The Offbeat: Set Two.

Picking up where I left off last month, I've gathered a few more accounts for the second installment of The Offbeat: authentic stories of cultural difference...

Crazy Talk. The Hungarian language is so entertaining to me... the more I learn, the more I laugh. I find it funny that there are some words that are roughly the same in all languages... until that word meets Magyar, the language of Hungarians. For example, let's take a simple word like police... it seems like an important word to be able to communicate and perhaps that's why it is fairly similar in most languages. In Spanish: policía, Polish: policji, Dutch: potitie, Czech: policie, Italian: polizia, Romanian: poliţie, and even in Finnish (which people say is as difficult as Hungarian): poliisi. But, no... in Hungarian it's rendőrség. Now, I realize that Hungarian is unrelated to Latin, or any other Indo-European language for that matter, but can't we just have a word that is related to something that the rest of the world recognizes?

Another entertaining stroke of language comedy comes up every time I go to check out at (any) shop if I am using a credit card. In Hungary, the customer hands the card to the cashier, and then after swiping the card, he or she will return the card and prompt the customer to press the zöld (green) button that hilariously reads "helyes" to confirm the amount to be charged to my card. Of course, I think to myself (with authority)... 'hell yes, this amount is okay!'

Common courtesy? I suppose we all take some things for granted, and I realize (now) that I often expect Hungarian people will act the same way they do in Colorado when put in relative situations. Well, I'm learning time and time again... this isn't always the case.

A few weeks ago, I was making gulyás and was fresh out of garlic... so, I walked up the street to Penny Market, picked up a package of garlic and went to the register. I arrived at the checkout at exactly the same time as a couple pushing an overflowing cart (and even carrying the beer that wouldn't fit in the cart). When we made eye contact, I thought that the woman would surely insist that I went ahead of her (remember, I had one simple package of garlic... and I even had exact change to pay and go). However, just when we made eye contact and she recognized our simultaneous arrival, she quickly started throwing her groceries up on the conveyor belt and unloaded her entire cart... she even had the nerve to look back once, as if she wanted to make sure I didn't try to go in front of her. I wish that I could say this was a one-time occurrence, but unfortunately I've experienced this type of interaction several times since moving here last summer. I just have to laugh to myself and appreciate that I'm being forced to slow down and wait a bit... something I've had trouble doing until moving to Europe... the pace change is totally good for me. And, again, of course, this isn't the way everybody acts... there are still plenty of kind folks that would gladly let me go ahead.

Kaposvár Farmers Market. In contrast to the typical shop environment, the farmers market is a world of it's own... and it is so cool! Sure, we have great farmers markets back in Colorado... really great ones actually... but, they definitely don't have the character that the Kaposvár Market does. When I go to the market here, I probably spend more time watching people than I do picking out produce and managing to pay (all in Hungarian, of course). I swear, all the little old Kaposvári ladies and sharp-dressed old Kaposvári men come out every morning (except Mondays) for this cultural roundup... everyone has something to sell and everyone has business to make. And, somehow, there's a buyer for everything! Furthermore, there is always a queue at the büfé... men and women line up for their pálinka and májas hurka (liver sausage)... I suppose it completes the morning market experience. I don't think I'll ever get produce at Tesco again (and I know I won't ever get it at Penny Market again)!

Things I miss: Luna, quality teaching assistants, people picking up dog sh*t regularly, mowing the lawn, juicing my breakfast, standing up to take a 'normal shower,' and 'real' Mexican food (not Hung-Mex).

Things I don't miss: staying at school for ten-plus hours a day, being pressed by servers for 'camping' at cafés or restaurants, the rush, entering twenty-plus grades per student each semester, and waking up at 5:51 every morning.

Click here for The Offbeat: Set One.

Crossing the North Sea: Oslo, NORWAY.

I couldn't help but smile as I took the train in to the city center from the airport... looking out the window, laughing at the relentless sun trying to melt the fields of thick Norwegian snow... knowing he really doesn't stand a chance. I think about my last few weeks... from the Balkans to Berlin, and now to Norway... and I realize that March has come and gone without me even recognizing it was here! Furthermore, I understand that time won't wait, so I have to keep enjoying each passing moment...










While time is flying by, I feel really lucky... to see so many amazing places and meet so many incredible people. And, this week, I get to reunite with two of the coolest people I know; my good friends Susan and Roy are coming to visit me in Europe!

So... Norway is freaking cool. My friend Danielle used to live in Oslo and gave me the scoop on a bunch of places to check out, and even sweeter... she put me in touch with her friend Sigurd... who let Susan and I stay with him for a few nights! Sigurd and his partner, Øystein, were incredibly welcoming and live right in the thick of Grünerløkka... what I learned to be the hottest neighborhood in Oslo!

I spent the first day getting my bearings of the city... walking most of it, and catching up with Sigurd. I had a ticket to see Common at the Rockefeller in Oslo that night, but at the last minute, he canceled. I was definitely bummed, but there was much more to experience in Oslo than the hip hop show. And, over the course of the next few days... we pretty much did it all!

Susan got in the next morning, and we immediately went down to the Oslo Fjord (which was super cool). We bounced from cafés to museums to the Royal Palace to the City Hall and hit a bunch more places on the way up and down too. We stumbled upon the Nobel Peace Center: home of the world renowned peace prize, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery, the Contemporary Art Museum, and the Arkansas Fortress.

At night, we went to the Royal Revolver, this rad little underground dive with red leather furniture and red lights to see Woods. It was pretty freaking cool to catch the Brooklyn newcomers at this hip rock and roll joint about 200 meters from where we were staying... Oh, and dude plays a pair of tape recorders! Yes, G. Lucas Crane is a tape-effects technician... manipulating two tape decks as turntables, slowing down and speeding up the playback heads and singing into headphones, synthesizing harmonies with the tape effects (routed through guitar pedals)... pretty wild.




Oslo is a very walkable city, so on the third day, we did a lot more of just that. Our first stop was Tim Wendleboe, a mighty fine micro roastery... in fact, arguably the greatest barista in the world (2006 World Champion and 2005-2010 Nordic Champion Barista)... dude knows how to brew a cup of jo! Then, we cruised Karl Johan a few times (some of them on accident), hit the DogA (Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture) and somehow wound up in Haussmaniak, the artist squat... funny how this always happens. I'm quickly realizing that all the cool European cities have an alternative art scene... not in just the art being created, but a dedicated area for a different way of life. Here, it is Haussmania in the Blå section of Grünerløkka.

After playing around Blå for a bit, we made our way to Gustav Vigeland's sculpture park... Vigelandsparken... and wow, it's sweet! On our last night in Oslo, we went out to dinner with Sigurd and Øystein at this delicious restaurant called Fyret... we had some of the freshest seafood and elk! Late night, we decided to check out Blå for funky dance jams all night long!











On the last morning, we took another walk up by the student silos (student housing inside of legitimate old silos!) to Tim Wendleboe because it was that good! We hit the Oslo flea market (a mix of trendy and trashy) and hit the train to the airport... what a trip!

Haakon: third king of Norway.

Creative Capital: Berlin, GERMANY.

On my mission to see as many new places as I can this year, I have only re-visited a few European cities outside of Hungary (like Vienna and Ljubljana), but when I heard about the opportunity to go back to Berlin... I was champing at the bit! Berlin is one of my all-time favourite cities and it just so happens to be the site of the International Fulbright Seminar each year...

















The Fulbright Program continues to impress and introduce me to incredible opportunities; this week was just an extension of the standard. The program was filled with insightful panel discussions, networking forums, workshops, cultural outings, and capped with an incredible Music Gala at the Universität der Kúnste Concert Hall. Not to mention, they put us up in the middle of the middle... in Alexanderplatz at the famous Park Inn Hotel... But, above all, the most valuable part of the conference for me was meeting all the other Fulbrighters from around Europe... hearing their stories, learning about their experiences, and exchanging perspective of culture. From medical doctors to professors, writers to scientists, students to researchers; everyone has a unique story and they all add to the global effort... it's pretty freaking awesome really.

I arrived a day early to do some exploring on my own... to meddle around the art scene, seeing what I could discover. Just as happenstance, I finally had the opportunity to watch Exit Through The Gift Shop on the train to Budapest the morning that I left... and the inspiration hit at just the right moment. Just a few hours later, I was walking along the East Side Gallery... peeping, arguably, the best street art scene in the world... I walked along the Berlin Wall remains and stared at the Super Moon, the biggest, brightest, and closest full moon in almost twenty years... on the eve of the spring equinox... and Luna's sixth birthday!

The flexible conference schedule gave us a lot of time to tour the city... and since I had already been to Berlin before (and did the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Führerbunker, etc.), I was able to dig further into the rich art scene that Berlin has to offer. I can't even begin to abstract all the places I wandered into and all the rad people I met over the course of the week... but these are a few places I remembered to write down (or at least take a photo of)...

Neurotitan Gallery. Off the beaten path, this gallery had plenty of new artists and lots of household street artist names too (Banksy, Blue, etc).



Neue Nationalgalerie. (New National Gallery) An incredible collection of expressionism, dada, bauhaus, and surrealism... from Kirchner to Léger, modern to contemporary... all very cool.






Mauerpark. This place is the illest! I originally went to meet up with Saya, a former student of mine and current student at Humboldt University in Berlin... She was helping out at Operation Onigiri... trading rice balls and paper cranes for donations to the earthquake/tsunami relief fund in Japan. I finally got a chance to meet up with her (about five hours after I got there), which was awesome! And, in the meantime I got caught up in the party in the park, fading into the crowd of thousands at the Sunday Market!






Hamburger Bahnhof. This huge contemporary art museum is housed in an old train station... one of the coolest art spaces I've ever seen. I went with Saya and her sister, who was visiting from Japan.

Deutsche Guggenheim. Agathe Snow: All Access World. Radical reinvention and inspiring aesthetic experiments!





Vans Butcher Block. One of only eight Vans retail stores in the continent, this one must be the king! This real-deal old-school butcher shop turned shoe store has an exclusive limited edition slip-on to represent the (over 100-year old) original green porecelain tiles...

The only bummer of the week was when I found out The Black Keys canceled their gig at Astra on Tuesday night... I had plans to check it out, BUT it just gave me more time to check out some other local Berlin dives at night, including: Astro Bar (some funky little hipster joint in the hot Freidrichshain District) and White Trash Fast Food (yes, that is the name of this tattoo studio / independent cinema / nightclub... and, yes, it is as cool as it sounds).