Protests, Flooding and Relocation

So, this has been quite the month.

Protests: The political system has been pushed into hyper-drive with the recent election outcome. The Jobbik party has organized several demonstrations and protests that have been relevant to my life. One of them was against the camp along the Balaton Lake that is for Roma children. Today they are having a large demonstration in a park near my flat which is preventing my evening plans from happening. Boo! :( Jobbik, if you don't remember, is the FAR RIGHT political party with radical ideas and many of their political demonstrations could easily lead to violence. Makes for an interesting night, I suppose, but I think I'll try to stay as far away as possible.

Flooding: I have a meeting tonight with my pastor. I just found out I'll have no problem meeting him, but it would have been a problem yesterday evening. You see, because it hasn't stopped raining FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH!, we had flooding in the metros. Awesome, right? Yeah, unless you're one of the 3 million people here in Budapest and use the metros on a daily basis. On a flip note, it looks like it's supposed to be a beautiful weekend - yay! :)

Relocation: It's happening. I'm relocating to the lake on Monday. I will be there from Monday, June 7 through Tuesday, June 15th. Then I will come back to Budapest for a night or two, then go back to the Balaton area on Wednesday or Thursday for another week. Should be a good time and I'm really looking forward to having my morning coffee on the lake! :)

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Gypsy Houses in Romania

At first sight, I thought I wasn't understanding Gábor correctly as he explained what these houses were. Then, when Gyüri re-explained, it was the exact same thing. Allow me to share with you the story I heard (twice) and am still amazed at.

In an attempt to show off their wealth, quite a few gypsies in Romania started building HUGE houses. They are characterized by their extreme size, bright colors (if they're painted) and shiny roofs. However, they are all left unfinished to varying degrees.

There are a few probable reasons for this.
A) they run out of money before they can finish it.
B) they decided they really don't want to live like Gadje (non-Roma)
C) they don't want to pay the taxes on it (you don't have to pay taxes if you don't finish it)

Any one of those (or combination thereof) would be sufficient reason from the looks of it... check it out!