It's My Name Day!!!

Today, Sept. 3öth, all boys named Jeromos celebrate together. It's like a birthday around these parts. Seeing no day for "Jeremy" on the Hungarian calendar, I adopted Jeromos. Close, no?

I wrote it up on the board in the teachers office alongside "Nevnap" and everyone clapped. No chocolate or gifts, though. But then super-student Gitta told me that Jeromos is a better translation for Jerome and Jeremios is Jeremy or Jeremiah. I sometimes choose to ignore pertinent facts when it gives me the excuse to celebrate myself, but who doesn't?

Apparently I did not get the memo that yesterday was a nation-wide holiday. I went to first hour, no one was there. Everyone was in the main corridor, huddled around a podium. I pulled Gitta aside and made her translate the morning's celebration. Hungary is still transfixed on a 1849 battle against the Hapsburgs, but Gitta couldn't tell me if it was a victory or a loss. It sounded like a funeral, though, so I have my suspicions.

And I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with a boy from one of my classes after school as I walked to dinner. He was dressed in black and white.

J: Hi, what are you doing?
Boy: I'm going to Seattle.
J: No you're not. Someone would have told me if you were going to Seattle.
Boy: No, I'm going to Szolnok.
J: Oh, that's a Hungarian city I know. What are you doing there?
Boy: Going to Seattle.
J: What?
Boy: Going to Teakettle.
J: There's a teakettle in Szolnok? I have not read about it in the guidebooks.
Boy: No. We are going to the Tee-ahh-tear.
J: Oh, you're going to the THE-ahh-tur. Why didn't you just say that?

This weekend is Nyireghaza and Tokay. Should be glorious!