Life and Times of an English Language Doctor

 1728. Thirty-five years after the witch trials in Salem, Massachusettes, Szeged saw the one of the worst witch trials of the region (1). Unlike the Salem witch trials that only lasted for a year, the trials in Szeged stretched out for sixteen years. These trials were covered in newspapers as far away as Ireland (2)  Twenty-one people, primarily women, were tried as witches (3).  According to our guide at the museum, there were two tests to determine whether one was really a witch. First they would weigh the suspect--witches do not have bones and will thus be lighter than moral human beings. The second test was the water ordeal in which suspected witches were  to thrown into the river to see if they would float. If they floated,  they were witches. If they drowned, I suppose they were exonerated. According to Ildiko Kristof, a Hungarian historian, in the Szeged witch trials of 1728, three of the suspects drowned in the Tisza River,  thirteen were burned at ...

 In my first post, I included a picture of the outside of the old water tower. Here are some pictures of the city from the top of that water tower. PICK Salami Factory Radio Tower South toward the river synagogue Route to the University Here's a picture from inside the tower. These machines were used to make fizzy water.

 This week has been full of cultural experiences. On Wednesday, the department hosted a 70th birthday celebration for one of the professors. The invitation was circulated by email with the first being a heads up that the second one calling a department meeting was a ruse so that the birthday celebration would be a surprise. It was the strangest, most academic birthday celebration I've ever experienced. It began like the opening ceremony of a conference. Then the master of ceremonies unveiled the gift: two volumes of articles written by the birthday guests associates, students, and colleagues. A classical guitarist, whose home I visited several months ago for a housewarming and guitar concert, played a prelude, then retired to the back of the room where he played another prelude while someone scrolled through the title page of every article in the book. I did not count, but I think they said there were seventy-five articles. We scrolled through the last twenty in silence as the guit...

This week, on Friday afternoon, we took a field trip to the synagogue. As you can see there are many magnificient stain-glassed windows. The synagogue is a very stately building, built from 1900-1903, a celebration and expression of the Jewish freedom to express their faith and their nationalistic pride in Hungary. At the time that the synagogue was built, there were 7000 Jews living in Szeged. They contributed to the life and livelihood of the community. The sausage factory, which still employs many of the residents, was established by a Jewish businessman. Many of the Jews, including those who started the sausage factory, were deported during World War II. Now there are less than twenty Jews.  On our tour, I learned that there are different denominations of Judaism. The Orthodox Jews who follow the rites and regulations of their forefathers even in the ancient ways that they were taught. They dress conservatively; the men wear yamakas and have the long locks on either side of the...

  Diorama of Opusztaszer National Heritage Park Last Friday, I went on a field trip to Opusztaszer, a national heritage park in Hungary. In the rotunda, they had a diorama of the entire park. You can see that it has a bit more green space than Williamsburg, Virginia and maybe not as many buildings to explore.  There are two farm houses, a fisherman's house, a rural school house, offices, a forester's house, and late 19th century shops and offices. The fisherman houses and farmhouses had the same three-room floor plan as the traditional house that we toured a couple of weeks ago.  Flood Sculpture by Tisza River Opusztazer has two things that Williamsburg does not have: a cyclorama and  an exhibit about flooding.  The exhibit is in the house where the one who is responsible for managing the flood gates lives. The first recorded flood was when the dam broke on March 12, 1879 after a week of rising waters and strong winds. The water was thirty-two feet over flood st...