Journal of a Sabbatical

August 4, 1999

the giant snail and a nuclear family

Bird Sightings
Budakeszi

European nuthatch
on a tree just outside the herbarium

This one giant snail seems to spend its life crossing and recrossing the road between the guest house and the herbarium in the same spot. When I encountered it this morning on the walk to work, it had its "foot" fully extended but as soon as I bent down to take a picture, it started to pull in. Hungary is famous for exporting snails to France. This one would make quite a meal.

All day checking specimens in the Taiwan room. Many need to be re-pressed. Quite a few have no numbers.

Zsolt's mother (figure of folkloric importance) came to the herbarium this afternoon and met everybody, then started organizing the room where the freezer is. (Did I mention that the freezer and the plant dryer had arrived?) Isabel found a specimen with a bug in it, which we are supposed to put in the freezer, but the freezer wasn't hooked up yet.

We had a reception in the main dining room of the hunting lodge tonight with István Dobo and other dignitaries from the forestry department, along with, of course, Zsolt's mother. This has to be the first time I have eaten wild boar - let alone wild boar off Herend china in the very same dining room used by heads of state. And under the biggest deer head I've ever seen! We're talking really big. Grotesquely big.

Besides wild boar and the usual stuff we were served a paprika and cream cheese thing (for which every family has its own recipe and of which I've forgotten the name already) and some really strong sheep cheese. I didn't care for the local specialty sausage at all - and it's not just that I'm not used to eating meat.

At some point during dessert, I notice a display case in one corner of the dining room. I check it out during a lull in the conversation. One side contains embroidered tablecloths and the other paintings of wildlife scenes. I spot a painting of a nuclear family of wild boars running through the snow with joyous abandon. I beckon to Carol, "you've gotta see this!" I just love this painting. It sums up this place. Carol wants it too. I fear we'll have to arm wrestle for it, but then she spots one of a single parent boar family. Edit lets me take the painting to my room while she researches the price the artist wants for it. I have it sitting on my bedside table.