Getting started is always the hardest part.

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.

Getting out and doing shit.

The last few days have been incredibly active, as far as me actually going out and doing stuff goes. You'd all be so proud. No riots or anything though, I leave that to you. I'll do a rundown of this by day, so we'll see what I can remember:
Thursday: I went to class etc etc. That night, I went to the first meeting of the Water of Life Society for this semester. That's the university whiskey (Scottish spelling: whisky) appreciation society, for those that I haven't mentioned it to yet. It was incredibly fun and extremely informative. I met a couple of other American students, so it didn't end up just being me, awkwardly sitting by myself. That was cool. We tried 5 different whiskeys, of varying types (though all Scotch) and got information about each of them. So I've tried 7 different whiskeys since getting here, though damned if I remember all of their names. Not too shabby. After the meeting, I tagged along to a bar and then a night club with the other Americans. They're with one of the big, multi-school study abroad programs, so it ended up being a fairly large group of people. Completely different than the USC abroad experience.
Friday: Went grocery shopping, as I was out of everything. That night was a Burns Night supper/ceilidh at the church I've started going to. Tremendous amount of fun. I tried haggis for the first time; it's actually quite good. All of the traditions and trappings that go along with Burns Night are also something incredible to behold. It's a meal where there's never a dull moment. I'm tempted to have my own version next year, but I don't know how successful I'd be at getting people to try haggis. I'll have to discuss this with Kate later. The dancing would also be a problem, as I don't know any Scottish dances. Though, I did do a few last night. No lie, I danced. With a lot more practice, I could be a pretty decent Scottish dancer I think. It wasn't at all hard once I got the hang of it. Though I guess it does help that the person that I was mostly dancing with was spectacularly good. After that, which ended at like 11:15, I went back to the Scottish economist's flat for Mah Jong and whiskey. And ended up staying there until 3am, just like last time. It's becoming a weekend habit. I'll be a Mah Jong master by the time I get home.
Today: I woke up at 10, which was disturbingly early for the time that I actually went to bed, and took a trip out to Rosslyn Chapel with the girl that I met from USC. It's about a 45 minute ride on a public bus from here, so no big hassle to get to at all. It was absolutely incredible. The chapel and the surrounding hills and valleys are just gorgeous. And it's made about 100x cooler by the fact that my dad's a Freemason (yeah, yeah secret society shut up), so I know a lot of the lore and symbolism involved in the carvings and the chapel itself. It's somewhere that I've wanted to go for a long, long time. After that, we had lunch in this adorable hotel right near the castle, and it was delicious and warm. The warm aspect of food is incredibly important with the normal weather here. Then, I came home, watched four or five more episodes of the new Doctor Who (totally addicted) and did laundry. Now, I think I might call home.
Also, if anyone's wondering why I don't really talk about feelings in this blog (not that you would be, but might as well address it), it's because it's so easy to find, really. Like, I have no problem talking about my general impressions of stuff, mostly how I'm feeling, etc., but mostly I'm focused on what I've actually, physically been doing. I don't want to talk about the crazy boring emotional stuff in a blog that's so out in the open, on my facebook profile and all. Also, I was going to give this address to my parents, so they could keep track of me. I haven't, for various reasons (like you guys making references to my reputation as a drunken slut etc) [kidding], but that kept me from actually treating this like my other blog as well. I have this thing where I only put on a brave face for them, regardless of how I'm actually feeling. It's dumb, as they're my family, and they, more than anybody else, should get to know when I'm terrified/lonely/homesick/falling apart or whatever, but that's not how I operate. I think crying in front of my dad when I realized that I wasn't going to be able to make the situation with my visa work was the most embarrassing thing that has happened to me in recent memory. And yes, I mean that, despite whatever else may have happened within the space of this last semester. I have serious problems, I know.
Now that I've broken the "no feelings" rule (aside: however the previous may make it sound, I am completely and totally content, I love this place and these people), let's move on to Heath Ledger. I am totally heart-broken about his death. I was going to marry him, somehow. Not even lying. I had a total delusion about that. It would have been one of my 3 wishes if I ever came across a genie. And his death was sort of like the death of my childhood, in one of those stupid, symbolic ways. But yeah, that's neither here nor there. But I do really appreciate the eulogy that Joel McHale of The Soup said for Heath, so I think I'll end this post with that. Something reasonable, one good guy talking about another:




True class.

- C