Birthday Celebration & Demonstrations

 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 guitarist had another engagement. After previewing the journals, twenty-five people joined the conference online. Ten of them gave speeches. The floor was then opened to those in the room. The first apologized to the English speakers for switching to Hungarian. The next six followed suit, giving their speeches in Hungarian as well. At the end of the Hungarian speeches, the announcements were also in Hungarian, so I thought there was no cake and the celebration was over.  I had to rush off to class. The next day, I ran into a colleague who was at the celebration and asked if was normal for Hungarian birthday parties to have no cake. It was then that I learned there was a cake.

My second cultural was after the field trip on Thursday. I was returning to school to teach my evening class when I noticed a number of people gathering in the square. It was a peaceful march with children and adults. Some held placards and others banners with the names of the schools. I saw one of the teachers I work with at the high school. Another had told me earlier that a demonstration was being organized and the parents and children would march along in support of the teachers who are demonstrating for higher salaries. As in many places, a novice graduate in mechanics or IT makes more than a seasoned teaching professional. In other parts of the country, teachers were fired for missing work to march in a demonstration. This demonstration was also protesting that injustice.