Túró Rudi

Can we talk about desserts for a minute? Well, 1 dessert for a minute...? Túró Rudi. It is a traditional Hungarian sweet and is also one of the most delicious desserts I have ever had. So, what is it?

Túró Rudi is a cylindrical, cottage cheese filled, chocolate shell.

It's not the cottage cheese that we are used to in the States, however. It is flavored with different citruses (?) and is grainier than our cottage cheese. Clara and I were trying to describe the filling to one another and we agreed that it would be like taking our cottage cheese, adding some butter/cream/citrus, and running it through a blender. That's the sort of texture you have.

There are many flavors of Túró Rudi. Every time Clara and I go to a store, we buy a new one and split it. I'd say we've had about 7 or 8 flavors so far and have only come across 1 that we didn't like.

Only recently did we realize that we needed to start saving the wrappers so that we could remember which flavors we have tried already. Guru is by far my favorite. It's Túró Rudi with hazelnuts in the chocolate coating and caramel in the middle with the cottage cheese.

I'm already dreading leaving these delicious things behind.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

When you're a shy, socially awkward math nerd around outgoing people, making friends is extremely difficult. When you're a shy, socially awkward math nerd amongst other equally shy, socially awkward math nerds, it's still extremely difficult. However, this weekend my roommates, Angie and Clara, and I met a lot of really cool people and had a fun time exploring different parts of Budapest.

On Friday after Hungarian class, which is getting better; still bad but better, a bunch of us went out to eat at an Italian place. I met some new people and had a really good time. I also had a really delicious dinner, chicken pesto.

Today, we went out with a new group of people and explored the Buda side of Budapest. We saw Buda Castle and I tried a Hungarian baked potato, which is apparently a baked potato with pork stew on top.



So, the weekend has been pretty awesome thus far, not only in exploring new parts of this really cool city I'm in, but also in getting to know other people from all over the States and making some friends.

Crystal vagyok. Én magyarul tanulok.

Today was the first day of the language course. They really aren't kidding when they say "intensive." I can safely say that I have never felt so dumb in my life. I seem to have this problem where teachers like to call on me repeatedly and have me speak up.Today was no different.

Dear Teacher:
It is quite obvious that I don't know what you're saying to me and that my pronunciations are terrible. Please call on the smart dude to my left as he is so obviously ready to answer anything you desire.
<3 Crystal

There was literally a point in class today where I almost cried. I thought to myself, "If this were a class at Longwood and I didn't need it, I would walk out right now, drop the class, and move on with my life." (I have NEVER thought this before and, believe me, I've had some awful classes.)

And I'm not so completely bad with languages either. Spanish and I are bff. I guess that makes Hungarian the snobby, country-music loving cheerleader that I had to be friends with, for a time, in high school for the good of the squad.

Plastic Grocery Bags are NOT Free

After two days of exploring the city, there are a great number of things that I have learned:
1) Plastic grocery bags are not free. You need to either have your own bag or be prepared to carry whatever you buy in your arms.
2) Milk = tej. It's much sweeter than milk in the States and is quite good.
3) It is acceptable in a traffic jam to honk your horn at people who are just as stuck as you are.

4) American architecture sucks. Take the time to build a decent looking building, like this one:

5) The metro is a great time saver when you have read your map incorrectly and walked to the wrong side of town.

6) It is dark outside by 5:00 p.m. and thus quite difficult to read a map.

7) It is fun to stand on a bridge as a 15 ton bus passes by causing the ground you are standing on to violently vibrate.
8) Tequila is cheaper than orange juice. And also much more delicious.

9) Taking the last two places off the cost of an item in forints and dividing by two is an excellent way to estimate how much money you are spending in US dollars. It is also an overestimate which tricks you into thinking you have spent more money than you actually have. 

10) Rock music is universal.

First Day in Budapest

Welcome. Something came over me and I decided to write a blog. Hopefully it won't be so dull that you drop me before the real fun actually starts.

I left the States, with my friends Nikole and Angie, around 6:00 p.m. on Saturday (East coast's time) and arrived in Budapest around 10:30 a.m. Sunday (local time). But before I talk about Budapest, let me quickly mention my longhaul flight. Who said that airplane food was always nasty? I had a special meal, of course, because of my gluten allergy, but it was one of the best gf dishes I've had in a long time. Also, the flight was a pleasant experience. Sleeping was a little rough because of the people in front of and behind me but, overall, the 8 hours went by rather quickly. I originally typed "the 8 hours flew by" but decided to deleted my lame or, I guess, just shift it to a new location.

Arriving in Budapest was fun. We were on a prop-plane which was an interesting experience. The landing was certainly more rough than I was expecting. So Angie, Nikole, and I get off the plane and walk into the Budapest airport where we took turns taking pictures underneath the airport's Budapest sign. Then we went to pick up our luggage only to discover that mine didn't make it. At this point in time, the airline still doesn't know where it is, but I'll go into town today to pick up some things to make up for some of it. When the BSM people picked us up, Angie and I took one car and Nikole another. She asked to live with a Hungarian family so I can only assume that is where they took her.

After we got settled into our apartment, Angie and I took a walk around Budapest. Unfortunately, most everything is closed on Sunday so we didn't get to do as much exploring as we hoped. We settled for finding some dinner to cook in our apartment and then going to bed. My first dinner was a chicken rice noodle soup. Since the language course doesn't start until Wednesday and I don't know what allergy words to look for yet, my options are a little limited. I also bought a bottle of merlot to go with my dinner. My total in US dollars was just under $4. Wine here is very cheap, and, let me tell you, I could get used to that. Angie spent more money and got less soda. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find that extremely amusing.

Now, I don't know how often I'll post one of these. I also don't know how long they're going to be. Honestly, I'm not a talker and would probably find reading most of this extremely boring. I like to be short and to the point. Hopefully, future blogs will show that.

Props to:                                               Drops to:
Good airplane food                                 Lost luggage
Being in Budapest                                 Shops closed on Sundays