Krokodil Klub

                    Blogging is HARD.               And yet, blog I must.

It has almost been three weeks since leaving the shores of the Puget Sound for the fields and Pastries of Hungary, and so much has already happened. Since studying abroad is apparently all about self discovery and profound thinking here are my main revelations from the past weeks:

                                
                                      SCHOOL:

            I am taking two political science classes, literature, history, and Hungarian.

Epiphany 1: Two years of honors has consumed my brain. Now this isn’t to mean just the program curriculum but really just the conversations and people that were in honors. For one, I keep seeing the misogyny in everything, I get a weird rush when pointing out the paternalism of democracy, and the weirdest sort of pride when my professor told us to look up feudalism and I wanted to respond  "oh, well, let me tell you about Feudalism.."                                              (which I didn’t do because, well, I’m not an asshole)

 Epiphany 2: The Cold War was a BIG FUCKING DEAL. It is easy to simply talk about communism and soviet Russia in a very removed sort of way when living in the U.S. But then you ride a metro in Budapest  and you have this crazy realization that everyone around you who is older than 20-something actually experienced communism and a complete regime change in their lifetime. Imagine a complete upheaval of the way your life is run and perceived. . . oh yeah and imagine that this happened ONLY TWENTY YEARS  AGO.

Epiphany 3: The Treaty of Trianon (post WWI) IS STILL A BIG FUCKING DEAL. I mean, really, just take a stroll into Slovakia speaking Hungarian and you will see what I mean.

                          
                           HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE:

Epiphany: I miss prepositions and word order. You never know what you have until it is gone.

ESZTERGOM, HUNGARY – historically religious HQ, borders Slovakia

Epiphany 1: Visiting the town that I wrote and presented a paper about canon law on is extremely awesome, especially when hanging out at the basilica.

Epiphany 2:  Rape law and domestic violence of medieval Hungary is still kind of a conversation killer.

EGER, HUNGARY – Northern Hungary, Wine country

Epiphany: Why drink water when you can just have more wine?

  -side epiphany: Ottoman Empire = Beezy

PÉCS, HUNGARY- South, Cultural capital of Europe 2010 (apparently)

Epiphany: 200 days of sunshine, adorable stray puppies, gelato every twenty feet, dancing and music around every corner –  cultural capital of Europe? Try cultural capital of the UNIVERSE.

- side epiphany : The crip walk was actually derived from Hungarian folk dancing.

Alright, that’s enough profundity for one evening

Jó estét

Good Bye 'Merica; Szia Hungary

Well it is official, I have returned to the homeland.

And thank god for it too because in the 48 hours it took me to get here, I thought I would never see anything but the soul crushing stained walls of airport after airport.  The actual story is extremey lengthy and full of very many swear words so:

                       Mariska's Flight to Hungary via Flow Chart

5:30 am go to Seatac -> Fly to Houston ->  hour layover -> Delay -> wait-> go to service desk -> entire flight follows -> flight canceled -> wait wait -> "Go to London!...but get your bags" -> baggage claim -> wait wait -> missing bag -> wait wait wait -> "oh, it's already been transferred" -> run across airport -> no one at British airways -> annoyed lady prints my ticket -> run through security -> "have you started loading"..." no the plane is delayed"-> wait wait -> load -> zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -> time change -> grab bags -> take bus to a different airport -> wait wait wait -> Zone D -> wait wait wait for gate to open- .....delay- wait wait wait wait -> load! -> no more English -> land! -> take shuttle to dorm -> pass out-> THE END.

So needless to say I have been extremely jetlagged for a long time now but have still been at a constant go, touring the city, taking Hungarian Language class, and other general orientation things.However I can already tell that it is going to be a wonderful experience. 

Hungary,the beginning:

- Everyone has my nose

- There are pasteries....EVERYWHERE.

- I am actually the one who says my name wrong.

- Knowing random things about Medieval history is actually pretty awesome.