Dear Reader
last Sunday I didn’t have the luck to enjoy the sunshine; however the showers couldn’t decline the splendors of the exhibition “Amazonia”. It was organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; very impressive photos of animals in rainforests have been shown there since few weeks. I was at the museum with Cassie.
On Monday, after (and instead of) my English classes I participated in Jen’s class about Energy and the Law, it was very interesting. Similarly, John Bonine’s classes about Environment and Pollution on Tuesday and Thursday were fascinating. I borrowed the required and recommended books. It is exciting that I may gain knowledge of U.S. environmental law as well as the Law School.
This week I began the preparation for PIELC. I am going to participate in the panel on procedural rights. I think I will talk about legal-procedural questions of public participation in Hungary - based on EMLA’s cases.
I won’t bore you, dear Reader, with all the details of my life, but I would like to tell some of my experiences from this week.
The main topic of the English reading/writing/grammar classes is nutritionism, so - not surprisingly - at the end of the lessons we always are very hungry.
On Tuesday we (three of my classmates and me) decided - following our beloved Korean classmate’s advice - that we try kimchi, bibimbap (or bimbipap?!) and bulgogi. These traditional Korean foods were a little bit spicy for me, but the conversation about differences and similarities between the Korean, Japanese and Chinese cuisine was interesting.
I think I found three experts of the topic, because they all love their own national meals and are open-minded enough to try something different. Of course, I could not participate in the discussion, because of the lack of similarities, but I told them about the basic Hungarian meals (pörkölt - stew, gulyásleves – gulash and Gundel-palacsinta – Gundel pancake) and our drinks (wines of Tokaj and “pálinka”, which is made from plum).
On the next evening we ate sushi with wasabi… I liked it, too. Wasabi was really “touching”.
Friday evening I saw the movie “Sherlock Holmes” in Springfield and had to realize, that they made a tiny mistake: … Sherlock Holmes was left out from the screenplay. I like Robert Downey jr. (since the film “Restoration”) as well as Jude Law (because I am a lawyer… khm, sorry!), that’s why I enjoyed this film. However, the title is not suitable, it doesn’t agree with the theme; I would suggest the producer to change that, because the film certainly will be continued. Thus, my suggestions are: ”Street Fighters for Old Britannia 1.” or “Good boys speak in fragments 1.”
Saturday evening I was at the Robert Burns Scottish Music Festival. The music and the dances were charming; the dinner was great and the original poems were very hard to understand. I discovered what “Lassie” and “Laddie” mean (woman and man), and I saw (but didn’ taste) the traditional Scottish “Haggis”, which is a kind of sausage (you know, it is like our Hungarian “hurka”).
This Sunday morning I wanted to summarize the past seven days, but since I have typed, the weather became beautiful. All the clouds were gone and now the sun is shining, I must go out there. I will come back.
I took a walk in the Hendricks Park. There are rhododendrons which were blooming and the air was balmy and sweet.
This evening I had dinner with Bern and his family in their pretty house of which terrace fronts onto one of the beauty spots of Eugene. I found a warm welcome, all they were very curious about Hungary, moreover we had a lot of things to talk about and I enjoyed our conversation very much. The dinner which was prepared and cooked by Bern and Hillary was delicious. We ate spring-gulash (chicken and vegetables) with croutons, salad with many kind of cheeses and cookie. The latter was baked by Harper. Finally, Tatum played us the piano, the song was “Somewhere over the rainbow”. I felt great, I was talking without pause.
Oh, and Sandy, the dog understood what “Ül a kutya!” means.
(I am afraid I made them all tired out :))
Good night, and I wish you all in Hungary “Jó reggelt!”