Genocide, Nazism, and Communism. Another cheery entry.

The sadness surrounding the program's content is getting difficult to handle. Ten weeks of learning about the Holocaust and Communist terror.

Today we began at a modern art museum. I did not connect with most of it, but I did really enjoy two exhibits. One was an entire wall (all white) with various pieces (all rectangular but of different dimensions) featuring vastly different subjects and created using different types of media. I plan to do something similar at some point... when I buy a house. However, it was still nothing compared to my favorite exhibit, entitled "Miniature United Nations." The piece is incredible. It includes signposts with names of various cities torn apart by war: destruction and genocide. Each signpost stands in front of an area on the ground depicting the aftermath. The buildings are mostly created with cardboard, spray-painted black. There is rubble everywhere- some apparently from the actual sites themselves. It is a massive picture of complete devastation. In addition, the signposts have relevant media attached to them: books, articles, and government documents about each incident, from various countries and in various languages, hanging from the posts. I'll include a link to an article about the exhibit, but the picture in it does not even come close to doing the exhibit justice.

http://www.budapesttimes.hu/content/view/11585/222/

I am seriously considering constructing a very small version of it at home. The materials are not difficult to find or expensive to acquire, and the effect of the piece was enormous. It was so well executed.

The room next to the one containing the mini-UN piece had a piece which was essentially a bunch of different types of cloth tied to a crane. It would periodically rise slowly to toward the ceiling, only to be dropped dramatically to the floor again. It was a very surreal effect, walking through the ruins of the miniature UN exhibit, hearing a gigantic thud in the background every so often.

I got a lot of postcards to use as art. Another one of my decoration plans is to have an entire wall filled with artwork from different cities I've been to. Watercolors and the street artist spray painted piece from Rome, and postcards from various places.

After a delicious lunch (goulash is awesome), we went to the House of Terror, which is the former headquarters for the Nazi and Communist governments in Budapest. It is now a museum. It was certainly eerie. I think the eeriest part (even more so than the torture chamber and prison cells in the basement) was the elevator down to the basement. They have an automatic movie turn on while we are slowly, slowly descending, entrapped in this glass case. The movie is a documentary: an old man describing executions in gruesome, minute detail. Also, there is a huge wall that spans all three floors of the museum, with photographs and names of victims, and a tank sits in front of them, dripping with oil. As we listen to this man describe the executions, I can see the tank slowly come into view from the corner of the glass elevator. He's talking about hanging people while the tank reveals itself. It was a strange effect.

Today we will venture back to the market, if possible. All of us want to try some of the delectable food they offered there (I suppose we don't know for sure since we haven't yet tried it, but there is absolutely no way it isn't delicious). I may also buy a few gifts. We shall see.