My sandal got caught in the escalator.

To all of those dear fans out there who have desperately waited for a spirited return to the blogging world, you have probably found another source of entertainment. Alas, this will be my first blog post in about a month and my last as a resident of Budapest. In the last two weeks classes have finished, lifetime friends have moved away, and Budapest has changed from a place of comraderie to a place once again foreign to me. In the last few days here the boys at the flat made a spirited expedition to Lake Balaton to enjoy the sights and sounds with fellow erasmus students we did not know so well. What happens when Norway wins Eurovision in a bar in Siofok where the wine is flowing and the group of twenty stumbles towards the bass beating across the bridge is something of a surprise. The bartender seemed to be taking the night off to dance on the bar while her barmate lit booze on fire and twirled flaming bottles around while yet another barmate stood on the bar at the other end liberally pouring liquor into the mouths of exuberant dancers. The next morning (or afternoon) we went swimming and went home. I made some new Greek friends who, if I'm lucky I'll get to meet in their homeland in a few weeks. The next day Tristan and I ran 10km around Margaret Island. I died, due to overheating in the 30C weather, but Tristan marched on eventually taking a dip in the Danube; something he later regretted. Tuesday brought together an international consortium of avid floorball enthusiasts who took to the court inside Corvinus' gym for 2 hours to duke it out in the extreme spring humidity. The final match saw the North Americans take on the World. The North Americans won on a Golden Goal by Massachusetts' own Bill Nussdorfer. Afterwards, the men made it to the baths on Margaret Island for a much needed cool down. Despite continuous harrassment, the young lady selling the entrance tickets wouldn't let us take advantage of the afternoon pricing 40 minutes ahead of time. A day later found us on the long journey to Budapest's Aquaworld, a waterpark with a diving board, wave pool, saunas, hot tubs, a bar and over a kilometre of waterslides. It was a pretty awesome afternoon, especially the river tube slide and the dude who seemed to enjoy spending time with his girlfriend in the hot tub. Fortunately for us, we were in the other pool.

I love Budapest. And it will never be the same as I remember.

Everything. Everything. Everything. I want it back, but its gone.

My sandal got caught in the escalator. Budapest wants me to stay, but I know.... I'm done. It's time for a change. I'll always love Budapest, let's see if there's more to love.

Mikke

A brief commentary on the academics of exchange

5 Classes out of the way - five marks above 80. I almost feel bad about how little work was required to achieve this. Good thing I left my easy-button at home.


Here's a brief rundown:
Presentation skills - Gave a 10 minute presentation on Somolian pirates, which essentially paraphrased a wikipedia article. Half of the rest of the class gave a tourism slideshow of their home country in broken english.
Social Choice/Fair Division - Wrote two 45 minute midterms - the second of which was open book and consisted of mostly DEFINITION type questions.
Environmental Technology - got a 94.6% overall, despite being intentionally vague on half of the questions on the final (discussing made up examples of technologies I understood but didn't know the details about). I left that exam worried I wouldn't get the 70 required to skip the oral exam.
International Finance - Left the 20 question multiple choice exam on second year (1st semester) definitions after 15 of the alloted 90 minutes. That and we got 96% on a paper that was written shoddily in 3 seperate parts (to this date I have not read Tristan or Rock's contribution to this A+ paper).
Human and Political Geography - 5 minute oral exam discussing "why people write graffiti on walls"

Great news for me, huh?

Well now karma is kicking me in the ass. On Thursday I'm preparing to write a masters level game theory exam which I actually SHOULD struggle to pass ... I mean, can YOU make any sense out of this equation?

mρσ(vρ)ρσ(i) = vρ({ρσ(1), . . . , ρσ(i)} − vρ({ρσ(1), . . . , ρσ(i − 1)})
= v({σ(1), . . . , σ(i)}) − v({σ(1), . . . , σ(i − 1)})
= (mσ(v))σ(i) = (ρ∗(mσ(v)))ρσ(i) .


... and that's one without the ridiculous sum functions in it.

What we've really been doing this year

Friends and family, moms and dads, anonymous readers, I'd like to present you with what we've been listening to all semester long. This is one of his tamer songs - feel free to check out the rest.

In and out

Over the past (almost) 4 months, we've had quite a few people come in and out of our place. Some we'd never met before, some were good friends, and some were even closer than that. The current tally is at 12, but with Troy (friend from Queen's) arriving tomorrow for a couple of days, and then Khaled (friend since 8th grade) coming in on the 18th, it seems we'll be ending it 14.

Ads no more

Because we have made millions of dollars off of the advertisements on this blog, we feel that they are no longer necessary. They will return upon depletion of money supplies.

Swine flu

A constantly updated map showing confirmed cases and deaths resulting from swine flu: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8021547.stm - thankfully, nothing in Hungary yet.

Saw a bunch of people today at the airport in Amsterdam wearing face masks - it was strange and funny in a way.. won't hurt to be extra cautious, I suppose, although from what I've read they're not very effective.

This is post #100 btw. Sorry it couldn't be about something good!

Two weeks

Two weeks = 14 days
14 days = what's left of university this year
99 = the number of posts on this blog
50% = the chance Mike is reading. Reading what is a totally different question
1 = the years left of our university lives
5 = the number of exams I have
51% = what we need to pass each course
1 = the number of malls I've visited in Kuwait during this week
.4% = how much of our lives we will have spent in Budapest
100 = the number of days Obama has been in office
7 = The number of OS's Microsoft has released [two thumbs up to Windows 7]
100% = the certainty that Tristan will read that and think, "nothing replaces a Mac"
50% = the chance Trevor is either reading or watching South Park
100% = the certainty that I will never permanently live in Kuwait again

Story time

I have learnt two possibly life changing things this past week. 1) Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to f*%#@ 2) Words tell stories.

I would like to share a story, it's not my story:

Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, and he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the prince believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace and came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

"Are those real islands?" asked the young prince.
"Of course they are real islands," said the man in evening dress.
"And those strange and troubling creatures?"
"They are all genuine and authentic princesses."
"Then God must also exist!" cried the young prince.
"I am God," replied the man in evening dress, with a bow.

The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.

"So, you are back," said his father, the king.
"I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God," said the prince reproachfully.
The king was unmoved.
"Neither real islands, real princesses nor a real God exist."
"I saw them!"
"Tell me how God was dressed."
"God was in full evening dress."
"Were the sleves of his coat rolled back?"
The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled.
"That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived."

At this, the prince returned to the next land and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.

"My father, the king, has told me who you are," said the prince indignantly. "You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician."
The man on the shore smiled.
"It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom, there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them."

The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eye.
"Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?"
The king smiled and rolled back his sleeves.
"Yes, my son, I'm only a magician."
"Then the man on the other shore was God."
"The man on the other shore was another magician."
"I must know the truth, the truth beyond magic."
"There is no truth beyond magic," said the king.
The prince was full of sadness. He said "I will kill myself."
The king by magic caused Death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
"Very well," he said, "I can bear it".
"You see, my son," said the king, "you, too, now begin to be a magician."


If you are still confused, watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8EiScBEjA

Sickness, AC Milan, and Kuwait

I've been sick for the past few days .. sicker than I've been in a while. I had some severe throat pains that were bad enough to keep me up one night. Trevor's recovering from sickness and Tristan got sick around the same time I did. I'm better now, but still working at around 60%. Not the condition I wanted to be in when I went to watch my beloved AC Milan play a friendly here in Budapest. Regardless, it was fun watching them score 5 goals, and it was fun seeing Kaká play cause he was injured when we watched them play in Milan.

I travel to Kuwait tomorrow morning - my flight departs at 9:10 a.m. The excuse is to go for some paperwork, but I really just want to see the family. Some of mom's food will help me get over this sickness way faster than some meds! I'm gone for a week, and then I'll be back in Budapest for a week of classes followed by a week of exams.

The pic above is of Kuwait- the tall structure is the communications tower.

Why I think J. J. Abrams is a cool dude

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-05/mf_jjessay

He's got something figured out. And its something pretty fundamental. And I dig it.

....9:30 on a tuesday night

I went downtown in the rain. 9:30 on a tuesday night, just to check out the late night.... Record shop (Late night record shop)

This is all true to brian wilson, except that its not raining, i haven't been to any record shops lately, i don't have background singers, and its not even technically 9:30.

The boys got all snazzied up headed out to an operatta tonight entitled The Gypsy Princess. Its a part of this Cool Tour thing our Erasmus team at Corvinus arranged for interested students. I don't know what an operatta is, it sounds like a short opera, kind of like a novella is a short novel, but this opera was like 3 hours long. short novels are like 100 pages. Anyways, it doesn't matter because we left half way through. The music was lovely, so was the stage decoration, the acting, singing, dancing, and costumes. Even the lighting was really well done. The only problem was that it was in Hungarian. It did have German subtitles, though which was really helpful for me.

All in all, life is good. This week is shaping up to be an enjoyable one. We are going to see AC Milan play tomorrow night, and then another Cool Tour event on Thursday, and I row on Sunday for Corvinus. So ya. All good things.

Picture of the day

Why GM went bankrupt, while Toyota continues to thrive. TQM.

Dear Vegetable Gods

Canada is known for exporting ridiculously good hockey players and maple syrup, Sweden has its meatballs and chic furniture , the Mongols were know for their culture blending and archery skillz, the Toronto Maple Leafs are known for their inability to make the playoffs, Starbucks has its Caramel Macchiato and oat fudge bars...

I am gonna be a radical and say...

"Central" and Eastern European countries are not known for their "colorful" diet and legume friendly recipes.

This drastic realization came to an Everest-like peak when Mike and I stopped by the Slovak Pub, Bratislava for some hearty Slovakian specialties... before this day I knew that I kinda knew about knowing the knowledge of a new found niche with non-existent nutrition - yet I decided to practice my appeasement skills and give way to my id, ego and superego.

Food is a lot like movies, neither of which should be enjoyed in shades of black and white.

Please forgive me, I will do better - now I am sitting with kleenexs stuffed up my nose and a large mug of honey tea as I feel the wrath of the Vegetable Gods.

Its kind of like... writing a book about paper waste

Hey,

My 'Art of Persuasion' class sucks. We haven't learned a damned thing of practicality I think in the entirety of the course. Last week was spent analyzing the changes in Barbie commercials from 1959 to 2008. What a waste of time. Every class there are student presentations and they all pretty well suck, like the one today about Sting and the Police. Sting? Persuasion? Like, where's the connection? There isn't one and yet we sit through it and the professor thinks its all great. Every once in a while something surprising happens. Take George Orwell's "On Politics and the English Language" (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm) which he wrote in 1946. He's political, duh, he wrote 1984. But, the fascinating part of the article is the notion that language is like clay, you mold it to your purpose. I mean, this is what I get out of reading the article. First, what is the meaning? Convey that meaning through words. Don't find words to fit to a meaning. The power of the article is in its ability to change the preconceptions of the reader, thus making it very persuasive. There is substance in this class, after all.

The other interesting bit of knowledge comes from TED.com, a very, very cool website that does for formal education what Advil did for pain. The lecture is by a guy named Renny Gleeson, a kind of modern-marketing guru and his point is a very good one... social networking should make us more human, not less human. The amazing thing is that we even must consider this, and yet, I'm afraid of counting the hours I've spent in front of this laptop 'sharing' when real life is going on on the other side of the screen. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/renny_gleeson_on_antisocial_phone_tricks.html

Rowing

Hey,

Started rowing yesterday at a local club on the Danube. I'm not very good, its actually a lot harder than it looks. I got a blister that was bleeding and i bled all over my shirt. And my legs fell asleep so when I stepped out of the boat i lost my balance and almost ended up in the river. But other than that it was a great experience. I have another lesson tomorrow morning. The club also has a weight room, so after rowing I pumped some iron with a guy named Gergel who likes to pretend he's arnold schwarzenegger. interesting guy. He found me a spot on Corvinus' rowing team and ill be rowing with them in a regatta next sunday.

Triple Detour

The incredible, life-changing, three-part story of the past hour and a half.

Part 1

Something terrible has happened. We've always wondered when, not if it would happen. Actually, we were surprised it hadn't happened earlier. No longer can we take the 18 or 41 all the way to the 47 or 49. What was once nice and simple, no longer is, and now the horrid and wretched 40-something is in the way. What am I blabbing about? Well, the tram route that once so efficiently linked us to our university has been out of commission (and will be for another two weeks).

It used to take us two tram rides to get to university, but now an extra bus ride has been added to the mix. It's actually not so bad, but it leads us to Part 2 of the story.

Part 2

Every Tuesday at 4:20 p.m., all four of us have a class called Presentation Skills. It's one of the better classes I'm taking here - the prof seems to put a lot of effort into the course, which is something I've come to appreciate over the past few months, or rather, the past two and a half years. Others don't like the class, but to each his own. Anyhow, the professor and his wife have been expecting a new-born son, and it seems like he's been born because we were the only four students in class. We presumed that this was the case and left early.

On the way back, we decided to split up and try two alternate routes in a bid to figure out the most efficient way back home. Mike and Tristan went off to one route and Trevor and I took another. Our route went along the Danube, all the way to Parliament. Quite a scenic view, plus getting to see parliament everyday for a few weeks wouldn't be so bad. Except the tram never got to Parliament. And there were a lot of cops around. We get out to start walking toward the metro stop, only to find that it was blocked by a huge protest. Old men and women were shouting something at the police. People were chanting Hu-Hu-Hungaria everywhere. One guy was up on a podium blabbing on about something we wished we could understand. If someone can explain what the protest was about, please do!

We hung around for a bit and then headed toward the nearest tram stop that would get us home. The tram was full beyond capacity with people, some of which were emitting some unpleasant odors. We had no choice - it was the easiest way home.

Part 3

We finally got to Moskva Ter, where we could take the final tram home. As soon as we entered the tram, a freak storm began. Heavy, heavy rains started falling and went on for a while, followed by lots of hale. This disrupted the third, and final part of my trip. I put off going to the grocery store, opting to get as close to home as possible. I sprinted the final 20 meters of my journey. The 20 meters that stood between me and safety (the lack of rain, in this case) and finally made it home.

Because I Don't want to be a Vampire

Contrary to the glorification given to those pale blood-suckers by author Stephenie Meyer, I opted out of spending my Easter weekend in Transylvania. Instead, Rock and I have saved some cash by getting out and seeing what the Hungarian country side has to offer. Yesterday, motivated by what I read on the website http://www.thehub.hu/, I convinced Rock to get on a train to Nagymaros/Visegrad to check out the 'Bend in the Danube' which is supposedly a beautiful place. And I'm sure that it is a beautiful place but based on what this website said, and what we found, it left some things to be desired. Needless to say, Rock and I decided to head to Holloko today on the suggestion of this same website. We rented a car (actually, the same fine vehicle that took us to Amsterdam and back) and drove the hour or so to the UNESCO World Heritage site to check out if their Easter Festival really is the best thing east of the Danube. Lured by the prospects of some truly great scenery and giving our cameras a work out (Rock's actually died there), we actually found the alluring thing to be the strange traditions that occur there. Apparently the community that lived in Holloko had a different culture than the rest of Hungary. On Easter it is customary for the boys to knock on girls houses and douse them in a bucket of water because they are virgins. I don't know what the purpose of this all is of course but its atleast fun to run around with a bucket of water and throw it on local kids. After this we ventured up to the castle and took some cool shots of us doing something that looks... salvation-y?

Us rocking out to some crappy song on our way to Holloko.

Love him or hate him, he's back

Rude as ever.

Green tea and Reflections

I am going on a Dracula hunt... but I'm not afraid!!

In t-minus 1 hour I will be on a very stuffy, pre-coldwar autobus on my way to Transylvania, Romania to Dream Big Dreams.

Before I embark on what will most likely be my most awesomest trip to Romania EVER!!! - I
need to make a few things known.

Shout-outs:

Doug - top 5 greatest story teller I have ever witnessed - everything I thought I knew about Rock has quickly come into question... and our visits to the mall together have been put on hold until further investigation - all the best in your travels

Shemy - we leave no boundries untouched or velvet rope un-walkedover - rip it up on those exams and never stop making deals and taking names

Night shots

Just got back from a couple hour of walking along the Danube and taking some photos with Alex, my friend from Queen's who was visiting for a few days (leaves in a few hours).

Doug, my friend and former teacher also came to visit for a few days, but left on Wednesday. Never thought my 8th grade English teacher would be visiting me in Budapest 8 years later - shit, never thought I'd be living in Europe for half a year either, but all those coincidences and little choices we make end up having profound effects on our lives. I need a topic for a presentation I have to give for my presentation skills class and I think I'll be going with Chaos Theory ...or maybe just its basics.

Here are my two favourite photos from tonight:

Shem's visit to Budapest

Just a couple lessons learned in Buda:
1. The Swedes love their meatballs, as well as teabagging
2. a 5k run around an island isn't as easy as it sounds
3. living in a city doesn't mean you know the sights, or your way around, or how to get home from the airport via the metro
4. don't freeride the trams, you will be charged 6 grand
5. it WAS GM and Segway that teamed up to bring the two seat electric vehicle

Shem

McDonald's

A weird thing happened between classes today.

Well. Actually, class itself was weird. I set my alarm for 7:15am with the intention of going for a run (you see its this kind of weird thing called a 'regimen' that you design as a way to improve yourself through 'self-discipline'. It really only works if you follow through with the plan you set for yourself the night before, otherwise you just end up waking up really early for a reason thats even more dreadful than the act of waking up itself.).

Well. Actually I woke up at 5:15 for some reason before that. I decided to go to back to sleep and looked forward to waking up in two hours to begin my fitness regimen. I went to sleep and I had a dream about being an egg that was hidden by the Easter bunny in the forest somewhere (the grass was really high whereever I was) and this gigantic toothy rabbit was hunting voraciously in his memory for the whereabouts of this seemingly important egg (that was actually me). The rabbit grew larger as he searched and darker and mangier and started to cry out as only an enormous, black, mangy, deranged Easter Bunny could when I suddenly awoke to the vibration and shrill scream of my cell phone telling its time to run up Gellert Hill, do pushups and situps and feel personal pride all day long at my self-discipline. I immediately evaluated the status of my mind, looking for any excuse not to return to that menacing easter bunny, found myself with my head on my pillow and woke up two hours later with 5 minutes to get to class. I arrived in class an hour and half late having consumed what I like to call the "breakfast of champions on the run" or in this case "Breakfast for the extremely late" that is: a tub of yogurt with a chopped up banana and muesli. When I finally got to class it was time to break for twenty minutes or "Hungarian Recess" as I like to call it and I spent it discussing why my apple had two stems with Erin from USC, how much Rock probably threw up when he had his first chaw with Thomas, and 'recycling' with Gunter. To my great surprise, class had a guest speaker.

Dr. Wagner from the Hungarian Eco-labeling club came to speak to us about absolutely nothing of merit, importance, or interest known as eco-labels. For about an hour she explained to us that stickers about the environment give people like her around the world something meaningless to do with their time. Thoroughly disappointed I began making faces to people around the classroom who if they weren't already drooling on the desks, were about to start. I never thought class would end (39 slides of... of... drivel I honestly never hope to find interesting) but when it did I ventured to the mall at Nyugati Palyaudvar to buy a frisbee or a football.

On my way I ran into Yoann from France who was in my class and we made small talk about Hungarian ecological regulation until we came across some construction and a weird older man in a grey shirt and toothless grin told us to follow him around the construction. I oddly enough was more than eager to follow this weird man around the construction while Yoann stood his ground. turning my back I saw his reflection in a store window and went back to ask why he didn't want to follow the weird toothless grin-man. "I walk this way everyday, that toothless man can't tell me what to do," he said when I went back. Damn-straight, but why was I so easily persuaded and Yoann not at all. I sometimes think that I could be that Eskimo who buys the snow. At Nyugati, I didn't find a sports store but it took no time at all for me to sit down at McDonald's with a burger, an extra large fries and Coke. Then, defeated in atleast two ways I ventured to the Maltese embassy to get my EU passport. arriving at the address listed on the maltese website produced no results as it was a sports store that sold everything but footballs and frisbees.

Spring's over ... summer's here

So the great weather has held up, and promises to stay.

This has inspired me to go out and take a few pictures of budapest with my new camera. I created a flickr account so you can see all of them.

The last few days have been a mix of acting like tourists, visiting local festivals, beers in parks, and procrastinating on schoolwork.

Hotel Domokos is in full swing. It's nice to have lots of guests visiting now that Budapest isn't a depressing place.

Were we fated to listen to this song?

We all absolutely love this song, but what if I hadn't been home, hadn't been on my computer at the same time my friend Rami in Waterloo was, and what if we had chosen a different topic of conversation and he never shared the video with me? Watch to understand.

AC Milan repay the visit

Less than two months ago we all ventured to Milan for four days and, among other things, watched an AC Milan football (soccer) game. As a long-time fan that was the highlight of my trip (gelato comes close), and so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw a Facebook message from Evi (a friend and member of ESN) telling me that AC Milan are coming to Budapest for a friendly match. I couldn't believe it at first. I thought watching Milan once was awesome, but to get the opportunity to see them again in a span of less than two months is a surprise. I wondered whether it was an April fools joke by some website. Turns out that it isn't, and when the tickets go on sale tomorrow, I will be sure to pick a few up (I'm sure others will be interested).

The stars are aligned, and AC Milan will be repaying my visit.

Evi, thank you!

A day in spring

The weather in budapest is screaming "Go outside" so yesterday that is exactly what Trevor and I did. We donned our cameras and set out as proper tourists snapping photos of everything, even if it isnt particularly breathtaking or profound. The one exception however was this video of the world's fastest man. Enjoy!

Krakow, Poland, "Central", Europe

There were no signs of the soviet winter in Krakow, Poland last weekend, the main square was filled with teenagers showcasing their new spins for the Melbourne Shuffle, children were chasing costco-sized bubbles and the rest were succumb to the hustle and bustle of Europe's largest outdoor square.

This weekend, I decided to infiltrate our rival school's exchange program to see how they operate on the other side of the Danube.

Our first stop was Wieliczka Salt Mine, the world's largest operating salt mine... I think the word "mine" is an understatement, when you have 3 churches followed by a mini shopping center, a full service restaurant, concert hall, cafeteria and flush toilets in the 1% that I saw... "mine" eh... A must see for salt enthusiasts and cave dwellers alike.

The second stop was Europe's playground, Krakow - when you slay a dragon and found a city all in the same week, a legend.... wait for it, - DARY!! oasis is bound to unfold. tasty people, friendly pastries, and a lively nightlife make this a popular weekend destination.

A major highlight of the trip was our afternoon in the square where I got personal lessons on "Jumpstyle" and our many demonstrations of the "Melbourne Shuffle" from the local experts. Basically both of these methods involve copious amounts of jumping around in a hypnotically synchronized way - basically pure awesomeness. Our friends also made a video for us with the basic steps - we said we are going to start the Jumpstyle Club in Budapest... Heroes Square?!

On our final day we had a change of pace - Auschwitz.

The 5 senses

We come to you as 4 men in need. Life here at our flat has taken a turn for the worst - our light bulb in the kitchen burnt out and we don't know how to replace it... on the bright side, at nighttime the kitchen looks a lot cleaner!! There was a "leak" somewhere in our apartment, which was luckily covered by insurance and we have been recently invaded by legions of ants.

So what am I asking for?? - should we or shouldn't we drop 75$ CAD to go to the biggest thing to hit Europe since Small Pox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsmv_nvqyQs&feature=related

limited amounts of sleep

alright, so, egypt. I never thought i'd be happy to return to 2nd world hungary but after my recent journeys through parts of 3rd world egypt i'm quite happy to trade one for the other. its not that egypt was bad necessarily, parts were truly incredible (luxor temple at night being my absolute favourite) and should absolutely be experienced by everyone with the means to get there. Its just that its so, so, umm... different? I'm not sure how better to describe it. like, downtown cairo is heavy with car exhaust, traffic congestion, smells of decaying organic matter of various origins. but for all the filth, the people i found were so friendly, and so inviting and not just so they could try and sell me their wares. as an example, when lauren finally flew in, our first egyptian experience was to the Cairo McDonalds (one of many) for a McArabia sandwich (really tasty, highly recommended). We befriended the employees there and the next night we were stopped up the street from the same McDicks by one of the employees who mopped the floor where we sat. I was genuinely taken back, because at first i did not recognize this friendly egyptian and secondly I attempted to ignore him because i thought he was trying to drag me to his cousins shoe store, but he was just really happy to see us again.

that being said, when the discussion was around money, like how much for a cab, how much for dinner, how much for these earrings (not that I bought any, but from how i witnessed lauren operate with the jewelers), how much for this bottle of water, how much for a camel ride, on and on and on it gets really exhausting. tack on top the enormous supply of taxi drivers everywhere all offering rides and stopping and honking and following you down the street, and the same guys offering camel rides, horse rides, felucca rides, and children selling postcards, alabaster pyramids and scarabs and camels, painted papyrus, and carpets of all things (i wonder where the authentic egyptian 1000 thread count cotton sheet store was?) sightseeing Egypt can be extremely exhausting. So, it was really good that lauren and i got the temples and pyramids and museums out of the way and then on to the beach for five nights to relax. incredible.

We finally got to dahab and enjoyed scuba diving (I got my PADI), waterskiing (lauren tore it up so good we got the privilege of riding around in the owners sweet wake boarding boat while this brit did wild flips and stuff to laurens excitement), and i attempted to windsurf (though the wind was quite strong, my sail was too big, my board not bouyant enough for my size so i spent most of the time drinking salt water and drifting out to see until a blue eyed egyptian named Said from an hour south of Alexandria saved me in his dinghy). The bedouin dinner, with a camel ride, a hike up a mountain for some important deep conversation, dog chewed chicken and potatoes which i devoured was at first good, then shitty as we contemplated the safety of consuming bedouin prepared food, then (for me) marvelous when I ate an entire pot of potatoes and chicken and rice and veggies and then a pretty chill ride in the back of an 80s toyota pickup underneath the stars.

all in all: great trip. Interesting country. I don't need to go back anytime soon.

Robbery

I've been robbed. Robbed of one hour of sleep. Daylight savings is over and my biological clock is now in disagreement with the actual time. I got lucky though, because that meant the trams start working earlier, allowing me to avoid taking a rip-off of a taxi ride home. It's 5:10 a.m. right now and I just got back from Club Play. I had heard and read that Hungary is home to some of the most beautiful women in the world. The past four hours confirmed this. In the most objective, unbiased, and serious manner, I can say that Budapest is home to the prettiest women around.

And now, time to get a few hours of sleep.

ATTN: look after your coffee machines

Starbucks is a little coffee chain which originated within dogsled distance from Canada in the Northwestern United States. Some people have toyed with controversial terms such as "cult-like following" and "home away from home". This very tiny, unpopular coffee pourer made a lot of people very rich, very quickly when its stock price like totally went up a lot. Now I am no scientist, heck, I can barely make scrambled eggs, but I still think it is kind of ironic that they have been slowing making alot of people a little less wealthy, one coffee at a time...

I'll just have a coffee thanks.

So what?! it is only a coffee???? - common words for rookie coffee drinkers. I am very sry to blog that we lost a good friend on the weekend. She never complained, always cleaned up after herself and never judged us when we raided the kitchen for a midnight snack. It has been a very hard 3 days, but after a lovely afternoon at Capitalism's greatest creation, we are pleased to announce a new addition to our family.

Strength and honor.

Fifty-one-percent

That's all I need to pass my courses, and that's sort of what I shot for while studying for the three mid-terms I had this week. This has definitely been the least stressful mid-term week ever, and damn it feels good.

In other news, my 10-day trip included visits to Maastricht (4 days with a day in Brussels, Belgium), Bolsward (2 days), and Barcelona (4 days). The former two are in opposite corners of the Netherlands.

Overall, a great trip. I stayed with Ahamad (friend from Queen's) in Maastricht, met my two Norwegian friends and made one more (Norwegian friend, that is!), saw my Aunt and her family, my cousin's cute baby, an Iraqi-Dutch guy at a bar, who was wrongly imprisoned four times and now has psychological problems, and finally met Tristan in Barcelona where we met all sorts of of people, including a guy that happened to work with one of my good friends who was interning at Microsoft.

More interesting coincidences: the guy that owns the hostel and his cousin were Lebanese, and Roland, a friend on exchange in Budapest happened to be in Barcelona at the same hostel we were at.

A happy return home!

Finding your way back to PB in Hungary can be depressing. Just ask Tristan.

I encountered a similar unwelcome surprise coming back home. I WAS LOCKED OUT OF THE FLAT. My deadbolt key doesn't work, and to my surprise, our landlord had come to fix our laundry machine and turned both locks on the way out. With Mike cruising the Nile, Tristan and Rock on siesta in Spain, and the harsh night breeze in my face ... I had to call my landlord to have him let me in the next day. Instead of a putting my feet up in the flat, I had to spend the night in a hostel.

But Ireland was WORTH IT! Great country, great friends, GREEN HOLIDAY.

Here's a brief recap of what made the holiday special for me.

1. Free Titanic Tour in BelfastWe got to see where the Titanic was built in Belfast. Of course, it's not there anymore ... it's in the bottom of the Atlantic. But the guy giving the tour had some great stories - he loved the Titanic more than I love taffy ... and I'm a man who enjoy's his taffee.

2. Partying it up in Dublin.

First of all ... that's not coffee in those cups ... it's SECRET AGENT BEER. Whitty, weren't we? Dublin was an entire weekend of similar shinanagins. We were denied a "free dublin tour" because our group was too large, so Louie (below mark's crazy hat) acted as a tour guide and gave us a surprisingly accurate 2 hour tour of the city before hitting the guinness storehouse. We took over the hostel common room (40 of us, and 2/3/4 ... others), got kicked out of st. stevens green because one HERO tried to crack open a beer in front of a cop, and brought life to every pub we stepped in to. Not to mention ...

3. ALMOST THROWING DOWN WITH A GANG of 16!! year old's outside the hostel on Paddy's day.
8 of these clowns thought it would be great to come from the convenience store down the street (no doubt where they were asking tourists to buy beer FOR their underages asses) and pick a fight with the 8 of us chilling outside the hostel. Pretty sure they didn't know we had 30 odd rowdy mates downing beers inside. Their grand opening? "You guys are GOBSHITES". The last time I heard that was from the old BBC show father ted. (for those of you who have seen the show, I told them to "feck off" then casually sipped my "DRINK!!")

They escalated things, slapping and shoving a few of us, then one of them took a cheap shot to the face on Craig. I'm pretty sure if some cops weren't approaching to break things up things would have gone VERY sour. The only reason we didn't want to engage was that are SMALLEST guy was around the size of their goliath.

Plus we outnumbered them 4 to 1 ... good odds for any GAEL.

Sorry for taking so long to post, but my first midterm was today. When I wasn't procrastinating preparing for that, I was too busy watching the NCAA tournament.

I love Ireland

I love Ireland. Beautiful country, beautiful culture. My belfast experience was republican. I spent time at Kelly Cellar's with Trevor and we had the absolute pleasure of drinking multiple irish beers, conversing with hilarious belfasteners (?), watching Ireland beat Scotland in the 6 Nations cup, listen to real irish folk music from people who aren't paid to play, they just show up, and doing it all in the oldest bar in belfast (est. 1720) where the floors and bar are original and it was the location where Wolf tone and Something McCracken planned their revolt against the english for which they were subsequently hanged in 1798. I heard that one of the reasons the irish weren't so successful was cause many of their revolts and uprisings were planned in pubs.

Dublin was awesome. It was great to run into pretty much everyone in Commerce in a hostel on sunday night. Tristan and i broke off to listen to live music at The Quay in temple bar and peak to some people from around the world. Tristan and i have this tendency to cozy up to little old ladies at bars. haha. not sure why, i guess cause they're just really excited to talk to young men. We did this at legends on St. Patty's day to great success. they all bought us beer and got us pissed. we couldnt' handle the crowds for the parade so we peaced out to Malahide for the day and drank cappucino and talked about one day owning yachts from money working this summer. i left dublin today and took a bus to Galway on the west coast cause my flight to cairo was moved back. I got here, checked into a hostel, bought the Canon G10 I've been obsessing about, rented a bike and travelled all over Galway taking pictures of the countryside, the ocean, the cliffs, and the people out on a bright clear day in usually rainy Galway. I'll upload my favourite shots later. My dad BDAY is today, I think hes like 52 or something incredible like that. I went out and got him a score card from the Galway Golf Club, as requested ;)

You won't hear from me for a while. egypt is coming soon and i cant wait.

Hello from Maastricht

I'm in the land of the dutch enjoying a cold Guinness with Ahmad at Shamrock, an Irish pub. I'm on my Nokia E71 and managed to pick up some free Wifi. It's Maastricht till the 16th, Bolsward for two days to visit my aunt, and then I'll be meeting Tristan in Barcelona on the 18th for 4 nights - no St. Patty's in Dublin for me, thouugh I hope the guys have a blast there.

I am a Dreamer

"It wont be easy, you'll think it's strange when I try to explain how I feel..."

So "whats up" with this Twitter thing anyways, all I keep hearing from these dodgy gossip websites that Mike checks regularly is Twitter me this, Tweeeeter me that... so I joined. Don't worry I am not a follower, nor am cheating on you guys - Twitter is in a totally different area code, so you can forget about writing me all that hate mail. But if you must, plz put "My faather levt me Biliones, I neede yur help" in the subject line, so they go to my special "urgent inbox". I am just doing some "research" on how this silly little backyard operation we call the internet is radically changing the life of lego and lemonade that I once used to enjoy - without virtually telling everyone about it.

So Twitter, "what are you doing" is the potentially life non-altering question it poses to all the brave and noble laureates is has so tactfully recruited. So I pondered... for about 2 minutes, while I was making my instant coffee... who on earth cares about, "what you are doing", why would I ever want to know, or even bother to ask... what a silly question!! - wait, stop the press, hehe, I mean, someone bend the fiber optic cable that sits miles under the ocean, I just thought of something...

What do you say to someone, after looking at the floor, pretending to talk on your cellphone or yawning at critical points has failed you!!! - Oh Hey!! Whats up?? - Hmmmm I was born at night... but it wasnt last night - isn't "Whats up?" interchangeable with "Hows it going?", "Whats shakin?", "Hows life treatin ya?", "Is that spinach in your teeth?" - and if those all equal pi, then pi must be equal to "What are you doing??!!!" - so we have a verdict, mail it in, hehe, publish the post - Twitter allows you to outsource the tedious task of being involved in peoples lives - brilliant.

Tweet. Tweet.

If any of you read this far and are still wondering what is up with that picture... you should have read my Twitter.

Some thoughts on facial hair...

I really really really don't want to write this essay on a presentation I did in The Art of Persuasion. I had to give reasons why Barack Obama's Inauguration Address was of an influential nature. Though I LOVED creating and presenting my findings I can't stand this two thousand word paper I now have to write. Factor in the test for E-Commerce, another essay for Globalization of World Politics, assignments I have neglected to do for Corporate Environmental Management and that I will be taking two weeks away from school to drink heavily in Ireland and frolic amongst the pyramids of Egypt I am much more inclined to write a blog post about this than actually do something about it. My behaviour seems weird to me because of all the e-books I've been skimming over on how to be more disciplined, and focus on tasks, and commit to the finished product, and self-motivation blah blah blah that I'm not able to push myself through, jack myself up, and get this shit over with so I can focus on more important things, like friends and Slovenian blueberry liquor and Jim Rohn videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2AyudSJl_s&feature=related). Its not so much that I'm not learning, I am, or that I don't like learning, I do, its more that I don't want to waste time doing stupid stuff. I honestly feel like I gain more out of it by putting it into a blog post. Perhaps this will be homework of the future. Perhaps its not so much the information you retain but how much you let that information shape your opinion of things, your attitude toward life, and the impact of those things you are taught on your feelings that is really important. Really though, I'm just trying to justify writing a blog post when I should be working diligently on a couple reports that will be skimmed over, and marked half-heartedly for a report card that means absolutely nothing.

It took this presentation though to make me really believe in Barack Obama's "Yes we can" gambit. The words in his Inauguration speech were chosen very deliberately to evoke emotions in his audience at home and around the world to the real and imposing challenges facing everyone today. There were many things that, after studying it, I really appreciated but my favourite excerpt would have to be his little bit where speaking of the young age of America, he says, "...in the words of Scripture, the time has come to put aside childish things." To juxtapose Borat: Wa-wa-wee-wa! Obama basically just slandered... no, umm... disciplined the behaviour of the entire American populace and used God to do it. It says more than just You have been immature but that This behaviour is no longer acceptable and will not be tolerated anymore. To me, that's just awesome. It's more uplifting than it is demeaning and I believe it is exactly what the world needs to hear and what it wants to hear. In a world where so much is changing so fast (if you don't believe me, check this vid out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY) I do think its time for everyone to buck up and grow some facial hair, figuratively speaking (though for the last couple weeks I've taken this literally). I guess you could say he's persuaded me. And for those who might be wondering, the beard is staying.

In the news

As you might have read, seen on TV, or heard of, two separate shootings occurred today that left 25 people dead - 10 in Alabama and 15 in Winnenden, Germany (not including the lives of the two shooters). Could you imagine losing someone in a shooting like that? The thought of alone makes me cringe - my heart goes out to all the families affected. For more info check out CNN.



On a lighter note, check out this funny article:

On the market: Teenage Gypsy girls glam up for annual bride sale"

Dressed in their finest clothes and gold jewellery, thousands of teenage Roma girls were paraded around by their parents this weekend - at an open-air brides market.

Wearing lots of make-up, the teenagers came to the traditional annual market in Bulgaria, hoping to find a husband - and preferably one willing to pay a large amount of money for his future spouse.

Read the rest..

Laundrymat

So our washing machine broke down a week ago. No laundrymats in Budapest. I am forced to do laundry "as the gypsies do".

Well, actually I'm pretty sure a wash in the Danube would only soil my clothing more, so I had to resort to doing a load in the bathtub.

We have some fine sponsors now, thanks to them we may be able to afford a new washer.

the day the boys sold themselves out

if you havent noticed, there are now advertisements on the blog. AdSense is an application that allows average joes the ability to make money just for the amount of traffic they pull through their website. So now, just by viewing our website we profit from you. And if you were ever so inclined as to the prices of a very, very nice bed and breakfast in Cologne, or a hostel in Munich and should happen to click on the link, we make even more money. So far we've made just enough money to buy Lehman Brothers, Inc. Our goals are set high for this first of many internet money-making schemes: one cheap hungarian lunch for the four of us. apart from the shame that comes from selling yourself out to a corporate giant like google comes the ensuing rush of opportunity from connections made on the internet. Guess how much money the creator of the Pink Ribbon application on Facebook made. A million dollars and counting. In a week. Look it up. Atleast we're not profiting (I wouldn't call it profiting yet, we need your help!!!) off of charities. Just our own philosophical and experiential ramblings. And the love of friends and family. So if you love us and want us to be fed, please just check out the price of a hotel in Milan (wait... this is kind of creepy. Its only mentioned places we've actually stayed. Consider this. We stayed in a hostel in Munich, a budget hotel in Milan and a nicer, but no more expensive hotel in Cologne. What is being advertised??? How do they know??? what if i recommend buying the totally awesome, totally cool rechargeable Phillips hair trimmer i bought to buzz my hair off into a new euro style? The internet may be bigger and more connected than I thought. lets wait and see)

The Watchmen

This movie was good! I'll go again actually, anyone interested?

The Watchmen

The Watchmen was bad. Go see something else!

Total Quality Management

I am here today to ruffle a few theoretical feathers if I may. I am going to propose something so shocking that the good folks down at craigslist wouldn't let me post it in the rants and raves section for fear of e-riots, e-embargos, and e-bricks-through-e-windows.

"Life is simple."

There!! I said it, somebody had to say it... so when I go for my mid-morning walks through the park, I hear the birds asking - "with 4 guys living in a flat, how on earth do you keep it neat and tidy, it must look like the Maginot Line after it filled with squatters when the French decided to pretend they never built it." - cute fuzzy bird in tree

After a sly smile and another lap around the park, I had my answer - TQM.

Total Quality Management in its fundamental form is a revolutionary way of thinking for the new era of managers, to bring conscious thought and awareness to the quality of ALL processes within a system. Accountability - ie instead of making a factory that produces canned tuna fish by setting up the assembly line with the right pieces and hoping the delicious, mercury-tinted wonder fish comes out perfect every time, it is taking conscious thought for every process to ensure this result. Make sure the cans are perfect, the light saline solution is perfectly balanced, the fish were perfectly massacred and hung, the timing of each station, the quality, the look, the feel, the taste, the smell... you get the idea - when you make sure that every last input to meet an end is perfect... the chances of having a perfect product is greatly increased - simple!!

So where am I going with this???

Approximately 17 days 23 hours and 14 minutes ago we implemented project TQM in an effort to keep our flat visiting-mums-friendly.

Lets discuss the results together. Although the evidence against certain indivuals is overwhelming, for training and ego purposes we have kept the names of the accused in our minds and not on the internet.

The lamest things i can think of

saturday morning. 10am. splitting headache from a night of hard drinking. the damage done: 2 bottles of red, 4 pints of beer, a broken chair, a litre of yop busted open and oozing out on to the floor the sticky peach compound speckled with bits of brown 100% recycled toilet paper the irony of a cleanup procedure gone awry, two Russians, two Americans, two Hungarians and four Canadians, a threesome of upset Gypsies on the tram (Excuse me Gypsy, Would you like to sit down? - spoken in true Borat fashion) and one doner kebab.

soothing my battered brain cells with a large helping of water, Tylenol, a bowl of Breakfast of Champions, and an entire thin crust pizza over an Israeli film of Rock's collection while side stepping the the dry crusty yop on the floor allowed me to successfully get to the mall, purchase some sandals and arrive home without a headache.

the sandals I needed for a spa party, cleverly named Sparty. every month at the oldest Turkish bath on the planet, about a thousand young adults gather to get wasted, dress only in their bathing suits, and dance to disco balls, laser shows, and tribal beats. the evening was marked by me getting punched. A girl told me her name was Pregita and she said it means pregnant and made a large, round arm motion that would indicate pregnancy. so i brilliantly asked "are you pregnant?" before i realized what i in fact had just asked i found her fist had made its way sharply into my stomach, her friends' eyes were cast furiously on mine, and then felt at once both a crushing sense of embarrassment and a deep desire to laugh that can only come from being punched in a pool during a laser show by a girl named Pregita. Needless to say the comment jolted her emotions in such a way that she followed me around the rest of the night. girls are weird i guess. I think she stole my right sandal.

Would you like to waltz?

Yesterday morning I made my breakfast and sat down to watch a movie I've had for a while, but had yet to see. I started playing it and Mike joined in after watching only the first scene. Waltz with Bashir is an Israeli movie by Ari Folman depicting the Israeli-Lebanese war, mainly the Sabra and Shatila massacre that occurred in 1982.

The movie won a Golden Globe for best foreign film, and rightfully so. It's animated, but quite differently than the average animated film - you'll have to watch it to understand. From a Lebanese point of view, the film was neutral enough, though the Israelis were portrayed in a slightly better light than should be.

If you're looking for some insight into the conflict, or simply a good movie, I recommend you check this one out.

Second Life

In my E-Commerce lecture today we learned about Web 2.0. This is like the internet where everyone can contribute to what everyone else is doing. Its basically things like comments on YouTube, customer's book reviews (not actual critics), blogs, and online games. Have you heard about Second Life? Essentially, people create their virtual alter ego and play "life" on the internet with other people's virtual alter egos. You can be a smokin' hot babe, a judge, a rockstar or even a cat (which is apparently a really popular one). I was completely taken back by this. Why would you want to spend time online talking to virtual animals that are really people who want to be animals? Then I learned that Barack Obama campaigned in it on billboards. Billboards? Are their other advertisements? Wait a second... People actually make money. They host club meetings at their virtual houses and charge admission. Who brings the snacks? Then I learned that some people own property and sell it or rent it out. What??? Who controls this? Are their laws? Regulations? Can you commit murder and get away with it? What if its accidental? What if you're a giraffe driving a virtual bus you just bought from a virtual bus dealership and you're on your way to your giraffe club meeting after you went to Diets of Large Mammals class at giraffe university and you run over a virtual cat named Sam-Sam and kill him? Can you take his money? Do you go to a really tall, thin prison cell? I'm trying to understand what need this fills in people's brains. Books are imaginative but maybe restrictive (some would obviously argue differently), Choose-your-own-adventure books offer greater liberation but less interesting characters, the people you meet everyday are nice but not that interesting, certainly not as interesting as talking to cats and pornstars and landlords on the internet, but maybe thats just it. Maybe a lot of people want to be something they're not. If everyone in the world was something different, but knew it, then who's going to call you out and make fun of you for it? They would just call you out for being something totally ridiculous and then the whole world would come crashing down. I'm going to stick to becoming something I want to be (not sure if thats a cat, pornstar, or landlord) and if it doesn't pan out, I'd watch out for bus-driving giraffes if I were you.

Oh, a cool video we watched today. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE.

I would avoid thinking about ourselves as machines though. We're more like the breeze that creates ripples in a global flag.

Milan

Hello all,

After a week long hiatus from blogging its time to resume the exciting story of my Budapest experiences.

Milan is a large city. It has wonderful people. In Hotel Greco you can enjoy prepackaged Melba toast, cookies, chocolate filled croissants, honey, nutella, apricot jam, butter and all the espresso shots you can consume included free in the price of the room. As awful as it sounds, I loved getting up for breakfast. They would open the doors and let the morning air in. Mixed with the smell of espresso and episodes of The Fresh Prince of Belair dubbed over in Italian is a surpisingly stimulating experience. You also get to hang out with the coolest ugly dog on the planet, Diablo, a smug pug. I would recommend the Greco to anyone who is budget conscious. For a one-star joint we got four individual beds (a real plus, though the cot's mattress I think was just a big pillow case filled with beach towels) our own bathroom, and a door out to a courtyard.

I read The Miracle at St. Anna in the courtyard. It is set in the hills of Tuscany, which is close enough (though its still about 4 hours away by train) to make reading the book much more real. I loved the book because of how it tied in various elements of history to various characters from multiple cultures in its brash-poetic style. His explanation of why old Italians in small villages don't like to talk about the war makes the war seem horrible and brutal and fragile all at the same time. I could only put it down in between designer stores and gelato.

I'm too big to fit into European clothes. I bought a sweater in Munich two weekends ago. XXXL. No joke. Armani doesn't make clothes this big and if he did the shoulders would still be tight, the waist far to big and the arms about 3 inches too short. I stuck to purchasing a belt and a pair of sunglasses, a cheap Milan zip-up (XXL, very tight, very euro) and scarf for the soccer game. I wanted to buy some hand-crafted Italian leather shoes, but I'd need a pair of scissors instead of a shoe horn to fit into them.

This carnival thing Europe does is a lot of fun. I bought some confetti from a bag because everyone but the Canadians were covered in this confetti stuff. I opened it and threw it on the guys but they didn't think it was so amusing and spent the rest of the day shaking it off themselves. In retrospect, it was maybe a silly purchase (2 euro) because two seconds away were these big vents you find in the ground that pump air out from some sort of underground ventilation system and kids were throwing handful after handful of the recycled paper into the air covering everyone.

The Duomo is the third largest church in the world and it was stunning. Actually breathtaking. The scoops of bacio, pistachio, nougat and biscuit gelato in my mouth dribbled down my chin. Fortunately these nice Senegalese guys came up to Trevor and I to offer us free bracelets. I finished my gelato, wiped my face and after initially saying "No thanks," they said "Oh come on, its free. It's our gift to you." After another "No thanks, its nice of you to offer," he smiled wide and asked "Where you from? You have a girlfriend? Babies?" and before I knew it I had two bracelets around my wrist to which he said "Can you spare some money for Africa?" At this point I know I don't want the bracelet, I don't want to donate to some undisclosed charity in Africa, but its already on my wrist, the guy was really friendly and whats a few euro cents, right? "Oh come on, man! Five euro." I want to tell him that beggars can't be choosers, that you can't offer "free" things, then ask for a donation to something, then demand five euros for some shitty bracelet. "That's all I've got," I lied and handed him one euro twenty. I still had a few euros in my pocket and he knew it, he could probably hear it in my pocket, but fuck it, I wanted more gelato. From the four of us, two guys made about five euros collectively in about 4 minutes. It pays to be insistent.

If the outside of the Duomo is breathtaking, inside you can't breathe. It's damp and dingy and dark and cold and somehow a room the size of the inside of the third biggest church in the world manages to choke you, engulf you, squeeze something inside you so that when you leave the huge metal doors you feel instantly like the weight of 700 years of prayer and marble are lifted away forever and you never want to go inside again. Instead, pay five euro to walk up to the roof to get a view of Milan and the incredible detail of the spires.

I really liked Milan and am eager to go back. A combination of the ritz and glamour of the fashion streets (with the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins) with wood-fired pizza, gelato, carnival, weather warm enough to wear a t-shirt, discount stores and open markets made it a really enjoyable trip.

Went to Italy, need a job.

Tickets to AC-Milan game: 35 euros
D&G party shirt: 65 euros
Extra baggage fee on WIZZAIR: 40 euros
Armani shades, handmade shoes, AC-milan gear, more handmade shoes: too many fackin euros

Rocking all this gear to a "hip" Milan club: priceless ONLY if you're into dudes (more sausages there than I saw in Bavaria). Suffice it to say, the Canadian contingent considered the cost of this night to be 35 euro, WITHOUT buying any drinks in the club AND we WALKED 7km to get home. Taxi's charge you 10 bucks just to sit down in Milan vs. 5 bucks for the whole journey in Budapest.

So we're back from Milan. It was nice to be able to spend more than 4 hours exploring a city. All of us felt like we got to know the city really well, and we needed to considering how for into the suburbs our hotel was. We used the metro to explore the entire city as various bazaars and fashion outlets lured us to all corners of Milan.

Some highlights
- Gelato was delicious and consumed daily, often twice.
- It was festival in Milan. Everybody was in full costume, throwing confetti until it covered the street.
- We all played our part to support the struggle in Africa
- Watching AC Milan blow a 2-nil lead. Great effort by old man Beckham. Ronaldihno and Kaka were sorely missed.
- Trevor replaces shoe with hole in it after weeks of ridicule. I never thought 4 dudes could have so much fun shopping

If you want to hear more about anything I posted about, or see pictures of it, please ask a question in the comments section. I'm doing this blog for you guys, so it will only improve with your input and contributions.

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Tristan wins latest poll, makes it two in a row

Congratulations to Tristan for winning the "who slept the most on the Cologne trip" poll. There seems to be no stopping him. First the gourmet chef of the flat, and now the most skilled sleeper. Proof below.



Tristan sleeping in class.

Mr. Bigglesworth

"What?", I asked myself when I actually considered the date I saw before me. "The 25th of February? There's no way..." As shock turned to reason, it seemed that 1. I have lost almost complete track of time; 2. I am still sane; 2.33. I think; 2.67. I'm quite positive actually though I bought hair clipper today with the intention of buzzing my hair off Britney-style; 3. I only have 3 months left of school; and 4. I should really find some seeds for that money tree I've been meaning to grow...

Every month a fantastic process takes place. We knew that we had to pay the man, the landlord, what we didn't know was how much utilities would cost. For the entirety of this month, we have mostly lived in frigid conditions. The only warm places seem to be about 2 inches from the radiators and on the electric range. When Gabor said, "No one has ever used this much gas in a month before," we were all pretty confused. "Uhh, that can't be right," Tristan said. "We've actually been living in the freezer." The highest amount of gas ever consumed in the flat was 271 cubic metres in a month. We somehow managed to consume 324. Last January, which was somewhat milder apparently, the tenants used 68. We've just decided to bundle up at home. We have pretty much cut the heating entirely except for heating the hot water. It isn't our job to invest in caulking, insulation, carpets, blankets, etc. etc. We've already bought shelves and mirrors. We let Gabor inspect the issue but its pretty futile I figure. If we are living in cold anyways, we might as well avoid paying an arm and a leg for it. Besides, this will be the coldest month and if we cut consumption now we can ammortize the gas expense over the remainder of the lease ("ammortize" - a favourite term of McConomy and Welker).

A month has come and passed and though there is still snow on the ground and winter doesn't want to go away, the sun came out and I only wore a sweater to the Immigration Office to finalize my residence permit. After all the documentation needed, the pleas to banks, parents, lawyers, university registrars, embassies, consulates, and 18,000 forint in stamps I finally have the shiny sticker in my passport that allows me to come and go from the country between April 21 and May 23. Seems like a big waste of energy to me considering I'll be studying for exams and not traveling (who am I kidding though?).
Melinda offers free hugs.

As of yet no one has blogged about our time with the three wonderful Austrian girls. Initially, since the recent fiasco with the Austrian coat thieves, we were weary of them. I hid all my belongings (which are few and smell of a mixture of 2-week old cigarette smoke, alcohol, sweat, blood, and tears) in the only place where I knew the filthy Austrians wouldn't go: the shower. My first impression was the complete opposite from my presuppositions. The women; Melinda (who is actually from Switzerland I think), Verena (who is actually from Germany) and Raquel (who is actually from Mexico) were a great addition to the pad while they were here. Once I realized none were authentically Austrian I was relieved. I don't really know why anyone even thought they were Austrian to being with. We played yahtzee and bananagrams, they made dinner, we drank alcohol (i know, hard to believe), sang karaoke at Morrison's (slight cringe at the thought of ABBA's "Thank you for the music"), had deep conversations about the world, shared stories, and meant to give free hugs to the people of Budapest but only made cardboard signs which are now hung to the walls downstairs. When we left for Munich on Thursday, we let them stay in our flat over the weekend. They cleaned it up really nice. Melinda works at an Igloo hotel in Zurich and offered a free night for us. We might be all traveled out, but it would be an awesome experience. I'll miss them and I'm sure the rest of the guys will too.

March, fittingly, will begin in Milan. We will travel to Zurich potentially, Belfast, Dublin, and I'll spend 10 days with Lauren in Cairo, riding camels, scuba diving, climbing pyramids and avoiding bombs (Its pretty unnerving but if I can put a positive spin on it, security will be at a high and prices will be at a low).

Well, I'd better get packing. To conclude in the wise words of Dr. Evil, "It's frickin' freezing out here, Mr. Bigglesworth."

Our landlord with Mr. Bigglesworth.

Heading to Milano

In just under 30 hours we will be on a Wizz Air (discount airline) flight bound for Milan. I don't know where we'll be sleeping (we haven't booked anything yet) and I don't know how we will fill our days (we don't plan too well), but I do know that we will be watching an AC Milan game Thursday night. I've been following this team for around 6 years now, ever since I started watching soccer and I honestly can't believe that I'm finally going to be watching a live game.

What is it with us men and sports? Why do we follow teams and players that don't even know of our existence? Why are we so emotional about "our teams"? Once again, I do not know, but what I do know is that I may have to fight back some tears when "my team" takes the field.

Memories from the road...

So it seems like mike and rock have done a pretty good job of filling everyone in on the broad structure of the trip. I'll just add a few reflections on memorable moments.

Our car almost "broke down" twice on this trip (ie. mike/rock were unable to start it in a gas station). Tristan and I weren't allowed to drive because of the insurance. Tristan "started" the car the first time by starting the car in neutral instead of drive. I "started" it the second time by moving the steering wheel before turning the key (thanks dad). We narrowly avoided the disaster of running out of gas on the autobahn. We were running on fumes for around 10 minutes with no civilization in sight.

The Haufbrauhauss was great once again - probably the best meal this trip. We tried to make up a few english drinking songs to seem less lame compared to the Germans next to us, but probably still came across as tools to them. I love that place and their 1L beers, can only imagine how crazy it would get come Octoberfest.

We never got stopped at customs once the entire trip. Damn ... could have made a killing in the import/export business, jks.

It's amazing to think we're doing Milan this weekend. It'll be nice to spend a bit less time driving and a little more time exploring. It'll be a different type of trip.

Good to be "home"

Wow, what a trip. Fun, random, but exhausting. It's great to be back to Budapest and to our flat, to sleep in our own beds, and to get a few days of rest before we fly to Milan on Thursday (more on that later). Some info about the trip:

Driving was pretty fun for me. I can't say I'm the most experienced driver, so I was a little nervous about driving along the Autobahn and through cities I wasn't familiar with. Thankfully, this wasn't a problem for too long and I got the hang of it quickly enough. My philosophy was that if I could drive and survive in Lebanon, I could surely do the same in Europe. We pushed our poor Opel Astra to the limit and maxed it out at around 205 kph. Poor thing.



Hotels The hostel in Munich was great. For only 10 Euro a night in a 40-bed room it was a pretty good deal. Before leaving, though, some greasy, slightly overweight, tattooed Spanish dude tried to pick a fight because my bag was leaning against his. Some people must really hate their lives huh? The "hotel" in Amsterdam was tiny and crappy and the one in Cologne was similar. The sheets were always clean though and that's all I ask for.

Cities Mike's post gives you a good idea of what we were up to. The trip was largely spontaneous and unplanned, and that's what really made the trip a great experience. We definitely ended the trip with a bunch of good stories.

Photos I was pretty lazy this weekend and only managed to take 92 photos, most of which were pretty crappy. My favourite is the one below. I took it while we were walking around Munich, a few hours before driving away to Amsterdam.

Online Polls

Hey everyone,

the boys are back from an intensely long road trip across western europe. final statistics are as follows: Getting ready... We are parked on the sidewalk in Budapest. This is typical

Distance: 2,330 km
Top Speed: 205km/h (see photo above)
Total Time: 3 days and 17 hours, 23 hours of driving (22 hours slept by tristan in car)
Rental: 50 euro/day
Gasoline: 2x50 euro/day

Illegal manouevres: 2 (1 speeding ticket in Amsterdam [not fair considering we just got off the autobahn] and one parking ticket in Vienna)

Canadian drinking songs: atleast 3 were sung at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich (one was Oh Canada...), the largest Beer Hall in the world while a group of twenty German guys belted out their own drunken ramblings at the top of their lungs at the table beside ours

Coffeeshops visited: 2, after the long drive from Munich, trevor needed a lot of coffee...
Spacecakes consumed by group: 1, unshared

Number of times sharing a bed: 2 (I slept with Trevor in Amsterdam in the shittiest "hotel" i've ever seen => the shower was in the same room as the toilet so you would literally shower over top of the toilet and there was no sink to wash your hands. the next person to use the toilet would find it soapy clean but in three inches of post-shower water. The other was Rock and Tristan who shared a bed at the Warsteiner Hof in cologne. I slept on the floor using trevor's coat as a pillow while trevor took a cot that rocked like a teeter-totter)

German entourages: 1, its wise to follow Germans who reference WWII, hand you dollar bills with boobs on them, and jump in unison on elevators trying to break it screaming German words knocking eachother over and pissing in garbage cans.

Extended meals across Europe: 1. On the journey home it was decided that a goal would make the drive more enjoyable. We drove to Salzburg, Austria to have appetizers (some wine, soup and salad) and then on to Vienna for the main course (a metre of barbecue ribs, authentically austrian I know, but it was late and we were really hungry) and finally to Bratislava, Slovakia for banana-splits (is what would have happened if it wasn't 11:30 on a Sunday night).

Massive street festivals: 1. Cologne Carneval puts Homecoming to shame. The party takes place in two areas, each 10 times the number of people that attend Aberdeen. Everyone (I mean everyone) is dressed in ridiculous costumes for the entire festival (it lasts 4 days) so that during the day people are walking around town dressed as pirates, rats, clowns, fairies, dragons, dinosaurs, elvis and anything else you can think of. They close the streets, open the bars for dancing 24 hours for the duration of the festival, all things that can be thrown, stolen, broken, used as a weapon, such as tables, chairs, signs (i watched a lady dressed as a flower carry a street sign down the middle of a street crowded with 60,000 people) are hidden in basements. Oh and there aren't any police to be seen. anywhere. and I didn't meet one other foreigner, they were all locals.
Trevor with crazy Cologners

Helpful Germans: a lot. Germans are awesome. A shout out to the old guy and his wife who practically walked me back to the hotel after Carneval. another shout out to the staff at the Warsteiner Hof who told us that we over slept the free breakfast, then proceeded to offer us free food anyways. finally, a shout out to the girl at the Subway who got us directions to the hotel, and to the girl at the Hostel who let us use the internet for free.

Parking in Amsterdam: astronomical. its no wonder they ride bikes everywhere.

Fun in the sun: 0 hours. It was not sunny once. It was mostly cloudy but proceeded to rain and finally, driving home at 1 in the morning after 3 nights of partying it began to snow. This isnt a problem usually but in an Opel Astra, winter driving can have its concerns.

A windmill near Koln.

Congrats to Tristan for besting everyone in the online poll of "who is the gourmet chef of the flat?".

Tristan in the Kitchen