Horses and archery

Recently I started practicing horseback riding.
One of our friends lives at the countryside near to Budapest in a valley, called Anna-Valley. A simple and poor place - I mean there is no stone house, only a wooden pavilion where he lives with his wife and two kids. There is a beautiful spring with crystal clear water running behind the house. They have horses, goats and poultry.
The guy is a horseback archer, a practitioner of our ancient martial art.

I have always been interested in archery and have been doing it for several years now. Also, horseback riding has been one of my oldest wishes, I have been craving after it since my early childhood and had depressing dreams at nights about trying to get on a horse, but for some reason I was never able to do it. You know, it was one of those really depressing dreams about never being able to achieve what you desire so much.

When the guy mentioned what he was interested in, Cs. and me got excited (Cs. is archer too) and decided to learn horseback riding on a traditional way - which is different to how and what you can learn in the common riding-schools. I have already been to a few of those kinds trying to learn riding but I felt that they were so far away from nature that I simply could not accept that. Also, they do not teach you how to fall from the horse because they expect that if you ride the way it was taught, you will not fall. Which is far from truth.

So we went there in the past few weekends and practiced initially simply sitting on the horse without holding on to anything - which was a bit of a challenge at the side of the steep hills. Oh yes, forgot to mention that the horses are out at feed on the meadows all day, on the side of the hills, so if you want to go riding you first need to go and find them and then take one of them. Thanks to this kind of lifestyle these horses are very calm and balanced.

All in all, this was the first time when I really enjoyed horseback riding because the whole feeling was so natural. The horses are so close to you and you feel that you are equal. It is a community with the horse, the two of you become one.

Yesterday I was there again with a colleague of mine and if everything goes well and I can get rid of the work that I am supposed to do tomorrow, I will go again with Cs. and maybe with the same colleague.

And after then... who knows, maybe I will follow the others' example and combine my archery with this old Hun style of horseback riding and do horseback archery. Who knows.

As far as I know horseback archery remained preserved only in Japan and Korea, and was brought alive again in Hungary, although the style they do it is different in these countries. I saw some Japanese horseback archers' performance and I noticed that they shoot only one arrow with one ride. To me it does not seem to be too efficient in a battle. In the Hun style the more arrows you shoot the better it is. Hitting the target of course!

There is a man in Hungary, Lajos Kassai, who teaches horseback archery with traditional Hungarian bow. He has students from all over the world and he has some open days when visitors can come and see what they're doing, how they practice. This is their webpage: http://www.kassai-lovasijaszat.hu/

They have a very cool demo video about one of the open days - it is 26 minutes long but it definitely worths the wait/download (for me). You can get a hint of the Hungarian derring-do.
I really like the warm-up with the folk dance and also the exercises that are meant to develop your balancing on the horse (throwing heavy balls to each-other, sparring with soft sword, etc.) and also the game that they play around the end of the video, which I would call arrow-ball (after football).

The most spectacular part in the video is around the 12-13th minute, when Kassai (the one in traditional Hun armor) shoots at disks while riding a horse.
(I wonder when I will get near that level - maybe in 20 more years :))) )

Sooo... enjoy the video HERE!

It's been long

It's been long ago since I last time posted anything here.
I have been pretty busy recently, which means that I am under a very massive and demanding workload often working 10-12 hours a day.

Work issues

I work part time for the computer center as a coordinator, organizing all the computer education from alpha to omega for the students in the uni, and I do another part time work for the Summer University unit also within our uni where they utilize me as a webmistress and lately also as the admin of the e-learning project. The latter one gives me an incredible amount of work, more than I can actually do there in part time.

I was also informally offered a position at the IT unit of the university first as a project assistant and later on as a project manager - but lately I started receiving so many tasks to complete at the computer center, at the summer uni and also in the IT unit's projects that although I am good at multitasking, still, I am not able to manage all of them anymore. It is time to turn some of these down.

Since the summer uni girls also wanted to take me over to full time from September, I decided to accept that, but only if they stand guarantee for that I get at least that salary that I got until now.
So it seems that I am finally leaving the Computer Center where I have been working in the past 9 years (too much time). And also saying "no, thanks" to the IT unit.

The reason for why I rejected the project assistant position is also something additional that happened to me in the past one week.

Getting a degree

I was browsing the website of the Buddhist College where I was accepted to last year but was not able to start my studies, 'cos the classes of the course that I wanted to attend was scheduled for the weekdays which made the whole thing impossible for me to make. My employer did not let me attend the classes (obviously). Now I saw that from this year the same course (Comparative Religious History and Philosophy) is offered as an evening course and also that the application deadline was extended until the end of the month. They wrote on the webpage that the classes are being held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so I asked the Summer Uni if they could live with my absence on Fridays - and they agreed.
So I wrote a letter to the College asking if I was eligible to apply again (because I did not enroll to the college last year after my acceptance).
They called me on my mobile(!) saying that I do not have to apply again as I have been on "passive student status" since then, which means that I can start my studies in September if I want to and I do not have to take the entry exam again. Wooohoo!!
So I FINALLY FINALLLY go to college in September!! I cannot believe! After such a long time I am finally able to study further! I needed it so much!
Cs. also applied so now we have to keep our fingers crossed for him and have a good trust in that he can pass the entry exam successfully.

I would not be able to study if I went to the IT unit as a project assistant or manager, so although they offered almost twice as much money as I get now, I finally decided to reject that offer. Now education is the most important for me, and everything else can come only after that. I have no chance to get into foreign higher education institutions just yet because their tuition and other fees are not adjusted to a Hungarian citizen's purse. My only chance to get a first degree is being accepted at a uni/college here in Hungary and after then I can apply for scholarships for MA or PhD at some foreign uni.

This is my last chance I feel - I am getting older, it is more hard to study as time goes by, and who knows - if I ever happen to grow up and my restless mind calms down (not that it shows such a tendency now) and decide to have family and children (holy cow), I won't be able to study I know. At least not while living in Hungary. Here you either work or study. If you study, you cannot work, and you are - almost literally speaking - starving, together with your children. So I have to study before the cog-wheel catches me, too.

Theatre

I also mentioned in the previous entries that the theatre that I am a member of wanted me to play again in a tale. We finally had four rehearsals and then we did three performances each of which was a big success. I also got some extra money for that work and that was at the best possible time because I suddenly got short on money before the end of this month (my salary is paid monthly).
I am however a bit concerned about what I should say if they want to do the same performances on a somewhat regular basis. I always have to take days off in order to be able to make it those days on the stage, but I do not want to "waste" all my holidays on this. Also it requires a lot of energy and time to prepare for each rehearsal and performance, which is very difficult to afford beside a full time job plus regular overtimes plus training (plus studying from September). So probably soon I will have to put a full stop at the end of this theatre story as well. It is a pitty but I cannot sit on too many horses with one ass.

Long week, long weekend

Having a long weekend.
Yesterday Cs and me went to the Open-air Ethnic Museum in Szentendre, the Gem of the Danube.
There were thousands of visitors there visiting the programmes organized in the Museum upon Easter. See their website here. We've been walking there for about 6-7 hours before we went home.

Today I am not int he best mood. This is the first Easter in a long time that I did not paint eggs. I have been so busy in the past few weeks with all kinds of things that I did not have time even to die. This weekend I wanted to have some rest.
I have put myself together and added an entry about D's seminar that he held here in March. Read about that here.

Also, the injuries that I got during the seminars are being a great pain in the ass.
The wound on my calf seems to be infected so I had to go last week and see the doc at work who gave me an antibiotics gel. I have ben using it for like 4-5 days, but it is not getting better.
The other huge bruise on the same calf did not want to disappeare either and the doc suspected thrombosis. He gave me another gel to treat with and said that if it won't get better by Tuesday (tomorrow) I'll have to go to the surgery. As I noticed it is getting smaller now thank God, so probably I have just come through it. But I think I have to go to the surgery anyway because of the infected wound.

Also, the director of my former theatre called me that he wants me to play again in one of the tales he put on stage. I have to play the role of a "karate dog", a dragon and a whore again. (I still cannot understand how can a whore fit in a tale which is supposed to be seen by children.)
So this means rehearsals again starting from tomorrow every day when I do not have trainings. And standing on the stage for hours does not do any good to my feet among the current circumstances.

So I am not too happy - I want to rest a bit.
The only one good thing that I can think of at the moment is that I have the money and the planeticket to Japan in my drawer, so my trip is sure unless the thrombosis takes me away...

Weekend wedding

On Saturday Cs and me went to Hajduszoboszlo, to the wedding of Cs's long time friend. I offered long ago that if he ever gets married I will say some poems and now I had to fulfill my promise. But we were invited anyway.

I have bought a pair of casual shoes on Friday 'cos I did not have any. They were all comfy. However by the time we took the train in Budapest they completely tortured my feet, despite the sticking plasters I have put on.
After arriving to Hajduszoboszlo we had to find the guy's house alone but he drawn such a bad map that we got lost. We could make it to the house in one hour instead of 10 minutes, and needless to say my feet were bleeding from 1000 wounds.

Then we left for the wedding and the party. There were around 60 people invited.
The wedding was very nice and quick, I could also say the poems and they liked it very much.
The party afterwards was held at an original Hungarian style folk homestead. Mud-hut, Beehive-oven, all kinds of old stylish cultivator tools on the walls, old stylish dishes, cattle, horses, sheep, donkey, poultry on the huge backyard - so everything that you can find in the everyday life at the countryside. I felt home again.
The dinner had like 5 or 6 courses, like clear soup with home-made noodles and chicken, paprika-beef ragout with smashed potato, stuffed cabbage with sour cream, roasted duck with steamed vegetables, breaded mushroom with maionnaise and rice, and heaps and heaps of sweet and salty cookies, tarts, and other swets.
The drinks varied from plain mineral water through fruit juice, all sorts of wines, palinka, liqueurs.
The music started well with a folk ensemble, but after 10 pm they left and a party-musician came with his synthetizator (electric piano) and he played all kinds of folk and rock music. It suuucked big time.

Anyway, the general mood was quite good but I was not used to this late night partying, so I started to fall into coma around midnight. Then Cs. suggested to go to the backyard and play a bit with the bullwhips, hoping that it will wake me up. There were three whips and apart from the locals only Cs., me and a third person was able to swish it.
At the end I did it with two whips, one in each hand. Needless to say I got some kinky comments from the men :-)

Anyway, when we got tired enough we joined the party again, but I started to feel a bit annoyed 'cos one of the middle aged men stuck on me and despite me showing my clear unwillingness he did not want to shove off. He always tried to pull me to dance but I did not really want to go considering the condition of my feet. Then he learnt from somewhere that I graduated from a drama school and insisted on that I should sing for the people, which I did not want again, but he was very pushy and kept pushing it. So at the end I turned into "asshole" mode which luckily scared him away from me.

Anyway, since we were supposed to spend the night at the groom's parents' house, we had to stay there until everything finished. Which was sometime after 4 am. We got home by 4.30 and got into bed at 5 am. Then we had a full 4 hours to sleep cos we had to leave for the train which left after 11 am.

By the time we arrived to Budapest I could hardly walk, both my feet were plain "undiluted" pain.
When I arrived home I got rid of the shoes and since then did not put on anything so that my wounds can heal in. I was not able to go to work yesterday and today either, but I hope I can go tomorow.

I have never ever had to suck up this much just because of a new shoe.
I HATE female fashion shoes. :-(