The computer ate my post yesterday.

We had such a nice afternoon! Class was nice, and pretty interesting. I need to be more courageous about speaking up, because I could add something to the conversation... I'm just afraid of sounding stupid. I should realize that I will generally sound stupid anyway, and just say whatever's on my mind.

After class, we went grocery shopping and had cake and coffee... then we went back home and sat in the sunshine and played the guitar and sang. Many many people were outside, and singing along... it was great. So great that I'm making Anna bring the guitar to the picnic today.

After that, we had a meeting with Raimund about our English tutoring things we're starting next week. Then we all went to get some food and some drinks at Desperados... which was interesting, because I hadn't had Mexican food in a long time, and Germans do Mexican real funny. There were cucumbers in my enchiladas. Cucumbers!

A few of us then went to Irish Pub and sat around speaking English... We got Michael to come out with us... He's from Chicago, but he's teaching instead of taking classes, so we hadn't had much contact with him. It was the first time since I've been here that I've been in a group where the men outnumbered the girls. Eichstätt is mostly girls, I think. I suppose a lot of university towns in the states are that way, too.

Kay and I made corn muffins this morning to take to the picnic. And we're heading out that way now.

 
For the first time ever, I am annoyed by tourists instead of being one. I was trying to walk to class this morning only to find that my sidewalks were clogged with people in khaki short and sunhats trying to read their maps. If I hadn't been so astounded by the realization that I am now a local, I would have stopped and helped them find places.

On the way home from Budapest, I read a copy of the UK edition of Cosmo. Comforting to find an English-language publication in the newstand in Hungary... but it was poorly written and even more trashy than the American version.

I am afraid to approach the housekeeper when she's engaged in conversation to ask if I can buy tokens for the washing machine, and as a result, I may not be able to do laundry today, either. I'm wearing boxer shorts and dirty socks. The outlook is not good.

I have a lunch date with Kay and Anna, then fencing, then a little worktime, then my first Polish class. I'm excited!

 
I just realized that I fail now to mention whenever anyone asks me about politics. (ie Bush and the war) It's so common... as soon as someone feels comfortable enough to talk to you about your weekend, they'll ask about it. That's good, I guess.

I look like an American today (hooded sweatshirt that says 'Winter Park' on it... jeans, tennis shoes...) and yet, someone asked me for directions, and I gave them. Right on.

And now, the work for the schoolyear begins in earnest. Excuse me.

 
I think the fact that I didn't sleep necessarily 'well' in the hostel in combination with the night train have caught up to me. I am ridiculously tired. Also, I saw for the first time this morning the infamous Eichstätt fog... It just sorta sits in the valley like pea soup. Amazing, really. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Today in my grammar class I learned the word for 'delusions of grandeur.'

I lost my keys yesterday. How dumb is that, really? I came over to the computer cetner to check my e-mail, and when I went back to my room, my keys were gone. Sigh. I was stressed, and there were no English speakers around for me to comiserate with or get advice from. The Azerbaijani guy whose name I can never remember was very sympathetic, though, and told me to call the Hausmeister... He's like our handyman or something. I hadn't ever met him before. But I called his cell phone, and he came and gave me extra keys, and when I said "I'm sorry!" He was like, "Don't worry about it!" However, the housekeeper this morning told me it would be pretty expensive if I couldn't find them and I had to have copies made. Sigh. I'm going to lash this set of keys to my wrist or something.

I went grocery shopping and made some cornbread. No recipe, just wingin' it. I hadn't considered that Europeans had never had cornbread, and they were really curious... but my friends from the south were just excited. They all seemed to like it, and Vincenzo told me it was sort of like polenta, which is true, but I've never made polenta... I'll perfect the proportions of stuff later, but it was an excellent first attempt, if I do say so myself. That was also breakfast this morning. Mmmm.

After that I had music time with Anna and we told each other about our trips... (not the same Anna I'd traveled with). She went to Berlin and had a similarly fantastic time to mine. Vincenzo came around looking for us, and I sang him part of 'Picture' by way of illustrating that I can play songs now. He got a bit poetic, and said to me, "I translated once the Death of Socrates..."

"Oh, I've read it in English."

"It's better in Greek. ...and there's a part where he talks about knowing that death is coming, like swans--they sing their last song, and it is longer and more beautiful than anything else they have sung before... And that is the only thing to which I can compare your voice."

"So now I sound like a dying swan?"

"Shut up. It's beautiful. Plato knew what he was talking about."

 
Okay, back home again. Need to do some laundry, but not at all yet in the mood. I have no idea where the rest of the Americans are, and I need to find them to gossip!

Friday night we're going to go out to this concert at Millenium Park with several bands. Robin comes in and is like "What happened to you?" and I explain the huge meal, and it was really okay 'cuz Faro, this guy from New York, was with him. Robin decides he's not leaving immediately for the concert, and I decide to hang back with him and catch up with the others later. He made me dinner (aaaah, European men who can cook!) and fed me half a bottle of red wine. We brought along Josh, a new arrival from Michigan, and headed out to the park, thinking it might be a lost cause to actually find them in the crowd. Luckily, however, we heard Simon's voice... they were fortuitously outside the concert thing because, they said, the bands sucked. Half the group had already given up and gone elsewhere, Anna among them. Simon goes in to check out the band that's setting up, as the rest of us are quite content to help Johanna out with her birthday bottle of wine and chill in the beautiful spring evening. But Simon comes back and is extremely excited. "They've got jambies (sp?)... and a full samba set... and a kit... this could be good...." So we buy the wrist bands and go inside. We make our way up to the very front of the stage (which I never would have had the balls to do on my own, what with the weaving through and pushing of Hungarians) Some cool stuff did in fact happen, such as some belly dancers appearing for one song. The lead singer was a tripped out hippie guy. Obviously I understood not a word, but we danced and danced and drank Red Bull and vodka and danced some more and got yelled at by Hungarians, and danced.... It was all quite good. We caught a bus home, fell asleep watching a movie, as usual...

Next morning was the same, with the yoghurt and the guitar and the chess. I decided I wanted to buy a guitar because things are ridiculously cheap in Eastern Europe and it would have only cost me about $30 or $40 for a reasonable guitar. Simon wanted to look at some drums, because everything is freaking expensive in London. So we set out looking for a music store together, wandering through another cute district (the seventh) and happening upon the second largest synagogue in the world (hey!), which was gorgeous. Unfortunately, all the shops were closed by the time we'd gotten out and about. We had lunch in a cute little sandwich shop. I'm starting to like tomatoes when they're all fresh and red and delicious. Then we had ice cream and went back home.

Saturday night I made the only mistake of the trip. There was a dance party in one of the Turkish baths. Sounds dangerous, doesn't it? Crowds of people, alcohol, bathing suits, warm water.... I didn't bring a suit anyway, but I could have borrowed one and gone. Simon had talked me out of it earlier in the day, saying he didn't really want to be "Out on the" like the other guys. I was like, "What?" "Y'know, out on the drugs, out on the drink, out on the pull." "The pull?" "Picking up girls." "Ooooh..." I never had trouble with his accent--just his word choice. So, I decided to go out to this jazz club Anna had been wanting to visit. Some others were with us on this--Robin and his friend Tony, a couple nice Americans and some new Australians. Simon had changed his mind and gone to the baths. Unfortunately, the party was rockin' and the jazz club had relocated or something. Sadness. We had a quiet drink in a cute pub, and went home to wait for the revelers. As Robin was supposed to meet us there, we never caught up with him until the next morning. I told him I'm never going to plan to meet him anywhere ever again.

Sunday, the I got up with some of the girls who hadn't gone to the party and went to the baths. The people working there were ridiculously unhelpful, and signage in general in Hungary leaves something to be desired. We never knew what was happening. Anyway, it ended up being pretty cool, and I was all relaxed and went back and dressed and such. Then I went out to the Statue Park. They saved a lot of the public art from the communist era and have it on display in this little area right outside town. It is both creepy and interesting. I cooked dinner for Anna and myself (I kinda rule at cooking), and we were sitting about, chatting and such. I wanted to go out for a drink, but the boys had started some kind of chess tournament. Anna and I went out for tea at this cute little New Age tea house. We came back and chilled a bit, started watching Austin Powers, but gave up and went to sleep.

Monday morning was generally the same. I got up, was eating some yogurt... Simon and Robin made coffee, the kitchen was abuzz, we were talking about travel plans for the day. Robin says, "Does anyone feel like scrambled eggs?" Simon and I are like, "Yeah, we could go for that." "All right, eggs are in the fridge, frying pan is over there." He pats my hand. The other girls in the kitchen are like, "Ooooh..." But I scramble some eggs, and they are good. Robin then somehow pulled a similar maneuver to get Simon to do the dishes. Crafty Frenchman.

We all went out shopping, only to discover that for some reason, everything is closed on the Monday after Easter. Go figure. So we have a hot chocolate, wait for Robin and Tony to catch up to where Anna and Simon and I are... then the 5 of us go back to that Serbian restaurant--Castro's. The place totally rules. Again I had perhaps the perfect meal, finished off with that awesome dessert and an espresso. I don't know if I've ever been so utterly content.

We said our goodbyes then... I'm so excited to have met them (and everyone else, of course). Now I've got people in London and Lyon... this is a good habit to pick up!

We took an overnight train back to Munich, then another train to Eichstätt. I am exhausted. And really hungry. And I need to do laundry. And go grocery shopping.

But I'm grinning ear to ear.

 
I'm back in Munich from Budapest awaiting my train back up to Eichstätt. I don't know how I feel about that... I didn't really want to leave Budapest, but all good things must come to an end, and classes must be attended. I definitely didn't want to say goodbye to all my new pals, but I am excited about travel opportunities that will arise from this trip.

Let's see, let's see... we arrived early Thursday morning, found our hostel, and headed into town to start sight-seeing. The hostel was in a residential neighborhood, painted bright colors, and all small and cozy and friendly. If you ever go to Budapest, you must must must stay there! It's called the Backpacker's Guesthouse. E-mail and I'll tell you how to get there.

We walked up to Buda palace, and I was just astonished at the view. The city is gorgeous. It's not something I'd really expected. I mean, there are parts that definitely remind you that you're in a less than well-to-do Eastern European country, but it does suffer from what my dear Brit friend calls "a lot of unneccessarily pretty architecture." Which is both good and surprising, considering it's communist history. We went to the National Gallery in the castle and oohed and aaahed over the view for a bit, then went back to the hostel.

So... Anna took a nap, and I headed out to the porch because I heard a guitar playing, thus meeting Simon. Simon is from London, and teaches geology or some such nonsense at the University College of London. He can play the guitar, but his real passion is drums. He's been a vegetarian for 20 years. I am nearly instantly enamoured. I tell him I just want to watch his technique, because I've started playing last week, and he makes me show off my skills. My guitar playing is not great, though I'm good for a beginner, but I can apparently sing. ::wink:: Simon and I were chatting for a while, then Robin came out to join us. Robin was born in England, but has lived in France since he was 3, and thinks much like a Frenchman who speaks excellent English. He lives in Lyon and is a professor (ish) of Theater or English Literature, or something having to do with plays. He has also managed to very nearly make me a smoker in 5 days. He's so considerate--always offering me wine, or food, or a cigarette, or pulling out a chair... very continental. Those are my boys. (Not too old either.... 24 and 25, respectively. Hey, even younger than my Italian!)

Thursday night Anna and I went out to meet Christian, who also came in our carpool... He's got some family in Budapest, and has worked there a couple summers, so should ostensibly know the city well. He took us out to this total crap club outside one of the baths where we couldn't even get frickin' drinks. We went back to the hostel to regroup and possibly try again, only to see that right inside the door is a group of people about to go out. I kinda unceremoniously ditched Anna and Christian and went out with the rest of the people. We walked for a looooooooong time, only to end up back at the same place Christian had taken us. Sure enough, no one could hold a bartender's attention long enough to get drinks. I didn't really want to be in an Eastern European meat market anyway, so Robin and I lurked near the entrance, and left quite soon with Simon to cross the bridge and try to find another bar.

We ran into a couple other refugees from the original group and sat down at an outdoor cafe and had Irish cofee.... mmmm..... Then we walked home and started watching a movie. I have a nasty blister. I went to bed eventually, and it was good.

Woke up the next morning, ate a bit of breakfast and sat on the porch while Simon played guitar for a while (morning ritual, doncha know, followed by a morning game of chess.) I become aware that I will be unable to do the good touristy kind of walking, what with the blister and all. So Anna goes out to be a tourist, and I plan to meet her for lunch/shopping/the baths/whatever. I bum around a bit and get ready to go... I make an appointment to meet Robin at the baths at around 4. I go to the place I'm supposed to meet Anna, but she is delayed. I do, however, run into Simon. And aren't I cute.... I walk up to him sitting on a park bench reading his map and say "Excuse me, do you speak English?" (Hungarian is freakin' difficult, by the by. I can say like 3 things, and those only kind of. The most important things to know are 'Nem!' which means No, and that 'thank you' sounds like 'close enough.' If you mumble that, they think maybe you said it right.) We decide to go have some lunch... Anna shows up... we go down to this totally adorable district and eat at a place called Castro's that serves amazing Serbian food. Go figure. It is so heavy and wonderful... The dessert is the most wonderful thing I've ever tasted. I have to figure out what it is. So the meal was fantastic, but took about 3 hours. We sat around chitchatting, talked to the other English speaking tourists at the table next to ours, and generally totally missed our appointment with Robin. Which was okay, really. We all gathered back at the hostel again....

Ugh, time to head back to Eichstätt. More later.