well i guess i'm the only one blogging it up nowadays. therefore i now proclaim myself as the king of blogging.
suck that, scott.
24 September 2003
23 September 2003
so i dont know if i've said this before, but i absolutely get such a kick out of studying things with all of these international students. i was just looking around in today's folklore class at everyone's faces and it was just so great. it's funny because with a lot of them you can really tell where they're from. either from finland or germany or france or somewhere else. just being in the same location studying the same material or at least attending the same activity just gives me such joy.
i'm really glad to be here.
i'm really glad to be here.
22 September 2003
sunday we all we up to the castle in buda. it's pretty cool. it's funny, this french girl asked me why we use "pretty" to classify something as nice looking and also to replace the word "fairly" (or something) and i really didnt know. i thought about it for a while, but couldnt figure it out. anyway, the castle was a really cool place and you could see so much from up there.
and the castle was pretty great looking too
and all of this stuff in the city looks so cool at night. i just never remember to take my camera out when i go. i'll work on getting some of those.
the scenery here is just unbelievable. its almost overwhelming at times. unreal.
we stayed up there for a long time and several of the guys played hacky sack. i didnt. and then me and john...
decided to go back because we had the greasiest chinese food for lunch and it was still just sitting in our stomachs like a freakin lead weight. we chose this over the juggling festival that was going on. i'm not big into juggling. go figure.
oh and i now have a roommate, yudai (i think i'm spelling his name wrong). he's from iowa, but not originally (wink).
okay now i'm stupid tired, so i must sleep.
ta ta
and the castle was pretty great looking too
and all of this stuff in the city looks so cool at night. i just never remember to take my camera out when i go. i'll work on getting some of those.
the scenery here is just unbelievable. its almost overwhelming at times. unreal.
we stayed up there for a long time and several of the guys played hacky sack. i didnt. and then me and john...
decided to go back because we had the greasiest chinese food for lunch and it was still just sitting in our stomachs like a freakin lead weight. we chose this over the juggling festival that was going on. i'm not big into juggling. go figure.
oh and i now have a roommate, yudai (i think i'm spelling his name wrong). he's from iowa, but not originally (wink).
okay now i'm stupid tired, so i must sleep.
ta ta
21 September 2003
hey everybody! josh here!
okay so friday i didnt really do anything. i swept and mopped my room. that was good. and i'm not really sure what else happened, but i'm sure it wasnt very exciting. however...
SATURDAY
today i got up and went to Statue Park, which consists of the communist statues (from the communist era. obviously) in hungary. rather than destroying them like most did, hungary chose to save theirs for display. Basically, they're capitalizing on communism. ironic? maybe. but who can blame 'em. anyway, my guide was really long-winded so i wandered off with a few others and took tons of pictures. i think some of them turned out really cool. i'll post more on my site. (and todd, there were statues of lenin. it was stalin that was no more.)
LATER THAT NIGHT...
Richard, the australian guy . . .
told me about this beat boxer, Killa Kela. (if you don't know what a beat boxer is, it's a guy who does a turntable routine with just his vocals.) he said he was better than rahzel. he was right. this guy was freakin amazing. we went to this docked boat and paid about $10 to get in. there was some sort of eatery on top and a dance club type thing below. as much as i hate extremely loud music, this was too cool to pass up. It was more like a show than a concert or anything. me trying to describe it to you is useless. you'll just have to download some of his music or something because it truly is indescribably cool. (and it's definitely a lot cooler in person.) yeah, so then after he got done they played hip-hop music for a while and THEN they went into drum and bass. it was so awesome. these europeans love dance/trance music. they were just dancing all over the place. i think i could get into their type of dancing. i dont know if we dance like this at home or not because i've never been anywhere, but these americans that were with us thought they danced weird. oh well. i just thought it was cool because there was nothing sexual about it. like it wasnt bump and grind crap. it was just moving to the music. i hope i get to go back sometime. yeah so we were there till about 2.5am and then ended up sitting around and talking till around 5.0am. i havent done that in a while, so i felt reasonably crappy today. (plus i had this grease with chinese food mixed into it for lunch right after i woke up. yeah, that was like a lead weight in my stomach all day.)
we didnt make it to church this morning because the girl couldnt get in touch with the people she knew (who knew where the church was). gonna make it happen next week.
well. i guess back to budapest. cause that's where i live. budapest.
jh
okay so friday i didnt really do anything. i swept and mopped my room. that was good. and i'm not really sure what else happened, but i'm sure it wasnt very exciting. however...
SATURDAY
today i got up and went to Statue Park, which consists of the communist statues (from the communist era. obviously) in hungary. rather than destroying them like most did, hungary chose to save theirs for display. Basically, they're capitalizing on communism. ironic? maybe. but who can blame 'em. anyway, my guide was really long-winded so i wandered off with a few others and took tons of pictures. i think some of them turned out really cool. i'll post more on my site. (and todd, there were statues of lenin. it was stalin that was no more.)
LATER THAT NIGHT...
Richard, the australian guy . . .
told me about this beat boxer, Killa Kela. (if you don't know what a beat boxer is, it's a guy who does a turntable routine with just his vocals.) he said he was better than rahzel. he was right. this guy was freakin amazing. we went to this docked boat and paid about $10 to get in. there was some sort of eatery on top and a dance club type thing below. as much as i hate extremely loud music, this was too cool to pass up. It was more like a show than a concert or anything. me trying to describe it to you is useless. you'll just have to download some of his music or something because it truly is indescribably cool. (and it's definitely a lot cooler in person.) yeah, so then after he got done they played hip-hop music for a while and THEN they went into drum and bass. it was so awesome. these europeans love dance/trance music. they were just dancing all over the place. i think i could get into their type of dancing. i dont know if we dance like this at home or not because i've never been anywhere, but these americans that were with us thought they danced weird. oh well. i just thought it was cool because there was nothing sexual about it. like it wasnt bump and grind crap. it was just moving to the music. i hope i get to go back sometime. yeah so we were there till about 2.5am and then ended up sitting around and talking till around 5.0am. i havent done that in a while, so i felt reasonably crappy today. (plus i had this grease with chinese food mixed into it for lunch right after i woke up. yeah, that was like a lead weight in my stomach all day.)
we didnt make it to church this morning because the girl couldnt get in touch with the people she knew (who knew where the church was). gonna make it happen next week.
well. i guess back to budapest. cause that's where i live. budapest.
jh
18 September 2003
okay so laundry is now quite a chore. it takes this machine 1 US hour to wash half a regular load of clothes. and there is no dryer. so here's an idea of what i'm up to...
yeah. that much fun. anywho, i'm hooked on gyros lately. they're good and cheap.
i went to a bath today. it was really cool. so old looking in parts. they were just like huge hot tubs. there were different temperature ones though. some hot some cold. it was so relaxing. it felt great to stretch out in there.
and then i went to choir practice. it was really cool, but the rehearsal was held in hungarian (which i didnt anticipate). so it's a bit hard to start where everyone else starts when you have no idea whats going on. but they sang some cool songs. i hope i can go often.
and then i had a gyro!
yeah. that much fun. anywho, i'm hooked on gyros lately. they're good and cheap.
i went to a bath today. it was really cool. so old looking in parts. they were just like huge hot tubs. there were different temperature ones though. some hot some cold. it was so relaxing. it felt great to stretch out in there.
and then i went to choir practice. it was really cool, but the rehearsal was held in hungarian (which i didnt anticipate). so it's a bit hard to start where everyone else starts when you have no idea whats going on. but they sang some cool songs. i hope i can go often.
and then i had a gyro!
17 September 2003
alright, so apparently my blogs have not adequately described the alcoholic situation here (at least not enough for some viewers). so maybe this will help...
there is a ton of beer and other alcohol here. and people drink it all of the time. at that sports day we had that was organized by students of BUTE, there were 5 crates of like 20 packs of beer. and these werent weeny US beers. these were .5 L beers. and everyone just drank them. they didnt get drunk. they just drank them. thats just how it is here. the beer and wine are cheaper than coca-cola. and the only people ive seen drunk are the americans students. the europeans drink beer and stuff, but not to the extent that a typical american my age does. so i'm not going around bar-hopping or clubbing or anything like that, okay? the bars here arent filled with tons anebriated doofuses or anything. and i could count the amount of drinks i've had since i've been here on one hand. and the place i had the absinthe was like a gazebo sandwich hut in an amusement park. it's not like i'm heading out to bars seeing what i can cook up. it's more like, "when in rome". i mean, i didnt go cuckoo for crack in amsterdam and i'm not gonna do anything stupid here.
so i hope this helps put worries to rest.
good morrow to you all.
there is a ton of beer and other alcohol here. and people drink it all of the time. at that sports day we had that was organized by students of BUTE, there were 5 crates of like 20 packs of beer. and these werent weeny US beers. these were .5 L beers. and everyone just drank them. they didnt get drunk. they just drank them. thats just how it is here. the beer and wine are cheaper than coca-cola. and the only people ive seen drunk are the americans students. the europeans drink beer and stuff, but not to the extent that a typical american my age does. so i'm not going around bar-hopping or clubbing or anything like that, okay? the bars here arent filled with tons anebriated doofuses or anything. and i could count the amount of drinks i've had since i've been here on one hand. and the place i had the absinthe was like a gazebo sandwich hut in an amusement park. it's not like i'm heading out to bars seeing what i can cook up. it's more like, "when in rome". i mean, i didnt go cuckoo for crack in amsterdam and i'm not gonna do anything stupid here.
so i hope this helps put worries to rest.
good morrow to you all.
okay, so because i didnt have decent internet access during my amsterdam days, here are my thought from then that i wrote down at the time. enjoy... (it's pretty long)
Well I’m writing this on my computer sitting on my bed in the hostel. For some reason, the internet in the lobby won let me go to blogger.com. so the date on this entry will be a bit off.
What a trip. I’m so tired. Every movement just drains me. (and I’m on the third floor). At the Nashville airport I was doing everything I could not to just bust out crying. Only by sheer mental power did I make it till the end. But as soon as I hugged my dad it was over. And then I didn’t know if I was going to be able to let go of jesse. I still don’t know how I did.
The flights were great. I got to sit by myself on BOTH of them. Which wasn’t a huge deal going to Detroit, but made an enormous difference on the 7hr flight to Amsterdam. AND since I flew on a brand new plane, there were TVs in the headrests! I got to watch matrix 2 like twice (well I watched the cool parts multiple times. AND it was like a DVD. I could pause, fast forward, or rewind at any time. That was great. However, I didn’t sleep at all, which didn’t make sense to me since I have slept in much more uncomfortable places than that. But no sleep (man this seems like several days ago. I’m so freakin tired.). it’s like my night time was taken away from me. And since I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before I left, I’m really running on fumes.(oh yeah, the Detroit airport was awesome. It had a raised monorail thing. Looked really cool) And I haven’t eaten much at all today. I had some breakfast (at 2 am home time) and then I just couldn’t eat. The thought of food makes me wanna throw up, but I managed to eat a ham sandwich this afternoon (I am 7hrs ahead of Mt. Juliet and 6 ahead of ktown (in case you didn’t know)). The guy in the deli I bought it from was so nice. Probably in his late 20s and just as nice as could be. Then I decided to sleep through dinner because I wasn’t hungry anyway. Now I’m trying to make myself eat a moon pie so that I can take a vitamin.
I did NOT pack efficiently for this part of the trip. I had to drag those heavy, huge-ass bags so freaking far and up and down so many steps. I also felt stupid carrying twice as much luggage as everyone else. (you gotta love wandering half aimlessly with two cumbersome bags) But I’m not on vacation. Buttheads.
This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I mean, I’ve seen pictures, but they might as well be fake until you see it in person. There are bikes EVERYWHERE. Which is not surprising since the streets are maybe 10ft wide for cars. And the thing is, is that all of the bikes look like something straight out of the Bicycle Thieves.They are all old European looking bikes. There isn’t a new looking one or mountain bike in the whole lot of them. They all have little curvy handle bars with baskets and crap. Crazy dutch. But there are so many great posters and signs that would line the walls in jesse and sams place perfectly. I guess they just look so neat because we don’t have them. Nothing at home is like it is here, except the people (generally). They look just like Americans, but you just never know what language is going to come out of their mouth and how well they’ll speak it. However, there are the ones here who dress all weird euro like too. Especially girls. I saw one on the subway who was wearing a small plastic garbage can as a back pack. And then I saw this guy wearing a sweater with a denim vest over it and a toboggan and j.lo type glasses. And the bums are very courteous. Which is good because no one like a rude bum. This really seems like a place where sam would fit in perfectly.
Yeah, I walked around talking pictures like crazy today. That was all I had the strength to do. I was going to walk around town tonight, but it’s a bit scary by myself. So I went about a block and just turned around.
Well I’ve succeeded in getting my crushed moon pie all over me. So I’m going to shut this down (my converters work!) and shower and sleep.
Tomorrow it’s off to vondelpark to see the rijksmuseum and the van gogh museum.
Take care.
11.0 pm (my time)
okay so the name of the game is fast showering. the rules: no shower curtains. that’s right. we have no shower curtains. there are dividers, but that’s about it. not quite sure what that’s all about. especially since we’re in a coed dorm. I asked some Hungarians (because I thought, well maybe since school hasn’t started, you know? running behind, that sort of thing) and they said they never have them. so i think i’m going to try and rig up some sort of towel-curtain. we’ll see, but it’s a bit discomforting.
anyway, my second day in Amsterdam:
i got up and took the tram to the museum area where i visited the rijksmusem and the van gogh. the rijks was huge, but i think i preferred the van gogh. i like his are better. like he’ll pain a wooden table, but include blues and greens and stuff. i just really think it’s great. ESPECIALLY the oil painting. they’re simply magnificent. i didn’t feel too great that day, but i managed to find a mcdonalds and eat a bit. much to my dismay it was not called a “royale with cheese”. but i think perhaps he said it was called that in france. we’ll see about that. then, i walked over to vondelpark. it was nice. there’s kind of a small lake running through the middle of it with many people laying around it. no frisbee though. soon though. i hope. then i took a tram back to centraal station and bought a train ticket to Brussels for the next day. after this i slept until dinner.(i’ve been needing to take these 2-3 hr naps during the day). the hostel offers a free dinner and on the menu was macaroni, so i said i’d take that. they asked if i wanted cheese or not and i was like, “DUH” (i didn’t actually say “duh”). anyway, it turned out to be goulash. then i thought i would try and find my way to the proverbial “red light district”. (i couldn’t go to Amsterdam and NOT be able to say i’d seen it.) i eventually found it, due to the numerous red lights. (i cant say i ever felt “threatened” in Amsterdam, but there certainly were enough creepy people to keep me on my toes.) so sure enough, there were all the glass doors with women (i can only assume prostitutes) wearing underwear or something (not naked) just standing there. i was afraid to look for fear of eye contact. but it was all taking place along a canal (and connecting alleys) and it was like a big party and everyone was just out and about. most people, it seems, were just out to observe. so i made my way through the main canal and headed back. i went to sleep and set my alarm for early.
my third day in Bruxelles (Brussels):
i met some irish guys at the hostel. they were funny guys. i had just about as much trouble understanding them as i did anyone else. seriously. i was sort of embarrassed by the fact that i couldn’t understand my own language, but it was so slurred together. quite impressive actually. they referred to me as Tennessee. they were loud and violent with each other. funny stuff. anyway . . .
i left at 6 for the train to Brussels. it was a good train ride. a much smoother ride than i envisioned. i got to see some of the country side which was sort of interesting. each section of land was marked off with a small moat of sorts. i’m not sure why. maybe to keep animals in a certain part. someone should let these guys in on the secret of fences. i knew nothing about Brussels when i went, so my visit started off a bit slow. in fact, i experienced my first bout of cultural shock here. i was walking around looking at stuff when i got hungry. i hadn’t really been hungry on this trip yet so i this seemed like a good thing. the only problem was that i couldn’t find a place to eat. everything seemed to be closed and as far as i could tell the city seemed to go on as far as the eye could see in every direction. and i was running into more and more people who lacked knowledge of the English language. i finally made my way to a large food and shop area and it was fine from there. actually, i ate this chocolate, flaky, square biscuit looking thing with vanilla pudding/crème in the middle. it was awesome. i mean really good. and this was at centraal station, so if this was the airport food, i’d have loved to have seen the real stuff. (but i didn’t) i was tired from my aimless wandering, so i hopped on a tour bus with an open 2nd story on it and toured the city! it was fun. i never would’ve seen anything had i not. i photographed everything so everyone can just see those rather than me typing up thousands of words. but i will say that the architecture there truly was beautiful. so many remarkable buildings. apparently there was a worlds fair there at some point and the Belgians built this HUGE model of a 9 point crystal atom. i stands at 102m high! it’s freaking enormous like something out of a science fiction movie. finally, i rode the bus back to central station to arrive just in time for my train back to Amsterdam. i was ready to go back too. back to my home in Amsterdam.
the following morning...
i had to get up at 4:15 to make my train and flight. first the guy at the front desk woke me up 20min late (they told us not to use alarms because it would wake everyone else. i set my watch alarm but didn’t hear it. so was running to get out of there and catch the metro (subway), but the metro was not going to be open until 8.0 according to the closest bum. so i frantically searched for a taxi. luckily, i got one and made my train. security went through my stuff at the airport, but i don’t think it was personal. i think it’s just because my shirt (which i had worn the night before as i walked through town) smelled like wacky-tobbacky.
i was thanking God that gabor and his wife were at the airport to pick me up. man that made it easier.
and that’s all she wrote . . . or is it?
(it is.)
Well I’m writing this on my computer sitting on my bed in the hostel. For some reason, the internet in the lobby won let me go to blogger.com. so the date on this entry will be a bit off.
What a trip. I’m so tired. Every movement just drains me. (and I’m on the third floor). At the Nashville airport I was doing everything I could not to just bust out crying. Only by sheer mental power did I make it till the end. But as soon as I hugged my dad it was over. And then I didn’t know if I was going to be able to let go of jesse. I still don’t know how I did.
The flights were great. I got to sit by myself on BOTH of them. Which wasn’t a huge deal going to Detroit, but made an enormous difference on the 7hr flight to Amsterdam. AND since I flew on a brand new plane, there were TVs in the headrests! I got to watch matrix 2 like twice (well I watched the cool parts multiple times. AND it was like a DVD. I could pause, fast forward, or rewind at any time. That was great. However, I didn’t sleep at all, which didn’t make sense to me since I have slept in much more uncomfortable places than that. But no sleep (man this seems like several days ago. I’m so freakin tired.). it’s like my night time was taken away from me. And since I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before I left, I’m really running on fumes.(oh yeah, the Detroit airport was awesome. It had a raised monorail thing. Looked really cool) And I haven’t eaten much at all today. I had some breakfast (at 2 am home time) and then I just couldn’t eat. The thought of food makes me wanna throw up, but I managed to eat a ham sandwich this afternoon (I am 7hrs ahead of Mt. Juliet and 6 ahead of ktown (in case you didn’t know)). The guy in the deli I bought it from was so nice. Probably in his late 20s and just as nice as could be. Then I decided to sleep through dinner because I wasn’t hungry anyway. Now I’m trying to make myself eat a moon pie so that I can take a vitamin.
I did NOT pack efficiently for this part of the trip. I had to drag those heavy, huge-ass bags so freaking far and up and down so many steps. I also felt stupid carrying twice as much luggage as everyone else. (you gotta love wandering half aimlessly with two cumbersome bags) But I’m not on vacation. Buttheads.
This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I mean, I’ve seen pictures, but they might as well be fake until you see it in person. There are bikes EVERYWHERE. Which is not surprising since the streets are maybe 10ft wide for cars. And the thing is, is that all of the bikes look like something straight out of the Bicycle Thieves.They are all old European looking bikes. There isn’t a new looking one or mountain bike in the whole lot of them. They all have little curvy handle bars with baskets and crap. Crazy dutch. But there are so many great posters and signs that would line the walls in jesse and sams place perfectly. I guess they just look so neat because we don’t have them. Nothing at home is like it is here, except the people (generally). They look just like Americans, but you just never know what language is going to come out of their mouth and how well they’ll speak it. However, there are the ones here who dress all weird euro like too. Especially girls. I saw one on the subway who was wearing a small plastic garbage can as a back pack. And then I saw this guy wearing a sweater with a denim vest over it and a toboggan and j.lo type glasses. And the bums are very courteous. Which is good because no one like a rude bum. This really seems like a place where sam would fit in perfectly.
Yeah, I walked around talking pictures like crazy today. That was all I had the strength to do. I was going to walk around town tonight, but it’s a bit scary by myself. So I went about a block and just turned around.
Well I’ve succeeded in getting my crushed moon pie all over me. So I’m going to shut this down (my converters work!) and shower and sleep.
Tomorrow it’s off to vondelpark to see the rijksmuseum and the van gogh museum.
Take care.
11.0 pm (my time)
okay so the name of the game is fast showering. the rules: no shower curtains. that’s right. we have no shower curtains. there are dividers, but that’s about it. not quite sure what that’s all about. especially since we’re in a coed dorm. I asked some Hungarians (because I thought, well maybe since school hasn’t started, you know? running behind, that sort of thing) and they said they never have them. so i think i’m going to try and rig up some sort of towel-curtain. we’ll see, but it’s a bit discomforting.
anyway, my second day in Amsterdam:
i got up and took the tram to the museum area where i visited the rijksmusem and the van gogh. the rijks was huge, but i think i preferred the van gogh. i like his are better. like he’ll pain a wooden table, but include blues and greens and stuff. i just really think it’s great. ESPECIALLY the oil painting. they’re simply magnificent. i didn’t feel too great that day, but i managed to find a mcdonalds and eat a bit. much to my dismay it was not called a “royale with cheese”. but i think perhaps he said it was called that in france. we’ll see about that. then, i walked over to vondelpark. it was nice. there’s kind of a small lake running through the middle of it with many people laying around it. no frisbee though. soon though. i hope. then i took a tram back to centraal station and bought a train ticket to Brussels for the next day. after this i slept until dinner.(i’ve been needing to take these 2-3 hr naps during the day). the hostel offers a free dinner and on the menu was macaroni, so i said i’d take that. they asked if i wanted cheese or not and i was like, “DUH” (i didn’t actually say “duh”). anyway, it turned out to be goulash. then i thought i would try and find my way to the proverbial “red light district”. (i couldn’t go to Amsterdam and NOT be able to say i’d seen it.) i eventually found it, due to the numerous red lights. (i cant say i ever felt “threatened” in Amsterdam, but there certainly were enough creepy people to keep me on my toes.) so sure enough, there were all the glass doors with women (i can only assume prostitutes) wearing underwear or something (not naked) just standing there. i was afraid to look for fear of eye contact. but it was all taking place along a canal (and connecting alleys) and it was like a big party and everyone was just out and about. most people, it seems, were just out to observe. so i made my way through the main canal and headed back. i went to sleep and set my alarm for early.
my third day in Bruxelles (Brussels):
i met some irish guys at the hostel. they were funny guys. i had just about as much trouble understanding them as i did anyone else. seriously. i was sort of embarrassed by the fact that i couldn’t understand my own language, but it was so slurred together. quite impressive actually. they referred to me as Tennessee. they were loud and violent with each other. funny stuff. anyway . . .
i left at 6 for the train to Brussels. it was a good train ride. a much smoother ride than i envisioned. i got to see some of the country side which was sort of interesting. each section of land was marked off with a small moat of sorts. i’m not sure why. maybe to keep animals in a certain part. someone should let these guys in on the secret of fences. i knew nothing about Brussels when i went, so my visit started off a bit slow. in fact, i experienced my first bout of cultural shock here. i was walking around looking at stuff when i got hungry. i hadn’t really been hungry on this trip yet so i this seemed like a good thing. the only problem was that i couldn’t find a place to eat. everything seemed to be closed and as far as i could tell the city seemed to go on as far as the eye could see in every direction. and i was running into more and more people who lacked knowledge of the English language. i finally made my way to a large food and shop area and it was fine from there. actually, i ate this chocolate, flaky, square biscuit looking thing with vanilla pudding/crème in the middle. it was awesome. i mean really good. and this was at centraal station, so if this was the airport food, i’d have loved to have seen the real stuff. (but i didn’t) i was tired from my aimless wandering, so i hopped on a tour bus with an open 2nd story on it and toured the city! it was fun. i never would’ve seen anything had i not. i photographed everything so everyone can just see those rather than me typing up thousands of words. but i will say that the architecture there truly was beautiful. so many remarkable buildings. apparently there was a worlds fair there at some point and the Belgians built this HUGE model of a 9 point crystal atom. i stands at 102m high! it’s freaking enormous like something out of a science fiction movie. finally, i rode the bus back to central station to arrive just in time for my train back to Amsterdam. i was ready to go back too. back to my home in Amsterdam.
the following morning...
i had to get up at 4:15 to make my train and flight. first the guy at the front desk woke me up 20min late (they told us not to use alarms because it would wake everyone else. i set my watch alarm but didn’t hear it. so was running to get out of there and catch the metro (subway), but the metro was not going to be open until 8.0 according to the closest bum. so i frantically searched for a taxi. luckily, i got one and made my train. security went through my stuff at the airport, but i don’t think it was personal. i think it’s just because my shirt (which i had worn the night before as i walked through town) smelled like wacky-tobbacky.
i was thanking God that gabor and his wife were at the airport to pick me up. man that made it easier.
and that’s all she wrote . . . or is it?
(it is.)
15 September 2003
right, so blogger erased my earlier writing episode, so i'll try and recant...
well my search for engineering classes is going less than desirably. i'm still trying to figure it out. i went to 2 classes that i thought might work, but i was completely lost. plan b starts tomorrow. (and right after this i have to figure out what plan b actually is.) oh and there wer no hungarians in my classes. only these guys from cyprus.
YESTERDAY
me and 6 other travelled to slovakia via train for about $2.75 (round trip). how awesome is that. it was just a day trip so that one fo the guys could get his passport stamped to prove that he entered hungary (a minor technicality), so we all went with him because it was a trip to slovakia for less than $3. it turns out that it's even cheaper than hungary! (oh and the train ride was 2 hrs) it also turns out that catholic countries shut down after about 3pm on sundays because this place was dead. it was a bit creepy. there were hardly any people walking around in this quaint little city (kamaron) on the border. so it was a bit difficult to find food. eventually we found this little gazebo type bar/sandwich shop. so we sat and ate sandwhiches and drank some strawberry drinks that were out of this world. then my soon-to-be roommate, yudai, suggested we try the Absinth. it you dont know what absinth is, it's a compilation of herbs and alcohol and is illegal in most countries (possibly due to its hallucinogenic characteristics). oh, and it's 50% proof. none of this i knew beforehand. so up ordering it, the lady gives me 2 small spoons, some sugar packets, and a box of matches (along with 2 shots of the green liquor). obviously i wasnt going to be able to fake knowing what to do with these items so i asked for assistance. she took the spoon full of sugar, soaked it in absinth, then lit it on fire. pretty cool i thought. once it stopped burning, she mixed it with the drink and they were ready for drinking. so yudai drinks his first with a bit of a stunned look on his face (he also knew what we were getting into). so i thought oh well, it cant be worse than the unicum. well i was right and wrong. it tasted great until it hit my throat. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, Absinth is slovakian for "LIQUID FIRE". holy crap. that stuff burned all the way down to my stomach for about 5 min. i mean, this stuff was serious. after putting my eyes back into their sockets, we headed back to the train station. i cant say i hallucinated, but had i had more than one, well theres really no telling. we eventually caught the train back to budapest and by a miracle, we came out of the subway station right next to KFC. my friend john and i have been trying to make our way to a KFC for the past week because they have a deal for 2 chicken sandwiches (good ones) and a small fry for 499 Ft (which is about $2.25). it was everything i could have hoped for. so we headed back home happy.
unfortunately, the newly arrived hungarian students were also getting happy in our dorm with a highly alcoholic and loud party. right across the hall from me. and these guys were wasted. i met these 2 hungarian guys, walked around teh corner for no more than 30 seconds, walked back and ended up introducing myself to them for the first time again. yikes. the crazy part was that the party ended at 11.5. i came back to my room at 12 (i figured it was no use trying to sleep so i left) and everyone was gone. all opf the beer and crap was still all over the hall but everyone had vanished. i guess they know the value of a tight schedule. or something.
anyway, here i am today and i dont know how classes will turn out, but i'm sure i'll be okay.
take care everyone. and dont forget, if you get a chance to try absinth, it's always best to.
well my search for engineering classes is going less than desirably. i'm still trying to figure it out. i went to 2 classes that i thought might work, but i was completely lost. plan b starts tomorrow. (and right after this i have to figure out what plan b actually is.) oh and there wer no hungarians in my classes. only these guys from cyprus.
YESTERDAY
me and 6 other travelled to slovakia via train for about $2.75 (round trip). how awesome is that. it was just a day trip so that one fo the guys could get his passport stamped to prove that he entered hungary (a minor technicality), so we all went with him because it was a trip to slovakia for less than $3. it turns out that it's even cheaper than hungary! (oh and the train ride was 2 hrs) it also turns out that catholic countries shut down after about 3pm on sundays because this place was dead. it was a bit creepy. there were hardly any people walking around in this quaint little city (kamaron) on the border. so it was a bit difficult to find food. eventually we found this little gazebo type bar/sandwich shop. so we sat and ate sandwhiches and drank some strawberry drinks that were out of this world. then my soon-to-be roommate, yudai, suggested we try the Absinth. it you dont know what absinth is, it's a compilation of herbs and alcohol and is illegal in most countries (possibly due to its hallucinogenic characteristics). oh, and it's 50% proof. none of this i knew beforehand. so up ordering it, the lady gives me 2 small spoons, some sugar packets, and a box of matches (along with 2 shots of the green liquor). obviously i wasnt going to be able to fake knowing what to do with these items so i asked for assistance. she took the spoon full of sugar, soaked it in absinth, then lit it on fire. pretty cool i thought. once it stopped burning, she mixed it with the drink and they were ready for drinking. so yudai drinks his first with a bit of a stunned look on his face (he also knew what we were getting into). so i thought oh well, it cant be worse than the unicum. well i was right and wrong. it tasted great until it hit my throat. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, Absinth is slovakian for "LIQUID FIRE". holy crap. that stuff burned all the way down to my stomach for about 5 min. i mean, this stuff was serious. after putting my eyes back into their sockets, we headed back to the train station. i cant say i hallucinated, but had i had more than one, well theres really no telling. we eventually caught the train back to budapest and by a miracle, we came out of the subway station right next to KFC. my friend john and i have been trying to make our way to a KFC for the past week because they have a deal for 2 chicken sandwiches (good ones) and a small fry for 499 Ft (which is about $2.25). it was everything i could have hoped for. so we headed back home happy.
unfortunately, the newly arrived hungarian students were also getting happy in our dorm with a highly alcoholic and loud party. right across the hall from me. and these guys were wasted. i met these 2 hungarian guys, walked around teh corner for no more than 30 seconds, walked back and ended up introducing myself to them for the first time again. yikes. the crazy part was that the party ended at 11.5. i came back to my room at 12 (i figured it was no use trying to sleep so i left) and everyone was gone. all opf the beer and crap was still all over the hall but everyone had vanished. i guess they know the value of a tight schedule. or something.
anyway, here i am today and i dont know how classes will turn out, but i'm sure i'll be okay.
take care everyone. and dont forget, if you get a chance to try absinth, it's always best to.
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