  I was a nervous wreck, since I don’t really like performing, but apparently it went well (it’s a blur, I don’t actually remember).  Some people told me that kids were leaning forward and standing up in their seats so they could see my feet.  Also, I remember getting big applause for my high kick.  (If I’d known it was that easy, I would have been doing high kicks in class every day.)  I finished my dance with some fuetes.  I’ve always liked turning and it meant I had almost 16 counts done with little thought required.  Plus, they are always a crowd pleaser.  I heard I got a standing ovation from some students, but I don’t actually know because I basically bowed and ran off stage.  The Irish Dance group did really well too.  We were basically the last act of the show and I think everyone did great.  Afterwards, someone told me, “I’m putting you on YouTube.”  Great.

Friday, we had a soccer game.  Now, I hadn’t been sleeping much all week, I’d tap danced more in the previous 3 days than I had in the last 3 years, and I was just sort of done.  However, Uchitelli Utd. didn’t have any subs, so I fulfilled my duty.  I feel like I played terribly, but I might be too self critical.  It doesn’t help that I used to play every Thursday and now I play when there are sporadic intramural games.  I hadn’t played since October and my muscles were all weak from all the tap dancing (lame as that sounds).  At one point (after one of several bad passes today) one of my teammates told me to pass for a wing when possible (which I know, since it was the Coach Bowen mantra), but I could barely form coherent sentences that day, much less consider game strategy.  Apparently, I must have looked really hurt by this comment because he saw me a minute later and apologized.  I wasn’t actually upset, just tired.  Although, with the way I sweat, he could have mistaken a bead of sweat for a tear running down my cheek. 

Anyway, tomorrow, I am hiking with the Hiking Club again and looking forward to seeing waterfalls and panoramic vistas.  Then, I’ll probably sleep a lot. 

And that was my very full last two weeks. 

Part 21: Baby, you’re a firework. February 23-26, 2012

Thank you, BG Ministry of Education, for yet another 4 day weekend.  I’m not sure it really benefits the learning process, but it certainly helps the traveling process.  This time, 5 of us descended upon Budapest, Hungary, site of the Katy Perry’s “Firework” music video, and thus the inspiration for my title.  Normally, I’m terrible at pop culture (who sings this? what actor is that?  I usually have no idea), but I did remember that music video tidbit.  A tidbit, that, as you’ll read later, I should have kept to myself. 

Anyway, 6:15 am arrived on Thursday and we piled into an OK Taxi for the ride to the airport.  We landed in Vienna and then got on another plane to Budapest.  Once it Budapest, we navigated public transit to downtown.  The transit system is nice.  However, it is also super annoying.  You have to have exact change, in change, to buy a ticket.  ATM’s give you giant bills that you can’t use to buy tickets.  We had to stop in a shopping mall and buy bread in order to get change to buy tickets.  Eventually we did make it and the Happy Flat owner showed us our happy flat for the weekend.  It was nice and very large.  We then made our first trip to Iguanas, the Mexican restaurant. 

If you live in the US and you like Mexican food, you won’t realize how much you miss it and want it until you can’t have it.  Sofia has no Mexican.  None.  The one semi-Mexican restaurant in the entire city just closed, so we are without.  Therefore, we were really excited. 

After gorging ourselves on chips, salsa, enchiladas and such, we made a reservation for dinner the next evening before heading out to explore the city a little bit.  We saw the parliament building and the chain bridge.  We then finally figured out how to make it to the Shoe Memorial.  From 1944-1945, the Arrow Cross Party would take Jews to the banks of the Danube, make them take off their shoes and then shoot them into the river.  The memorial has several pairs of shoes made of iron that are made to look like shoes from that period. 

We then headed to the shopping district.  After some shopping we, headed back to the apartment and got ready to go to dinner.  At some point I mentioned that Budapest was the city where Katy Perry’s “Firework” video was shot.  Hence, we made sure to watch the video when we got back to the apartment.  It is sort of an odd video since fireworks shoot out of people’s hearts, however, it does not look like they are coming from her heart.  Anyway…  That night we found a nice restaurant for dinner where I had pumpkin stuffed pasta. 

The next day, we got up and went to take a tour of parliament.  The Hungarian parliament building is the third largest in the world; however, you wouldn’t know it from how much they show you on the tour.  The inside was beautiful.  The dome was amazing and the wing that we got to see was really nice.  We also met a nice girl that was studying abroad from Tulane. 

After the parliament, we walked across the Chain Bridge to the Buda side.  We took the funicular up to the top of the hill to Buda Castle.  It is now a series of museums.  We didn’t go to the museums, but we did find the square where “Firework” was shot and we did some reenactments.  Then S got a brief archery lesson from a guy with “gorgeous blue eyes” (she was, of course, really only interested in archery) before moving on to St. Mathias Church and the Fishermen’s Bastion. 

St. Mathias is a large church with an amazing tiled roof.  We asked about going in, but it is being restored, so a lot of it was closed, so we moved on to the Bastion.  The Bastion was built between 1895 and 1902 and was named because fishermen used to be in charge of guarding that stretch of wall during the Middle Ages.  It is straight out of Disney.  Turrets, white stone, and great views.  We then walked out down the hill, past a brick synagogue, and down the river to take a picture of parliament from across the river.  We then walked back across the Chain Bridge to Pest and headed to the Great Market. 

The Great Market is a huge indoor market where you can buy a lot of food.  It was mostly meat, but we got some great strawberries and one stand sold really great dried fruit.  Upstairs, there were stands selling Hungarian souvenirs.  I bought a blue hand-painted egg that is traditionally hung on a tree for Easter.  We then started walking back towards the apartment.  We walked past the Dohany Street Synagogue.  Since it was Friday, it was closed, but we looked at the outside and into the courtyard.  We made it back to the apartment and got ready to go eat Mexican food… again.

We left a little early to go take pictures of the Chain Bridge and Castle Hill at night.  They were really beautiful.  We then went and ate chips, salsa, quesadillas and jalapeño poppers.  It was delicious. 

The next day, we visited St. Stephens Basilica.  It was named in honor of the first king of Hungary (King Stephen, obviously ) and you can see his mummified hand in the back chapel.  However, it cost 200 Forint to turn the light on.  I only had 100, so I couldn’t really see it.  However, the inside of the church was beautiful.  The dome is 96m tall, the same as the parliament building dome.  The 96m refers back to the fact that Hungary was established 896 AD.  It took 54 years to build and was completed in 1905.  The inside has a lot of gold and is pretty bright, due to the many windows around the dome. 

We then began to walk down Andrassy Avenue  towards Heroes’ Square.  Our route took us past the Opera House and the House of Terror Museum (which I went to later that day) and through some really nice neighborhoods.  Heroes’ Square is dominated by the Millennium Memorial, which depicts the leaders of the seven tribes that founded Hungary.  It was supposed to be done in time for the 1000^th anniversary in 1896, but didn’t finish until 1900.  There were also some rulers from the Hapsburgs present on the sides, since Hungary was part of the Austrian Empire when it was built.  However, the square was damaged in WWII and when it was repaired, the Hapsburgs were replaced. 

From the square, we crossed into the City Park.  It is a very large and nice park that contains Vajdahunyad Castle.  It was originally built from wood in 1896  and was meant to display different architectural styles (romantic, gothic, renaissance, and baroque) that were present in Hungary for the millennial exhibition.  However, since it was so popular, it was rebuilt from stone and brick and became a permanent addition to the park.  Most of it is an Agricultural Museum (which we didn’t go through), but we did go into the Church of Jak.  The church was originally just for display, but was eventually made into an official Catholic church. 

From the Castle, we walked around the park a little more and saw the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath.  It is fed by 2 thermal springs, and while I didn’t go (since spa-type activities are not really my thing), my travel companions really liked it.  After perusing the park, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts, which is right by Heroes’ Square. 

I went to a special exhibit on mummies.  They used 3D imaging to reconstruct their faces and determine cause of death.  It was actually really interesting.  I also made it through most of the upstairs galleries.  I really liked the painting of the Centaur at the Village Blacksmith’s Shop  (http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/arnold-b-cklin/centaur-at-the-village-blacksmith-s-shop-1888) and I definitely saw some paintings worthy of the Ugly Renaissance Babies website.  For example, did you know baby Jesus had a six-pack?  Or that he was really hairy? 

After the museum, my friends went to the baths and I went to the House of Terror Museum.  It was really busy, since I was going on the 10^th anniversary of its opening and admission was free.  It was also really well done.  It focuses on the history of fascism and communism in Hungary in the 20^th century and is a memorial to the victims of the regimes.  The building was used by the Nazis and Soviets as a prison and police headquarters. 

The museum is interactive and well thought out, but most of it is in Hungarian, so you have to grab the typed info sheet at the entrance to each room.  The Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, only 1 year before their defeat, though the Arrow Cross party was present in Hungary before that.  However, once the Nazi’s got there, they wasted no time.  440,000 Jews were deported in only 3 months, most of them to Auschwitz. 

Most of the museum focuses on the 40 years of communist rule.  The museum has interviews with people imprisoned in Gulag camps talking about the horrible conditions they endured there.  5000 people from Budapest alone were taken to these camps.  In the basement of the museum, you can see the prison cells where the AVH (the Hungarian version of the KGB) held and tortured “criminals.”  The cells are tiny.  They didn’t have beds and I only saw one with a toilet.  I even saw one cell that was about 2 feet wide and 1 foot deep.  The museum has pictures of people that were held in each cell hung up, so you can see who was kept there.  It was really horrible. 

After finishing at the House of Terror, I walked back towards the city centre.  I decided to go across the Chain Bridge and down the Danube so I could take a picture of Paliament at Night.  It was worth the long walk.  The building is beautiful.  On my way back, I wiped out on a pipe barrier that had fallen over (that I clearly didn’t notice) and got a large bruise on my let and some weird looks from the 50 or so people that witnessed my clumsy moment.  After recovering, I went to the shopping street for a little while since my friends still weren’t back from the Baths. 

That night we went and got Thai food before going to check out the original ruin pub.  Ruin pubs are placed in buildings that are falling apart and condemned.  The owners get them up to code, but don’t redo the walls or anything like that, which leads to a really interesting atmosphere.  It was very cool.  We went to a couple of other pubs in the area as well, but these were smoky, so I was done. 

The next morning, I got up early to walk to the Holocaust Memorial Centre.  It is definitely not close to any other museums, but it was worth the walk.  Once again, it was very interactive and well-done.  They even had 4 or 5 families that you could follow throughout the museum to see if they survived or not.  I think 4 were Jewish and 1 was a Roma family.  You could watch interviews from survivors as well.  They interviewed 3 Roma women about their time in Auschwitz.  It was incredible. Since they weren’t Jewish, they weren’t immediately killed.  However, they had to help move bodies and dispose of them.  1/10^th of the Jewish victims in the Holocaust were Hungarian, which considering that Hungary is not a very large country is pretty horrifying.  I also learned that the Birkenau revolt was largely led by Hungarian Jews.  The museum was really good, but also really sad. 

On my way back up towards the apartment, I went to the Dohany Street Synagogue.  It is the largest Synagogue in Europe and the inside is rose-colored with blues and gold with nice dark-wood balconies.  The courtyard outside, is where over 2,000 people that died in the Jewish Ghetto in WWII are buried.  Normally, cemeteries are not allowed to be on the premises of synagogues, but this was an extraordinary circumstance.  The complex also has a couple of small museums and a really great memorial tree that looks like a weeping willow made out of metal. 

After the synagogue, I just walked around and saw more of the city.  I crossed a different bridge downstream from the Chain Bridge and walked back up along the Danube and I grabbed a quick sandwich before getting back to the apartment to catch our shuttle to the airport.  In the end, it was a great choice for a long weekend, even if I did have to hear my friends singing “Firework” over 500 times.