Life and Times of an English Language Doctor

  The traditional Szegedi house is known by its top. Just under the roof, you will notice the hole with the beams radiating away from the center like sunbeams. The hole is the eye of God, to remind the residents that God is watching. The sunbeams are in the shape of triangle, which represents the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The houses were built in 1879, after the flood that wiped out most of the city, spearheaded by the architect, Lajos Lektar.  Thirty-eight of these houses are still standing, now they are protected by the Historical Society.  In 1904, they ceased building houses in this way. Thus, I can be confident in saying that my favorite house on the street with the traditional houses was probably built after 1904. Isn't the curved roof cool? The inside of the smallest traditional houses had three rooms: the "clean" room, where one would entertain guests, the kitchen, and the bedroom. The inside had some brick stoves build in the early 20th century...

  Altar to Virgin Mary, Fransiscan Church in Szeged Fun Fact: St. Istvan, founder of Hungary, one of the sculptures to the right of the Virgin, died having no heirs. He gave his crown to the Virgin Mary, making her the perpetual queen of Hungary. In the 13th Century, Szeged sat at the crossroads of two important regional trade routes:  the Transcarpathian which came from the east along the Tisza River and the Transylvanian, which came from Constantinople in the southeast. It was on this site that the Order of Knights founded a hospital to serve the residents and travelers throughout the region.                                                  13th Century Trade Routes The 13th Century is also significant as it was the founding of the Fransiscan Order of the Catholic church.  In 1210, by papal decree, Francis of Assisi was allowed to organize a group...

I began the morning in immigration. My visa expired last week and the new one has not yet arrived. They have changed the workflow at immigration.  Last week, it was crowded and I imagine the information officer was the most overwhelmed. There was another officer who was trying to help by calling those with specific issues to come see her. Today, she had a desk right after passing through the metal detector.  The security officer would not let any Engish speaker get a number until he or she had first talked to the officer at the desk. I was pretty early this morning, the third in line. She gave me the form to fill out to get a temporary visa then referred me to the information officer who could call my caseworker and get more specific information. While we were waiting for my caseworker to call back, the information officer encouraged me to get a temporary visa so that I could have legal status. I would not be able to renew my health insurance on the temporary visa, but she sai...

 This weekend, the street by the river was closed for the fish festival. My camera had been accidentally set to pro settings for this picture of a cauldron. When I first walked past, someone was cleaning it with a mop.  This cauldron was bigger. I took a picture from the bridge and from the ground. I did a double take walking up to the bridge. First, I thought that a new statue had been built. Then I saw the statue move. While I was coming down the stairs, more people had noticed the moving statue. She had some money in her hand which she mimed dropping into the bowl at the base of the statue. Here are some shots of the wares being sold: These were taken from the top of the dyke