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.
No comments:
Post a Comment