Guaranteed Authentic Mayo Chix Garment

Yes, "Mayo Chix" is a brand here, one I saw while shopping with Agi, my host mom, on Friday. They have a catalogue and everything, and they charge $50 for a sweater with the above statement woven in. There are a lot of brands and t-shirt logos here that look American but when you read them they don't really make sense, or at least they're brands or places I've never heard of. It's amusing for me to read peoples clothes if they're in English. Clothes don't seem to be any cheaper here than in the US, and I think they're more expensive, but then again I don't usually buy things at the sort of little boutiques in malls that Agi likes to check out.


I spent the last two days with Agi. On Thursday we went to Obuda and saw some roman ruins, the Vasarelli museum which was interesting and Agi had never been there, and we bought bagli, which is Hungarian Christmas bread made with poppy seeds. It's delicious. Then we went to the Szécheny baths in City park. http://spasbudapest.com/furdo.php?idx=14&menu=8 We spent a couple hours soaking in warm watter. The coolest pool is outside and it has different fountains and water jets that come on at different times. One of them propels you quite quickly around a tiled circle in the center of the pool which is fun, and you kind of feel like you're exercising. Kids and adults all get in and go around bumping into one another. We left around 7:30 and headed home.

On Friday, we did some shopping and then went to lunch with Dr. Nagy, (my host dad) and their daughter Oshi (this is a phonetic spelling and may be wrong.) After lunch we went to the Sammelweiss Museum of medical history. Sammelweiss was a Hungarian physician who practiced in Austria. At that time, many mothers died of "child birth fever." Sammelweiss discovered that if you washed your hands, particularly in chlorine, before delivering the baby, the mothers were less likely to get sick. (His colleagues would go straight from the anatomy dissection lab to the delivery room without any hand washing or changing of clothes.) So essentially we have Sammelweiss to thank for hand washing. Unfortunately, everyone in Austria thought he was crazy when he told them this, and he died in Hungary without recognition until after his death. The Museum traces the history of medical practice from African witch doctors with shrunken heads (they have a replica) and Egyptian mummification and doctors, through Greek and Roman medicine, trepanation and blood letting in the middle ages, through the present time. We had a personalized guided tour from one of the museum employees who explained the displays in Hungarian and then Agi translated to English for me.
The Sammelweiss Museum: (I wish I had payed the 3 dollars to take pictures inside but I didn't)

Friday night I went out with Oshi and some of her friends. We did some bar hopping as most of their favorite spots were quite full. We ended up in a little cafe with a foosball table and beers which seemed cheap to me but were pricey for the neighborhood (My 1/2 liter eidelweiss was less than 3 dollars.) They were a lively group and it was the first time in Budapest I have been over dressed - usually I am underdressed because people like to dress up here, but this group actually had on t-shirts and jeans. At 11:30 I rode the night bus home, which goes directly from downtown Pest to my usuall bus stop, and was very crowded for much of the ride.
Me and Oshi: