Word for the Travel Wise (04/14/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

It is a firm belief of mine that I will one day return to Budapest. I’m setting my hopes high to reside in the city for at least one year, but I’ll surely settle for a quick jaunt if it’s the only way to explore my beloved Budapest at least once more. To prepare for the day of my return I like to keep tabs on what’s happening via Pestiside.hu – the daily dish of cosmopolitan Budapest. In one of their more recent dispatches a failed shoplifter returns to the scene of the crime to file a complaint. You can read the full account of what went on at Pestiside or Index.hu (a Hungarian consumer blog). Pestiside notes the original letter from the alleged thief claims he was removed from the store after asking to write in the shopper’s book, which brings me to the word for today.

Today’s word is a Magyar (Hungarian) word used in Hungary:

vásárlók könyve – shopper’s book

Now Hungarian speakers out there, please help me out. It is my guess that vásárlók könyve truly means shopper’s book, but judging from the piece I’m also going to have to second guess myself. Give me the inside scoop. Dish the deal on this Hungarian language find in parentheses.

The Hungarian lingo is a Finno-Ugric language, which you can learn more about at Wikipedia, right now let’s stick to the places you can learn it for free. Hungarotips is a completely free site with beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons. This impulzus web page has everything you’d basically find in a LP guide. There’s no audio, so read a little about the alphabet and then find someone who’s willing to make sure you speak like a local. The verbal exchange will be very rewarding I am sure. As always remember to scope out the BBC for basic lang downloads.

Past Hungarian words: köszönöm

Men’s Journal: 25 Best Adventure Authors

by Neil Woodburn on

As discussed in yesterday’s post, the annual Adventure Issue of Men’s Journal is currently available at newsstands, but not online. 

One of the more intriguing articles contained within the issue is a ranking of the 20 best adventure writers.  I always love such lists because they inevitably introduce me to authors I’ve never heard of before.  This was how I discovered a few years ago that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote much more than just The Little Prince.  His books on flying (e.g., Wind, Sand and Stars) have become some of my very favorite novels.  He comes in at Number Eight this year on the Men’s Journal list.

Numbers One and Three are new discoveries for me as well this year.  Theodore Roosevelt landed the top spot.  I wasn’t even aware he wrote adventure books (such as Through the Brazilian Wilderness), but I’ll certainly check him out now. 

Although Number Two on the list is the well-known Ernest Hemingway, Number Three was completely unknown to me.  Apparently author Redmond O’Hanlon writes with a “Monty Python-esque” style and excels in the genre of miserable-but-humorous travelogues (e.g., Into the Heart of Borneo).  Anything “Monty Python-esque” is certainly worth trying in my book.

There are a few other pleasant discoveries on the list as well.  In addition, one can also expect traditional mainstays such as Jack London, Jon Krakauer, and Heinrich Harrer.  Pick up Men’s Journal today for the full list.

Foreign Language Scrabble

by Adrienne Wilson on

This blurb is
going to officially mark me as a foreign language geek, but what do I care. Those who know me well know I love games
and the competitive spirit runs through every vein in my body. My two favorite indoor weekend games happen to be a good
round of Spades and a wordy, hours-long, game of Scrabble. And anyone out there who has played Scrabble in the past
knows how grueling the last few minutes can be when you’ve got only the letters X, B, V, I, and H in your possession.
The board is locked up with the exception of the most unwelcoming tiles jutting out and you’re about ready to scream
"why me?! Why did I get stuck with the X, Y, and Z?" You refrain from doing such as Scrabble is a
sophisticated game so you switch gears promising to place the most incredible, unbelievable, prodigious, and astounding
four letter word known to man down on the board. Everything goes quiet; your tiles hit the board and spell the word
"XINH."

"Xinh?"

Your opponent who isn’t as skilled in Vietnamese as you happen to be raises a
high-brow before telling you to remove that junk from the board, but you plead stating the word’s meaning and use in
Vietnam where you once heard it the streets somewhere. It’s times like these when a little foreign lingo Scrabble board could sure come in handy. For those
multilingual folks out there wanting to slam a huge word in Hebrew down in Scrabble, there is a list you may wish to check out. The list not only tells you some
of the various languages you can purchase Scrabble in, but also
points you to sites online where you can play with other people across the world and other interesting facts.

Working Abroad or Trying…

by Adrienne Wilson on

I don’t know what I was looking for when I
clicked on the work abroad link over at Road Junky. I’m certainly
not searching for work internationally, not now at least. And I confess there have been times where I looked and
applied to teach English in China or Korea without even thinking twice. Strangely enough I didn’t made it too far with
the process considering I never obtained a TEFL to actually make it happen, but
I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one whose applied on a whim.

What I did find were a couple people’s
tales of their failed attempts in landing work overseas. One gentleman calls himself the "Worst Businessman in the World" as he shares the sad
details of his attempts in the export biz in India and blames his failures on the country as a whole. However, the
reality of his poor, comical situation was he didn’t do the market research. Another traveler in Nicaragua tries to find bar work, but ends up being the
stereotypical drunk at the bar spilling his sick, sad, sob stories to the bartender and anyone else who will hear them.
Lastly in one other tale a traveler scores the opportunity to teach English in Taiwan only to find he couldn’t face the
frightening 4 year-olds on a day-to-day basis.

Check out all
three in full for a good laugh or share your own failed job stories right here.

The Meat of the Matter in Argentina

by Erik Olsen on

Years ago when I was making my way with a backpack through Argentina, I
made a stop along the road in a dusty little town whose name escapes me. I took a short stroll through the town’s
streets, which took a mere minute or so, and dropped into a run-down, uninviting-looking restaurant on a lonely corner.
When the waiter asked what I wanted, my first inclination was to have the roast chicken.

That sounded just
fine, a perfect way to get a belly full of lunch before tossing my guitar back over my should and continuing up the
road. But then the word parrilla caught my eye, and I
thought "a steak? for lunch? why not?!" Now, you might say, duh, everyone knows Argentina is steak country,
but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’d just spent four hours on the road and a steak just didn’t seem like the thing to
order. Well, that steak, and several subsequent parillas, remain the best meat I have ever had. Even today, after many
trips to Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn, I’ve yet to find a cut of beef that matched those I had in Argentina. And I love to
eat steak.

And so I was intrigued and delighted to read this homage to Argentinean steak over at
an obscure little journal called idleword. I cold go on and on about the heavenly gustatory bliss of chewing a piece of
bloody cow flesh, but I’ll let the writer here, and the accompanying photos do it for me. Suffice it say, my belly
is rumbling as I write and my fond memories of those succulent cuts are nearly as vivid as the day of that first beefy
meal.