Relish! (not the pickley condiment)

A blog post by Maria Rocha, Spring 2011

Since arriving here, all my friends and I have been able to talk about is leaving. Budapest! Italy! Bled! Prague! Ireland! Spain! We throw countries and cities around conversation like we’re in geography class. After a few weeks of this frantic planning, I realized that we were missing something really huge. We had tunnel vision on the train out of Gaming and didn’t even bother to look around and realize what a beautiful town we’ve been put in. I mean, when are we going to be HERE again? Here, nestled in the mountains of Austria in a monastery. I feel like that chance won’t come again for most of us. There is something to be said about Gaming and the incredible ability it has to calm me in the middle of the most stressful days. Taking a walk in Gaming is better than therapy. Seriously! When I leave the Kartause and the mayhem of classes behind and start walking, I remember that life goes on outside of the microcosm we have constructed for ourselves in the Kartause.

This in mind, I decided to take my weekend in Gaming early in the semester. As my peers were frantically booking hostels and throwing their ipods in their backpacks, I sat back and thought about all the time I would have to just exist in this quaint environment with a few friends. The calm, studious weekend I was expecting turned out to be much more exciting and fulfilling than I imagined. The only regret I had in staying behind is that I wouldn’t experience anything new in terms of culture, people, or language. Lucky for me, Budapest, Hungary came to Gaming in the form of friends of a student here at the Kartause. The weekend was a mixture of English and Hungarian spiced with frantic gestures, card tricks, and jokes.

Though we only experienced a small group of Hungarian people, we found them to be so alive and joyful. When I say alive, I don’t mean simply breathing bodies but alive in the sense that they were vibrant minds and personalities. The Hungarians sing with a gusto that is so endearing. Each of them knows the words and tune as if they were born with the music inside of them. They sing when they drink, when they walk, while they cook, before they eat, and while they are relaxing. It’s lovely form of expression and more interesting than simply saying, “This beer is delicious,” or “Wow we’ve been walking for so long.”

Each of us was so curious about the others’ lifestyle that we spent the weekend grilling each other and laughing at the strange habits of the other. The greatest complaint the Hungarians voiced was, “Why do you not use the metric system? What is this primitive foot, gallon system you use?” Of all the strange things I’m sure we do in America, they wondered about our measurements. In my shock, all I could do was laugh to myself and pass the question on to one of my friends to answer.

At the end of the weekend, I felt as if I had been on my own journey of sorts, though I never left Gaming. The weekend didn’t leave me with a feeling of restlessness or dissatisfaction, rather, a greater appreciation of the environment in which I am so blessed to live in temporarily. I have learned the art of “relishing in the present.”