Romaniaban vagyok!

I am writing from Romania!! So on last thursday my host mom drove me to a city called Nagyvarad which is in Romania, to spend a long week with the families friend. They have a son right now in Texas as an exchange student. But guess what... so you know they live in Romania but they are actually Hungarian! So because along time ago Hungary used to be really big, and then other countries took over the area, the hungarians stayed where they where they were living. So here a bunch of Hungarians live and they all still speak hungarian and live their hungarian lives! Ha ha and so half of the city is Romanians and the other half is Hungarians who speak hungarian and romanian!

I also learned that not only is this in Romania but this is also in lots of Hungarian's neighboring countries. So on Thursday my host mom drove me to Nagyvarad which is about one and half hours from Debrecen. In Nagyvarad lives her friends that invited me to spend a long weekend with them. They are a family of five, two parents, one son in the US right now, a daughter who is in 8th grade and a four year old daughter. On Friday I went to the disznotor that I wrote about in the previous post. Then on Friday night I went into town with Tekla the daughter and we hung out with her friends. It was really fun we just went and hung out in a cafe, and they said that is what they do here.

Then on Saturday we hung out all day at the house and then for dinner we went to their businesses party. That is why we made all of the food on Friday so that they would have fresh food for the party. They own 3 BMW car dealerships and have alot of money! After we had dinner and ate tepertu, kolbasz, and horka Tekla and I went bowling with one of her friends! On Sunday the whole family took me a cave about an hour and a half way. It was SO beautiful and there were so many different colors in it and so many different kinds of rock formations! On Monday I went to school with her... and wow!! So she actually goes to a Hungarian school, so everyone there speaks Hungarian but it is a Romanian school. So they have all of their classes in Hungarian but then at the end of the year when they take tests it is the sam test that the rest of the kids in the country takes in Romanian. Plus in school they learn Romanian and can speak it like they mother language. It was really fun to go to another school cause I really got to see and feel that everywhere in the world the schools are different! While i was there Tekla had an english class and when the teacher found out that I was from America she got really quite and told everyone in Hungarian that they can spend the class doing what ever and they will continue the next day. And the class told me that she I a very strict teacher and that she always speaks english only in the class and so we think she was afraid!! It was a really great long weekend and on Monday night I came back home to my loving family!!

Disznotor!!!!

In the Hungarian people have a special Hungarian tradition called a Disznotor. This is a tradition where 

they kill a pig. So they do this because along time ago they would need to have food for them self’s. So what happens is about 3 times in the winter. They wake up really early in the morning at like 4 and around 5 maybe they kill the pig. They usually cut a slice on the bottom of its throat and then the blood flows into a bucket. I really wanted to see this, but I did not get the chance. So I will start with what I did get to do. Right now people do not usually kill the pigs because it is to warm. They usually do them in the beginning of November, before Christmas so that Christmas will have really good-fresh food, and then maybe at the end of January early February. I thought I was not going to get to be in one, but then my host mom called on of her friends and it just so happened that her company was going to have one. Turns out that her friend lives in Romania where Hungary used to be. It is a Romanian city, and everyone here speaks Romanian but there are lots and lots of Hungarians still here. Not just in Nagyvarad, but all over the country. So their company is going to have a party and so they will have a 

Disznotor before it so there will be really good food. But unfortunately they would not let me go to the actually killing of the pig. The pig was killed in a little village out side of the city, cause you cannot really kill a pig in the city, and then they borough it here. When they brought the pig here the first thing they did with it is burned of the hair. They had this machine that was like a hose but instead of water coming out, fire came out. So then the hair burned off and they pushed all the burnt hair of off the pig with a shovel. Then after that they burned the skin. So then the whole pig was black, and then they peeled off, or scrapped off the black layer of skin and once again the pig was white. The next step 

was cutting open the pig and taking out all of the things from it. So what happens is that they use almost all of the parts of the pig. They put the intestines in on bucket, the head in a pot for cooking, the heart and liver in the same for cooking, and then brought the rest of the pig inside. We were in a cold room cause you have to have the meet stay cold, just like as if they would be doing it on a cold winter day. There they cut everything in to groups so the meet, the fat and these things. Then from all the fat, we peeled of the skin and made a separate pile, because we eat this skin here to. Since it was cooked from the fire, it is not soft is kind of hard and crunchy and we put salt 

on it and then just eat it like that. They would not really like me help cut the pig I was more just watching. While the men were sorting all the parts the women cooked the intestine, liver, heart, lungs, fat and these parts in big pots or big tin buckets over the fire. But with the intestine they took out all of the parts from inside of the tub like things and then put the tub like things that we empty in water, they were kind of like long balloons. Then we started to make KOLBASZ. What you need for this is fat, meat, lots of salt and pepper and a hungian red pepper spice. But you have to ground the meat and the fat and then you mix everything together. Then we put the ground mixture into a 

matching that on one end we put the intestine tube 

on, and then turned the handle of the machine and the mixture went into the tube!! You can eat the kolbasz just like this but you can also cook it or smoke it. For me I think I like it smoked the best, and then it is hard like beef jerky. Then we made the HORKA. There are two kinds of horka, bloody and liver. The liver horka is made with all of the broiled intestine, liver, heart, and fat. This is ground and then mixed with tons of cooked rice, salt and pepper. You do the same process as the kolbasz but you only eat it raw or cooked. Then the bloody horka is called bloody cause guess what it is really 

bloody! Yeah I know crazy, but you remember when I said that when they cut the pig’s neck and put the blood in a bucket, yeah with then after it hardened a little they put it in boiling water and then it because something like a sold and we ground that with fat. With this ground mixture we added salt and pepper and the same thing as the other horka. It is so crazy I think because they do this as a normal thing that way they can it, cause if they do not do it they will not have good food in the winter. We also made something else called teperto which is fried fat and we had this fresh and delicious!!

One day here the next day there!

BEAUTIFUL HUNGARY!! On Saturday the 25th I got up early and went to the train station with a few people from my school. We were about a group of six, two students and four teachers and we traveled to the Bükk Hegység. This time we could actually see where we were and the weather was amazing! We hiked around in just sweatshirts and sun tanned. We hiked past one really old castle and we could barley tell that it was a castle cause it was so old that the earth grow over it!! Then on the next day I went on a trip with some of my friends. But ha ha not just any of my friends but about 40 friend of mine that are older than 60! I ended up going on this trip because when I was on one of

My other trips I met a few ladies who then invited me on this trip cause they enjoyed being with me. So when I got on the bus all of the old people said PALINKA! POGACSA! You know palinka is their famous alcohol drink and pogacsa is their famous pastry! It was really funny and we drank and ate and started our journey to Tokaj which is a big hill in the middle of flat Hungary! They grow really amazing wine here and it is said to be world famous. I tried two kinds, the sweet and the not sweet one but only the sweet one I liked. It was really fun and we spend the day trying wines and learning how the different people make their wines here. After all the traveling around I rested for two days and then on Wednesday the 29..... LEAP

DAY... I went back to Hajduszoboszlo and had the most amazing time ever. It was so great to be back with my first family and I really feel like they are my family :) We talked alot and laughed even more and packed for a big trip to Budapest! We made lots of snacks and of course POGACSAS!! Then the next day, on Thursday we got up early in the morning and Lajos and I drove to Budapest. Lajos works with the Tourist department of the town and we were on our way to Hungary's traveling convention. Here people for other countries and people from cities and villages in Hungary could come and present their country or town. Lots of travel agencies also were their presenting what

Kind of trips they offer. The towns showed what kinds of traditions they have their, they build structures that looked like the buildings in their town and some even had food to offer. I got to try fish sausage, a famous hungarian soup, lots of foods I do not know the name of, and my new favorite....... FAT!!! Ha ha yes I know it sounds very gross and weird but fat. So when I came to Hungary I though we I am going to go the whole year without eating this but six months after being here it did not sounds grows any more and I wanted to try it!! So there are many ways they prepare it and you can eat lots of different kinds. For example pig fat they prepare by frying it and then it is very crispy but what what I ate here was goose fat and it was fried but just until it was soft!! They also make something like a cream or a spread out of fat and we often eat this on bread!! I know I sound crazy but I AM FINALY HUNGARIAN!! :)