This week was a little rough. It felt like one bad thing after another was bound to happen to me. It started on Tuesday when I realized as I was missing the 4th Hungarian class that I was required to take Hungarian. It’s really my fault for not knowing that in the first place, but I have a serious bone to pick with the Office of International Study at Wellesley College being super unclear about their requirements. They have an online “handbook” but it’s basically useless and tells you to talk to your department head (who never once told me I needed to take Hungarian). For those of you who remember how bad I was (or at least believed I was) at Spanish, you can imagine I was so shocked and scared to start Hungarian behind. For most of Tuesday I had a seriously bad attitude about it. Luckily, I met with the extremely nice professor, went to the first class, and ended up having a great time. Truth is, Hungarian is kinda an awesome language.
After class on Tuesday a few of us went to visit a “beach” on the Danube a little North of school. The beach was more like a rocky area with some lawn chairs, but there was a cute little food hut (with some of the best quesadillas ever), and a great view of the “Chuck Norris” bridge. The bridge isn’t actually called the Chuck Norris bridge, but got that name after the Hungarian government decided to let people vote online for what to name it. Naturally someone suggested Chuck Norris and voting for him started to be so frequent it crashed the site. So, Chuck Norris won obviously (Chuck Norris can’t even lose honestly), but the Hungarian Gov wasn’t cool enough to name the bridge Chuck Norris officially so it’s actual name is Megyeri Bridge. At least that's the story I was told. However, according to Wikipedia, Chuck Norris lost to Stephen Colbert (so my tour guide lied to me a couple weeks ago). In any case, this story is hilarious and true I’m afraid. I guess it also proves that Americans leave nothing left sacred. Wiki says Colbert wasn’t allowed to have the bridge named after him because he wasn’t dead and didn’t speak Hungarian. Maybe if I learn Hungarian they’ll name a bridge after me when I die… We’ll have to wait and see ;)
On Wednesday I was ready to throw another pity party after realizing I had lost my student pass for the metro. Of course I can buy a new one, but it seems like a waste of money. Luckily the day was saved by some off brand Nutella, Ultimate frisbee, and a snap decision to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the GOP debate with Megan and Julie. I could barely keep my eyes open during the debate, but what I saw was entertaining enough to be worth it.
On Thursday I was pretty tired, so I just stayed at home all day intermittently napping and doing homework. Then I went to graph theory and to play frisbee. I’m starting to realize that you could argue that I’m not getting enough of a cultural experience by spending all my time playing frisbee, and doing math and CS; however, I went to parliament this week, started taking Hungarian, and have grand plans to continue exploring this city over the weekend (let’s just say there’s a candy festival happening).
Lots of my friends in my program are traveling to places like Prague and Brussels this weekend, and I thought I’d travel a lot when I got here too. But, I’ve begun to realize that I kind of like spending most of my time in Budapest. I did book tickets to go to Madrid/Cordoba and Copenhagen in late October to see some friends from Wellesley. So maybe that’s exploration enough. There are so many amazing cities to see across Europe and of course I would love to explore them all, but my semester abroad isn’t a backpacking trip and I want to feel like Budapest is a kind of home soon.
Between trying to stay up to catch the debate and playing frisbee this week I’m exhausted. It’s going to be a battle to convince myself that Netflix and sleep are not better than wandering around this city’s cool ruin pubs tonight. This weekend’s plans are still a little up in the air, but there’s talk of exploring caves, eating chocolate, and going to a nearby town called Eger. In any case I’ll update you on what I actually did later. Oh, and as for post cards I have them but don’t know how to send them yet. I’ll probably figure that out on Monday before or after I visit a museum.
First I ought to confirm that I was in fact drinking wine and eating bread with brie and ridiculing the GOP debate on Wednesday. My friends and I were also discussing how we don’t really understand how socially conservative people exist. And, I was seriously offended by Mike Huckabee’s defense of the Kentucky Clerk that argued that if we let terrorists grow beards in prison then we should let religious people oppress the gays. Excellent. At least the wine was there to take most of the sting away.
On the note of queer people, I miss Wellesley. This week I took a buzzfeed quiz (arguably my favorite pastime) that told me the seven sister’s school I should attend was Wellesley and it only made me miss it more. What I really miss is the feeling like I can just be unapologetically myself. I think I am one of very few queer girls amongst at least a couple closet homophobes here at my study abroad program. In my head it feels like I have green skin or something. I suppose I could make things easier for myself by shaving my armpits and cutting down on all the queer feminist talk, but those things are pieces of myself I shouldn’t have to let go. I’m not trying to say I have an abnormal attachment to my armpit hair, but I am saying it’s amazing to never shave. I recommend every woman tries it. Think of never buying or using another razor again. It occasionally feels like a constant battle against the patriarchy, but I think I’m winning.
I can’t really shake the feeling that none of the people here really want to hang out with me, but I think it’s in my head. I’m a reasonably smart, nice, and pretty girl who’s generally good at making friends. I just feel like I don’t wanna make a lot of new friends right now. I want my old friends who I don’t have to explain so much of my life to. I want to be around people who just love and understand me. This attitude is probably my reaction to how much I loved the other interns I worked with this summer and just as I was getting truly comfortable with all of them the summer ended. I have to swallow the dread that’ll happen again and just make friends. I know it’ll be ok, but I’ve just got get out of my own head I guess.
On a happier note, the guy who coaches my frisbee team on Thursday is one of the most attractive men I’ve ever spoken to. I have a bad habit of forming school girl crushes on good frisbee players, but I’m just hoping my affection for him will turn into wanting to be better and work harder. Then I’ll be an awesome frisbee player when I show back up at Wells.
Also, a poem I wrote while sitting at the river this week.
Almost Sunset
The music is good
But hey guys when do
You want to leave?
I don’t belong here.
Maybe I don’t belong anywhere around here
But I’ve got
To Try.
So what if I pretend
I’m an Introvert
Fall into my own head
As I dream about how pretty it looks to see
The sun set over the
Danube
And how the lines of green
On the tops of trees
Bleed into the sky
Hoping to be a part of the sunset too
But always rooted too deep
Attached to the earth instead.
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