Pestilog

Best Birthday Card Ever?

Labels: Alex, house, kendra, Marko, Stephen, video

posted by Veruka2 @ 2:10 PM 1 comments

Crazy Peep on Peep Action

So, Stephen got an easter package the other day from the states that had a package of marshmallow peeps in it. Marko had never seen marshmallow peeps. They are apparently soley an American atrocity. Marko is basically new to this whole 'marshmallows' thing anyway. He had his first s'mores the other day, which was eventful and exciting for all. Growing up in a dark corner under the stair case, licking clean nutella jars under the ominous eye of communism, Marko has never experienced many of the things that are staples of American childhood. Like the transformers. And cookie crisp. And freedom. Right?

So anyway, since Marko never grew up with marshmallows, he also has never heard of putting a marshmallow in the microwave. So we put the peeps in the microwave, to see which one would eat the other one first. It filled our kitchen with frikin glee.

I found a video of some other kids doing the same thing on youtube. It totally cracks me up because we sounded just as retarded in our own kitchen. We even compared it to Akira. Cause we rule.

Labels: house, Marko, procrastiation, video

posted by Veruka2 @ 12:07 PM 0 comments

There was indeed Christmas in Budapest (the booze narrative)

Ok, for starters, this is the first of a series of blog entries that I have been meaning to make for a little while. I'm playing catch up, so bear with me here. Second, I would really like to insist that I have actually NOT been drinking the copious amounts of alcohol that reading this blog might make you think I do. I'm not a drunk, my liver is fine, I just get really excited about liquor sometimes. Really excited. I mean, what do you expect me to do when people bring GORGEOUS stuff like this in to my life?

I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY! I dont even remember what we had for dinner. But I remember every drop of liquid that hit my tongue.

For starters, I had just gotten back from my trip to Warsaw with Kasia. I had brought back an assortment of goodies, including two of my favorite vodkas ever (and I fancy myself kind of a vodka snob, so know that I take these products very seriously.)
The first is Siwucha, which is apparently a Slavic word for 'moonshine'.

This vodka comes sealed with a cork, and demands commitment. The first time I ever enjoyed this stuff was in Portland when Kasia brought back a bottle, and she and Lauren and I sat on the stoop of the pink house and cleaned the whole thing off in one evening. We didn't move from that stoop for hours, and had the most hilarious time ever. I am so in crazy love with that evening.

Then there is the Zubrowka, the vodka infused with Bison Grass.

This stuff is so delicious, I can't even tell you. But I can try. It's sooo delicious. It is discussed in Somerset Maugham's novel The Razor's Edge:

It smells of freshly mown hay and spring flowers, of thyme and lavender, and it's soft on the palate and so comfortable, it's like listening to music by moonlight.

Then came the home brew. Kristina was one of our dinner guests/esteemed cooks for the evening. She brought with her a huge bottle of tuica that her brother had distilled from plums in her backyard in Romania. Oh, wait, maybe I didn't say that clearly enough....ahem DISTILLED FROM PLUMS THAT GROW WILD IN HER GARDEN IN ROMANIA. My god it was beautiful. It was a strong liquor, like palinka, but so sweet and tart, like the fruit. By the time we drank it, it had little alcohol left in it, because before she served it, she simmered it with black peppercorns and then served it hot. Here, she is going to hate this picture, but its the only one I have of the moment!



We were also serving hot mulled wine and all the beer that could be drug in the door. It was a crazy evening, what with all the food and drink. We had a lot of people over to help too.
Stephen's rad girlfriend Meghan was in town:

As well as Emrah, who was with us for a couple of days from Hospitality Club:
Heh, that guy was a lot of fun. We didn't get nearly enough time to run around while he was here...stupid papers and whatnot.

We also had all of Tyler's family was in from California as well. It was a full house. For sure. We are still figuring out which leftovers in the fridge are from that day. My goodness.

Labels: E-mrah, hospitality club, hotlinks, house, kasia, Kristina, liquor, Meghan, photos, thin justification for my existace

posted by Veruka2 @ 12:33 AM 0 comments

IKEA of doom

Ok, so Stephen did a much better job introducing our new roommate and telling this story than I did. But I'ma leave my post up anyway, cause I have it on good authority that I was just born awesomer than everyone.



Well, it finally happened.

The outstanding Swedish design of our pantry just wasn't enough to overcome the forces of gravity this time around.

It could have fallen on Ben's head. Instead, it fell on another table, snapping that in half, and ripped a rack off the wall on the way down.

Fortunately, only one bottle of spaghetti sauce busted, but everything else was pretty ok. Except for the cupboard. That was toast. And it was hilarious watching the boys try to negotiate the best way to get the broken thing out of the kitchen. It was totally like helping someone who has never moved before get a 4 person couch up a spiral stair case--it turns into a physics symposium, and nothing gets done.

On the upside, it turns out that there was a fondue pot and some party favors way back onthe top shelf. woot.

Your IKEA will rebel against you. It has no keeper.
You have been warned.

Labels: Ben, house, Marko, photos, Stephen

posted by Veruka2 @ 12:27 AM 1 comments

The Roommate Has Landed!

Internet be damned!

We have been having the worst time ever getting the internet to work here. We even got all of our portforwarding and ping issues straightned out. We are wireless network geniuses at this point. Which totally doesnt help us because there is no juice coming out of the actual cable internet line. I actually got an error message in Hungarian telling me that the cable company's server was offline the other day. Christ. And our download speeds have been down in the gutters. Even google was timing out. But, somehow, it all came back this morning. In a flood of bandwidth. And I got to wake up to see this:


Look at that swarm! I love it.

So, in a fit of foresight and serendipity, used this new found internet tour de force of connectivity to scan craigslist for a new flatmate, cause Stephen was pacing around stressing about it.

Oh, have I mentioned this? Wyatt is moving out. He's going home for Christmas and staying home. I TOLD Marko that he wouldn't think the horsehead in the sheets was funny...

But anyway, we have pouted and cried to the limits of our abilities, and still Wyatt has decided that he will be happier at home. So, we need to find someone who can pay rent. At this point, anyone with heartbeat and a checkbook will do. No one from school wants to move in with us cause our apt is on the slightly more expensive end of things that are available. I mean, the difference between what I'm paying here and what I could be paying if I lived on a smaller street is like maybe 70 Euros. Maybe. But that's a lot when you are on a student budget and living entirely off of George Soros. So, the anxiety level about finding someone to live here has been high, escalating something like this

So I did a quick search on budapest.craigslist.org, and found only 1 ad for a person wanting a room to let. It was from Ben. Ben is Australian, is moving to Budapest, and wants a room for about 200 Euros per month to rent from January to June. Sweet lord amighty. We need someone to pay us about 200 Euros a month for a room from January to June! Its like Jesus himself brought us together.

So, I email the guy and tell him what's up with our room. He replies in a matter of minutes, asking if he can see the apartment today, cause he happens to be in town apartment hunting, and leaves for London again in a matter of hours. So he comes over, takes one look around, and says "Hi. Im Ben. Y'all are great. I want to live here."

Rad. Oh, but it gets even better. Ok, so Ben is no ordinary 28 year old dude. He is a concert conductor who is coming here to start an apprenticeship with the Budapest Festival Ensemble. A conductor! Sheet music scattered all around the apartment a la Immortal Beloved! How luscious is this going to be? He's a rather proper fellow, but was really excited to be living with a group of students (somehow) and was just thrilled to find a place that has already been set up, got the internet connected, bills going, etc. He's only going to be here 2-3 weeks of every month, and then in London for the rest of the time, but I think this thing is going to be beautiful.

And the moral of the story is: don't stress about change and responsibility. Just wait for the forces that be to tell you "Hey, now would be a good time to take care of your shit." and then proceed to arrange everything for the future in a matter of hours under the graces of serendipity, divine providence, and falafel. Oh yes. There was falafel involved. And I am not at liberty to divulge those details. I can tell you, though, that I am a happy little camper right now.

So, here's a tasty little treat, just from me to you, to help bring in the cheers for a new roommate. Huttah!

Labels: house, video, Wyatt

posted by Veruka2 @ 6:18 PM 0 comments

Thanksgiving

A very unorganized attempt at dinner that started with a thought no deeper than "Hey, Its thanksgiving. Should we, like, eat some stuff?" turned into a fabulous house party a la Americana.

We had to do the best we could with what incredients were available to us. We ended up with the following menu:

Homemade mashed potatoes and gravy (thank you very much)
Corn
Real StoveTop stuffing, compliments of Kim, who is visiting us from Rammstein this week
2 rotisserie chickens from the szupermart
Lots and lots of cheese
Bosnian meat
Cherry pie-type thing
Lots of bread and rolls
about 12 bottles of red wine

So, we had accepted the fate long ago that canned pumpkin just DOESNT exist outside the US. But we couldnt find any real pumpkins (too late in the season) or anything even remotly close to cranberries anywhere. And no one from anywhere in eastern europe that we could find even KNEW what a sweet potato was. Such sadness. But we made up for lost dishes by making a lot of everything else and basically suffocating ourselves. It was good.


The potatos have affected me.

Sasha helps cook.

Stephen is ready to eat. Like, now.

Peter tortures the dog. Charlie, the pup, is staying with us for the night, andis contribting by licking fallen scraps up off the floor. It is so nice to be cooking with a dog in the kitchen again. Peter contributed a Pizza Hut pizza to the dinner.
We actually kind of got in over our heads. We didn't have neraly enough in the way of plats, forks, or chairs. But the sheer quantity of carbs on the table pretty much took everyone's attention away from that fact rather quickly.




The gorging begins.








We can actually see the food colleting in our eyeballs, giving us that glazed over look.

Some of us lasted till 2am.

But all the excitement got the better of a few.

Labels: Brigette, house, Marko, party, Peter, photos, procrastiation, Sanida, Sasha, Stephen, thin justification for my existace, Tyler

posted by Veruka2 @ 9:48 AM 0 comments

Halloween!

Mom, Dad, I live with these people. Send peanut butter and money

Pirates.

Becoming a zmobie

Making Sasha dead.


Yar.

Brigette got mad skills.

Damir, Mariya, and Colin. or: creepy count, nymph, mormon elder.

Christine = best assasin ever



Trouble.

Brigette and I being totally awesome to Sasha, after he passed out in my bed.

Jen, Kate and Brigette.

Nada and Peter playing with blood in the bathroom.

Um, yes.



Elder Delmore gets down with his bad self.



I never managed to figure out who that guy was.


dead love claps.



You dont even want to know what my apartment looks like right now. Oh God. So many people crashed here...I slept in a chair. and Brigette's arm still says "knob". Ha. We rule.

Labels: Asa, Brigette, Colin, Damir, house, Kate, Marko, Ola, party, photos, procrastiation, Sasha, Stephen, Wyatt

posted by Veruka2 @ 11:24 AM 0 comments