My New Companions

Last week I gathered two new companions that, I am sure, will become faithful and pretty close friends of mine in no time. One of them is a vintage camera: 

Isn't it the cutest camera ever? This is how it looks from sideways (*caugh*caugh*, it's a lousy photo):

One of the interesting things about this so-called MOM-Fotobox is that it was made in Hungary. Yep, believe it or not, cameras had been made in Hungary until the 1960s by Magyar Optikai Művek (MOM - this is where this advertisment comes from. Did you know it?). This particular box-camera kind was produced from 1959-1962, 20 132 Fotoboxes were made. It it thought to be of high-quality and long-lasting. One other interesting thing that it works with 120 roll film, which is different from the widely-known and mostly used, "usual" 35 mm film. If you are interested in Fotobox, you can read a detailed review here.

You can also find some more photos here.

...and my other new companion is:

It's the long-awaited Gilmore Girls companion! It finally, finally, finally arrived. It should have been delivered by March 22, and it only came 2 weeks later... I was getting seriously worried and afraid that it had been stolen and I would never get it, but in the end, it did arrived. To be honest, I haven't had much time to read it yet, I only flipped through it, it's 480 pages of background stories, interviews, photos, lots and lots of wonderful stuff... I only wish it was colored inside, and not only B&W, as all those photos would be more enjoyable. Nevertheless, I can still hardly wait to have some free time on my hands, and indulge myself in the wonderful lives of Stars Hollow residents.

Someone please please please take away my creditcard...

...cause I cannot stop online shopping and I am spending all my not-so hard-earned money on books I want and (kinda) need but have absolutely no time to read now or will have in the next 3-4 months for that matter, so they are only going to be lying around on my bookshelves getting covered with dust until at least the middle of  summer when I will be finally done with the last semester-thesis writing-state exams-defending my thesis-MA entrance exam-trying to survive and not to screw up anything and get some sleep and social life in the meantime-craziness. But at least, I have all these great books around me within hand's reach, and whenever I feel like ditching all the compulsory reading, researching, and essay writing, I can simply take one of these great books off the shelf and for a couple of hours indulge myself in those amazing worlds that hide between the lines and beneath the letters. 

Oh, by the way, when it comes to online world-wide bookshopping, you must check out abebooks! It's a great site, I think it's definitely better, easier to use, and somewhat more costumer-friendly than amazon (Not that amazon is that difficult...) (I was going to write that it is also cheaper than amazon, because you pay less for the postage, but as I just checked the shipping rates of amazon, I realized that they are pretty much the same.) I found this website back in last December (thanks to the sometimes pretty useful facebook as someone suggested it in their comment), right before I started looking for the reference books I need for my theses. And since then, god only knows how many hours have I spent browsing books (almost as much fun as going to a bookstore, except for the lack of special bookstore atmosphere, but it's more comfy and less time consuming), looking for books I have always wanted to read but could never find in the local stores, finding them for a mere $1 (yep, one American dollar), then looking for the cheapest postage (sellers have different shipping rates), then trying to convince myself of not buying it cause I don't have time to read it, but then purchasing it anyway, for there's no better way to spend your money than buying books or travelling, is there?

Anyway, my point is, that abebooks is a great market place where you can find brand new and second hand books as well, and they have pretty much every English book you can ever look for. Paperbacks, both classics and bestsellers (but a lot of hardcovers too) are as cheap as $1, which is pretty much almost free, right? Most of the booksellers are located in the US and in UK, the postage from the US usually costs at least $9, from UK it's cheaper, you can find books that will be shipped for $5-6. There are also thousands of books that have a free worldwide shipping, however, these volumes usually cost at least $4-5. That is still a pretty good deal though, right? Most of the books in the second-hand English book shops in Budapest cost at least 1000-1200HUF (unless you are really lucky and they have a clear-out sale), and you cannot find a lot of volumes that you would like.

So in the last few weeks my online bookshopping went a little out of hand, but I was like: what the heck? I work a lot these weeks, the days are hectic, and I don't have time for any other entertainment, I might as well go crazy on books. This is what I ended up buying: 

• The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath
• The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm (refence book on SP)
• Wintering: A Novel of SP by Kate Moses
• Ariel Ascending: Writings about SP by Paul Alexander
• The Gilmore Girls Companion by Berman, A. S. and Herrmann, Edward
• Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
• A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck

The first four is for the thesis, and the rest... is for fun, because I need them, I want them, I must have them on my shelf. The Gilmore Girls Companion has just come out a few months ago, it's a vast collection (500 pages!) of backstages stories, memories, photos from the cast of Gilmore Girls. It's quite everything a Gilmore Girls lover (such as me) can want, because it's pretty much the bible of our holy tv show religion. I can hardly wait for it to be delivered, I'm going to be jumping out my skin once I'll have my hands on the Companion.

Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite tv shows (it comes right after Gilmore Girls) , it's probably the best sport drama that has ever been on television. It's a must see, even if you are not a fan of American football, or sports in general for that matter, because its unique small town Texas atmosphere and the down-to-earth but brilliant characters will pull you in, and you won't be able to stop watching episode after episode. (I must the stop praising FNL right here, for I must dedicate an entire post to the show!) Anyway, the film and the tv show both are based on this book (based on true story), and I had been trying to put my hands on a copy for years.

The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius is also a book I have been trying to get for years, but I guess it's out of print, because the bookstores haven't got new copies. It's DE's memoir, it has brilliant language, coming of age/quater life panic story, huge bestseller and critical success, must read.

Anne Brashares is one of my favorite authors, or at least the author of my most favorite book series, so I feel it's my personal obligation to buy each and every novel of hers, and buy them right after publishing. (Must write an entire post about AB as well!)This is her freshest novel, they say it's somewhat familiar to The Time Traveler's Wife. Now, I am yet to read that book (too), I only saw that film which was kind of rubbish, but the novel was a world-wide bestseller and everyone says that it is wonderful.

I had been dreaming about The Mastering the Art of French Cooking ever since I first saw Julie and Julia, learnt about and kind of fell in love with Julia Child. One (main reason) of my starting baking was JC, so no wonder I am incredibly greatful for seeing the movie and learning about this great woman. When I started baking over a year ago, I promised myself to buy both volumes of TMtAoFC, but not until I moved out of the dorm and had my own kitchen to cook and bake in. Nevertheless, I have been checking the books of Julia Child in online bookshops every once in a while, and was glad to notice that a Penguin paperback edition came out of her cook book, and it is sold for about 3000HUF in Budapest too. I was thinking about buying that, but it's a rather thick book, and since it is a cook book, you are likely to use it almost on a daily basis, and not just read through it once then keep it on the shelf for the rest of your life, so it's better to have a hardcover edition and not a paperback. However, hardcovers are rather expencive, they start at about 7000 HUF, but I was lucky, and yesterday I found a copy for $15, so I decided to buy it. This is my first cook book ever. I probably should have started with the traditional Hungarian cookbook by Horváth Ilona; you know, this is the one that each and every Hungarian housewife/mother has at home - Yep, yours too, just ask your Mom! Mine used to have one as well, until her careless daughter left her precious copy in England. I probably should master the art of Hungarian cooking first, but what the heck, I want JC (and the consumer society...) to be proud of me.

By the way, there is new book out by Julia Child, it's her correspondence with Avis DeVoto. If I had not spent about $130 on books in  the past two weeks, I would buy it right now, because I adored JC's memoir, My Life in France, but I am going to pace myself somehow and wait until my birthday. One's birthday is always a great excuse to order a bunch of books. 

Oh, how I wish it was summer already, and I could read silly little great fiction while lying in the grass and feeling the sun on my skin.

Correction: Actually, I kind of enjoy doing research on SP, and figuring out the details and points of my thesis.

(If you managed to read through this bloody long post, you most certainly deserve a reward! Go, get yourself a bar of chocolate!)

And here's Gilmore Girls video to accompany the theme of this post.

The tale of the annoying cold, the tiny snow, and the comforting Gilmore Girls

I have an annoying headache, I am sleepy, exhausted, and annoyed, plus I think I am going  down with a cold. This kind of headache is usually the first symptom of my catching a cold, then comes the weakness, exhaustion, sore throat, runny nose, etc. I really, really do not want to be sick right now. But it's not like I have a choice, is it?

This is how I feel right now, and not just because of this upcoming and utterly annoying cold, but in general. You know, it's just life...

But at least (and last!), it's winter again! As a matter of fact, it just started to snow as I was getting off the train in Budapest. Then it kept falling for a couple of hours in teeny-tiny flakes. I don't think it will stick though, but hopefully there's a lot more to come in the next few days. Winter cannot be over just yet!

Although there's only a very little snow on the ground, it still cheered me up. This is pretty much how I looked like when I stepped out of the train station (despite the fact that I did not have Luke Danes on my side):

That's all folks, for now at least. I think it's time I put my pg's on, crawled under my blanket with a big cup of Tetley's strawberry tea and started a good old fashioned and incredibly comforting Gilmore Girls marathon. Hopefully that's all I need to get a little bit better.

Happy Birthday, Sylvia!

Today is the birthday of Sylvia Plath, American writer/poet. She would have turned 78 this year. 

Quite a few friends of mine know that I am a total Sylvia Plath junkie. My obsession begun  a bit more than three years ago, about the time I entered  university. Surprize, surprize, it all started with Gilmore Girls.

Most of the things I know about American culture, I learned from Gilmore Girls, for I am such a huge junkie that I look up here every allusion that is made during the dialogues (and there are quite a few of them in every episode, believe me). Plath is mentioned several times from the very beginning, for Rory is reading the Unabridged Journals in Season 1, then she is also mentioned on several other occasions. So I looked up SP (on stupid Wikipedia, where else?), then watched that pretty poor movie that is made of her life, and grew even more interested. I read The Bell Jar and the Hungarian translation of her edited journals during the first, autumn semester at the university, and it may sound corny, ridiculous, and like an utter cliche, but I was thinking at every other page that this woman is reading my mind, writing my thoughts, my feelings, my experiences, and my fears. This woman is my soul sister. I quickly realized that I wanted to write my bachelor's thesis on her. Then during the winter exam period I should have been preparing for stupid exams, but I got Letters Home from the library, which is her correspondence with her mother, and once I started it, it was impossible for me to put down, because I adored the way she wrote, and I wanted to get to know her even more.  I kept digging myself deeper in the subject, got the originial English version of the Unabridged Journals and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams for my birthday the following spring. Boy, the Journals were most certainly not an easy reading, it took me months to get through it, but by the end I felt that I completely understood her, as a matter of fact, I knew her better than even she herself did. Then I started looking for refence books on her, but there's hardly anything my library has, yet, the ones I could find, mostly biographies, I read. Lucky me, the university has an American Modern Poetry course that also covers SP, yet, unfortunately only one class was dedicated to her, due to lack of time. I also discovered several other great writers/poets through her, for she mentioned them in her Journals, such as Anne Sexton (lucky me, I got to know her! Another poet I cherish.), Marianne Moore, Ted Hughes, et al. I love her prose, especially The Bell Jar, I drink up every single sentence of it like it is oxygen. Her journals are also utterly close to me, for there are so many entries, thoughts, and feelings I can identify with, just like they were my very own. Although, SP is primarily a poet, I am least close to her poetry, I may not be mature enough for it yet, for I find it too abstract, too difficult to relate to at several times.

So now, here I am, years later, still a junkie, about to dig even deeper, read all her works again, for the time has come to start doing the research and writing my thesis. I wonder how our relationship will be  by spring, by the time I am done with writing.

Anyway,
Happy Birthday, Sylvia!

Winter Wonderland 2.0

Lorelai: Wait, close your eyes and breathe. I smell snow.
Rory: Ah, it's that time of year.
Lorelai: Can't you smell it?
Rory: You know, it's like dogs and high-pitched noises. I think it's something only you can smell.
(Rory sits down next to Lorelai and pulls a blanket over the both of them)
Lorelai: I love snow.
Rory: Really, I had no idea.
Lorelai: Everything's magical when it snows, everything looks pretty. The clothes are great. Coats, scarves, gloves, hats.
Rory: Thermal underwear, wool socks, ear flaps.

 Lorelai: Oh, yeah. I smell snow.
Luke: What?
Lorelai: It's coming. I always know. I can smell it, and I'm never wrong.
Luke: It wasn't in the forecast.
Lorelai: It's just my favorite time of the year. The whole
world changes color.
Luke: I think I'm blacking out.
Lorelai: Flakes, flurries, swirls, crystals, whatever form it comes in. I'll
take it. We go back, snow and me. We have a beautiful history.
Luke: Saw two forecasts, there was no mention of snow. Cold, but no snow.
Lorelai: Sleigh rides, ice skating, snowball fights. I'll even take curling. God, I love curling!
Luke: Lance Cranston on Channel 6 said it would be dry. Kimmy Liston, Live
at 5, same thing. No snow, nothing.
Lorelai: Hot cocoa, hot toddies. Best time of the year!
Luke: Jimmy Mountain in Accu-Chopper One said it would be weeks before -
(It starts to snow)
Luke: Lance and Kimmy are idiots.
Lorelai: (to the snow) Welcome, friend.

These two dialogues from Gilmore Girls must be the quotes of the day...

This morning, as I peeked out of the window I found winter wonderland outside, which immediately made me feel giddy, and once again I realized how much I adore winter. In fact, I love winter and snow more each year, even more then I did  when I was a kid. Snow means magic to me too, just like it does to Lorelei, because the world suddenly turns perfect and innocent when it is covered with fresh snow - snow, that to me resembles to castor sugar incredibly.

Sugarcoated Winter Wonderland, that's why I love the season most!

Happy New Year!

In case you were wondering, I am still alive, better than ever... I just have been incredibly lazy, even too lazy to write... But from now on I shall write more regularly, let's say three posts a week?, this was one of my New Year's Resolutions Suggestions. Let's hope I can keep myself to this suggestion...

Anyway, I had survived that end of term crasiness, as by December 20 all the stressing, rushing and all-the-bloody-deadlines were over, with relatively small demage caused. I wrote a bunch of articles, prepared for but did not give that presentation (managed to get away with actually giving the presentation...lucky me!), wrote those in-class tests (3 out of 4 was successful), and wrote a few essays too during those 3 weeks. I failed my phonology exam on 17th, though, I guess I didn't take it seriously enough and didn't prepare hard enough, but I'm not desperate at all as I will retake it at the end of January (that one I must pass!). Then on December 22nd I kissed goodbye and wished a Merry Christmas to my dear friends and to the also very dear Budapest, hopped on the train, and went home to Miskolc to finally have my well-deserved winter break. During those almost two weeks I spent at home I did have that not-so-little bit of resting, peace and quiet and slowing down. I read a couple of novels: I finally finished Julie Powell's Julie and Julia as well as Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years. I managed to catch up with the tv-shows I was behind, such as Friday Night Lights, Californication, and  my guilty pleasure, I-know-it's-rubbish-but-I'm-addicted-to-it 90210. Of course I watched a couple of seasons of my all time favourite tv show,  Gilmore Girls. ( I have seen these episodes at least 10 times, I really mean that ten times!, but I still enjoy it just as much as when I saw it at first.) I watched a few movies too, naturally; however, not even half as many as I had expected or had planned... These include the original Fame from 1980, the 2009 remake of Fame, Post Grad which is a chick-flick /coming-of-age movie with Alexis Bledel and Zach  Gilford, The Young Victoria with the very talented and amazing Emily Blunt (I've just realized that she is one of my favorite actresses.), the adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (haven't read the novel yet, but I definitely will), and two of my fav romcoms You've Got Mail + Bridget Jones's Diary... That's about it, I guess. I had really wanted to watch a bunch of big classics (I even had a long list of movies written up... I just love writing list...), but I wasn't in the mood, I reckon...

During the break my creativity was in it's full bloom, fortunately. As a matter of fact, I felt more creative and crafty than ever. This probably can be thanked to those awsome artists' and crafters' blogs I found and read through. It's incredible how much they inspire me and what great ideas I get from them. ( I will write about these blogs and their writers later.) I thought up so many possible craft projects, moreover, my mind was on such an overload that I could not fall asleep until 4 or 5 AM for a few nights. I just had to get up in the middle of the night and jot down these ideas because otherwise I would forget them. (I really don't want that!) I often felt that my mind works way too fast and my hands just cannot keep up with the speed of my brain... I love being this creative! ( But it is also very tiring...:))

Anyway, the winter break is over now (hopefully the amount of creativity and productivity remains the same), I came back to Budapest this afternoon, from tomorrow I have school again... In fact, this week I'm having 3 quite hard tests, so I guess it's high time I started studying... I'm afraid it will be rather hard getting back at the habit of studying (well, to be correct: it will be hard starting studiny at all!), but I'll just have to do it, hard or not.

So, studying starts tomorrow (it ALWAYS starts tomorrow and never today, doesn't it?!), and now I'm off to pick my friend Meli up from the train station ( I should not be late, but I'm aftraid I will am already...)

(Wow, I actually managed to write a long post. Yay! :))

(Double yay for writing at all:))