Csenge Virág Zalka's Blog, page 91

Of ice and polar bears, or, teaching Multicultural America through sagas

How much does a polar bear weigh?
Enough to break the ice.

This has nothing to do whatsoever with the rest of the post.
Well, except for breaking ice. And Iceland.
...
I swear I am more coherent in class.

As of now, I have been teaching the undergraduate course titles Cultural Pluralism in the USA for an entire week. Most of my class are freshmen. As a storyteller, I am accustomed to working

7 reasons we like Spain

Well, reasons I like Spain, anyway. I feel like after my third storytelling trip to the country I am entitled to form a thoroughly subjective opinion.

Thus, without further ado, I like Spain because...

1. Colors. Colors everywhere. Even the country looks colorful from the plane. Little squares of colors and dots and stripes. And people dressed in colors all over. And Desigual. Desigual all over

For Public Use Only: Hungarian folktales in English

I made this bibliography for one of my workshops last year, and after the post about the Archives I remembered to finally post it online.
Ta-da! Consume with care.

Hungarian folktales in English


Benedek, E. (1990). The tree that reached the sky. Budapest: Corvina.

Dégh, L. (1965). Folktales
of Hungary. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Dégh, L. (1996). Hungarian
folktales: the art of

Extreme sports for storytellers: Archive diving!

As a recovering archaeologist I still seem to harbor some research instincts that came with my college eduaction (that, or watching too much Indiana Jones). Since I am spending some time home this summer, I decided to put a free spot in my schedule to good use and stop by at the Archives in the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography.
Folklorists have been tirelessly gathering Hungarian folktales for

Storytellers: Adopt a school!

I am not trying to re-invent the wheel here. Many storytellers already practice this idea, and we have discussed it in class when Elizabeth Ellis was teaching us Advanced Storytelling. But I don't think I have blogged about it before, and it has been a big part of my life as a storyteller.

The basic idea is that a storyteller should adopt a school as a regular telling place.

It gets tricky when

Ain't no Cinderella like Cyborg Cinderella, or, Marissa Meyer knows what folktales are about

I don't usually write book reviews, so when I do you know it is because I have completely devolved into a squealing fangirl. So, this is me squealing.

I burned through Cinder and Scarlet in a single flight from the USA to Hungary and a long afternoon waiting to get my new passport. It was one of those rare and delightful reading experiences when the world can collapse around you, bombs can

The Incredible Hulk and pixie dust - Storytelling with superpowers

I am back to doing some recreational storytelling at the University School, while getting a million other things done. I had to recharge some storypower after all the work at a front desk... Fortunately enough the kids still remember me, and so did the teachers, so it was only a matter of walking through the doors and asking.

I got 4th and 5th grade this week, and decided to give a trial run to

Reflections from A to Z - Maybe next time!

So, this was my second year in A to Z, and the first time I had a theme going.

Tons of fun, people.

If you are reading this because you wandered in through A to Z: Cheers!
If you are not: Give it a thought next year. Great motivation to keep a blog going. Or two. Or three.

I did not get through even a fraction of all the princesses I have encountered so far as a working storyteller. Maybe I'll