Hunglish & the Mall by Train

Gianna is picking up English quickly, at least it seems like she understands 60% of what we are saying. When we say "let's get dressed" or "hold my hand" or "are you hungry?" she responds. We're still using Hunglish, as we call it - like saying the Magyar word and then repeating the English word right after it. "Neitz, Look!", "Nem, no", "Yo, good"...and weaning into just saying it all in English.

Monkey is a little harder to ween off of Magyar though...he picked it up so quickly that he can have a whole conversation with her in Magyar without even thinking. Now that we are trying to switch over to English I can't get him to stop talking in Magyar! We have two Hungarian children now, lol.

Once we get back into English speaking land we'll be more strict about just talking English. It's hard to fully make the transition here, with everyone around us speaking her language, so Hunglish it is for a few more days.

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Another highlight of the trip - yesterday we found a Starbucks!!! After 45 days without seeing one we finally found one when we took the train to the mall - and of course made a bee line in to order a great big frappuccino. I was in heaven while I sipped my familiar foamy icy drink. The menu was all in English too - what a treat actually knowing what we were ordering and being able to pronounce it. AND they had wi-fi - what a luxury!

 









When I tried to order a cheeseburger at Burger King the menu was all in Magyar and I had to order a Sajtburger. Thank goodness a lot of employees at stores here speak at least a little English. I just said Cheeseburger and she knew what I wanted. I asked her how to say it, and she said "Shiteboigoi" or something like that. Cheese is shite I guess. Interesting.

The mall is amazing - it starts underground, right as you step off the train and goes 3 stories up. Lots of stores we recognize like Claire's, Starbucks, Burger King, Lee, MAC...and some that are similar like Women's Secret. 

Before we headed back on the train, we decide to surface and see what is outside around the mall. Right across the street I spotted a bunch of little tents, as if a market was set up. We headed over there and raided some of the kiosks and bought a bunch of souvenirs for people. 

 

Then we went back underground and bought another ticket (they are just one-time tickets for $1.50 each per person. Go as far as you like, it's one price) for the train and figured out which side to wait on after asking a couple of people and pointing to our destination on the map. Not sure how to read the signs, so it's a little stressful not knowing how to tell which train is correct. When the train stops, you literally have 5 seconds to get on or off, so you have to be ready and make sure you're holding the kids' hands or one might get left behind!!

Back to our neighborhood, then we had to catch the trolley back to our hotel. They stop every 5 minutes roughly, and they are free. There is really no way to know their route, but we just ask the hotel which # to get on. This one is not our trolley, it's one of the busses. No time to actually get a picture of the trolley, or he would just leave without us! Once again, you have to be on your toes and know exactly when you want to get off and be standing by the door while the bus is still in motion so you can get out before the doors close again. Did I mention how much I miss my car??

For dinner to save money, we just go to the little grocery store across the street from our hotel. We have a fridge and a hot water boiler...so tonight we had ramen noodles and crackers and cheese. Check out the package of ramen noodles - forro means "hot", so it looks like we are eating hot boogers for dinner. I miss my kitchen.

Countdown: 4 more days!