Bank Robbery in Buda - Friday, November 26

I kept some news off of my blog so as not to make my parents worry, but like the government and the whole information leak incident, the news was relased on The Ippel's blog, (my teammates and next door neighbors -- the link to their blog is at the bottom of the page) which my parent's frequent often. So because of this, I will no longer withold this news:

After several months of living in one place, following roughly the same routine, it is easy to get comfortable and complacent; however, as you know, God always has His way of putting a rock in your shoe; two weeks ago, He did just that. He reminded me that feeling safe is really a false sense of security.

There was a bank robbery in Budapest. To be more specific, three men with one machine gun at 3:30 in the afternoon robbed one back. To take it one step further, these three men robbed one bank two blocks away from my panel house, one man died.

On Fridays, I finish with classes at 1:30. This particular Friday I had to run errands. So I went home, changed my clothes, and took the 50 tram east to a store similar to Aldi's called Lidl. This is away from my flat (of course) and from my school. (I get my cereal at Lidl). Now because I don't have a car to store the items and because Europe is very strict about bringing unkown bags into stores, I had to stop at my flat before going the opposite direction (toward my school) to go to Interspar (comparable to Kroger's or Safeway).

To get to Interspar, I have to take the 50 tram west toward/past my school. After this back and forth, to and from my flat, I left for Interspar at about 3:40. As I was passing the first stop, I noticed a crowd gathering in between two panel houses along with severl ambulances. Immediately, I took out my cellphone and texted Jack -- "5+ ambulances and a crowd two panel houses over." I was on the tram so I couldn't become another number in the corwd, but I figured Jack might want to or he could at least see if anything was showing up on the news. His reply said, "I heard what could have been gun shots earlier."

Something went down and due to our lack of Hungarian, we had no way of finding out. So I continued to the store. I was looking for an item that I had never puchased at Interspar, which seems to often be the case when I end up there, and somehow after an hour of looking, I walk away empty handed. At about 5:30 I headed back to my flat. By the way, it is night at 4:30 here. Pitch black and misty, I passed the panel houses one stop away from mine on Tram 50, and the same crowd I saw earlier became a huge crowd with roads blocked off.

Something huge went down. I got back and told Jack, so we decided to call our co-worker that lives right in the area that the crowd was gathering. She told us that three men robbed a bank on Fö utca (Main Street); however, someone saw them enter and called the cops. These men ran from them and were right in front of our co-workers flat when her husband heard shouting outside the window, "Drop the gun!" Minutes later gun shots were fired and the man with the gun was killed on Szigligeti Street. One of the other men was caught while the third was not to be found right away.

Witnesses thought that the third man ran into a block of flats (about 35 flats) so that panel house was evacuated and searched over night. The people in those flats had to stay in a nearby school.

I went to school on Monday and asked my students about it and several said they were in the area when the commotion was happening. )It happened at 3:30, barely an hour after school ended) One of them said he saw the gun and the dead body. It truly is amazing that no one besides the robber was injured or killed; there is a lot of foot traffic in our area around 3:30.

For My Grandpa

Every year for the past four years I have neglected my impending school work to go to my Grandpa's and help him bake banket. (If you don't know, banket is a bar with almond filling in the middle.) As long as I can remember, he has baked banket every winter; he normally bakes over 100 bars a year. During my time at college, he was my desperate distraction during the last weeks of the fall semesters. Baking with him was my escape from the busyness and my place of peace. I think he is one of the reasons I love baking so much; however, now that I am in Hungary, I was not able to join him this year -- a difficult fact for me to cope with. Because of this, I decided that I couldn't let him down. The show must go on.

If I couldn't bake banket with him, I could at least bake banket on my own as a way to remember the last four winters with him. (He has not passed away; I assure you.) So I did just that. Luckily, and I am ever thankful for their assistance, the Baker parents were coming to visit their daughter Arielle, who is on the Calvin semester, and they were willing to bring almond paste from the states. I know of no item similar to it here; if there is a similar item close to it, it is beyond expensive.

When I got the almond paste, I went to work. After some learning curves and small kitchen mishaps, I was successful. I made 8 bars (8 more to go) and cut them in half and gave them to my colleagues. It was a big hit. It was something they haven't had, even though, all of them love almond flavored baked goods.

Below is a series of banket pictures from beginning to end. I will tell you that my flat (and the Ippel's flat) is to small to make banket, but it doesn't matter. If I am here next year, I will make it work again all for my Grandpa.

I had to move to the dining table.

Here's the dough cut out.
The almond paste filling and three sticks ready to go.

Three sticks ready to go.

Three sticks done.