The Magyar Memoir- Part 9 (the gate of the Great Plain)

Or as I liked calling it, “exactly an hour from anything and everything”…you find the quaint little town of Cegléd: population approx 39,000, but it feels like about 150 in the summertime. Cegléd boosts the biggest Calvinist church in Central Europe, it also has a long history; the town dates back to 1290, it seemingly didn’t survive the Mongol invasion structurally, but in the latter 1300s did come back into its own, and has been growing ever since. It later became important ‘safe town’ as it was sympathetic to the peasant uprising of 1514. The Turks and the Hapsburg empire both got their hands on it but and later lost their grip of little Cegléd. Then there was the whole Soviet business, but we won’t talk about that. Apparently, the Golden age of the town occurred during the turn of the last century when the bulk of the town was constructed, including Kossuth Secondary School…where I taught. 100 plus years later, I don’t think much as changed. It’s a sleepy little town, although it does have a Tesco, Vodafone shop, exactly two internet cafes, a movie theater, less than five restaurants, a few really nice bakeries, and no pubs. For all other modern conveniences, you must head Budapest or Szeged. It does host a Turkish bath and water park (all-in-one) on the outskirts of town as well as a very expensive and somewhat green public pool, both of which were lifesavers during the month- long heat wave, which had befallen us.
The hour train ride to Cegléd from Szeged was interesting nonetheless, an hour without any possible interruption from the dictators; we reveled in our air-conditioned quiet comfort, part and parcel of our first class tickets. Each of us ipod in ear, book in hand, by this time we had gone pro when it came to ignoring Norma’s annoying banter; and relaxed for what felt like the first time in three weeks. I took this time to do a little journaling, and reflecting, hoping the train might take it easy by which extending my time on the air-conditioned train. Every time I looked at Lana and Fedelio I burst into uncontrollable laughter, as packing was a problem for Lana. Therefore she just wore all the clothes that didn’t fit in her suitcase- jeans, a dress over, a t-shirt over that, etc. Then Fedelio decided to defend her by teasing me about my ultra-sporty American attire (which I deserved, I was looking especially white socked and sandled) He put on my baseball cap, tucked in his shirt, rolled the sleeves, pulled up the socks, and gave his best all-American smile, as I snapped pictures of the tacky duo. Due north through the Carpathian valley, heading towards the hot dusty planes of Cegléd otherwise known as the gateway to the great planes.
When we arrived at the train station, the dictators were waiting, (waving in slow motion based on my memory of the day), as if we had just returned from a year-long trip round the world. Our group was divided; one car would be driven by the dictators, the other car, a local that spoke a few words of English, but not more. We clamored trying to be the first into the local guy’s car. Lana and Fidelio drew the short straw, they gave us a obvious “F-You” expression as we speed off. We were treated to a tour of the whole town, by our local ambassador- it took five minutes. The Arizonia restaurant…the other Arizonia restaurant, the ice cream shop, the cake shop, the bakery that’s only open in the morning, the church, the old church, the main square, and our finally our flat.




Compared to the Sik Sandor, this flat was fantastic, actually compared to any foreign accommodations I’ve had, this place was spectacular! Top floor (with an elevator) view of the park, and the church, walking distance to school, and the two Arizonias, the two bakeries, and Norma was not walking distance from our place, (she was given a single across town), as was Laura and Fidelio. So it was Ashlee, Mylo, and me, three bedroom, two bathrooms, a washing machine, a TV, a stereo, cute kitchen, we were pleased! Except for one thing…Janie who would be replacing the chicken pocked Craig. Where would she be sleeping, we mused? We ran in to Lana and Fidelio when we went to dinner at Arizona No# 1, so we invited them over after to have a coffee at our place. We explored all the alternatives strategically. I could sleep on the couch, Mylo could sleep on Lana and Fidelo’s couch. Lana and Fidelio could move in to our place since we already knew and liked them, and Janie could have their place, we could make Janie sleep at Norma’s, no too mean, we pondered all options, and settled on me sleeping in the living room, and giving Janie my room. When she arrived, we all crossed our fingers that she wouldn’t be another Norma, since we were so close to accommodations bliss. When the Dic’s dropped her off, and left us alone (well, went next door, so that they could listen with a glass to the door), we realized that Janie was great, a perfect addition to our household and staff.
After the weekend the dictators decided they couldn’t allow me to not have a room, and decided to find a single flat for Mylo, so that it would be just the girls in the dream flat. We all felt bad about this, as he was our buddy, and deserved to get to live in the nice flat too. They found him a crap sublet around the corner, which meant that he sleep there but the minute he woke up, came directly to our place for breakfast, and stayed until bedtime.
There were a lot of rules at the dram flat, such as we could not eat anywhere but in the kitchen, nor drink anywhere but…you guessed it in the kitchen. In fact, the getting the security deposit back in it’s entirety was such an issue, sheets were delivered and we were directed to cover everything, so our placed looked like we were about to paint at all times. It was way too embarrassing to have any one over ever, good thing we encompassed what felt like 90% of the town population.
We loved this flat, and actually really enjoyed our tradition that we fell into of all having breakfast together while watching the BBC each morning. (In case you weren’t glued to BBC World in July of 2007, what you missed was a plethora of coverage about the US presidential coverage of the YouTube debates, and the inauguration of Pratibha Patil…what, you don’t know who that is?!) (India get’s a female president, why can’t we have one!) Then I’d grab my fan (to take to my classroom) and swing by the morning bakery for a coffee, on my way to school. My students were very nice, polite, funny, and eager to learn. I found them to be much worldlier then my classes at Szegvar, but I guess that’s to be expected as this was a town not a farm village. After school, it was usually a walk over to the other Arizona, for lunch, then we took turns saturating ourselves in cold water to remedy the near heat stroke conditions. All except for Ashlee, whose crazy Irish ass, would actually go lay out, in the sun, or worse yet, go jogging!