English proficiency testing

Yesterday our 7th grade kids (at least the majority of them) took the preliminary english test PET.  The halls were almost buzzing with their nervous energy.  I thought it interesting that they wore their formal attire (black bottoms, white tops and the school tie or scarf) for the occasion.

British testers come into the school to administer these tests which consist of a listening component, reading comprehension and a speaking test.  I think that would be a great job, traveling within Europe to administer these exams.

Eger

We had a three day weekend last weekend, so we took the bus to a town in Hungary called, Eger.  Many of the hungarians that we told where we were going replied that it is one of their favorite cities.

I have not traveled in Hungary much yet, but each time that I do I have noticed nuclear power plants which looks so strange to me now that Trojan has been gone for several years.

Eger has a long history of human habitation which actually goes back to the Stone Age.  The current city was founded in the 10th Century by the first Christian  king of Hungary, St. Stephen.  It is a site of interest to us for two reasons.  First of all there is a castle shell still standing which you can walk around (for free).  There is a famous story written by a Hungarian writer named Gardonye Geza about a siege of the castle by the Turks in 1552.  I have tried (unsuccessfully) to read it.  Now that we have been there I will make another attempt. Anyway, as the story goes, the Hungarians were defending their castle against attack by 80,000 Turk soldiers.  They numbered only about 2000 and that included women and children.  They were successful that time, but the Turks succeeded on their next attempt in 1596 and took over the town.  They ruled for 91 years converting the churches into mosques and erecting minarets.  One still stands and we paid our 250 forint (about $1.25) to climb the very narrow 97 steps to the top for a view of the city.  It sounds better than it actually was.  Both Jack and I experienced some claustrophobia in the tiny passageway and turns out the view wasn't any better than castle hill. As I breathlessly arrived at the top viewing point, I remember thinking, "What would happen if someone freaked out and could not take those stairs back down for fear of falling?" One man who was in the group ahead of us carried his son who was about 3 years old all the way up and back down again.  He must have been in great shape!

Okay, the other reason that Eger is famous is for the wine.  The region has been growing wine since the 10th century.  The wine tasting rooms were clustered along a hilly part of town where they had dug the tasting caves right into the hill.  They were small and not at all plush.  The visible wine storage was in these metal tanks which had spouts which had to be primed by someone sucking on a tube.  The really interesting part is that people can bring in plastic jugs and have them filled from these tanks with the wine of their choice.

My favorite Hungarian wine is call bikaver which is a blended red.  It's nickname is "Bull's Blood".  The story goes that prior to the first attack on the castle by the Turks the soldiers were fed well and given lots of wine which stained their beards.  The Turks were so amazed by the resistance to their attack that the rumor began that the soldiers were drinking wine which was mixed with bull's blood to give them strength.

We didn't taste anything that we liked well enough to shlup back on the bus however.

The bad news is that Jack left his camera on the bus from Budapest.  So, our pictures of Eger come from the Wikipedia.

The Weather

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for my entire life.

I don't remember being bothered by the rain as a kid.  My memories are of going barefoot in the grass in the summer and popping the tar bubbles that would appear in the street.

But, as an adult, I have been bothered by the frequency of cloudy drizzly days.  Jack and I have been saying for about 10 years that we want to explore retiring somewhere other than western Oregon, but what would be a good fit for us weather wise?

Well, now we have had a chance to experience a completely different climate and I have to say that we are enjoying it!

When we first arrived in August it was really hot.  It stayed on the warm side throughout Sept. and was pleasant in Oct.   It started getting cold in November and the snow arrived in December.  We had snow on the ground most days through February and it was really cold for about 8 weeks straight.  But what we have not had a lot of is rain!  How refreshing that has been.  Now that spring is approaching, it seems that there will be one rainy day followed by a couple of sunny ones.  It is still cold, but what an upper to experience the sun consistently this time of year!

So now we know that there are climates that we would enjoy other than that which we have spent over 50 years with!