Pestilog

Phat Flat, &tc.

Look! I live here! There was totally a picture of my building on the internet. crazy. We're in that top window on the left. For serious. Come throw stones in the middle of the night. Play me Peter Gabriel from the ground. It would be totally hot.

Monday, I get to move into my new flat. I am splitting the place with three guys from my program. Two of thema re also Americans, but that is more by coincidence than anything: Wyatt from Lincoln, Stephen from Ohio, and Marko from Zagreb, Croatia. Of course, now that I said that, I have guaranteed that he will read this and tell me that I spelled it wrong. oi.

Anyway, the place is fantastic. It is right off of Jókai Tér, in the 6th district, Terézváros neighborhood. And I mean RIGHT off the square. Our front door opens up to this:


Yea, right? Totally awesome. It really is in the prime spot of the whole city. The flat is really big, with a huge kitchen and big big big bright living room that just begs to be filled with people. The three guys took the bigger bedrooms, and I will be crashing in a small half room/office, which is fine, becuse that means I pay less rent.

Today was also a totally eventful day in many other ways.

• I saw another flat this morning that had a climbing wall inside of it. For real, the main bedroom had 10 foot ceilings, and the person before had installed a full bouldring area and a climbing rope on two walls of the bedroom. Amazing.
  
• I signed up to play soccer with some Europeans who will probably kick my ass.
  
• I ended up at a party at a flat belonging to Kristina and Ciprian from Romania. There were dozens of people there, and he managed to gather the whole crowd in the lobby of hte university and drag all of us by train across the city to his flat at 4 in the afternoon for wine. LOTS of wine.
  
• I made best friends with a Russian named Alex when we discovered that we both know all the words to Gogol Bordello songs.
  
• I met a girl named Nina, also from Russia, who asked me how it is that George Bush is president, yet she has not been able to meet a single american who doesn't hate him. She also told me that there was an american clothing company that was very popular in France. This company had both french and english on their tags, and in English, it always stated the brand and the brand's slogan, but after the Bush-Gore elections, the French part changed from a simple translation of the English part to: "We're sorry that our president is a jerk. We didn't vote for him."
• Marko has talked our entire house into starting an online magazine, whos only defining characteristics are that it is both "underground" and "subversive." So far, the working title is Disantidisestablishmentarianism. I think we might be serious about this project.
• Stephen is totally sold on Urban Golf. We are going to start playing as soon as we can get golf clubs. Dimir from Bulgaria, Jeff from California, and Teddy from I-forget-which-eastern-block-country are totally in on this plan.
  
• I saw Teddy's new flat, and discovered that he has a baby-grand piano is his bedroom. A BABY GRAND PIANO IN HIS BEDROOM! I told him that I am inviting myself over all the time. He seemed pretty ok with this.
  
• I learned that Jeff from California and Michel and David from Georgia (not Atlanta) are living across the square from us. Jeff and I want to get walkie talkies.
  
• I met Sinadi, who went to Hockaday school in Dallas. This was the rival school of my highschool in Dallas. Even though she has been living in Bulgaria the past few years, her parents live on Coit and LBJ, around the corner from where I was staying just a few weeks ago. She also claims to be good friends with Riqui's little sister. Small world.
  
• I received 2 text messages from CEU students telling me that they had just lost the game. (mwa ha ha ha ha ha!)
• I took the train back to the hotel and had a 3 hour dinner (prolonged by excellent conversation) with Asa, the most progressive Israeli I have ever met. He is a liberal, vegan sociologist who has done time in an Israelu military prison for refusing to fulfill his compulsory military service in an occupied territory. This guy may just be my new favorite person ever. We only got a little bit lost coming back from Cip's apartment.
  
• I tried Hungarian vodka. Screw that noise.
• I tried Hungarian wine. Screw that noise.
• I tried Hungarian falafel. Yum.
  
• I almost fell asleep in the lobby of the hotel writing this blog.

I really meant to go out and meet the guys. Teddy and Stephen were on my case to go to an party thrown by the Germans (ze Germans can party, apparently), but I ended up talking with Asa from Jerusalem and Laura from New York until the restaurant shut down and the trains stopped running. Ah well. I'm totally exhausted anyway. I have felt pretty fine all day. No, I have actually felt fucking fantastic all day, but I keep catching glimpses of myself in windows or whatever and getting totally startled, saying "Man, I look exhausted!" I have been bouncing off the walls all day, but I can't remember the last time I had circles under my eyes like this.

Bed for me.

posted by Veruka2 @ 3:46 PM