4 things in my bag

The four things in my bag that make me realize I’ve been in Hungary for almost 10 months:

1) Mineral water (Asvanyviz)- on purpose! After months of desperately trying to avoid being served sparkling water instead of still, going to the length of learning how (and remembering) to ask for it specifically and even figuring out the color coded system of each brand in the country (usually pink but you have to watch out for Theodora because while it isn’t sparkling it still tastes like mineral water- the worst kind) I have even been known to mime bubbly versus flat water to get my point. And yet, it seems that Europe has won. I like the blue-capped, bubbly, funny tasting water!

2) A sandwich wrapped in tinfoil. This is one of the quiet phenomenons of Hungary that is best witnessed in schools, both in the classrooms and in the teachers’ room. It seems that everyone in Hungary has an endless supply of homemade sandwiches stashed away in their bag that they snack on throughout the day- during breaks between classes and occasionally during English class. These sandwiches are usually wrapped in tinfoil or paper napkins and you can always guarantee that at least four teachers will be munching a sandwich at any given moment in the teachers’ room. Most of the sandwiches are heavy on the butter and processed meat- I haven’t become that much of a convert, I stick to cheese, mustard and turkey. They used to think I was crazy because I never ate at school (most days I’m only there for about 4 hours!) now I diligently pack my sandwich and wrap it in foil and now they just think I’m weird for only ever having one. With the Hungarians’ love of sandwiches and taking them with them I’m surprised that neither peanut butter nor Ziploc bags have caught on.

3) All-purpose cleaner. The key thing here is that I bought this cleaner from a traveling cleaner salesman that spent the day in the teachers’ room lining up his products. This occurrence of random sales people who bring all sorts of products to sell to the teachers between classes happens often enough to clearly be a ‘thing’ here but seldom enough to still surprise me every time. I haven’t seen the same product twice but the offerings range from cleaning supplies to books to bad art and ugly shoes. I always stop and stare as they unload their boxes of goods and display them around the room- on top of graded tests, old homework and the lost-and-found box. Today, however, I was mostly just pleased that I didn’t have to stop at the store on my way home!

4) An old plastic shopping bag. Just in case I want to stop and buy anything, anywhere- you have to pay extra for plastic bags everywhere!

And the one thing that ISN’T in my bag that lets me know that I still haven’t been here all that long:

Red hair dye. Hungarian-Red to be specific. A shade that is hard to describe- dark maroon, almost purple that changes from fiery-red to deep purple depending on the light- truly unnatural and also by far the most popular (and possibly the only) hair color in Hungary. I picked up a box today and looked it over, considered it for only a split second before shaking myself back to reality and promptly putting it back on the shelf.