Tidbits

One of the greatest oddities of class in Hungary:  the chalkboard erasers are giant sponges.  The building's meticulous cleaning staff washes the boards daily and stocks them every morning with a damp sponge.  It drives me nuts when my topology prof doesn't wait for the board to dry completely before he starts writing again... you end up with this smudgy, broken haze of writing rather than clean lines of chalk.   Speaking of the cleaning staff, they must mop the stairs twice a day here... it seems like they are always doing that.

Maybe a greater cultural difference still, nay, perhaps the greatest single divider of Eastern and Western culture for an entire generation:  the preference of how to demarcate the endpoints of a conversation.  While many cultures in the West, such as the US, France, and Spain, choose to indicate which is the beginning and which is the end, most Hungarians are content to simply indicate "This is one side of our conversation."

In the US, we say "hello" and "goodbye."  In France, one says "bonjour" and "adieu."  In Hungary, however, you will often hear "helló" and, indeed, "helló."  I can't tell you how many times I've had to double-take as I left a store to hear the shopkeeper yell "helló" on my way out.  Did I forget something?  Am I stealing something? Oh, wait... no.  Furthermore, one can even observe a blending-zone of these preferences in Spain.  One can specify the side, as with "buenos días" and "hasta la vista, baby" or one can simply be content with "ciao" and "ciao."  Oh, the wonders never cease.

The grossest phenomenon I've ever witnessed:  no fewer than three times have I seen someone pick a particularly long cigarette butt off the ground, presumably to finish what its original owner did not.  Big-city dwellers, I ask you:  Is this a universal hobo practice or is it limited to Eastern Europe?

Side note:  Hungarians will (sometimes vigorously) contest the point that Hungary is not in Eastern Europe, but rather in Central Europe.  They have a valid cultural and historical argument, but I suspect that the Iron Curtain will define much of the east/west division of Europe for my generation.  Eastern and Central Europe are perhaps the most poorly defined regions in the entire world, though, so maybe Hungary will wiggle its way across that line.

To continue that side note, I am boggled by how devastating WWII was to Hungary.  At the Terror House museum, I read that WWII destroyed every bridge crossing the Danube in Budapest (eight cross it today, I think maybe six or seven crossed it before WWII) and 40% or more of the entire national wealth.  That is staggering.  What's more, to think the oldest generation of Hungarians today bore witness to all of this as young adults.  Quite a silent sadness -- I suppose it is far enough removed that people don't talk about or notice it as much anymore.