Valami Más

We have this phrase in the Garcia household. Whenever trying ANYTHING new, instead of answering with the normal: "I like it" or "I don't like it" we seem to have our own little family phrase. I never really realized it until a couple weeks before I left to come here. My mom pointed it out to me, and I had NO idea how often we said it in our family. Yesterday, I learned how to say it in Magyarul (Hungarian). The story goes a little something like this:

Here, in Hungary, they have this famous “candy bar” that children are “brought up on”. At first, when we heard about it, we were disgusted! Our teacher told us it was cottage cheese dipped in chocolate.

Grooooooss.

Turns out, there was a translation issue, and it was “cottage cheese textured”. It turned out to be ricotta cheese. Dipped in dark chocolate. So! In the spirit of celebrating the culture (and liking both dark chocolate and ricotta cheese), during our lunch break three of us went and bought a Turó Rudi.

After lunch, we had to go around the room and tell everyone what we had for lunch, and whether we liked it. So eventually it got to the three of us who went and bought one (the first people in the whole group to experience this tiny piece of Hungarian culture). So, we said:


“Ettűnk Turó Rudi”

“Ahhhhh!!! What did you think" (in Hungarian…but you think I remember how to say/spell that?!

The other two have this look of confusion on their face, because they can’t explain the interesting taste. And without even THINKING I respond:

“How do you say ‘Something Different’ in Hungarian?”

She just started laughing and shaking her head. But she told me! It is:

Valami Más (pronounced: Va-la-me Maaahsh)

And boy was that a piece of home that I was happy to share with the Hungarian culture.