On Sunday, we left our hotel early for Kecskemét, a town in Hungary. Towards the end of the bus ride, I finally got the Flower Duet out of my head, but unfortunately this only happened because the Tetris Song got stuck in there instead. We first visited the Town Hall and were greeted by the chiming of bells from both the Town Hall and a nearby church. Once inside, we were greeted by the Mayor of Kecskemét, and I felt as if I spoke a minority language because we needed one of the tour guides to translate for us! The mayor welcomed us and spoke a little about Hungarian history, and I felt that I would go home knowing more about Hungarian history than about Australian history.
After the mayor’s welcome talk, we left the town hall and sorted ourselves into bus groups. Two groups were to go directly to the Kodály Institute, while the other two groups looked around the town briefly (and I do mean briefly). While waiting to move off, a couple of guys cycled past on interesting bikes. It was like a fairly large unicycle with a trainer wheel at the back. They cycled forth once, then back, whistling as we snapped photos. Eventually, bus groups 1 and 2 moved off and we were left aimlessly looking around Kecskemét while waiting for groups 1 and 2 to leave the Kodály Institute.
A little to the left of where we were standing (from the point of view of leaving the Town Hall), there was a small model of Kecskemet. After admiring this model and the beautiful flowers nearby, our attentions turned to a small hill-shaped monument which everyone took turns sliding down. Next up was a fountain, followed by a wall with the year “1956” engraved on it (I’m not sure what the significance of this was, there was probably a description somewhere but most likely it would have been in Hungarian anyway).
We finally set off for the Kodály Institute. We were shown into an average-sized room with about 5 pianos in it (if I remember correctly, there were one or two grand pianos and a two or three upright pianos). We were shown a video about the Kodály Institute which had a song that we all recognised- we had had to learn it in choir so that we could sing it with Hungarian students at the Kodály School. The song was called Cohors Generosa and had lyrics in Hungarian and Latin. After the video was finished, we collected pamphlets about the Kodály Institute. The people there said that we could show them to our teachers, but our teachers already used Kodály methods anyway.
We then headed off for the buses. On the way, a car had to slow down for us as we crossed the road (then again, the car probably would have slowed down anyway as we were crossing at an intersection). My fear instincts suck because they aren’t helpful at all- in fact, they probably compromise my survival. I froze but then I quickly leaped to catch up with the others. There’s always safety in numbers when crossing the road. (Later on, I wrote in my diary, “standing in the middle of the road, even on a dotted line, is one of the worst things that you can do (*cough*Jasmine COJ-girl*cough.*)”)
The bus took us to the Kodály School, which was a mixed primary and high school specialising in music. On our way up the stairs, we encountered a poster which said that our school was famous, which intrigued us. At the top of the stairs, we were given morning tea- different types of juices and biscuits.
The toilets at the Kodály School were, to put it lightly, strange. They sounded like wannabe aeroplane toilets, and at the time I wrote that they sounded like vacuum cleaners on steroids, though not as loud as aeroplane toilets.
After morning tea, we entered the auditorium. The teacher there was pretty funny. He told us about the music program at the Kodály School and their ensembles. Boys’ choir wasn’t compulsory for the same amount of time as girls’ choir- probably because the boys there apparently annoy their teacher to no end because they’d rather play soccer than sing. A few minutes later, a bunch of Hungarian girls came in, and the teacher said, “Oh, these Hungarian girls! You tell them to come at 10.15, and they’ll come at 10.30! You tell them to come at 10.30, and they’ll come at 10.45!” The Hungarian girls sat in between us. The teacher told us to introduce each other, which we did. I wouldn’t be able to pronounce the name of the girl next to me even if I tried, but it sounded something like “Jill” except 10 000 times more awesome. As a group, we all warmed up and sang two songs together: “Cohors Generosa” and another song called “We Gather Here Together.” The Hungarians’ pronunciations of solfa put us off at times, because they pronounced “re” “ri.” “Ri” using Australian pronunciations for solfa is one semitone higher than “re.” Some people, including me, were tempted to sing “ri” instead of “re” because of the confusion. Another solfa-pronunciation difference which turned legendary was in what seemed to be their most common warm-up: “doh-re-doh-lah-doh.” The Hungarians pronounced this “doo-ri-doo-lah-doo.” Pronunciation differences aside, the Hungarian girls were amazing singers, and afterwards we all discussed how inadequate we felt beside them!
After singing together for a little while, we had lunch in the cafeteria of the Kodály School- a three-course-meal, which I thought was amazing for school food (especially considering that prior to Europe Tour I would have only had three-course-meals at restaurants if at all). Max managed to eat all of his quickly and go back for seconds, whereas I only just managed to finish mine. I seem to remember that there was one fruit that nobody wanted to eat (can’t remember whether that was due to it looking “suspicious” or whether everyone was full by that time) but I can’t remember what it was- I think it may have been an orange.
It was then back to the auditorium for practise for that night. If I remember correctly, Senior Chorale practised “Like a Prayer,” “Viva la Musica” and “Joshua Fight de Battle ob Jerico.” Wind Orchestra didn’t get a chance to perform because the stage was too small. After practising for half an hour or so, anyone who wasn’t performing in any other ensembles got to have afternoon tea and then go for a walk, though not too far. It was during this time that Jeff and some other boys discovered McDonalds, and when they returned, they returned with a hilarious story about Jeff ordering food. He wanted chips, but the guy didn’t understand him, so he had to point to a picture of chips. Then he wanted coke, and he had to say, “Coke! Coke! Coca-cola!” before the guy understood! (It doesn’t look so funny written down, but it was hilarious at the time.)
When most people had arrived back from their journeying around the neighbourhood, a few games took place. Boyuan, Jess C and Jacinta grabbed daisies from where they were growing nearby and stuck as many as they could onto Stevie J’s back before he noticed and tossed them all off his back. Eric tried to do a 720, and he succeeded before falling in a heap on the floor. A competition then ensued between the boys to see who could be the first to jump on to the raised circular platform in front of the Kodály School no-handed. Last, but not least, there was a limbo competition in which I was one half of the bar. A bunch of people participated, including Murphy Minor.
After performing that night in the concert, which seemed to have pleased the audience very much, we boarded the bus to learn that Nora was to be our tour guide no longer because she would have to work at BP on weekdays. (If I remember correctly, she said something about this on the way to Kecskemét- something along the lines of, “I started working at BP two weeks ago. I hate it!” and then proceeding to talk about BP’s rules for going down stairs!) Nora introduced us to our new tour guide, Eva. While Nora was talking, I decided that my favourite accent was now Hungarian and not British.
***
That night, I had the funniest dinner in my life.
Boyuan, Amy and I were sitting at a table with Andrew, who was sitting there really awkwardly. He even showed it by making the “awkward turtle” sign. Somehow, throughout the conversation, Andrew began glaring at Boyuan really weirdly, making us all laugh. The way Andrew and Boyuan were glaring at each other made dinner very intense. That in turn somehow managed to lead to a competition in sculling soda water. Andrew won, and burped lots of times, really loudly too.
After dinner, the teachers organised a walk around Budapest (which Amy and I didn’t go on). Apparently, a random Hungarian guy yelled “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” at them, to which all the people who went on the walk (and there were a LOT of them, probably around about 100!) yelled back, “Oi! Oi! Oi!” Upon hearing about this, I was sad that I decided not to go on the walk that night, but at least I got the chance to have a good shower. I also got the chance to write in my diary:
“We are an Australian school in Hungary. We must represent our country with dignity. So we do. We:
· Have soda water sculling competitions
· Have intense limbo competitions in front of the Kodály School
· Dive down the sides of a hill-shaped monument in Kecskemét
· Say “Thanks, mate!” to the waiters in a Hungarian restaurant
· Add loads of sugar to the soda water
· Make suspicious-looking drinks that taste really weird by combining a bunch of available ingredients
· Answer the phone in odd ways (e.g. “George Washington is not here!”)
· Play saxophone in our rooms (I can hear one from here)
· Make plenty of innuendoes
· Wear our belts backwards
· Sit in terrible positions
· Stick flowers on Stevie J’s back
· See who can be the first to jump on a particular point
· Attempt to do 720s
· Do everything “just casually” (this seems to have been the catchphrase of the trip so far)
· Scream “SHUT UP!” at each other when an announcement comes on for our flight
· Invade McDonalds in Dubai Airport and Hungary
· Eat an entire main meal with a knife
· Blow across the water bottles to make a sound
· Tap on the bottles with cutlery to make sounds
· Play UNO in the corridors of the hotel
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