September 24, 2011

New Comment on The Odd One Out

...and then Jack Kerouac left a new comment on my previous post.
Thanks Jack. I reckon you pretty much get me.


September 22, 2011

the odd one out



so this week i realized  again how
  • weird
  • introverted
  • antisocial
  • screwed up i am.
but to be honest, i don't really mind.
(the biggest problem is probably the not minding part.)

 i also realized that
  • i am unable to talk about myself.
  • or properly communicate in general.
  • i never let people close to me or i (unintentionally) push them away so i don't get too attached.
  • by the time i develop some sort of an interest in a person and i become eager to get to know them, they lose all interest in me.
  • i always yearn after people who don't give the slightest damn about me.
  • i don't belong to anyone or anywhere, may it be a group or a person.
  • but the truth is, that i don't want to belong at all.
cause you know, 
"I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." (Woody Allen)

plus, i don't like to follow. or belong.
so maybe, maybe, john donne wasn't so right when he said that no man is an island. this person here, behind the keyboard likes to think of herself as an island. 

cause you know,
"I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island."
  (Simon and Garfunkel)

...and on that note, the special edition of doctor phil  is over.
now let us listen to a brilliant song by eddie vedder, just so we feel a little more lonely enjoy a little more our solitude.


September 18, 2011

This Week...

...life has been turning back into normal, and I am slowly trying to settle into a daily routine. Apparently a whole lot of people have a sudden urge to learn a foreign language as school  year starts, they come flowing into our language school, filling not only our classrooms but my timetable too. Good for me.:)

The dorm has also filled up with life, there's most certainly a crowd and business now as people have moved back into their rooms,  public spirit and hiving have risen up and gone back into normal  after two months of emptiness and quiet in our dining room/lounge.
I'm also trying to enjoy the last warm days of summer (or is it indian summer already?), making the most of going out and walking the streets of the city until chilly winds and pouring rain chases me indoors.

In the spirit of seizing the day and having fun, this week we brought out the Never ending-and-ever-so-growing list we have with Zsö which is a sort of bucket list, containing a few places we want to visit, a few things we want to do, and a few things we would like to experience.




This week we managed to cross off two items from the list. Yay! The first was visiting and looking around at Római part. It was most certainly worth going, in fact, we should have already gone there a long time ago. The place has a completely different atmosphere than that of the river bank in downtown. There is a stoney beach where one can lie around, sunbath and enjoy a perfect summer day, there are children playing in the water or collecting shells, people walking their dogs and enjoying the view. It doesn't feel like Budapest at all.

This week I also watched the summer slowly fading into autumn, leaves losing their bright greenness and turning into colorful yellows and reds,








...while Zsö played with her set of pavement chalks on the concrete football pitch of our dorm.




I also shot some nice portraits, cause you know, it's all about people when it comes to photography.



Then on Thursday evening we crossed another item off of our list: we went to Jamie Winchester's concert, held on the square behind Corvin shopping mall. 






On Friday afternoon, on my way home to Miskolc, I had some time to fiddle at the railway station. Naturally, I got my camera out and started playing around with it. This time I was brave and went close enough to take a couple of photos of the grandpas forever playing chess right in front of platforms 7 and 8. Did you know that you can play a round of chess with them while waiting for your train? Obviously, as they provide entertainment, you have to pay a certain amount of money to them. Nevertheless, they make the station special, without a doubt.







I could not sit still on my butt at the weekend either, so I went through and through the streets of Miskolc. I bought a pair of nice blue sneakers. They will go perfectly with the thousand different shades of fallen leaves.:)




I also wandered back into the library, browsed their stacks for half an hour, then came out with the following books:




Yep, I started learning Norwegian. But that's really the topic of another post.:)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I Give You

...the belated but absolutely FUNtastic photos of the funfair at my Grandma's from a week ago. (Better late than never should be the official motto of my life, huh?)

Funfairs are one of my favorite themes to take photos of. I think there's something extremely special about the atmosphere of Hungarian búcsú-s, starting with the venders selling lollipops, cotton - and god only knows how many other kinds of candies, long rows of booths filled with absolutely useless toys, children throwing tantrums for not getting their seven hundredth Barbie doll or Matchbox car, mommies wiping tears and cotton candy off of the face of their beloved offsprings, daddies trying to survive the day with a pint of beer in hand, grandmas idyllicly gossiping on a bench in the shelter of shady trees, while colorful balloons are filling the blue sky. 

Right next to the fair the travelling gypsy dynasty has taken over the square with their worn-down caravans and ever so colorful and kitschy props of marry-go-rounds, shooting-gallery, dodgem, and dragon-ridden rollercoaster.  Poor old ponies are walking around in endless circles all day long, mutt alsatians are trying to get out of their hutch, while beautiful but tacky gypsy girls are dreaming of rich husbands and a little less romantic life. 

The hours of fun fly by quickly, and all of a sudden the sun starts fading away with tickling rays on round cheecks, the hullabaloo is slowly dissolving as families find their way home, venders are packing back their precious goods into brown banana boxes, the gypsy dynasty is shaking the dust from their feet, already looking for their next gig. Then the following morning the only things reminding us of one last day spent frolicing are the piles of stinky turk in the sallowing, downstrodden grass and the chilly new season brought by the coming wind. 


September 11, 2011

Books of the Summer


I had planned to write this post about ten days ago, but then my unstable rooming situation got in the way. Still, it's better late than never, isn't it? So here's the list of books I have managed to read in July and August. As always, it is rather different from what I had planned to do, and nearly not as many as I should have or could have done. 
  • This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (Book # 30 this year) 
  • The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (#31)
  • About a Boy by Nick Hornby (#32)
  • Robert Capa Kalandos Élete by Richard Whelan (#33)
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (#34)
  • Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger (#35)
  • Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (#36)
  • Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert (#37)
  • A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (#38)
  • Looking for Alaska by John Green (#39)
  • Úrilányok Erdélyben by Ugron Zsolna (#40)
Currently Reading
  • Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin (I've been struggling with this for over a month. Go figure.)
  • As Always, Julia: Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto (yep, still, it's been completeley neglected in the past few months)
  • Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction J.D. Salinger
My To Be Read pile (All volumes are checked out from various libraries and I should read them by the end of September. I highly doubt I will be able to complete that mission.)
  • Az ajtó by Szabó Magda
  • Kissé elmosódva by Robert Capa
  • Közel Afrikához by Lángh Júlia
  • Vissza Afrikába by Lángh Júlia
  • Puszibolt by Cserna-Szabó András
  • Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki
  • Men from the Boy by Tony Parsons
  • Együtt lehetnénk by Anna Gavalda
  • Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
  • Story of My Life by Jay McInerney
  • The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
Plus Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and a Cortazar volume are also on the list somewhere, both borrowed from Zsö. 

I will never ever run out of books to read, that's for sure.

September 10, 2011

Treasure in the Cellar

As you can assume from the previous posts, I am home for the weekend, and I am spending today and tomorrow at my Grandma's. The weather has been getting a teeny bit chilly in this kneck of the woods, right now I am sipping a cup of marvellous Milford's Schneewalzer tea (it's called Hópelyhek tánca in Hungarian, isn't that simply splendid?) and wearing a pair of SOCKS. God only knows when was the last time I actually wore a pair of socks on my most certainly actual feet. It must have been some time around May. Or June, maybe?  Naaaay, it couldn't have been June, cause that month was hot as hell. Anyhow, I am almost cold, and I love the feeling of being almost cold. The sun has also completely gone A.W.O.L. today, nevertheless, I am having fun, enjoying the company of my darling Grandma and, mostly, playing with my camera and taking tons of photos of silly little nothings. (Then I upload them to my computer, take a closer look at them, and realize that I have taken a bunch of crappy photos again, and delete most of them.)

Most of the time I play the game of wandering around in and around the house, drifting from kisház to hosszúház, from shed to lathe, from ganary to pantry, from garage to cellar, from garden to courtyard*. I am looking for the tiny details I haven't discovered in the previous 24 (and a half) years, long-lost memories, stuff that has been lying around forever but needs to be rediscovered. Every now and then I do get lucky, and find some real treasure here and there. Today I wandered down to the cellar which has been used as a carpenter's workshop by my uncle, but we also store there various odds and ends. This time I rediscovered my grandma's old Singer sewing machine, or rather the desk that came with it and its beautiful wrought iron legs. The sewing machine itself has been long gone, but the desk has been around as long I can remember. But I never really payed attention to that fine wrought iron work. Such a shame it has been abandoned and corroding. It would make a perfect desk for me. It only needs a little bit of furbishing and a coat of paint, and it would be as good as new. I should get on the project, especially since my grandma is more than happy to give it to me, but I can't store it anywhere. Such a shame, such a shame.
I also found an old bottle with the label Rákóczi vodka on it, it was bottled in May, 1989. I never thought there has ever existed such a thing as Rákóczi vodka. It must have been real quality spirit.:)

Here's an assortment of photos from today. Enjoy! 













If all goes well, tomorrow I am going to see the búcsú, let's hope there will be at least a bit of sunshine, so I will be able to take nice & bright photos.

(*Is there a better word for udvar in English than courtyard? It is obviously AmE, but is there a BrE equivalent? I know there's the word garden, which in BrE we use not only in the sense of "the place where you grow vegetables and fruits" but in udvar sense too. However, what if I want to differenciate between udvar and kert? What words should I use then? I reckon they don't have two different words for the two areas/places. Unlike Hungarians, the English probably did not need to invent two different words for them, since agriculturally and socially Britain developed quite differently from Hungary.)

The Glorious Moment When...

...for the first time in her life, your 69 year old Grandma Classic, The Country Edition, is sitting in front of a laptop and skyping with her son living literally a 1000 miles* away, in Oslo, Norway. These are the moments that are most certainly worth living for.


* The distance between Oslo and Miskolc is only 930 miles, so maybe not so literally.

Nagyi, az ezermester

Anya: Minek ez a fúró itt, Édesanyám?
Nagyi: Gyerekem, hát én azzal fúrok mindenfele!
UPDATE
A kérdéses fúró:

September 8, 2011

The Dog Days Are Over (Again)

source

In case you were wondering, I am back in Budapest, safe and sound, and not so homeless after all. Lucky me, I managed to find some sort of an accomodation in the dorm, let us call it health-room-turned-into-spare-room-for-those-broke-and-homeless. It does come with a proper bed, room for my stuff (well, a part of my stuff), internet connection, and a likewise-homeless room mate (and a door and a ceiling), which are kind of more than what I had expected. If nothing gets screwed up (fingers crossed), I can stay in this room until I will be taken back as a permanent resident at the very end of the month or in early October. Obviously, the sitation is not ideal, still, it's much much better than what I had anticipated, and I am perfectly satisfied with my temporary rooming. 

Things are also getting better at the language school, I have recently got a few new students to teach, the number of lessons I give a week is slowly growing and returning back to the more or less normal 10-12. As I have plenty of freetime on my hands, I would love to work more (never thought I would ever say that) and give at least 15-20 lessons per week, it would be absolutely ideal moneywise, but I don't think there is a very fat chance of that. So sooner or later, once I am a bit more settled in, and manage to maintain at least a sort-of-daily-routine, I will have to start looking for another job, probably at another langauge school. (Or maybe journalism? But I don't think I could squeeze any money out of it as a beginner/intern.) 

Anyway, the point is that I am glad I decided to stick it out here and did not run back home because of my cowardice. Apparently, being brave and taking risks do pay off, and if you really want something to work, you can make it work. You just have to toughen up a little, and pull a few strings here and there. 

I know I should not start counting my chickens until they are hatched, yet, I feel I can stop worrying now, because things are actually settling back into normal. Those liberating feelings of independence and freedom are slowly taking me over, and I am realizing that being an adult may not be so awful after all. I guess it's high time I actually started enjoying the first days of autumn. Anyhow, I have a grandma to visit, a búcsú to attend, and a million fascinating photos to take at the weekend, so let the good times roll again!

September 2, 2011

Welcome Back, Dear Autumn!


I have been looking forward to this time of the year for so long. I'm so glad you are back, but please please please be kind to me. I really need to survive you somehow, especially your first child September, you know, being homeless and all. It's so weird that I am not going back to school this year (or anymore) and there is no need to buy new stationeries.. Still,  I love you with all your colors and shades and crunchy leaves under my feet. I'm going to take so many pretty pictures of you, I promise.
Love,
A