Heading Home today for Spring Break!! Then to the Napa Valley for about a week to hang with Aunty B and Uncle G, check out the CIA and FBI, visit some vineyards, and enjoy warm weather!! Be back next Tuesday to thrill you with the details of my travels! Have a great week everyone!!

On Tuesday evening, Hungary came to Binghamton. (I know, can you believe it? You’d think it’d be pretty hard to move an entire country…BU is really going to great diversifying lengths!! The parade of houses and national monuments on wheels was tremendous!!)

Okay, okay, so it was just the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra that came, but for a person who has never heard a single Hungarian word spoken before, it was a great deal like visiting with a foreign country!

The Orchestra performed Variations on a Hungarian Folksong (“The Peacock”) by Kodály Zoltán, Five Songs from the “Twenty Hungarian Folksongs” by Bartók, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E Flat Major and Les Préludes— both by Liszt, and Dances from Galánta also by Zoltán Kodály. They were directed by Zsolt Hamar, a very distinguished Hungarian conductor. His conducting style was extremely graceful! And, in Dances from Galánta, his conducting style changed completely–he was practically doing the dance himself; jumping all around his podium using angular and erratic elbow movements. It was very entertaining!

The Five Songs from the “Twenty Hungarian Folksongs” featured sopranoist Júlia Hajnóczy. Several of these songs were incredibly meloncholy–one in particular, Song IV Panasz (or “Lament”) was very emotional:

My darling is very ill,
Perhaps she will die,
If she does not die, she will have pains,
This will also be my grief.

Of your grave illness
Give me some too,
Let us feel it both,
Let me feel it too.

My favorite of the folksongs, however, was Song V, Párosító (or “Wedding Song II”). It was swift, cheerful, and the lyrics made you laugh right out loud (seriously, the entire audience was laughing when Júlia emphatically exclaimed the last line!!):

The light is burning at the virag’s.
They are roating the fried frog.
Buzz, boom, buzz, boom,
Recefice boom boom boom.
Gabor Vaci made a grab,
He munched a frog leg.
Buzz, boom, buzz, boom,
Recefice boom boom boom.

The pianist, Mocsári Károly, who accompanied the orchestra in Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E Flat Major, was also excellent! He played very passionately (and had to skooch his bench back up to the piano after every theme because he was moving so dramatically!). At the end of the piece, as he walked off stage, he seemed absolutely drained. I think he put every ounce of himself into that song, he could barely walk!

Finally, the announcement you’ve all been waiting for!! Who IS the cutest pet?

To solve this problem I contracted a random, unbiased person from the extensive internet world to justly determine the answer to this question. His response:
“First Place: SOHO!!
Second Place: MAGGIE!! (sorry to Maggie, but Soho has those puppy dog eyes)
Third Place: SPARKY!!
With Honorable Mentions going to the following pets for their special qualities:
LUCY for her PRINCESS APPEAL!!
BUSCOLLAR, ARROW, and PACKS: MOST UNIQUE PETS!!
SPIKE for MOST TALENTED PET!!
and MINNIE MAE for PET MOST IN NEED OF PROZAC”

Congratulations to our Top Dogs and thank you all for entering!! Award notices have been sent out ant your prizes will be arriving in the mail within the next few days!

Dawn, Caitlin, Luis, and I went skiing tonight at Greek Peak Ski Resort in Cortland, NY. It was SO MUCH FUN. I had forgotten how peaceful it is when you’re at the top of a mountain, flying on the lift or speeding down the isolated alpine trail. God, it’s great isn’t it? I bet I could do that every night and not get bored. It was surprising that none of us got seriously injured–we were definitely expecting that someone would end up at the hospital since Dawn and I haven’t skiied in about four years and Luis (who is from the Dominican Republic) has never been! Dawn took a couple of good tumbles (per run) ;-), Caitlin fell once. She claims it was Luis’ fault–she turned around to watch him fall–and tripped over her own skiis. And I fell once when we were standing still at the bottom of the hill talking (so talented). The ski lodge was in pretty rough shape–the kitchen was disgusting–but they did have a live fire in the lounging area, which was a major perk! Aren’t fireplaces great? The smell of wood burning is so comforting I feel.