I've finally succumbed to the perhaps inevitable fall cold. My roommate has been under the weather for several days, and I didn't exactly treat my body well this past weekend, so it's no shocker. I'm hoping that sleep + rooibos will fix me up in a day or two, but one of those two is substantially harder than the other.

Teaching is a drag! I can't say how much I'm looking forward to being home for almost a month, but it is quite a bit. Things that have happened in class recently:

- A girl (who always does this, btw) was saying something in Hungarian while I was writing on the board... When I said, "Speak English!" she stopped talking altogether. I turned and asked her to repeat what she said, and she replied, "I'm sorry, I've already forgotten."

- I cut my hair last week. In class I was doing reported speech*, so I asked one of my students to say something... He got flustered for a minute and then came out with "I like short-haired women." That is not appropriate! The next class he started asking about my dietary concerns and then followed that with the whopper, "How do you maintain your figure?" I could give him the benefit of the doubt, saying that he might not realize quite how offensive it is, but to be honest I'm not at all inclined to.

- Speaking of the same class, the students hate/don't understand the material but I'm not sure I'm allowed to teach them something other than business English. It's also a shitty long commute.

Time for bed. Goodnight, twenty-two!


* e.g., "John said that he would gladly pay any price you might demand for these delicious bananas."

I ran errands this morning, which involved filling out paperwork and rustling up cash (returning books, selling books,etc.) I now have miraculously increased my pocket money tenfold!

The paperwork is ridiculous -- my language schools aren't so bad, but one class I teach is actually contracted from another school (this state of affairs in and of itself no doubt is the result of some condition outside the understanding of any human in my immediate contact circle). The paperwork would be enough to ballast an ocean liner. Almost all of it is filled out in duplicate or triplicate (yes, there was a form they needed *three* official copies of!), which in my mind is useful only insofar as it provides an opportunity to teach the phrase "in triplicate." Finally, for whatever reason, the material I actually teach is different from the official material, so to fill out what I "teach" every month, I copy it off an official syllabus. I taught Oscar Wilde the entire month of October.

Oh, paperwork!

[would that be the ablative case in Latin?]

Happy October 23rd! Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the Hungarian anti-Soviet uprising and the 20th anniversary of the transition to capitalism or "the Changes," as they are called here. Fortunately, the streets seemed mercifully free of protests, although who knows what it will be like later in the evening. In years passed, the streets have been flooded with rioters, riot police, dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets, and even the stray Soviet tank...

In June I bought a bike. Although I perhaps could have better chosen the bike itself, I have yet to regret the purchase on principle. Biking is so liberating! I love flying through the streets, biking down tram lines, and selecting which laws to follow (am I a car? Or a pedestrian?). It is as close as I will ever come to having my own steed.

The one problem is that my bike is incredibly hard to pedal. I was reluctant to blame my own out-of-shapeness (for once, I'm exercising regularly and not feeling bad about my body), so instead I assumed it was some problem with the gears. This is not imagined: owing to a wiring problem, I can only make use of one of the three back gears. So, that's certainly a contributing factor. Today, however, I noticed something more relevant: my tires were incredibly flat. Pedaling with them was like trying to bike with sandbags.

I tried to pump them up at a near-by gas station, but had one of my typically paralyzing moments of indecision. I took off the cap and tried to put the nozzle on, but I couldn't figure out how to work it, so instead I changed my mind and decided to go home and do it later. But when I was trying to put the cap back on I inadvertently let out most of the air in my front tire. Thus I went from having a challenging but serviceable vehicle to a waste of space that is also difficult to carry around. Hopefully my roommates have a pump.

Seen in Budapest

1. The gay pride parade.

2. New on Kiraly utca.

3. "We aren't extinct"

Today I was sitting on Margarit Island, reading a book next to my (closed) watercolor pad. A Hungarian guy rode up and asked what I was painting. It was awful, so I didn't let him see it, but he still came by and sat down beside me, chatting away in mostly incomprehensible Hungarian. He had me take my shoes up and offered a foot massage. I declined. He mentioned several times how long my feet are. We tried to talk about some other things. He asked again if I wanted a foot massage. I declined adamantly in English. "Dirty?" he asked. "Yes, dirty." Then he said goodbye and left.

Thinking about it later, I worried whether my refusal of an anonymous foot massage somehow represented the depths to which humanity has fallen, our mutual mistrust of well-meaning strangers and random acts of kindness. Then again, I'm PMSing today and I didn't want my feet touched.

I am running around like a crazy person!

One reason is that Monday marked the start of my first German class. It was so funny to me how predictably I was overtaken by the familiar feelings of dread associated with starting schools. I became withdrawn; I read my book in a cafe instead of hanging around Goethe, to avoid running into students. I read until the very start of class to calm my nerves. I was nervous about the other students; I wondered if they would like me or not, or if they would be interesting.

They are! I think it will be good, although my brain felt like it had been pureed afterwards.

Hey!

Sorry I've been so remiss about writing -- I can't believe there's been nothing but radio silence since I moved in. Thus, I present MY SUMMER in bullet points:

- Took two out of seven math exams. Goodbye, masters!
- Found a new apartment
- Was homeless for a month
- Made $75 a week while looking for jobs
- Got rejected from some jobs
- Got some new private students
- Painted and drew
- Watched Star Trek: Voyager Season 1
- Read many books
- Visited Lake Balaton and Krakow
- Saw a really good friend from ASIJ(!!!)
- Hung out in Slovakia with my mom
- Saw BC '08 (!!!)

I despaired somewhat when it was 100 degrees and I could seem to find a job and I hadn't seen people other than my roommates and my students for almost a week, but now that September has rolled around, things are really picking up. I finally got a job with some language schools; I bit the bullet and went to a Polyglot Club meeting, where I met a guy who's now employing me part-time; I became part of a drawing club; we're going to start a philosophy circle; and I'm going to start learning German next week! For the first time in a while I feel like I'm going somewhere, rather than circling in a holding pattern.

More soon!

I managed to find batteries, and to cough up for them, so now I have some photos of my new apartment. This is my room, complete with inherited printer and desk lamp. Thanks, Sarah!



This is the view from my window. I have spent more time than I should trying to draw this building.






This is my herb garden! Since I have no pets and no children, all my maternal instincts are necessarily channeled into these five plants. Look at the new growth at the top! You can't tell, but the mint is putting out new shoots as well. Unlike most people in Budapest, they love the hundred degree weather (not an exaggeration, by the way).



Finally, Szabadság hid and the Duna, as seen from my window. "Szabadság" translates to "Freedom." For all that Americans talk about how much we love freedom, the Hungarians really go all out and name everything after it. Budapest has a Freedom bridge and a Freedom Square (where, appropriately, one can find the US Embassy). Considering that Hungary was more or less ruled continuously by a foreign power for four hundred years, one has to ask oneself who this "freedom" is from. But then again, nonspecific freedom is a cause everyone can get behind. Wooo!