Settling In

Arrival
My sponsor Péter Balázs from the Public Health Institute at Semmelweis University was kind enough to meet us at the airport. I recognized him from his website picture. I emailed him to look for two people pushing luggage carts piled high; I in a green parka and Tari in a purple coat. You will be unmistakable, he emailed back. He got us a large taxi and then followed us into the city in his own car.

The taxi left us and our luggage on the curb at Ferenciek Tere in front of Parisi Udvar, (a turn of the 20th Century arcade that has not done well in the current recession.). Péter arrived and we lugged the luggage through the arcade to the gate in front of the entrance to the apartment elevator. We rang the bell but no one was in. Then just before noon Bobby arrived and let us in. Aunt Klara showed up a few minutes later. They showed us the apartment and how the heat and appliances worked, with Bobby and Péter doing the translating. Péter told us it was an apartment typical for middle class people in the pre World War II era. It has high ceilings, a large bedroom with a side room containing a sink, bath and small ancient European washing machine; a nice sized parlor/sitting room; a kitchen, with a small side room that may have been either a pantry or maid’s room now converted into a study; a balcony off the kitchen that overlooks an inner court, a small second bedroom with a bunk bed, and the one toilet just off the front door.

We have a set of five keys which we have on a ring in the following order: the first key is to the outer gate to the Parisi Udvar which is lowered at 20:00 (8pm); the second is to the gate in front of the entrance to the apartment elevator; the third is to the gate in front of the apartment; the fourth to the front door bolt; and the fifth to the front door latch handle. In European fashion, one must use the keys to lock up the apartment gate and door from the inside at night. We don’t expect to get out in case of fire—too many locks and gates to negotiate!


Shopping
Gyöngy, our landlord, told us that the Match grocery store was a short walk from the apartment. We crossed the street and walked straight head for quite some distance. We eventually came to the large Central Market Hall at the foot of Szabadság hid (bridge) that crosses the Danube. The market was very large, filled with many stalls teeming with meats, veggies, fruits and folk crafts. In size, it reminded me of the Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philadelphia. We wandered through the first floor but didn’t find the Match. Since it was already early afternoon (we had slept in much later than we expected –jet lag!), we decided to go to the lower level to get something to eat. At the foot of the escalator was the Match. We ate gyros in a büfé (lunch place) and then went shopping. (a few days later we crossed the street, turned left and found our local Match a block away)

We had made a shopping list and copied some key food words in Hungarian. Fortunately most food packages have pictures or have words like parboiled for rice. But Tari wanted to know the sodium content on packaged sandwich meats and we had no idea what the Hungarian word for sodium was. We found most of what we wanted. We looked for ½ percent milk but only found it at 2 and 1½ percent. Worst of all, we could not find that universal staple-peanut butter. The equivalent was either a hazelnut or walnut spread with cocoa. Apparently this is now entering the US market as a high protein food kids will like.

The Match’s small shopping baskets had two handles and wheels. One handle was for carrying in your hand, but the other was a long handle that lowered the wheels and allowed you to pull the basket on the floor once heavy items were put in. Pretty clever!

Tari had the foresight to bring some shopping tote bags from the US so we were in good shape carrying our purchases back to the apartment. When we got home we discovered a wheeled, folding shopping cart in one of the closets.

Afterwards, Tari sat down with the food receipt. We can deduct food and living expenses from the Fulbright allowance before figuring taxes for 2010 (over a year from now). She had some difficulty identifying Q-tips (literally ear cleaner in Hungarian) and a box of tissues (it read: Reg.WB Doboz with Regina being the company, WB for Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny / Tasmanian Devil/ Daffy Duck design, and doboz for box).