Monday, November 23, 2009
Ampleman
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Night Bus and Other Adventures.
Monday, November 9, 2009
A Chair Full of Bowlies
One of my favorite snacks growing up was home-made, canned cherries so, I was delighted to find in the canned fruit section that cherries seemed to be a Hungarian specialty. It was was one the few fruit in glass and had a whole shelf dedicated to various brands. I assumed that they must all be fantastic and picked up the biggest cheapest jar I could get my hands on. "Winny" is the generic brand, I think (I could be completely wrong), in one of the grocery stores. Their pasta is really quite sub-par... and well so are the Cherries - or should I say their Magozott Meggybefott Cukrozott?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Ahhh Consignment Shopping
Sunday, November 1, 2009
One Week and Three Days
Thus concludes my first week living abroad... So far, so good!
This week at work was very, very busy so it went by really quite quickly. We had an online meeting with our fantastic and hilarious regional committee. It was great fun – and because it was at night I got to sleep in and come to work late the next day. While preparing to be audited we showed each other our best handstands and ate A LOT of chocolate. This tops working for the government where the only excitement was the Nut-Man coming to visit twice a month.
Other than work, my life has been devoted to finding a bed (or I should say my roommate’s life was devoted to this work). She was fantastic, not only did she find me a FREE bed, but she also arranged to have a moving truck pick it up and deliver it to me. This part wasn’t for free but it was totally worth it… With my new, clean Ikea duvet and pillows I am finally comfortable. We are also engaged in an ongoing saga that is our washing machine. I managed to buy laundry soap that makes sense – Hooray! I also figured out the machine and did one load. I was pretty ambitious and decided to attempt another load. This was unsuccessful. The door is closed but the machine thinks the door isn’t locked to so it won’t start. ARG! Nothing we try will fix it… Our landlord is going to ‘try’ to find the receipt for the brand new machine - he told us to set it to "P" and let it reset itself. However, we can only set it to numbers 1-14 so that isn't going to work. Thanks Mr. Helpful.
Yesterday, I met with people I had met on the internet… Hi Mom! Yes – that sounds dangerous doesn’t it? Anyways, they write a blog in English on events in the city. They also write reviews and stuff as well. Anyways, they were looking for contributors so I wrote to them. We met in a FANTASTIC bar for coffee… It became a trend here in the last couple of years that bar owners would set up an illegal bar in a derelict old apartment building that were sitting empty in the summer. All the apartments here have a court yard in the centre. So these bars were huge, with outdoor patios and small side rooms. They became really successful and eventually some of them were able to buy the buildings and set up full time. This particular place has a retractable roof for the winter. It was huge and full of random, eclectic furniture - I loved it! Anyways, I learned all about the blog and secrets about Budapest and the ex-pat community (10% of the city’s population is ex-pats). I am going to start meeting with the group once a week and help to post the week's events. It should be a good time. They invited out for Halloween and so I got to experience Budapest's nightlife - it was smokey.
Highlight of the week: I met Tinky Winky’s wife. Yes, I met the controversial, purple Teletubby’s spouse!