A Taste of Hungary

 One of my favorite things about living in the phoenix area, is there is so much to do.  It is a huge city compared to Salt Lake City, where we moved from almost two years ago.  For example, as of 2016 there are 193,744 people living in Salt Lake City.  Living there it always seemed like a decent number, we had no complaints. However, as of 2016 the city of Phoenix had an estimated 1,615,017 people living in it. The biggest perk of that is how many different organizations, churches, events, and concerts we get within just an hour or less of us.

As we impatiently patiently wait for our paperwork to make it through the government systems, we're trying to learn as much as we can about our future child's heritage, culture, and history.   Our hope is that we can keep the spirit of where they came from alive, and that they can always have a connection to where they came from.  Our adoption agency encouraged us to seek out people who are Hungarian, or have a connection to the culture.  My first thought was, "where am I going to meet people from a tiny Eastern European country in the middle of the desert?"  To my surprise, I stumbled on the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Phoenix.  I was blown away.  Not only are there plenty of people, I also could barely understand anything on their website as a lot of it is in Hungarian.  Even luckier for us, the hold multiple family events throughout the year. I noticed that they had a festival in a couple weeks, so we rearranged our schedules and were able to attend this past Saturday.

Cory enjoying the stuffed cabbage

We showed up around 1:00pm to the Taste of Hungary Fundraising Festival, and had no idea what to expect.  The first thing that struck us was how many people were there! That little side street was packed. We drove up and down a few times trying to find parking, but all we can could think about was good everything smelled. Seriously, the smell was coming through our air conditioning vents.  It was the best thing I have smelled in my life.  Once we were in, everyone was so nice and welcoming.  The thing that struck us the most was how many people were speaking Hungarian (or Magyar as they call it)!  This was our first time really hearing the language outside of the little phrases on our apps.  It is definitely the most confusing thing I've ever heard.  I have very little hope for understanding anything in two months we are living in Hungary.  We did buy a Hungarian phrase book and dictionary while there from Magyar Marketing, and Cory hasn't put it down since.  I'm lucky to have him.  He's already starting to memorize phrases while I'm stuck over here on just knowing the word egy (it the number 1). The wonderful lady with Magyar Market was so happy to talk to us about how excited we were to travel there.  Everyone was so nice, welcoming, and put up with us even though we looked incredibly confused most of the time.

I sadly didn't get to eat any bread, but I did get a pickle!

Those are full of goulash and soup. 

Now, the most important part was the food.  I can't believe we didn't take more pictures!  It was like I had died and gone to heaven with all the food we ate.  They had different types of goulash, cabbage rolls, different sausages, fisherman's soup, pastries, and i'm sure more things we didn't even notice. I had a bean and pork goulash that I was supposed to share with Cory, but pretty much consumed on my own that was a dream.  The cabbage rolls and sausage were battling it out for first place though. I don't know what spices they use, but they were good!I think I could have stayed and eaten all day.  Each time we were able to order food, eat it, and watch different types of entertainment.  They had singers, musicians, and dancers up on the stage. Though most of the time were listening for adults and children speaking Hungarian.  I think we could have sat and listened to the kids all day, even though we had no idea what they were saying. 

It was such an awesome experience.  If you ever find yourself in the Phoenix area when one of their events are taking place, I highly suggest you go! Better yet, do your own google search and find out what cultures and religions are in your own town.  I bet they have delicious food too.  We left feeling so excited to bring home our child, and share with them their culture.  We hope to be in attendance to to every Taste of Hungary festival from now until the end of time!