Let me tell you a story. It's not an exciting story, but I feel that it's sort of indicative of much of my life.
I've been in Budapest for a week today. Our train to Warsaw, a night train, was leaving tonight at 10pm. Come 8:30pm, I looked at the ticket. The following conversation ensued:
"Hey, Lena, this ticket says 20:00. The train left half an hour ago."
*blank stare*
Yes, we managed to miss our train after spending the entire day in the apartment, doing nothing but packing. Obviously, life wants me to run out of money and starve away to nothing. Fortunately, we went to the train station and were able to get tickets for tomorrow morning's train (at $10 more than we spent before, but you do what you gotta). That's one less day we have in Warsaw and possibly dropping a city later on, but it's also a valuable life lesson learned: always check the ticket haha.
Other than that minor mishap, the time in Budapest has been fun. It's not really my type of city (large, dirty, decaying, incomprehensible signs in a foreign language), but I can see why people choose to study abroad here. The nightlife is basically never-ending, and there are lots of opportunities to live in a degree of splendor for an affordable amount of money. The baths are really nice, and the buildings would be super impressive if there were any degree of upkeep. Unfortunately, it seems like both the Nazis and the Soviets destroyed much of the pride of the Hungarian people in their nationality. Years and years of brutal occupation will do that, but it's hard to find redeeming qualities in a city like this when the people seem perpetually downtrodden. Still, maybe in 10 years, a new generation completely untouched by an occupying power will change the mentality here.
We've taken a couple of day trips: one to Bratislava, Slovakia, and the other to Eger, a small town in the wine producing region of Hungary. It rained both days, of course. Bratislava was a very nice place, well-kept and tiny. Eger, also tiny, had a lot of cheap wine as a definite upside. It was also clean and cute, in a Baroque way. The Hungarian countryside isn't generally all that nice, dotted with Soviet-era apartment blocks and crumbling, make-shift train stations. I don't know, I guess I'm just more contented in places that let me lead my typical American, charmed life, without reminding me how horrible people can be to others. I also appreciate people with a resiliency of spirit that the Hungarians just don't seem to have. I'm used to the Irish way of dealing with problems: make a joke and move on. There isn't a lot of laughter on the streets here. If you go to the baths or some other place for leisure, sure, people enjoy it. But day to day life seems to be more about straight up survival than just being happy to be alive. It's much, much different than Scotland.
I'm probably being unfair, but Eastern Europe is definitely not somewhere that I see myself ending up. Slavic stoicism is not my style. I expect that this will be one of those trips that makes me grateful that I grew up where and how and when I did.
Also, I am learning patience. I have to, otherwise I would DESTROY someone.
Time for bed, as I now have to wake up early in the morning and actually catch a train. Word.
Showing posts with label ridiculous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ridiculous. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
We all want something beautiful.
I'm going to say right now, this entry is going to do the Highlands absolutely no justice. There aren't words strong enough to actually describe the sort of landscape up there. There just aren't. Maybe if you were to listen the theme to Jurassic Park or Lord of the Rings with your eyes closed and imagine the landscape evoked by that music (minus any possible dinosaurs or hobbits), you could sort of get it. But probably not.
The tour of the Highlands started here in Edinburgh. We took a bus for three days of gorgeous countryside and awesome Celtic myths. I saw mountains and castles and fairy knolls. Also, more sheep and deer than I've ever seen in my life. The guide was a Glaswegian named Tony, and I absolutely fell in love with him haha. It helped that he looked remarkably like Damian Lewis and was impossibly charming and funny, as Scotsmen are wont to be. But yeah, besides Tony being a great guide, the tour had all sorts of other upsides. Mostly, I plan to make enough money to buy a house up there (the going rate for a one-story, modestly sized house is half a million $) and then completely withdraw from civilization. It's overrated anyway.
I don't really know how to write up the trip. I think it's better told through pictures, which I'll post on Facebook eventually. Sadly, I don't have pictures of everything because my camera batteries are sort of waging a war of attrition against me. They've ceased holding a charge for any longer than, say, 5 minutes of use. Fucking frustrating.
Anyway, as I said, the tour was three days. We went from here to Loch Ness and spent the first night in Fort Augustus on the edge of the loch. For the next day, we drove up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent the night. The Isle of Skye might as well not even be earth. The landscape up there seems completely alien, for a variety of reasons. I was basically looking out the bus window and thinking that I was further from what I consider real life than I ever had been before. That night it snowed, so there was a nice coating of snow on everything for the ride back down to Edinburgh for the next day. Abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous.
I know, I'm a total cop-out. I honestly have no idea what else to say about it. If you want some things to Google, to sort of piece together what I saw for yourself, I can give a list:
Part of the absolute charm of Scotland is the regard for and love of the landscape. The Scots really, really love their country, and they have been enduring some of the worst weather in the world for thousands of years because of this love. The Highlanders especially exemplify this spirit, because it can be a miserable life up there. Especially in the winter and especially when there were no modern conveniences. It's sort of astounding to think about the things that people will put up with to stay where they are. The Scots enjoy what they call "hill-walking" or "going for a wee wander," which is actually hiking. I've learned that understating things is sort of the Scottish way. We went for a wee wander in Glencoe on the first day, and if I'm going to live in the Highlands, I am for sure going to need to get in shape haha. I am so not a hiker. And Scotland's hills are actually mountains, so yeah. I'd be perfectly happy being a sheep farmer's wife. It's not a bad life, when you wake up everyday to the most beautiful countryside in the world (I haven't actually been everywhere in the world, but I have no reservations about that sweeping statement).
And then I returned to Edinburgh to find that my 18 year old cousin is apparently engaged, fueling my current burning desire to retreat from everything. How did I find this out? Through motherfucking Facebook. Here comes a big, long diatribe, so get yourself a drink or something. It's actually sort of shocking to me how hurt I am by this, but there you have it. I'm changing my life's ambitions because of it. I was considering, following my earlier deep introspection, moving back to the East Coast after graduation because of the disconnect that I'm feeling between me and my family. Not anymore. I will be applying to grad schools here in the UK, pretty much exclusively I think. I probably sound completely irrational, but it mostly feels like my family has forgotten that I exist. It's stupid, I know. They're all so proud of me, talk about me all the time, blah blah blah. But my cousin, who has lived next door to me for all 18 years of her existence, decides to get engaged, and nobody sees fit to tell me this for two months. I have to find out from an update to her fiance's Facebook. Excuse me, what? I talked to my cousin last week. I talk to other members of my family every goddamn week. This is big news, guys. The sort of thing that I would like to know about, if only to voice my disapproval. Because I absolutely disapprove. This is going to change my life as well as theirs, as selfish as that sounds.
Basically, the way I see it is this. Ashley, my cousin, has been dating Ben, who graduated high school with me and was a friend of mine, since spring of my freshman year. So for two-ish years. Fine, whatever. I don't particularly like Ben, as he's always been basically an irritation for me. We agree about nothing, I think he's a fool. His dad's a priest, and he wants to be one too. He's changed religions (from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism), I think mostly to win over my family. He'll say that it was after deep introspection and lots of searching blah blah don't care. Not the source of my deep-seated dislike. My family also dislikes Ben, for basically the same reasons that I do. He's opinionated, obnoxious, and foolish.
Ashley drags him along to all of our family functions, and, if there's one thing that should be known about my family, it's that they like to tear outsiders apart behind their backs. Maybe not the most noble trait, but whatever. We love each other and try to keep each other from being stupid. It's sort of like being part of a clan, with the inherent distrust of outsiders. Someone who has married into the family will probably forever be criticized, for one thing or another. Examples: being neurotic, being too overbearing, treating a dog like a child (my uncles are excellent fodder for the Lynch tribunal). So Ben doesn't stand a chance, is what I'm saying. He's already been a topic of discussion whenever I've been home, and I'd rather not have to talk about him for the rest of my life. I'd rather not have to see him for the rest of my life. He disturbs my hard-won peace. I know, I sound completely awful and selfish saying all of this. He makes my cousin happy blah blah blah. She's 18. She wants to go to med school, and she's still only a freshman in college. Ben's a junior, and he still lives with his parents. I don't know when they plan to marry, but I'm afraid that he's going to ruin her potential. She's a smart girl, but the women in my family do stupid stuff for love. Like marry idiots.
I genuinely like going to family functions. Have done for my entire life. Ben has made them more difficult than enjoyable. I sort of predicted that this would happen, but not so soon. I expected to have time to wean myself off of using my family as a source of peace. But fine, this is the way it is now. Ashley and Ben will get married, and I'll be the absent achiever. Talk about a person who can't deal with change. I'll probably seem like the jealous spinster, and I'll be forced to endure the wedding to avoid having people say mean shit behind my back. This is an odd side of me, I know. I'm not doing myself any favors here.
I just wish that someone had thought to tell me about this. If I had a fortress of solitude, it was my family. It may seem weird to be so upset about something happening in my extended family, but as I said, clan structure. My cousins might as well be my brothers and sisters for as often as we saw each other growing up. I can't make a distinction between immediate and extended. We all live next door to one another, for fuck's sake. I said before that home was no longer feeling like home. This just sort of clinches it. Growing up sucks, really. I wasn't ready to give up the peace that I felt with my family.
In better news, Doctor Who is back. This is how I will get through everything.
The tour of the Highlands started here in Edinburgh. We took a bus for three days of gorgeous countryside and awesome Celtic myths. I saw mountains and castles and fairy knolls. Also, more sheep and deer than I've ever seen in my life. The guide was a Glaswegian named Tony, and I absolutely fell in love with him haha. It helped that he looked remarkably like Damian Lewis and was impossibly charming and funny, as Scotsmen are wont to be. But yeah, besides Tony being a great guide, the tour had all sorts of other upsides. Mostly, I plan to make enough money to buy a house up there (the going rate for a one-story, modestly sized house is half a million $) and then completely withdraw from civilization. It's overrated anyway.
I don't really know how to write up the trip. I think it's better told through pictures, which I'll post on Facebook eventually. Sadly, I don't have pictures of everything because my camera batteries are sort of waging a war of attrition against me. They've ceased holding a charge for any longer than, say, 5 minutes of use. Fucking frustrating.
Anyway, as I said, the tour was three days. We went from here to Loch Ness and spent the first night in Fort Augustus on the edge of the loch. For the next day, we drove up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent the night. The Isle of Skye might as well not even be earth. The landscape up there seems completely alien, for a variety of reasons. I was basically looking out the bus window and thinking that I was further from what I consider real life than I ever had been before. That night it snowed, so there was a nice coating of snow on everything for the ride back down to Edinburgh for the next day. Abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous.
I know, I'm a total cop-out. I honestly have no idea what else to say about it. If you want some things to Google, to sort of piece together what I saw for yourself, I can give a list:
- Glencoe
- Eilean Donan Castle
- Culloden
- Inverness
- William Wallace Memorial
- Commando Memorial
- Loch Cluanie and Loch Lochie
- Portree (there's video of an exploding whale if you look hard enough)
- Doune Castle (where part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed)
- Ben Nevis
Part of the absolute charm of Scotland is the regard for and love of the landscape. The Scots really, really love their country, and they have been enduring some of the worst weather in the world for thousands of years because of this love. The Highlanders especially exemplify this spirit, because it can be a miserable life up there. Especially in the winter and especially when there were no modern conveniences. It's sort of astounding to think about the things that people will put up with to stay where they are. The Scots enjoy what they call "hill-walking" or "going for a wee wander," which is actually hiking. I've learned that understating things is sort of the Scottish way. We went for a wee wander in Glencoe on the first day, and if I'm going to live in the Highlands, I am for sure going to need to get in shape haha. I am so not a hiker. And Scotland's hills are actually mountains, so yeah. I'd be perfectly happy being a sheep farmer's wife. It's not a bad life, when you wake up everyday to the most beautiful countryside in the world (I haven't actually been everywhere in the world, but I have no reservations about that sweeping statement).
And then I returned to Edinburgh to find that my 18 year old cousin is apparently engaged, fueling my current burning desire to retreat from everything. How did I find this out? Through motherfucking Facebook. Here comes a big, long diatribe, so get yourself a drink or something. It's actually sort of shocking to me how hurt I am by this, but there you have it. I'm changing my life's ambitions because of it. I was considering, following my earlier deep introspection, moving back to the East Coast after graduation because of the disconnect that I'm feeling between me and my family. Not anymore. I will be applying to grad schools here in the UK, pretty much exclusively I think. I probably sound completely irrational, but it mostly feels like my family has forgotten that I exist. It's stupid, I know. They're all so proud of me, talk about me all the time, blah blah blah. But my cousin, who has lived next door to me for all 18 years of her existence, decides to get engaged, and nobody sees fit to tell me this for two months. I have to find out from an update to her fiance's Facebook. Excuse me, what? I talked to my cousin last week. I talk to other members of my family every goddamn week. This is big news, guys. The sort of thing that I would like to know about, if only to voice my disapproval. Because I absolutely disapprove. This is going to change my life as well as theirs, as selfish as that sounds.
Basically, the way I see it is this. Ashley, my cousin, has been dating Ben, who graduated high school with me and was a friend of mine, since spring of my freshman year. So for two-ish years. Fine, whatever. I don't particularly like Ben, as he's always been basically an irritation for me. We agree about nothing, I think he's a fool. His dad's a priest, and he wants to be one too. He's changed religions (from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism), I think mostly to win over my family. He'll say that it was after deep introspection and lots of searching blah blah don't care. Not the source of my deep-seated dislike. My family also dislikes Ben, for basically the same reasons that I do. He's opinionated, obnoxious, and foolish.
Ashley drags him along to all of our family functions, and, if there's one thing that should be known about my family, it's that they like to tear outsiders apart behind their backs. Maybe not the most noble trait, but whatever. We love each other and try to keep each other from being stupid. It's sort of like being part of a clan, with the inherent distrust of outsiders. Someone who has married into the family will probably forever be criticized, for one thing or another. Examples: being neurotic, being too overbearing, treating a dog like a child (my uncles are excellent fodder for the Lynch tribunal). So Ben doesn't stand a chance, is what I'm saying. He's already been a topic of discussion whenever I've been home, and I'd rather not have to talk about him for the rest of my life. I'd rather not have to see him for the rest of my life. He disturbs my hard-won peace. I know, I sound completely awful and selfish saying all of this. He makes my cousin happy blah blah blah. She's 18. She wants to go to med school, and she's still only a freshman in college. Ben's a junior, and he still lives with his parents. I don't know when they plan to marry, but I'm afraid that he's going to ruin her potential. She's a smart girl, but the women in my family do stupid stuff for love. Like marry idiots.
I genuinely like going to family functions. Have done for my entire life. Ben has made them more difficult than enjoyable. I sort of predicted that this would happen, but not so soon. I expected to have time to wean myself off of using my family as a source of peace. But fine, this is the way it is now. Ashley and Ben will get married, and I'll be the absent achiever. Talk about a person who can't deal with change. I'll probably seem like the jealous spinster, and I'll be forced to endure the wedding to avoid having people say mean shit behind my back. This is an odd side of me, I know. I'm not doing myself any favors here.
I just wish that someone had thought to tell me about this. If I had a fortress of solitude, it was my family. It may seem weird to be so upset about something happening in my extended family, but as I said, clan structure. My cousins might as well be my brothers and sisters for as often as we saw each other growing up. I can't make a distinction between immediate and extended. We all live next door to one another, for fuck's sake. I said before that home was no longer feeling like home. This just sort of clinches it. Growing up sucks, really. I wasn't ready to give up the peace that I felt with my family.
In better news, Doctor Who is back. This is how I will get through everything.
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