The First Day

Monday, January 17:

As I get off the plane, I find Gabriel, my guide, waiting with my name on a card.  We get into a taxi and soon pull up to an old building in an old street with an old stone road underfoot.  We step into an old elevator whose doors are unforgiving and arrive at the door of my apartment.  Ready to step into an cold, foreboding apartment,  I open the door and am met with a fully furnished apartment significantly nicer than the one I had in Berkeley (and at half the price).  My new roommate hands me a local phone and a letter from the previous students who lived in the same apartment - it was a great welcome.

After having slept 2 hours in 28, I went right to sleep.

Tuesday:

As soon as we're all awake, my roommates and I go for a 2 hour walk from Point A (apartment) to Point B.


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It was a beautiful day, about 40° F, and from the top of Point B (Gellert Hill), we had a beautiful view of the city.  Also, there are ravens.  They're intimidating.

At this point, Atilla, our landlord calls us and tells us we have to come back to let a worker into the apartment (he doesn't have a key).

<flashback time="1000">
While I breakfast, tasty snacking, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping the apartment's door.

It was a Hungarian with a wrench, demanding to be let into the apartment, gesturing and explaining in Hungarian (which is a crazy language).  We didn't let him in.
</flashback>

Apparently they were working on the gas line and needed to shut off our apartment's gas, requiring us to leave our hill and return to the apartment.

On the way, I split from my roommates to go get some groceries for myself from Tesco - the Walmart of Hungary.  It is located in Arena Plaza, the largest shopping mall in the country which happens to be across the street from me.  I walk into the mall and am met with Bruno Mars on the radio and familiar clothing brands in the stores; I guess malls are the same everywhere.  Then I enter Tesco and the most challenging grocery trip of my life began.

The shopping carts are chained together. Hmm... Maybe this *yank*.... or this *poke*... Maybe I'll just watch somebody else get a shopping cart. *Stand by shopping carts, looking stupid* ... *Watch closely as somebody inserts coin into lock mechanism, releasing cart* ... *Get weird look from the guy for being so interested in his hands*. 


Okay, to the produce - no problems here.  Cereal, check; yogurt, check; hummus, check.  I'll get some sliced meat for sandwiches. Salami, salami, salami,... I wonder how you say "turkey" in Hungarian. I've got an idea: go to the meat counter and find something that looks like poultry, memorize that word, and go back to the sliced meats (it works).


Okay, now I'll just go to the cashier, not say a word, and everything will be fine. *Beep*, *Beep*, should I start bagging?...*Beep*, I don't see any bags... *Beep*, maybe he'll do it at the end...*Pay*... Umm, can I have a bag? Bag...umm...*point!* (that '!' is because I'm excited to find a bag, not exasperated or being rude).  Oh, I guess you have to pay for these.


Now I'll relock the cart. Oh! I get my coin back! And I'll just walk to my apartment.  Oh yeah, there's a train station in the way and the walk is a kilometer.  This won't be so bad.  Sack of potatoes in left hand, sack of oranges in right hand, divide the rest of the bags in two and *walk*....


*Rest*, *massage hands*, *massage shoulders*, *walk*...


Pasta for dinner and bed at 8:00.  The next morning I couldn't move my shoulders. Off to ulpan!


We pages that may or may not be relevant:

http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2009/02/how-to-easily-add-interactive-google.html
http://translate.google.com/#en|hu|turkey%0A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell%C3%A9rt_Hill