January Thoughts

It has been quite some time since I have updated my quasi reality show of a life. Take this for a plot, put 15 random American college students in a dormitory in Budapest who have never met each other. Give them a week to fight over aparments - then make them live together. This pretty much explains the last two weeks.

I've been ruminating about various things to post on here, as I am an amateur at this, but here's a few things I think might be interesting: (a) Irish slang (b) how I look like a Hungarian (c) the absurdity of American education and (d) the best and worst 10 of Budapest.

Since I've been studying here a whole year, I've come to know a couple of Irish students pretty well. Eric and Elaine are both pretty Irish and pretty funny. Here's just a couple of my favorite sayings:

I slagged the shit out of her - aka made fun of her
That's bollox - That sucks
Your man - used when telling a story instead of That guy/girl. Eric really confused me telling a story about when he was caddying for "my man" at some Irish golf course.
Mollycoddle - similar to babying someone (Eric's opinion of how our director takes care of us)
Fair Play - Well done
take the piss out of someone - yell at someone
shite - used for just about any purpose
give out to someone - yell at them
Deadly - Brilliant (one of Eric's favorites)

That's all for now - I'll see if I can come up with some more later.


My Hungarian look alike skills seemed to be working well today.

Eric and I were eating some delicious carrot cake on this bench at Astoria when these three American girls pretended to take a picture of a billboard next to us. Eric realized we were going to be in the picture so we did our best to make obnoxious faces in the background. The girl taking the picture gave up any notion of sneaking a picture of some cool Hungarian dudes and just took it straight on. I think this is a good sign that I've finally assimilated.

Twice more during the day I was asked for directions in Hungarian. I was tempted to point down dark alleys and nod my head adamantly, but instead I just said Nem tudom (I don't know) and the American in me was elicted.



This is a real conversation from my Economics of the EU class. The class is made up of about 10 Americans, and 20 Europeans from all over the continent.

Professor: Who was the first to propose the idea of a United States of Europe
Me: Churchill
Professor: Ah yes, Winston Churchill (walks to the back of the room and looks at an American girl) Who was Winston Churchill, do you remember who he was?
Girl from Alabama: (thinking...) ummm... I've heard of him, but I'm not sure what he did.
Class: whispered laughter

At this point I was devastated, but then us Yanks were saved when a girl (your one as the Irish would say) listed off the members of the EU without hesitation



I left Iowa 5 and half months ago, and I think I'm finally ready to detail exaclty what are the 10 worst and best things about being in another hemisphere.

Top 10 Things I miss

10) American Mt. Dew
9) Middlebury cafeteria food
8) Living in a house
7) People who fix things and speak English
6) Smoke free bars/restaurants
5) American Customer Service
4) Rural America
3) Sports on TV - English TV for that matter
2) Space
1) Peanut Butter

Top 10 I don't miss

10) Wealth
9) OC fans
8) Materialistic Society
7) Homogenous Culture
6) Ambition - Competition
5) 21 age limits
4) Rural America's lacking enterainment scene
3) Time limited Dining
2) Inadequate Public Transportation
1) Hurried Society

Just for an added bonus here's my episode trying to get tickets to Princeton University's Symphony in Budapest.

Me: Do you have any tickets?
Ticket office: Nope
Me: Our professor told us she reserved tickets for us
Lady: I don't have any tickets
Me: Is there anywhere I could find some?
Lady: Maybe try talking to the porters

Instead of that, I try to walk brazenly into the concert hall
Porters: KABOURALDJFJAK;SJ - Shouting in Hungarian
Me: Ummm, our professor told us she would have tickets, can i go talk to her?
Porter: Come with me, I'll take you to the organist
Me: (Extremely confused look)
Organist?: Are you from the embassy
Me: (Correct answer: yes) No, our professor reserved us seats
Organist: How many do you need? 1,2
Me: 6
Organist: Here's six tickets

We end up in the 4th row listening to an awesome performance

Score:
Dan 1
Mean world: 0

Ok well I'll try to write more later, write me back if you have anything interesting to say.