oh yeah, and i was browsing the local magyar paper and happened across this...



any guesses? (besides scott) (i didnt know they translated comics into other languages. well, at least cool ones i didnt know about. whatever)

and look how cool my forearms look! they look cooler in person, but this was the best i could do.



(how do you like them apples, todd!?)

:)

well, it's been a long day, but i had fun.

i was up at 7.5am due to Martos needing a good fumigation. so john, dave and i headed to mcdonalds for some early morning sajtburgers and cherry pies. delicious. you know, i hear a lot of people complain a lot about mcd's and how crappy the food is and whatnot, but personally, it's not that bad in my book. in fact, i don't consider bad at all. it's cheap and tasty and they break my large hungarian bills that most people avoid like the plague. i think maybe those haters should spend a but of time at white castle. that'd make 'em think twice. anyway, then we wandered around until i went to speak to the grade school. that was pretty fun. i was sort of nervous, but not really. except it was really hot in the room, so i was sweating a lot :). but that's just me. so i told them a little about myself and halloween in america and then asked me some questions. but not many (they were a little shy). and then i read them a humorous (to me) american quiz. and THEN, for the finale, they had a pumpkin (type object) for me to carve (because apparently they dont do that here). the only problem was that it was shaped like a gord or something. it wasn't round at all. and when i finally cut into the top of it, it was solid. "dang". so with my lightning fast eagle scout thinking, i flipped it on it's side and cut it in half to reveal the hollow lower half. sweet. so after a little hollowing-out, i carved a quick homage to scott, cut a makeshift top, and BAM. you got a hungarian pumpkin/gord.



and when i say quick, i mean quick. i must have done this thing in less than 10 min. that's a record (as far as i'm concerned). but i think the kids really liked it. they all stood around me as i worked my magic.


(and yes, my eyes are closed. wouldnt have happened if I'D taken the picture.)

and then there was an old baby grand piano on one of the floors of the school, so i played that for a while for some kid. he just walked up and sat next to the piano. funny. he spoke very little english. and then i talked to the teacher until my building opened back up.

good stuff (or as the french say "good material". weirdos)

OH YEAH. and the want me to come back monday to start helping with different teachers! how sweet is that? (i dont know, but i'm excited.)

i won't be around today from 8-17 because martos is being fumigated. just a heads up for those who might have emergency questions for me.

and jess, i wish you could be here to talk to the french people. i told them about you and your studying french and they seemed interested and wished you were here (too).

harpy halloween. and trick or trort.

oh yeah.

i went to see the Barber of Seville last night. it was really fun. i've never been to an opera. and it was in hungarian. interesting.

there's so much stuff going on that i really don't know where to start.

i mean, i'm perfectly at ease about returning home, stuff is better than ever with jesse, and the weather here is gorgeous.

yep. that about wraps it up.

i was going to post a detailed entry regarding my trip to prague, but i think i wont now. i had a wonderful time. it was probably the best weekend i've had yet. Leanne and I got to talk a lot about things we didn't necessarily want to talk about, but needed to (perhaps we did want to). and it was good. i think she had a great time (i hope) too. 2 of the guys got some money removed from their possession upon arrival in prague. our pension (hostel) was the best ever and i slept wonderfully. however, the word "cold" doesnt even come close to describing how it was in prague this past weekend. wow. saw a bunch of snow as i went through slovakia and it snowed a bit in prague. it was a beautiful city. tons of things to see and buy. and i feel like 2 days was the perfect amount of time to stay. i had tex-mex my last night there. 3 enchiladas (2 cheese, 1 chicken). when i requested simple cheese enchiladas, the waitress questioned my request. and i replied, "yes. just cheese"::stupid:: they werent too bad. how could i resist prague tex-mex. i couldnt. (i've had better though). it took 9 hrs to get there (and back). so we travelled by night train and "slept" (i didnt). ALTHOUGH (and this really struck me as spectacular), throughout my life, whenever i've needed to imagine myself in a comfortable situation to try and get some sleep, it was always the thought of riding on a train in the rain. and sure freakin enough, that's exactly where i found myself thursday night. it wasnt raining enough for me to hear it, i could see it out the window. i was really taken back by this event and felt blessed to have been there.

that about sums it up, folks.

jó napot.

each day i feel more and more like i'm going to not fit in when i come back. i'm not sure exactly, but i just feel like i'm growing so far apart from everyone.

that doesnt feel great.

still dont have internet yet. went to prague this weekend. i'll post my writing once i recieve my connection back.

have a great one.

yeah, i've done a lot in the past few days. i'll write about it later tonight maybe. gotta go run 6 miles now. well, sort of. replace "run 6 miles" with "lift weights because not everyone is a natural born runner, so i do i what i can". yeah

however, a quick synopsis of KILL BILL couldn't hurt...

i loved it! i bet tarantino had such a great time making that movie. it was just so fun to watch! it looked great (like the cinematography, editing, and whathaveyou). and that end scene in the garden. BEAUTIFUL. (i think that's a reference to an old bruce lee movie (course, what WASN'T in that movie??)) and sonny chiba! you guys know who that is dont you? he's The Street Fighter! the CHEESIEST of old kung fu movies EVER. even when the dialogue (like at the beginning with uma and fox) seemed awkward or unnatural, i think that was on purpose (again, to resemble the old films). what i like about Tarantino movies is the attention to detail. the cereal box titled "KABLOOM"? particularly the dialogue. it's like he takes such care to have the characters say exactly the right thing. he seems to go to great effort to have the audience see things EXACTLY the way he wants them to be seen. i love that. i don't think there's anything especially great about the stories in his movies, but his presentation is marvelous. i mean, it completely makes the movie. and, of course, the altered time line is always an joy to put together. then at the end, i loved how it when in and out of b&w, color, and the silhouette scene. and the liters of blood was a fun touch. i think maybe my favorite shot in the movie is when the sheriff is driving to the scene of the crime and the camera is fixed right behind the dashboard and you see his selection of aviator shades in different tints. that's just great.

okay, that's enough for now.

man, i dug that movie.

one more thing i just remembered:
remember how about half of the movie was laced with dialogue in japanese? yeah, well, an unforseen (prior to this) disadvantage to seeing it in Hungary, is that Hungarians have no use for English subtitles explaining the japanese dialogue. so we sat there, listening to Japanese, trying to read Hungarian, and failing miserably at both. luckily, I had seen all but the last 30 min with english subtitles (thanks to mr. murphy). so i just looked up the script to find out what the crap they said at the end. i'm good now. i'm with the program.

stupid non-english speaking . . . people.

hey you bunch of pudthumpers. am i the only one NOT taking myself seriously lately? yeah i've got tons of time. perhaps more than others. so i cant HELP but notice things about others' stuff. and i feel obligated to joke about it. and if that's wrong, then know one ever learned me what was right. like when i read stuff about me being tart (and who's to say i'm NOT? (what's a tart?)) and what not, i think it's funny. and if that's wrong...well, we already covered that part.

BOTTOM LINE
Now that's it's been made clear to me that this nonsense should be put to a stop, I'm pushing forward to ensure more nonsense than ever before! Starting with my recieving of the "KING OF EVERYTHING" award ceremony being held this friday at 19.0 central(europe)/13.0 eastern (it will be rebroadcast everyday for the next 3 weeks, in case you can't make it). You can catch it on www.joshhunterownsyou.com. It probably won't last more than 4.5 hours. Hope you can make it!



later puds

TO: TODD (because he has no available comment system):

there is no "break" fluid in your car. only "brake" fluid. and you can check it under your hood. after opening the hood, stand on the far right side (in front of your driver's side door) and you'll see a translucent cyclinder (about 2.5"-3" in diameter) with a black lid on it. twist the lid off. if you dont see liquid that's bad. i dont know how to check for leaks, but at least you can keep it full until you get it fixed. I don't know where your family usually takes stuff, but I always took mine to Beagley Automotive (my dad can tell you how to get there) in town and they treated me well.

i'm afraid i can't help much with the research paper.

good luck.

so does anyone do ANYthing to their WEBSITE anymore??

and no, i'm not refering to blogging.

therefore, I shant address the issue of me being king of websites (not including jeff) (because i am).

boo. ya.

okay, so what's up with todd's new burns??

is that a west TN thing?

hey everybody,

sorry. everything between jess and i is great. i just havent gotten around to writing that. my bad. yeah, we talked (for a LONG time :) ) and i think we both have at least a slightly better idea of where the other is coming from. so that's good. sorry i made you worry. it's all good.

TODAY
i'm supposed to meet with the english teacher in charge of stuff at the grade school (down the road) tomorrow. hopefully, she let me talk to the kids and stuff everynow and then. i'd really like that. a lot. AND i went and talked to the language dept here on campus and i really think that may turn out well. i tried to explain to them that i'm interested in anything whether it be tutoring individuals or speaking to classes. i think they understood. i actually went to the grade school yesterday and i left with them thinking i wanted to be a teacher (so that didnt go as planned). so i got eszter (the int'l lady here) to write me a note explaining what i was doing and then i just gave them the note today. i'm excited. this whole language this is very provocative to me recently. with all the different ones and stuff. it's SO COOL. so it's time to capitlize on my english abilities. and hopefully i can take in some hungarian (and possibly others) while i'm at it.

THE OTHER DAY
so yeah, i went to a football game! there were no riots, but i guess you can't win em all.



the polish side kept lighting red flares. i cant believe they were allowed to do that. they were so bright even from the other side of the stadium (nepstadiom: people's stadium). it was pretty cool. on the hungarian side, during the anthem, EVERYone (cept me) held up hungary's flag. kind of inspiring. the game didnt last too long. 2 45min halves. clocks dont stop. Poland won, but only by 1 point... :) yeah. and then when we were leaving to go down to the subway, there were policemen decked out in riot gear stoppin everyone. i mean, these guys looked like they were ready to throw down at the drop of a hat. turned out they were only letting in like 100 people at a time or so, so that the subway station didnt get overloaded. but before i knew that i was baffled at what was going on. anywho.

i watched City of God the other night and it was wonderful. it was so intense and enthralling. i doubt anyone else reading this has every seen it, so... it's about gang life in this tiny ghetto town outside of Rio de Janeiro. and it was just amazing. totally shocking how these kids grew up in this life and it was just a cycle through the generations. and it was based on a true story. i highly recommend it to anyone. and it's in portuguese. so the subtitles is a must.

that is all.

KILL BILL comes out (here) thursday!

so, i guess the girl i love the most is more mad at me than she's ever been at anything. at least thats what i came away with (after she said we shouldnt talk anymore). i dont know what to say. i feel really bad. my feelings are so hurt because i dont know what i couldve done to earn this. and she thinks i'm a liar. and that hurts the most. yeah . . . a lot.

i'm going to bed.

oh yeah i went to a football game today. whatever.

okay. i'm back. sorry, the king took a few days off there.

well i havent been up to much lately. i've become very interested in talking to kids and helping them with their english. so i'm going to see what all i can do there. maybe see if any of the institutes around here would like the help.

thursday i went to Richard's shindig (which was a blast. i got to smoke some black & golds for the first time in a long time. AND they had a piano in their flat! and it sounded better than the one at school! so i played on it for a few while people were arriving. (scott you couldve gone to town on this thing)) so yeah. it was just really fun.

and then last night i went to the spaniards' hubbub (actually, theirs should be called the shindig because there was much dancing. richard's was more of a brouhaha, but without all the turmoil and stuff.) anyway, it was cool because they had rented out a little disco room ...thing. and there was music and sangria and calimocho (i'm not sure if that's spelled right. i couldn't find it in the dictionary) as far as the eye could see. Seriously, these guys had buckets (like 5 gal buckets) and buckets of sangria. and the stuff was pretty good too.

it's so cool because everytime i attend one of these hullabaloos, i get to spend time talking with and getting to know someone new. so that's really great. it's really interesting. like on monday, i talked with this german guy (who looks just like tobey maguire) about wwii (among other things). but that was kind of cool because, well, have YOU ever gotten to discuss wwii with a german? yeah. i know. anywho, i thought it was cool.

TODD! check these bad boys out:



are those the coolest or what? (yes. they are.)

i'm going to try and get to a football (soccer) game today. should be cool. you know, if makes a lot more sense to call it football than soccer.

we're retarded.

check out this russian soldier's belt i got today at this antique market. i think it's from wwi. i got it for $4.



yeah, and they had these sweet leather trenchcoats that a nazi or somebody would wear. they were only $50. i think i'm going back to get it. they also had lots of russian war medals and nazi medals and stuff. they were kind of expensive. and this guy had this old trombone in his stuff so i played it for him (not much. just a bit :) ) and then he gave me a free postcard. man this stuff was old.

i think maybe i should be selling this stuff on ebay rather than wearing it.

i have no trouble concurring with todd in acknowledging jeff's status, but i hardly think that someone without simple comments on their blog (which seems to be at LEAST the standard nowadays) can refer to themself as the "king".

am i right or am i right? or am i right? or am i right?

i've had a really nice last 2 days. Sunday was wonderful. I woke up, wrote jess a good email, put clothes on to wash, worked out (which i am currently sore from. sweet), put more clothes on (and finished washing EVERYthing), went out and ate a bowl of cheese/veggie soup that comes in a giant roll, came back, hung up all my clothes to dry, posted some pictures, and then watched the movie Metropolis (not too shabby). It was the most relaxing day i can remember (and believe me, that's saying A LOT considering my recent schedule). yeah, so good day. and a good message from my QT.

I am so diggin' this Saves the Day acoustic music. "hold" and "freakish" are really just at the top of my list lately. particularly "hold". i love the way the chords sound on that guitar. i wanna learn guitar. i'll never have this much free time in my life ever again, so i have to make the most of it (and use it all up!).

i went and played piano today (finally). the piano kind of sucks, but as long as I'm able to make music with my hands, i'm thrilled. it's funny, i was playing through a bunch of stuff and after i played through that song from "The Truman Show" this guy came up to me (and after telling him "nem beszelek magyural") and asked me what that song was. he was apparently very intrigued by it. so i tried to explain thats it not really a "song" so to speak, but that he could find it on the soundtrack and stuff. kind of neat. when i went in to play (the piano is just i this hall right next to a big lounge room) there were a bunch a people in there talking and stuff and it was fairly noisy so i didnt mind playing, but once i began playing it sort of quieted down and whenever i'd stop it was really quiet so i had to begin playing again as soon as i could! but i played well, so that was good. and no one told me to shut up, so that was good too.

and i went to see a movie tonight...again! it's too cheap NOT to go. what else am i going to do on a monday night? (nothing) anyway, i saw Matchstick Men with Nick Cage and Sam Rockwell. I really liked it! i thought it was a pretty good movie! and Cage did a great job acting. he has done such a good job on his last few movies. i've been thoroughly impressed. and then i had my usual large popcorn and large coke for dinner. good stuff. OH. but i found out that they have assigned seating in the freakin theater! how communist is that?? so no matter how early i get there, i'm still going to get a random seat. i could be the last person to arrive and get the seat right in the middle. (these people make me wanna puke.) and since about 80% of the people dont arrive until the movie is just beginning (lazy europeans!) that's a very probably thing. These people have no sense of capitalism. The service in restaurants is the worst. no one cares about the customer. you dont tip much here . . . because no one earns it! if i fail at engineering, plan B is to come to hungary and open up a Mexican food restaurant with REAL service and FREE refills. these people wouldnt even know what to do with it. this would be such a radical concept here that most people would probably reject it. unbelievable. no one even cares. if you want something in a food place, YOU have to flag someone down or grab them or yell at them and then make your request because if you wait for them, you will never (i really do mean never) leave the establishment. this (so far) has been my biggest complaint with europe.

thats all for now from the josh think tank.

(man those pumas rule)

did i tell you guys about the Pumas here? they have some of the coolest shoes. i could only find one picture of the several that i like. check it yo:



yeah it looks like theres no sole at all but its actually just that the side comes down over it almost all the way. so sweet.

i also saw some Diesel ones that ruled but i havent found a pic yet.

european shoes are so leathery. i'll have to find a good example to show you guys.

went to a city on the border of hungary and slovakia today called Esztergom. it was a really nice city. it wasn't too big or anything and it had this really awesome church/castle. it was so cool looking because the town was in the hills and surrounded by them and stuff.



anyway, we stayed around there for a long time and ended up missing our train back by 5 min (there was another one but not for 2 hours. if only we hadnt of stopped for ice cream!) so i sat there and worked on my magyarul for a while. then i slept on the ride home. man i had a bad headache until about 10 min ago. wonderful aleve.

alright i'll write more later. too tired.

have a marvelous weekend in MJ, babe.

i didnt know todd's last name was "burkE"!

news to me!





(poor todd burke. you gotta get them to fix that)

well, i guess i couldve predicted it. i have a sinus infection. however, i got to it really early so it shouldnt be a problem. still though, i feel pretty rundown right now. i think i may sleep (again).

done with classes this week. this place is even better than work. when i leave my classes i'm DONE with them. no homework or anything (yet). I dont know what i'll do this weekend. I think i'll visit some places in hungary.

i cleaned my room today. i blame the dust factor in here for my sinus problem. i'm freakin living in a closet. too dusty.

dang i feel worn out.

i went out and took some pictures of stuff at night the other day. hopefully i can put those up soon on my site. and i went to the art museum yesterday. i had originally intended to visit the zoo, but they were about to close. i have some pictures of that too. it was a huge place. lots of art. there's also a contemporary art museum that i want to visit, but the next exhibit doesnt open for a few days. and i think i'll try and see the symphony this weekend. we'll see how all these plans go.



yeah. oh and i had another dream about having to leave budapest and being sad and stuff, but that was 2 nights ago. i didnt have one last night so thats good.

szia.