The Upside of a Broken Digital Camera

Chain Bridge, Budapest

Update Me Tuna

Home was bomb diggity. Lots of friends, lots of food, lots of family, and LOTS of jellyfish. Not to mention Kellie's wedding. Even with 10 months abroad in 10 countries, the last two weeks were probably some of the best I've had all year.
Now I'm finally back in New York and aside from the fact that it is excruciatingly hot, I'm so so happy to be back. The roomies are wonderful and we are already laughing until we cry. We are hopefully moving into our new apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tomorrow. Right now we are in a temp apartment next door. We don't have AC and it's about 96 degrees plus unbelievable humidity here so when we're home we basically lie in a row on our mattresses in our underwear in front of the fan and whine. And sweat. Profusely. During the day we've come up with some great ways to stay out of the heat, like watching Iron Man and the Three Amigos and Lars and the Real Girl and... ok, those are the only great ideas. The others have been sitting in Grand Central Station for hours, K-Mart for hours, the Walgreen's greeting card section...

I posted a couple albums to picasa. Budapest, Home (jellyfish, etc), and the Cousins. check it out, yo.

Corsica/ South of France

Was mostly rainy but pleasant nonetheless. I once again had some amazing couchsurfing hosts. I spoke more French in a week than I have in months here (my brain also no longer functions). I went to Nice, Monaco (during the grand prix!), and Cannes (during the film festival!) in the South of France as well as Bastia in Corsica and any other small towns there a bus could take me. I met lots of strangers. I usually hate eels but the Monaco aquarium had little ones that would pop their heads of the sand to look for food and that was pretty entertaining. Also entertaining were the myriad of stories from one of my hosts, Denis, a 58 year old French man who liked to tell me long winded accounts (all in French) about-- well, I'm not quite sure, most of them included dirty jokes I couldn't understand and which his roommates refused to translate to me. One of them involved buying a porn magazine at a service station on the German Autobahn (as all men typically do of course) and finding semi-revealing pictures of himself in it which were taken years earlier. (He showed us the magazine as proof!). He cooked amazing dinners every night which we ate on their balcony overlooking the sea and on the last night I went to a lecture on Machiavelli with him (also in French. And Italian.) Fabienne, my official host, took me swimming with her and also to the two classes she teaches-- high school English and aerobics classes for seniors. I happily participated in both. My other host, Jessica, was also amazing and fed me home cooked meals too. I had a really great time talking to her and my last night in Nice I found myself at a bar, dancing with her on a table, at 2am, to none other than "C'est La Vie" by B*Witched (dig deep, I know you know that song).

The presence of rain in the sunny, coastal resort beach towns which I visited lent itself to a different kind of holiday. Lots of getting wet (I hate umbrellas), muddy treks through a pretty deserted mountain side, and reading while sitting in weird hexagonal rope contraptions in abandoned playgrounds. I managed to get through two books: a collection of 26 of some Gabriel Garcia Marquez's greatest short stories, which were magical, and 18 of the Best American Magazine Articles of 2007, which were excellent but tended to leave me in a horrified stupor and the general state of things.

I only have a few more days of Paris to pack and say my goodbyes to the city. I'm heading back to California on Monday and then I'll be in New York from June 8th.

It's been almost 5 months in Paris and almost 10 months abroad, but I don't really have it in me for grand reflections at the moment. For now I'll say this: my shoes still fit-- maybe better than ever-- but they're wearing out a little at the heels.

i'm running on about three hours of sleep and my apartment looks like someone picked it up and shook it violently, but finals are OVER and tomorrow i leave for nice, corsica, and three different couchsurfing homes with a beach towel and a pile of books.*

*edit: and apparently an umbrella, because the forecast is rain.

Post 100

[cre·pus·cu·lar]
Function: adjective
1 : of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim <crepuscular light>
2 : occurring or active during twilight <crepuscular insects> <crepuscular activity>

Banu is living with me right now. We play cards and watch things like this instead of studying for finals:

Buda Buda Buda

No lyrical post as I am swimming in a sea of final exams and papers, but I wanted to tell you about Budapest because it warm and pleasant as a thermal bath. I took about three rolls of film too so hopefully there will be pictures when I get back to the States.

First of all, my couchsurfing hosts were completely amazing. They gave me a bed and the keys to their place, helped me get around, and introduced me to all of their amazing friends. I went out with them almost every night and sometimes during the day, too. ah! So much love.

Highlights:

• Terror Museum (Really awesome, although I didn't really make the connection between the name of the museum and the kind of exhibit it would be until I was in the basement of the recreated torture chambers, alone. Attempted to follow Asian couple around as to keep from freaking out-- I think they were on to me)
• Thermal Baths (Dozens of indoor and outdoor mineral pools of varying temperatures, full of old Hungarian people. Whirlpools were fun.)
• Dandelions. Everywhere. Which is all fun and games until I can't stop sneezing. And ice cream. Mike tells me this is because they didn't have icecream during communism. They certainly are making up for it.
• Hungarian Transvestite/Transgender drag show. Need I say more? (Probably yes, but I won't now. They were hot.)
• The TROPICARIUM
• • "Excuse me, but does this bus go to the Tropicarium?"
  • -blank stare-
  • "Um.. the Trop..i..ca..r..ium?... Oceanarium?"
  • -blank stare-
  • "...Tropicarium?"
    
  • "Ah! yes yes yes. Get on."
  • So the Tropicarium was really far away and inside a mall, but nonetheless cool. No jellyfish but funky alligators and a giant shark/ray tank and cool headsets attached to each tank to tell you more about the fish (would be more useful if I spoke Hungarian.
• Ancient Roman Ruins in which I played
• Park full of Communist Statues, making some friends with some Belgians and Slovakians and giving ourselves our own guided tour.
• House party, beer pong, German boys...
• Day-long picnic eating carrot cake and playing football and card games at Margaret Island with tons of kids.

Ok that's it for now. A lot more happened but I have so much to do! Miss you and will probably see you soon.

I'm in Budapest!

and i'm in an internet cafe looking up the Tropicarium-Oceanarium, Central Europe's largest aquarium, so i thought i would say hello. hello!

today i went to a thermal bath. they have whirlpools in the middle of the other pools with strong currents and you just swim into it and then spin around in circles trying not to run into old people.