Goulash

There are a few times in your life that forgetting your camera is one of the utmost tragedies, only salvaged by the fact that you are having the best time of your life, and have to imprint every image into your brain rather than onto film (or digital megabytes or whatever we use these days). Believe it or not, last night I had a full taste of Hungarian culture, one not easily described, and unfortunately, as I said, not easily photographed. My school had an International dinner last night. Apparantly there was a conference for teachers (I don't know what the conference was for), but there were teachers and a few of their students from Estonia, Polond, Slovakia, Germany, and Spain. The music school nearby lent us some of their students to provide us with musical entertainment all evening, mostly fast Hungarian folk music, and some of the students danced in traditional garb as well. The girls sang a beautiful song that is indescribable, while the guys leaped in the air and slapped their feet and theighs in rhythm. After the Hungarian performances, a few of the girls from Spain showed us flamingo dancing, while one of their teachers sang and clapped for them to keep the beat. It was all very beautiful. We ate goulash and pastries and drank and laughed (for once, everything was in English, it being the common language between us all), and I could feel like myself talking and laughing with all the guests and other English teachers. They dragged us all out on the dance floor by the end, running in circles holding hands and jumping and trying to keep up with the girls in the middle, one of which lost the heel of her shoe from stamping her feet so hard.
I got home late last night, and this morning I'm more than tired (and out of instant coffee!!!!) but I can still hear the music and see the girls dancing and it makes me smile. My only sadness is I have no pictures to share, so imagine and smile with me.