Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
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
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
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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:
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:
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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
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.
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.
Monday, April 6, 2009
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.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
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!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
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!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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.
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