Lunch With Shania Twain

I am on intimate terms with Shania Twain now... or so it seems.

Today Reagan and I were picked up at 11:00 sharp to go spend the day at my student Aniko's house. Her father, (a painfully polite and quiet man who spoke zero English) collected us and ushered us into the car with impeccable manners. Then we were driven to Aniko's home where her mother, Susan, and brother Szalton were waiting.

We were given a tour of the house and then put into the living room where apple cake and beverages were presented. "No" and "nem" were not answer enough when pressed about the choices of palinka, champagne and some unidentifiable bottle, so champagne it is!!! Then we were led to the dinner table where a spread of food fit for a party of 25 was beautifully arranged across the table. Two kinds of chicken, pork, salads and potatoes were offered. Of course in typical Hungarian fashion, the portions we served ourselves were not enough and Susan snatched my plate from me and piled on more. "Eat! Eat! You are in Hungary! Eat!"

After lunch we were taken back into the living room and Susan went outside to a basket on the porch where four squealing kittens were huddled together under a mop bucket. She brought one inside and the kids delighted in holding the squeaking bit of fur until all hell broke loose out on the porch and the other kittens revolted and went searching for their lost mate. One kitten took a wrong turn and tumbled off the porch into a muddy puddle below. Mind you, these kittens were 3 weeks old and were not even old enough to be held by clumsy children's hands, let alone forays off into the wilderness. Time to put the kitten back?

Then we were taken upstairs, where for 3.5 hours we were shown a very odd picture collection that the children were keeping of Shania Twain. Hundreds of photographs of Shania had been clipped and placed into shoe boxes and stashed around the room. What made this even worse was that we were asked by the various family members if we had heard of every single song of Shania Twain's, and then they proceeded to show us every single song of hers on You Tube. Once was not enough for the small boy. He needed to show us his favorite songs two or three times on the computer, and then again on his cell phone.

The next treat the kids had lined up for us was to have us autograph several dozen of the Shania Twain photographs with our names. Because we are American that makes us almost a country star.....???? At least pick a country star with a good voice and fashion sense! I mean, come on, seriously? Shania Twain? Put away the leopard skin stretch pants and crop tops. We know, we know.... you feel like a woman. But you look like trailer trash!

After the 3.5 hours had passed and it did not seem like Shania was going to get a well deserved vocal break, I told Susan that I had an exam to take and we needed to get back home. It had been 5.5 hours since we had arrived there and I was not certain what was going to happen next. There might have been an upcoming collection of the Spice Girls and I wanted to avoid having to hear lyrics that involved "zig a zig and say ahhh".

The family led us back downstairs and filled a huge grocery bag up with food for us. Then they brought out a large lovely gift bag and presented it to us as a present. Inside were two beautiful baskets full of chocolates and a bottle of wine from a local winery in Tokay.

This family is the sweetest family that ever existed. They were very proud to show us everything that they knew about America and to encourage our feeble attempts at speaking Hungarian. We had a lovely time with mom, dad, Aniko, Szalton and Shania.