Week 11

Oh hey, it's me, Avery. Checking in with an update from Week 11 on the battle front here in beautiful Budapest, Hungary. A pretty good week, leading into an even better weekend. Love that.

Hmm, the beginning of the week was actually pretty nondescript.

Grocery shopped on Monday, volunteered on Tuesday. Oh, on Tuesday, we had our "Seminar on Living and Learning in Budapest" after a three week hiatus. More of the usual: Elizabeth explaining away things we've observed around Budapest, with a few helpful pieces of cultural information. That night, I met a bunch of friends at Arriba to catch the happy hour drink special...margaritas at 5:30, love it. I also managed to convince nearly everyone to give me their limes, which meant I had at least 10 to enjoy on the the tram back. LOVE IT! I am eating so much citrus here, what with all the lemons and limes in drinks that no one but me ever actually eats. Scrumptious.

On Wednesday, I watched an episode of Six Feet Under with Sam. (Mini-gloat: She is actually watching it! I am so proud. I have never before hooked anyone on SFU, even though it is the BEST SHOW EVER.) After, I went to Buda to watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia while we waited for Megan's friend to arrive for a visit from Spain. (Remember: saying champagne in a round, which made Lauren laugh until she cried and recording the Jo Reggelt wake-up call.)

When friend Morgan arrived, a little before midnight, we took a caravan down Danube-side to sip on some wine and munch on some "flattened bananas" (given to Sam by her father, but they gave her a tummy ache, so I brought them along). It was lovely to sit and chat and listen to tunes, which watching the glittering buildings along the river. Hoooowwww romaaahntic.

Szabadság (Liberty) Bridge. Sam calls this "our bridge" and I have started to do so as well. We are technically closer to Petőfi (one bridge south of here), but Szabadsag is infinitely prettier. I decided on this evening that it is my favorite bridge, though Lanchid (Chain Bridge) comes in as a very close second. Also, Johna!



That's the main building of my school, right across the way. So beautiful. And Lauren's grumpy (/drunk) face. Also beautiful, of course.



I REALLY like this picture. Meghan laughing. This is the best picture coming from me asking everyone to look back for a picture--I guess I'll take it.



Thursday brought another BEAUTIFUL day in Budapest! I don't know what it is about Thursdays lately, but they have just been stunning. We had a field trip for Art History (Architecture), to the Schiffer Villa, off of Andrássy. This stretch of Andrássy has lots of huge and beautiful villas/former palaces, many of which are now museums or embassies.

On the way there.



I love this.



This is the Schiffer Villa, built in 1911.



Inside.
Beautiful stained glass painting.



Sisa showing us some Zsolnay ceramic tiles (they're everywhere!)



I really loved all the bird decorations.



Walking back, it was still a beautiful day on Ráday. Yeah, can't believe I live on this street sometimes.



After Hungarian, I had a few hours to burn before Lit, so I went and got a kókuszos kakaós csiga (coconut chocolate snail, mmmmm) at the market and strolled down Váci utca (the biggest and most touristy pedestrian street in Budapest). They were putting up bow decorations to be lit. I cannot wait for everything to be lit up for Christmas. Christmas and decorating comes so early here, because in Hungary, Santa (Szent Mikulás) comes on the night of the fifth of December. It's basically a separate holiday from Christmas, so the entire month of December is super festive. We've already cajoled our Hungarian teacher, Orsi, to let us have a party in honor of Mikulás's visit on the first class after the fifth.

Anyway, decorations in progress.



More general beauty of the day. I also heard the sunset was glorious, but unfortunately I had to go back to class.



That evening, I went over to Buda dorm to enjoy some breakfast for dinner. So cute and delicious.

On Friday, some Buda friends and I set off for Memento Park, the outdoor exhibition of huge Communist statues that formerly lived in the city. I LOVE this kind of stuff. I've recently realized my passion for propaganda. We took a bus to the Budapest boonies, after a little trouble finding it. The park was really foggy, which kind of made it a little eerie (cool), but I wish it had been nicer weather. It was all very manageable, though. We saw every statue, taking our time, in just over an hour.

Fogarific.



Julie and I posed like this one--we decided it looked like they were doing calisthenics. Not on my camera, though.



We had two different guidebooks, so we got plenty of information about each statue. Megan presenting to us. (This reminded me of H.Kay being tour guide Barbie in Ireland.)



One of my favorites to look at.





Afterward, very cute and very white, waiting for the bus and planning the rest of the day.



When we got back into the city, a group of us went back to my street to eat soup and hot drinks--we were pretty chilly. We went to Jaffa, which is right on my block and fairly enjoyable. I had a hearty meat soup and a hot wine. And there was table bread to soak up the soup. Mmm.

After, we weren't quite done eating, so we went to the top level of the market to get crepes. I love this place--the same one I went to with Em. They make the crepes right in front of you and have a bunch of delicious flavors. Lauren and Julie and I shared a stracciatella crepe: they actually flavor the dough stracciatella, mixing in chocolate bits, and then put vanilla pudding and more chocolate bits inside. Topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. SO GOOD. I'm really glad we shared it, too, because though I could have eaten all of it (obviously), it would have made my stomach hurt!

In a few hours, the same group ventured back out to the Budapest Jazz Club for a classy evening with the Juhász Gábor Quintet. We got music for two hours, and it was wonnnderful. You could tell I majorly zoned out because my hair was a frizzball afterwards from lots of curl diddling.

Oh hey.



Other side--prime people watching here. I love watching people listening to music they enjoy.





So classy.



I came home, ate an inordinate amount of pasta, chatted with Lydia for a while, then went to sleep.

On Saturday, I was going to join friends for a trip to the National Gallery. However, when I agreed to that, I forgot that I had not yet completed the anthro assignment due on Friday--so I had to stay in and take care of that. Several hours and much grumping later, I was done, so I headed over to partake in the SCAVENGER HUNT that Megan Schleck and friend Morgan wrote up for us. SO MUCH FUN.

My team did many things, including:
-used the bathrooms at the Gellért Hotel
-photographed a bride



(There will be more pictures later, probably. Everything is on Val's camera, and there are some real silly ones.)

-observed much PDA
-spelled "nem" with our bodies in front of the Fine Arts Museum
-drank three mugs of forralt bor
-rode the swings and posed on the slides on Gellért hill
-found misspelled signs in English
-found books in languages other then Hungarian and English
-didn't buy Pál Street Boys
-posed with many Santas and Christmas trees
-consumed an entire bottle of honey pear pálinka

and...

-swam in the Danube.

Yes, that happened. Extremely dirty, cold, exhilarating, and illegal. It was worth the most point on the scav hunt, so we decided to go for it. Lauren and I went in first, then Val and Carley. Val and I went under (might as well go all the way, right?) AHH, it was so great. I'm really glad we did it. It made me so happy. TEAM DUNABAN!

Here's a photo, snagged from Miss Carley. We look so happy! Love it so much.



I also ended up cutting up my feet a little scrambling out, I think...but the adrenaline made me not notice until we got back and my socks were kind of...bloody. I also twisted my ankle on the trip back, which is bad news bears. It kept me up on Saturday night, but I've been on painkillers since then and I think it's feeling a little better.

Anyway, after I went home to shower and tipsy eat several things in my fridge. I got SO sleepy, but ended up getting up again because we had plans to go to a Hungarian restaurant in north Budapest. Everyone was really sleepy, but it ended up being a good time. The waiter spoke very little English, which is actually kind of rare here, and we had to wait a while before we got a couple of English menus. Always interesting trying to decode the Hungarian/German menu.

Upon return, Allie, Lauren, Julie and I watched Away We Go, plagued by some of the normal struggles that come with online movie watching. I really enjoyed it, though, and downloaded most of the soundtrack yesterday. Such great mellow music, perfect for a mellow Sunday. I ended up missing the last tram, though, so I slept in Meghan's bed (she's away with a group in Amsterdam this weekend). Like I said, my ankle did disturb my sleep a little, but it was nice to co-sleep with Val, even though she did fall asleep while I was talking!! <3 <3

On Sunday, I hung around there for a while waiting for Val to get back from church, but after a while I had exhausted all my entertainment possibilities in their room (Meghan's Budapest Panorama Book is awesome), so I ended up going home. Food, then lots of lounging and icing my ankle for the rest of the day. It was really a very enjoyable weekend. The fact that I hung out with Buda friends all weekend is kind of significant because the two people who I knew in any way when I first came here, Meghan and Johna, were both gone this weekend. Yet, I still can't stay away from Ménesi út. Everyone in the group has become really important to me. I'm really lucky to have them. Great weekend, guys.

This week brings my MAMA! Arriving on Wednesday. AND she even has a place to stay, now! Let's hope my ankle is ready for lots and lots of folk dancing...

Week 10

Double digits, baby.

This past Monday brought visiting administrators from all over the U.S., apparently come to evaluate the program. I was asked to be part of the trio of students to show them around the dorm. Elizabeth estimated this project to take an hour, but we ended up finishing in about 15 minutes. A room, a kitchen, a laundry room, a...bathroom...anything else you want to see?

On Tuesday, or more like Monday night, I realized I needed a run badly. Unfortunately, I have class at 8 on Tuesday, as you may recall, but when I need to run, I neeeeed to run. (For example, I am now interrupting the composing of this blog to go for a pre-Hungarian class run.) Anyway, so, I solved that problem by going for an early Tuesday morning run. I had kind of forgotten how much I enjoy running in the early morning. It was a rainy morning and it was cool to see the sky going from nighttime dark to just overcast dark. Lovely. I did, however, get chased by a toothy and slobbery dog which was actually really scary. Its owner finally caught up and subdued it, but it was nipping at my heels for a few minutes.

Some pictures of the rainy Tuesday.

Parliament, which is very near where I volunteer. This area is the "Government District" of the city.



Statues near Parliament.



At volunteering--the hallway.



The crazy-cool elevator thing that I've been wanting to photograph since the beginning (but never have my camera!) It's made for only one or two people, and is constantly moving, so you just have to hop on. I don't know whether we have them in the US or not, but I've never seen one.



I also got a bit of a chance to be a creeper too, while Yvonne (who organizes the discussion group) stepped out. I assume this is a picture with her fashion designer son who lives in China. She traveled to visit him a few weeks ago.



Discussion group was especially funny this past week. Three women with pretty good English skills attended, and we ended up chatting about Halloween, which led into death, parenting, diets, and all manner of other ridiculous things. I definitely had a few "Is this really my life?" moments in there. ESPECIALLY because I got asked to lead a workshop with high schoolers in a city in Eastern Hungary in a few weeks for their America day. Apparently, a company car is going to pick me up early in the morning on Tuesday, December 1, and we are going to travel to Oroshaza, a 2.5 hour journey by car. I hopefully will be getting more details tomorrow. I couldn't really say no to the offer--not that I would want to--it's a privilege and there's a precedent for CIEE students participating. I already made up a worksheet on "The Life of an American College Student" to send ahead. Hopefully it will be a cool experience, and not a drag.

On Tuesday night, I went to hang out in Buda. Watched a few episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which never ceases to amuse me. Watched it frequently through the rest of the week as a result.

Wednesday, I accidentally slept through class. TRULY accidental. I felt awful, especially since this was the 3rd class of his that I've missed, AND it's probably my favorite class. I sent him an email apologizing (and asking if I could bring Emily to class the next day) and this was his response:

Dear Avery,

eVERYONE HAS ONE "VACATION DAY", SO THIS IS ok. aLL VISITORS ALL WELCOME,

ALL BEST AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEWK,

gÉZA


Bahahaha. Look at the keyboard much? And luckily, it appears he hasn't noticed the multitude of missed classes...excellent. Anyway, it amused me.

Anyway, sleeping in made the rest of the normally epic Wednesday slightly less so. Lovely. Megan, Audrey, and I had our regular between classes lunch. We usually eat at this place that doesn't actually have a name (we don't think), but we have come to call Pipa or Pipa street after the street it's on. It has a different selection of food each day, and it's really cheap. I believe I got a piece of chicken and some roasted potatoes this week.

Megan and the signature handless man.



Audrey ordering.



Posed or unposed? Eating picture.



Upstairs.



I tried to take an artsy picture in class of the dark window reflecting the clock saying 4:20 PM. Because yes, it is dark by that time here. FML. The picture didn't really come out, but the sentiment is there.



After class, Sam and I went to the city library and got LIBRARY CARDS. YEAH! We were told the place closed at 10, but when we tried to get in, they said it closed at 8. It was 7:52ish by then, so we didn't actually get any work done. But we have nifty cards.



We walked around for a bit trying to find a nearby tea house (the one on our street closed!! So sad), but ended up giving up and coming back to do a bit of work at home.

That evening, it was the birthday of a girl in our program, Lisa.

Me, Sam, and Lisa--credit to Megan!



Lisa just moved out of the dorm into a bedroom in an apartment, so clearly we took the celebration over there. Loved the brightly colored walls. Again, Ms. Griffith's picture.



I ended up meeting Buda friends somewhere along the night bus route to get LOTS of hugs, falling asleep in a friend's bed in the Buda dorm, then walking home to Pest at 3 in the morning. Without a coat. Awesome, Ave.

Thursday was an absolutely GORGEOUS day. Luckily, we made use of it with a lovely trip to the Parliament building. It really was a great tour, but I estimate that at least half the group was feeling hungover, which made for a few vaguely amusing situations. I stole all of the Parliament pictures from Evan--I forgot my camera that morning.

Sunny Parliament and Professor Sisa (with jaunty hat.)











It's such a beautifully decorated building. We also got to go outside on a Danube side balcony for just a few seconds and it made me indescribably happy and smiley.



That afternoon, I traipsed off to the airport to pick up my dear Emily! So lovely to see her for the first time in Budapest...love the clash of worlds, I really do. We came back for my last class of the week, then had dinner in the dorm. It wasn't difficult at all to get her into the dorm (I was a little worried), and the doormen were so helpful beeping her in and out.

Thursday evening, Emily, Sam, Audrey, and I went to enjoy forro csoki/forralt bor at Café Créme in Buda. A couple of cognitive kids were there, but they were studying (lame.) I had a hot chocolate that was supposed to have coconut liqueur in it, but it didn't remotely taste like coconut, so I think they may have left it out. Whoops. After that, we went back to the Buda friends dorm for a few minutes (enough for Meghan to give us a tour), then went to ascend Gellért Hill.





I took more city views, but they're remarkably similar to the ones I took last time I went up the hill at night...odd. I'll spare you.

Coming down, we sought out the slides that we took down part of the hill before. After a bit of a search, we found'em. We quickly dubbed the uncovered ones pretty lame (you had to push yourself down), but fortunately, someone tried the covered one, which we had neglected before. SO GREAT. It spits you our reaaaallly fast into a bit of a dirt pit (we all ended up doity), but it was sooooo fun.







Friday, Em, Sam, and I got up bright and early to take on the city on foot. We had a lovely walk, because, yet again, the weather was clear, bright, and not too cold.

A snack of chestnuts from a street vendor.



So photogenic.



At Szabadsag square, one of my fave places in the city.



We made our way back and met Audrey at Pipa Street for lunch.

I registered for classes that afternoon. I didn't get into one that I had picked (Sociology of Drugs), but I registered for another in the time slot because it made for a really sweet schedule. As of now, I am in Social Psych, Human Emotion, Foundations of English Lit, and Gender in Early America. Sweet stuff.

Post-registration, Emily, Sam, and I bopped over to Buda to have a few minutes with the Buda folk before they left for Venice that afternoon. When they took off, we tried to go to a bath. However, it took a really long time to get there, it was difficult to find the entrance, and I got dehydrated and grumpy. Thus, instead of going in, we ended up coming back and having a siesta before dinner.

Vegetarian Indian food. This picture cracks me up.



Then, off to Szimpla, a cool bar place that I have been meaning to go to for a while. It was packed, even at 9ish when we arrived. We finally got a table and chillllled for a while. We ended up playing some Pass the Pigs with a British man and while the other men in the bachelor party (called "cock parties" in Britain, according to Emily) he was with watched. Super funny. The one who played was really nice--he got so excited to PTP. "My family plays this at Christmas!"





Back to bed that night. Sort of. Emily and I ended up staying up for a while skyping with Kiah and Erica, also together for the weekend.




Saturday morn, Em and I rose early yet again, and stopped at the market for crepes (mmmmmmm) before I took her to the airport and saw her off (or at least into the check-in line.) So good to have her here, even for a short time.

I came back and did massive amounts of laundry and vegged until that evening, when we did Night at the Museums! A bunch o' museums in Budapest were open until late, with special programs going on at each and buses to transport you from place to place. We ended up hitting up 4.

1. Museum of Applied Arts.





At this museum, Evan somehow joined percussion band playing instruments made out of everyday objects...audience members took turns coming up and directing them. I still don't really know how he got into the group.



2. Natural History Museum





3. Photography House

This one was pretty small, but in a really cool building.





4. Museum of Fine Arts



I was literally here ten minutes before I decided I was too pooped for culcha. Since we weren't set to meet for another 40 minutes, I just made my way home and passssed out in bed. SO sleepy! I slept in Sunday morning, and this morning, and I'm still feeling pretty drowsy. This weekend took it out of me!

Sunday was uneventful. I slept in, wrote a paper, didn't change out of my pajamas all day, etc.


IN OTHER NEWS/HOME FRONT NEWS:
-I'm living in Weybridge, the Environmental Studies Interest House in J-Term/Spring Term. Crazy!
-Big shout-out to rugby girls for making it to the regional finals two years in a row. Unfortunately, they lost to MIT 13-0 this Saturday, but they played valiantly, and had a wonderful season.

That's it, folks. Until next week.