Music Tour- Day Five

The next day, we returned to the Kodály School for morning workshops. Before we left, we saw a taxi with the coolest phone number ever- 5-555-555. Angus came around handing out Theodora water (the water that I quickly learned to identify and then avoid because of its taste). I took a bottle, simply because I figured that it was better to have horrible tasting water than no water at all. Angus agreed with that- in fact, when he was handing out the bottles, he did say, “It’s pretty gross, but it’s better than nothing!”

By the time we reached Kecskemét, Eden had somehow tied a knot in his Theodora water bottle. How he did that is, as yet, a mystery of life still to be resolved.

At the Kodály School, a class had been set up on the auditorium stage for us to observe (in a non-creepy way, of course). We watched as the class warmed up and I was wondering if they would make people sing on their own, Miss C-style, in front of all 166 of us.

They did.

And they were brave about it, too.

Such incredible courage they must have! I mused to myself that if we were asked to do the same and Miss C asked me to sing on my own, I would have outright refused. I learned something quite important from these Hungarian students, though: I learned that if I sang more bravely, then it would help me to sing better. I think it was this day that one or two of their girls’ choirs sang for us. My favourite song out of those that they sang was “Hello Goodbye” by the Beatles.

That afternoon, we travelled to Tanyascárda, a puzsta (I think it’s a type of farm) in Hungary. We had goulash for lunch, during which several musicians performed to us. One was a violinist, another was a double bassist and the third a percussionist playing an interesting keyboard instrument I had never seen before but had heard of in some country music. They played a lot of songs that we all knew, like Csárdás and Hungarian Rhapsody. During “My Heart Will Go On,” the violinist serenaded Claire (though from my point of view it looked as if he was serenading Jacinta)! The violinist then sold copies of his CD for 3000 Ft each. Unfortunately I only had 2 000 Ft on me at that point. It was a shame since that was the thing I wanted the most in Hungary.

After lunch, we were introduced to some Hungarian students in an advanced English class from the Kodály School before participating in some games such as the sack race and a wheelbarrow race (using a real wheelbarrow-type thing, not that thing where you lift up someone’s legs and they walk with their hands). Stevie J participated in everything.

We were then taken to a horse show by horse and carriage. We had to be taken in groups (I think it was bus groups again) because there weren’t enough horses to take us all. While waiting, someone managed to put a daisy chain on Stevie J’s head! Trent then lent him his sunglasses, and soon Stevie J was surrounded by everyone taking a photo of him! Angus then asked Boyuan to write “What a Gun” on his arm using a marker he had brought along, and Boyuan wrote “water gun” instead to really annoy him.

Eventually our time came to be taken to the horse show. Along the way, Scotty dropped his bag. The driver stopped to allow him to pick it up. When Scotty was nearly back to the carriage, the driver started up again! It was an amusing sight, watching Scotty sprinting after the carriage. (The driver eventually did stop to allow him to get on.)

The horse show was pretty interesting. The horse trainers could get their horses to sit like a dog and lie down on their sides. The horse trainers even lay down on top of the horses, and the horses stayed stock-still! Later, a donkey trainer arrived and demonstrated the same tricks. We also saw some games that the horse-riders played. One game had one player with a scarf and the other players had to try and get the scarf off them. After the show, we got a chance to look at the farm animals, some of which were very young.

Before we had to leave, we had to sing one final song for the advanced English students who had come with us. The song chosen was a parody of Viva la Musica- “Viva la Kecskemét.” I accidentally sang along with the basses at the start, but fortunately nobody noticed!

On the bus, the boys were going on about “sleazing for the camera.” Of course, Scotty did this the best- no surprises there. On the way back, while I was rejoicing in the fact that I wasn’t one of the people who stepped in horse shit, we listened to music on the CD bought from the violinist. One of the songs on there was Vltava- one of my favourites!