adventures in budapest!

adventures in budapest! 15 aug 2002 hi all! well, i'm here.... more details on life in general later, but the scoop is as follows.... between monday morning back in memphis and wednesday night here, i got a total of 3 hours of sleep.... as a result, i have pretty much no jetlag and am totally operating on european time! the main problem is the language barrier... if you know where to go there are english speakers, otherwise you get really confused looks and get rather confused yourself... last night's dinner was a big mac and coke because the words were the same! i had an interesting trip.... SAS (scandinavian airlines, which i took from newark, NJ to copenhagen and then on to budapest) was wonderful... to dad who says airplanes never have good food, we had cocktails and pickled salmon for apetizer, the ravioli, spinach and other random veggies, followed by coffee/tea and a large bowl of fruit for dessert -- and this was economy class!=P.... i had 5 hour layover in jersey and 6 hours in copenhagen, so i practiced the art of sitting still for long periods of time =P.... in copenhagen they have kinda a zamboni that drives around and sweeps the floors all day that amused me greatly, as did the fact that the airport workers ride scooters everywhere! =P.... here, the thing i find funniest is the hot water in my apt., which is run by gas.... there1s a huge prolly 2 foot by 2 foot by 4 foot box on the wall in the shower with a hole in it to stick a lot match and a button to push to turn on the gas... usually it's just on low (pilot light), but when you turn the hot water dial on, it flare up very nicely.... just can't splash water in the shower too much if i want to keep hot water =) when i arrived, this now english teacher who's friends with one of the coordinators here, met me at the airport and took me to apt and showed me around my part of town.... roads don't go straight here at all! so it's a very winding hilly path to get anywhere!... at any rate i have a public transportation pass and lots of forints... well enough... it looks like a lot when 250 forints = $1 =) (cheers for finding the dollar sign on the hungarian keyboard!.... most extra symbols take 3 or 4 keys at once and y and z are reversed and there's extra keys for őúáűéí where '/, etc. should be! =) i have a nice apt. in buda, 2 subway stops west of the danube.... it belongs to a math prof who's spending the year in the UK.... so it's totally furnished... 3rd floor halfway up a big hill with windows/balconies to the south and east makes for really nice view... my roommate, amanda, lands in about half an hour, so i need to get back across town to be there when she arrives... also found the BSM building, huge castle looking place... and patrick, one of the other students who arrived monday, was there.... he's the one who helped me find this internet cafe -- it's across the street from his apt. in downtown pest *right* by the river and run by the same people.... i won't have internet in my apt., but i can still use my computer offline and save things to disk, so a more informative mass email will come when i have a little more time' =) adventures in the next week.... amanda comes today, language classes start monday, and amanda, arlene (the girl i flew from copenhagen to budapest with) and i plan to check out an international english speaking church around here if we can find it (*you* try navigating a subway/bus system perfectly when you can't understand a word the conductor is saying!) =) i could write lots more but this is plenty for now, i'm sure... need to find my apt. again before i have a a roommate to share it with.... hope all yáall have a wonderful day.... oh, p.s. if any of you feel like racking up a large phone bill, itás cheaper to call hungary from us than the other way around and i do have a phone.... 011 (or whatever international dial code is), followed by ---deleted--- i believe.... 36 for hunggary, 1 for budapest, and i might have transposed the 3 and 7, i'll check before i email again... not that many of you will use it, but it's there.... don't call after 5pm though.... thatás midnight here =P.... anyhow, now that's it... vislat! lara =)