March 15, day before Hungarian holiday

So many images and sounds from the day, all fuzzy with jet lag. A morning in the Archives- well ordered
acid-free cartons, labeled and filled with documents as old as 450 years. So much for one underfunded Archivist and a retired volunteer. I'm taking a closer look at letters- one box from Americans and one from English Unitarian leaders to the Unitarian Bishop before WWI. I found one letter hoping to fund a Hungarian young woman to Manchester College, Oxford suggesting the extraordinary possibility of her becoming a "lady minister" in the late 1800's!

My first meal in the student dinning room was with elementary students and I happened to sit at the table
with their English teacher, Bibi.  It was a relief to speak with someone with such fluency and she was eager to talk. I learned that the school includes people from all religions, and has special religion classes for Unitarians, Reformed and Catholics. I told her our public schools did not allow teaching religion and she thought that odd. I explained separation of church and state and it didn't register.

The food was wholesome, lots of potatoes and somewhat bland.  A good vegetable and dumplings soup, a pile of potatoes with a slice of gray meat and a big bowl of sliced pickles. Supper was fresh bread, pate, cheese, and sliced yellow and red bell peppers. The pate was like liverwurst, something I actually like, but it did not seem so popular.

The ATM was not cooperative.  Lehel went with me to the bank, but they said I had to call the US number on the back of the card.  Tomorrow I hope to get a phone, so I hope that works.  Meantime the Hungarian  bank exchanged my dollars for ROM, Lei so I was able to buy oranges at the basement market under the urban shopping center. When I asked for a small plastic bag, I got a blank look until someone told me I had to pay 50 Lei (15 cents) for a bag- and it appeared in short order.

After dinner I was indulging in old PBS "History Detective" shows on the internet, and I started hearing loud bold singing coming up big echoling halls and staircases from downstairs. Tomorrow is the Anniversary of the March 15 Hungarian uprising- need to find out about that- but it certainly has inspired the college students to sing bold populist songs- though I don't have a clue what the words say.

I have pictures from today, but need to work on downloading technique.  Signing off, tomorrow is a holiday!