***Again, will probably put up photos when the internet is more stable… IE when I get back to the US

Well, I’m winding down to the end of the trip now- It’s 11:30 now, and my plane leaves from Budapest about 13 hours from now [theoretically]. The past few days have been quite eventful though, since my last blog post on Friday. I would have updated more frequently this past weekend, but there was no internet where I was, so it had to wait until today.

So- Saturday morning, I woke myself up around 5:30 AM, since we needed to leave quite early. We ended up leaving the house around 6:15, with the sun already out. This was an easy ride though- After sitting through the 9-12 hours it takes to get to Rome, everything else seems much easier (though I’m not really sure if this will apply to the plane ride tomorrow…). But the car ride was only about 3 hours long, and I managed to sleep through the majority of it since it was early enough.

We rolled up to the living area in Slovakia a little before 10 I think. Based on Zsuzsi’s description of the place prior to getting there, it ended up being exactly as I’d envisioned- a couple of small cabin-esque buildings for the ~40 of us to sleep in. Yeah, there ended up being a bit less than 40 people going on this bike tour, and I was of course the only American in the bunch. Although there was one guy who was originally from Australia, so I was at least able to talk comfortable English with him. Most of the people on the tour spoke English though, so it was really pretty easy for me to meet people. The kids (my age and younger) also spoke English for the most part, and I chattered with them as well. Fruzsi (the girl I’d played tennis with on Thursday) was also there, so I met up with her as well. We were all located a short walk from a hotel, so it wasn’t like we were totally isolated or anything, though we were in the middle of a heavily forested area. Anywho…

We quickly unloaded the car and saddled up for our first day of biking (we were one day late because of Tusi’s graduation). I continued to chatter with people along the way, working on getting used to talking and biking at the same time, and I eventually learned to take pictures with my phone with one hand while biking with the other. The beginning was fairly easy- lots of downhill, paved paths and whatnot. Once we got out of the city though, we started biking along a mound of dirt, which was a bit trickier for me since the bikable path was only a few inches wide- It’s apparently pretty tough to keep a bike going completely straight. I ended up messing up the gears a bit when my heel bounced off a higher section of earth and knocked into the chain, though Robbie (the guy leading the tour) was able to fix it pretty easily.

The gears ended up getting messed up again as a result of the first accident a bit before we came across a little river which we spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cross. Eventually, Tibi jumped in the water along with Gabor and a few others and started handing bikes across, with the rest of us wading it. While I watched and waited, I observed Robbie looking over my bike, and I actually learned a bit about the gear system from watching him, so I was at least able to figure out what was wrong. Good for future reference…

A little while later, we ended up at a pub. I just took a soda and a sandwich- wasn’t really looking to go biking after drinking any alcohol, but whatever. Saw a goat standing on a wall. We relaxed here for a while, and I talked with people some more (though if it were just me, Zsuzsi, Tibi, we probably wouldn’t have spent more than 5 minutes resting, but I digress). We left eventually and continued to bike, eventually getting back onto some paved road, though here we started going uphill. After a while, we made it to the castle at the top, though it turned out to be closed, though I went up with Gabor and another lady to check out the outside of it anyway and took a bunch of pictures. Had a coke at a pub.

We biked back a little while later, taking an extra detour through the city to avoid the river. We went uphill a lot as a result, which got me a bit more tired. After a while, we started getting close to camp, though I’d pushed myself pretty hard for the previous ¾ of the trip back, and had underestimated the last stretch of the trip. The super easy uphill first part of the trip had turned into the monstrously difficult portion of the end of the trip. Ended up walking part of it, but biked hard for the last 2 kilometers, round trip ending up being about 60 kilometers.

Afterwards I was pretty tired, and sort of just hung around until dinner. We went over to the hotel where we had a restaurant that served our dinners to us, and afterwards went down to the pub on the ground floor and I had a beer (saying that sounds so weird to me…) and chattered with a bunch of people. Went to bed around 10:30 since I was quite tired.

The next day ended up being a rainy day, so we didn’t do any biking. We all went to a pool instead and hung out in the Jacuzzi. The weather the previous day and then had cooled off considerably from the rest of the trip, so the Jacuzzi was nice. Did that for about an hour, and then walked around the town and had lunch at a pizzeria, and I ended up with a strudel for dessert. After this, we drove over to a nearby castle. The castle was pretty cool, though it was set up as a touristy spot with guided tours and whatnot. We decided to pass on the tour and just go around ourselves. I went ahead a little bit since even I can only handle so much Hungarian chatter, and went at a similar pace to David (the Australian guy). The castle’s tower was really nice- Great view of the entire castle and of the village below. Took a bunch of pictures.

We went to a restaurant for dinner that night, and I had a ham, turkey and cheese dish. It was actually pretty good, though upon seeing the steak, I immediately regretted not ordering it. After the restaurant though, we went back, and the adults went to one house to chatter in Hungarian, and a few of the other kids and I went to another and played some poker. I had a good time though- spoke English, and stayed up until around 1 before I went to bed.

Monday I actually woke up at 7:30 to go to breakfast at 8. Had a cup of coffee (my first…) mostly cus I hated the tea… It was way too sweet for me. Anyway, the plan ended up being for some people to leave early to bike an extra 30 kilometers or so, and the rest of us would drive most of the way and then bike for 10 there and 10 back. I ended up taking the easy way upon Zsuzsi’s suggestion, so I took the time to pack up and sleep a little bit more.

We left the houses at around 10 and drove for about an hour (passing the early bikers along the way) and got ready to go biking ourselves in the middle of a small town. Once the early bikers caught up, we headed out, stopping briefly at a pub for the early bikers and then continuing mostly uphill towards the castle. The hill was huge though- I was dead tired after a few minutes of trying to bike up the hill, so I ended up walking most of the way, as did the majority of us who were trying to get to this thing. Robbie biked the whole way though…

This castle ended up being very cool. I liked it a lot more than the one from Saturday, since it wasn’t set up as an attraction, and more just left as it was. The view was gorgeous though. Probably the best view of a landscape that I’ve ever seen. The huge hill ended up being worth it. I also enjoyed climbing all over the castle and finding places to jump around in. It was VERY cool for me, like being a little kid again.

The bike back down was much easier. Picked up quite a bit of speed on the downhill slope, and getting back to the pub was a simple task. Had a pizza and a pepsi there along with most of the others. Of course, Zsuzsi wanted to leave asap, so we parted ways with everyone else and took off back to the car. We made it back without too much difficulty, and packed up the bikes and left before anyone else had arrived. Went to Zsuzsi’s brother in law’s for dinner (again…) and got home around 10 PM. I went to bed.

So today was my last full day in Hungary, and I woke up around lunch time. Zsuzsi and Tibi were working, so I went out and went bowling with Fruzsi and one of her friends for a little while a few hours after lunch. Grabbed a quick bite at McDonalds while I was waiting since I was feeling abnormally hungry, and then grabbed a half a sandwich with Fruzsi once she’d arrived… Anyway, we started bowling around 4. My game was pretty off (like most of my other sports at the moment…) though I cleaned up at the end with two strikes in a row on the last frame. I had a lot of fun though, and I enjoyed it.

Zsuzsi had Fanni and Tusi over for my last dinner, and Fruzsi and her boyfriend also came over for it. Drank some wine and coke and had a good time with everyone. Did a bunch of talking, and took a bunch of pictures.

Once everyone left a few hours later, I ran through my pictures from the summer with Zsuzsi, and once she’d gone to bed, I packed up, and now I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself awake for a few more hours so I can sleep more on the plane tomorrow.

***Will probably put up more pics when the internet is actually stable...

So it's been a while since I posted anything up here. The last couple of weeks have been really busy though- on the week of the 4th, my energy was primarily focused on my work at 3H. After having been there for a week, I was beginning to get the hang of the work routine- Wake up at 7, take a quick shower and be out the door by 7:30; Catch the street car and get to my stop by 8:15, and then walk the half hour it takes to get to the studio itself, arriving at least 15 minutes early. I could get off at a stop closer to the studio, but I don't get much exercise otherwise, and I figure walking the distance twice a day was at least something of a substitute...

Work would then run from 9-6, and I'd do whatever anyone asked me to do. That week, I was

doing some more model building as well as a lot of computer drawings, starting to get the hang of the Hungarian ArchiCAD program. Lunch would come around between 12 and 1, and I'd usually take about half an hour or so to eat/chat with my coworkers- They all spoke English very well, which made things easy on me.

I enjoyed working there though- Reminded me a lot of studio life back at school. For me, it's a good stress reliever and it takes my mind off things. Plus I really enjoy fiddling with little models and drawings, and I like being able to talk to the people around me doing similar work. I actually gave a tutorial on Adobe Illustrator on that Monday to the studio. I've never done a tutorial before, so I felt a little awkward trying to teach something, but I think I did well enough. Zsolt (the boss) complemented me on it, though I'm never sure when he's just being nice or when he actually means it...

Anyway, my last day of work was on Thursday, as Zsuzsi had made plans to go to Hevis on Friday (which evidently got cancelled...), but I managed to finish up everything I was working on a day early so I got to relax a bit on Thursday.

On Saturday morning, I woke up around 3:30, and we left for Rome around 4:30. I managed to sleep for most of this one- Stopped for lunch at an Italian place on the way, and I had some fish dumpling things. Didn't get to Rome until around 8 PM, and Zsuzsi made some Hungarian food for dinner (she'd pretty much brought the entire fridge).

The week in general though was pretty impressive. The first day we walked out of the subway station and the Colosseum is right there in your face- I really was taken aback at its size. You always figure that it's a pretty big structure, but to actually be there and see it in person gives you a completely different sense of the sheer scale of this building. The heat in Rome quickly got to me though- Every day, it was between 90 and 100 degrees F, which made things quite uncomfortable at times.

We saw a lot that week though. We went through all the generic stuff early on- the forum, the colosseum, St. Peters, the Parthenon, etc. I liked St. Peter's Square a lot though; That was another one of the places where I was just completely awe struck. There just isn't any place like it in the US (that I've been to/heard of). We went to a lot of churches though, to the point where I really can't remember their names... I remember them more for the one important fact there is about pretty much each one. There were a lot of Church of Santa Marias though... There was the church where the pope holds his first mass, the church with the longitudinal line running through it, the church that mixed 3 different ages of architecture... The Sistine Chapel was really cool though. I'd seen all the pictures in my textbooks, but to see it for real was, again, really something else.

I'm also a huge fan of the number of fountains that are in Rome. The big squares that you can't really find in the US pretty much all have elaborate fountains and/or obelisks, and it's nice to see all these really old structures spewing water out everywhere. Plus there are the really old Roman fountains on the side of the roads where people refill their water bottles/wash their faces/etc. I took a liking to those very quickly, especially considering the heat. Tap water in Europe is apparently much better than tap water in the US, and, as I figure, when in Rome...

I also actually enjoyed the art museum I went to with Tusi. Tibi had gotten his wallet stolen that day (whoops...), so while he and Zsuzsi went to the police station, Tusi and I went to the museum since we'd reserved the tickets beforehand... I'm still not much of an art genius, but I felt that it was a good opportunity to try and see how much I'd progressed since I first started attending art school a year ago, especially since Tusi knows quite a bit about art. I was pleased to be able to recognize a lot of the mythology in the statues before reading the names of the statues...

By the time Saturday rolled around though, I was exhausted. Zsuzsi definitely knows how to move around the city quickly. We started from the hotel at around 6, and stopped in Ravanna for a few hours at around 11. Saw another fancy church, and checked out the burial site of Dante, which was interesting. I was really tired from the week and from waking up so early, so I was probably only half as into it as I normally would have been, but it was interesting nonetheless. We stopped for lunch a little while later at a small restaurant in Italy where the Szabo's wanted to have some fish for lunch. Fresh fish is apparently a rarity in Hungary, which didn't occur to me until then as I'm a regular fish eater back in the states, but I was happy to have some seafood. Of course, when we tried to order fish, the waiter guy misunderstood, and brought us a basket of fried calamari, shrimp, octopi, and crawfish, all of which I was happy to eat. However this was the meal that I discovered just how picky Zsuzsi is with food, and it's since been something I've come to give her grief about (mostly when she gives me grief about not eating enough for breakfast or whatever...) Finally made it home around midnight, and I was happy to finally have a few days to just loaf around and relax.

It was good to be able to just sit back for a while, especially after all of the stuff I've been doing since I got here- Haven't had much down time outside of the times when it's night time and Zsuzsi is sleeping, but I finally had a bunch of it after Rome, and I was using it to recover and prepare for the bike trip coming up this weekend. Yesterday though I met up with the daughter of one of Zsuzsi and Tibi's good friends, and we played tennis (my game started to get better as we played), and then went to the mall where we met up with her boyfriend. Had dinner at a sandwich place, and then we went over to a pub to have some drinks. They were both very nice and they spoke English well, so I was able to enjoy myself pretty well for the entire day. Got home at around 10:30 that night and went to bed.

Woke up this morning at 8, as 3H had invited me for a "proper farewell" that morning. I made it there around 9:30, and they greeted me with ice cream and champagne- breakfast of champions. It was nice to see them all again and talk with them after 2 weeks. I also met the girl who was replacing me, also a pretty solid English speaker. I left after about an hour so as not to waste too much of their work time, but I enjoyed it. Got home for lunch, and we headed out to attend Tusi's graduation ceremony at 2. It was in Hungarian, so it was only mildly entertaining for me, but it was short enough that I was able to get myself through it. Went home and Zsuzsi prepared some food, and then we moved over to Tusi's house with Csaba (Choba...), his wife, and Zsuzsi and Tibi's neighbors. Everyone spoke English except for Tibi, so I was able to talk to people well enough, though the majority of the conversation was in Hungarian...

Eventually got home though and started packing for the bike tour this weekend. Next update probably will be either on Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether or not I'm tired from this weekend (high probability...)

So it's been a while since I made an update, mostly because the entries for the past week would have been pretty short individually. I've worked at 3H for 7 days now, and I must say, I absolutely love it. Granted, it's all grunt work for now since my architecture know-how is fairly limited, but this is definitely the kind of thing I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. The only down side to it all is that I've actually gotta wake up at a reasonably early hour now (7 AM) in order to get to work on time. I work for 9 hours a day, but I don't really mind.

They've put me to work on a church that needs remodeling. I'm not sure when it was built exactly, but it's a baroque-style design. They've been trying to teach me to use ArchiCAD, which is an almost European-exclusive CAD program for architects. Only problem is that it's in Hungarian, which I'm not quite fluent in- Were it not for the language barrier, I think I would have gotten the hang of it a lot faster. I got better though, and I drew up the plans/sections/elevations for this church pretty well.

For the latter half of the week, they had me do some model building. This is the part that I really like, and a lot of the reason I went into architecture- I love building things like this, and I'm really a hands-on learner as opposed to someone who learns from a book. I modeled the church out of some foam core, which I'd familiarized myself with during the second semester of school, and built the surrounding terrain out of cardboard and finished it up on Friday. I was actually pretty happy with my results, given that I'd never made an architectural model at that scale before.

Saturday I was able to sleep in past 8 for the first time in almost 2 weeks, which made me happy. Zsuzsi took me to the Industrial Museum, where they had a pretty big collection of old furniture, and apparently the largest collection of Ottoman rugs in Europe. To be honest, I was a bit more interested in the building itself than the actual exhibits, but that's just me. There were some cool glass sculptures and some fancy keys that I thought were interesting in there though.

Afterwards, Zsuzsi took me to go pick up Sebi and we went to the

Transportation Museum. This one was a bit more interesting for me, with old cars, trains, and boats and such. They actually had a little electronics exhibit where they showcased old computers, arcade games and gaming consoles. That one really took me back, being able to see the original NES, Atari and Gameboy. There were older systems in there, but those in particular were the ones that I'd been able to play with when I was younger, so there was a certain nostalgia factor in it for me. I would have taken more pictures, but I'd already been told to stop once, and there was a museum dude in that room watching me...

Today I woke up at 8, and we all went to go attend church for Sebi's baptism. The mass was in Hungarian, so I obviously didn't understand any of what they were saying. Anyway, we got home around lunch, and the dozen or so of us (various guests/family who'd come to attend the baptism) had lunch at the house. Finally got a chance to have goose liver again. It's still good. Then some people took naps and other people took walks- I opted to stay in and keep tabs on Sebi while he napped- I was also a little sleepy. Eventually, some of us went over to Tusi's and had dinner, and then we moved over to castle hill where some of us went to listen to some church opera music. Zsuzsi and I went to a nearby restaurant and had some good cake.

So tomorrow I start up work again, my last day being on Thursday, and next Sunday we head off to Rome for a week. I'm excited.

Friday I got up at 7 to go to work. Got to work a little before 9. The day was pretty slow for the most part- the boss wasn't in, so I was mostly just touching up the drawings I'd done the previous day. Fortunately I needed to leave early to go to the weekend house with Zsuzsi and Tibi, so left the office around 2 to meet up with them, and after a bit of running around, I managed to find them.

We drove the 2 hours it takes to get to Havis

(sp?) and arrived around 5 or 6, though I'd managed to sleep for the entire car ride, which was good. Still trying to get used to waking up at 7 AM every morning... Fanni, Peter and Sebi (that's apparently how you spell "Shebi") were there as well. Tibi's cousin and his family live right next door, so they were over. Their daughter (probably one year old or so) hung out with Sebi, and I kicked a soccer ball around with the father. Went to bed around 9:30.

Woke up around 7:30. I slept much better than I thought I would, after having spent the night in a tent. We got started pretty early, and left the house after breakfast to go see whatever there was to see around Lake Balaton. There was some festival going on, and Zsuzsi pointed out some buildings that her mother had helped design, which was interesting. Had a burger for lunch, and we continued to go around and see whatever the area had to offer. The cows were cool- all white with huge horns.

We also stopped by an old Baroque-style church.

It was actually pretty cool- I'd never been inside of any baroque-style building before, so it was an interesting experience for me. Very decorative. And apparently that church was where the first written Hungarian words were... written. There was a copy of the document there- It was pretty much one phrase of Hungarian amidst a bunch of Latin. We also went to see some old castle ruins. I really like castle ruins. You can see the remnants of the floor plan in what's left of the walls, and I like to try to guess what each room might have been for. Granted, I'm no castle genius, but it entertains me a lot for some reason.

I took a bike ride with Zsuzsi that night after we'd gotten back to the house. We went down to the lake and came back pretty much immediately because it was getting dark. It was good exercise though- hadn't been on a bike in a few weeks, but I made it back in one piece. Went to bed around 10.

The next day we started early again. I got up around 8, had breakfast, and we were off to go climb up a hill. At the top there were some more castle ruins, which was cool. Nice view too. I took a lot of pictures. Afterwards we went to another

old church. The one from the previous day was more interesting for me, but I thought it was interesting that this one was something like 800 years old. We came back afterwards, and I helped with a bit of manual labor. Chopped some wood, picked some fruit, piled some firewood, and dismantled my tent. Fell asleep for an hour or so on the couch, and woke up in time for dinner. We headed home afterwards, though I was awake for this car ride, and arrived around 9:30.

Today I woke up bright and early again at 7 to go to work, and arrived a bit before 9. I sat in on an office meeting (though I didn't really understand any of it- it was in Hungarian) since I'd finished all my work from the previous days. It was interesting to see what the meetings were like at least, with everyone giving their updates and proposing their ideas. I also thought it was interesting that they were starting to think about Christmas. Afterwards I had lunch, and then started to fight with the ArchieCAD program. It's pretty much Europe-exclusive, so the program is in Hungarian. Needless to say, the program and I don't understand each other too well, and I was getting frustrated trying to do something as simple as punching a hole in a wall for a window. Eventually though things started to come together. I've got a ways to go before the model is finished, but it's at least starting to look like something. They've put me to work drawing up a church that needs remodeling. It's been out of use for some time now, and they're trying to turn it into a facility for children's activities.

Left work a little after 6 and walked/tram'd my way back to the house. Had dinner with Zsuzsi, took a pain pill for the headache I'd developed during my fight with ArchieCAD, and now I'm lying in bed.

Got up this morning at 7. Earliest I've gotten up here so far I think. At around 7:30, Tibi and I set out to go meet up with a friend of Fanni, who was setting me up with another job in another studio, which I thought would be interesting and worthwhile. We met with Danny (pronounced Donny) and he took me over to the studio in Pest. He was a pretty nice guy- spoke good English. A landscape architect too, so we were able to relate at least some of the stuff we were each doing.

The studio (the office is called 3H or something... website is 3h.hu, and is

apparently pretty famous in Hungary) was a lot different from Zsuzsi and Tibi's. It was much bigger than theirs, with more people and more space. It was also in a building on the fourth floor, though I didn't really look out the window. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I arrived though- I told the boss what I'd learned in school and what I could do. I think I caught him a little off guard by telling him that I was only a post-first-year student and that I didn't have any structural experience, but whatever. I'm here for the experience, and he's getting free labor. Though he was impressed that I knew how to use Illustrator/InDesign, and said I might have to teach my co-workers how to use them... I mean, I know the programs, but I've only been using Illustrator for one semester, and InDesign I've only worked with for like a month. Not sure that I know enough to give a tutorial, but whatever gets me props with the boss, I guess.

It was around 9:30 by the time I started working, and I was meeting the other people who worked there, most of whom actually spoke good English, so I was happy. I'm still just drawing lines for plans/sections/elevations, so it's all still grunt work, but I enjoy it. Doing a church this time actually, which I thought was cool. I like churches. Had Chinese food for lunch, and pretty much worked until around 6, with like a half hour break in between.

Afterwards I opted to walk home. I'd never been

that far south before, and I figured it would be a good opportunity to check out some of the sights along the Danube. The cave church was cool, though I couldn't get inside of it. But yeah, walked along the Danube for about an hour and a half, got to Moscow Square, and then took a tram the rest of the way home. Going to go work again tomorrow, and then going to the weekend house over the weekend with Fanni and her family.

It's Never Lupus.

Well it's been an interesting bunch of days, to say the least. Things really kicked off on Thursday morning, when I went with Chabo (sp? Zsuzsi's step-father) to go check out a building he was renovating. He's a pretty cool guy- spoke English and talked to me about the architecture of the building. I'd gotten up at around 8:30 for this, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience, even if a lot of the conversations were in Hungarian.

I got home around lunch time, hoping to do some work that day as I hadn't

done any work in the studio in a number of days. However I was feeling really sleepy for whatever reason, and so I opted to take a nap before I went into studio. I woke up a few hours later with a slight headache. I figured I could go ask Zsuzsi for some pain pill or something, but I knew she was busy with a huge deadline the next day, so I figured I'd just try to ride it out in my room. I get migraine headaches a lot, so I didn't think too much of it. It started getting worse, which was normal for me, though it got to a point where I did ask Tibi if they had any medicine for me. Zsuzsi came in from studio (it was around 5 PM by this time) and gave me some pills/vitamins to try and get me better. Went to the doctor about an hour later, which I thought was completely unnecessary at the time, and the doctor said that something might be up with my appendix and that I'd have to go to the hospital.

So everything becomes frantic all of a sudden, and Zsuzsi and Tibi start to pack things for me while I'm groggily walking around with my massive headache. We went to St. John's hospital and sat around, waiting for the doctors to call me in. I hated this place though- As a hospital, it did a really bad job of making me feel safe. If anything, the place felt like a prison, or a mental asylum, or something. Heavy, sturdy walls with narrow hallways lit with florescent lighting, and small rooms for the doctors to perform their checkups and whatnot. Anyway...

I got called in, and the doctor, who fortunately spoke English, did the same tests on me as the previous doctor (poking my stomach), and diagnosed the same thing. I got taken over to what seemed like a more important doctor who didn't speak English, and he said the same thing. That guy seemed kind of grumpy though. I really didn't want to be stuck in the hospital with him. Afterwards we all got to talking about possibilities and price (mostly in Hungarian), and I eventually opted to hold off on the hospital for one night, deciding to spend the night at home instead. Zsuzsi was still frantic, and by that time, I think the pills were kicking in (granted, it was like 4 hours later... Advil is way better), and I was busy trying to look at the bright side of it all.

So I spent the night at home, though the pills wore off, and I got to shivering, with a fever and restlessness, but I managed to get some sleep. In the morning, we went to another doctor, one of Zsuzsi's friends. Surprise surprise, she diagnosed me with the same thing, and we were sent off to the hospital. Different one though. Apparently the way it works here is that every day, doctors send their patients to a different hospital, rotating each day. Weird. This one was infinitely better though. Can't remember the name off the top of my head (it was a Hungarian name, though it was renovated by Great Grandma...) But I got there, and with no pills in my body, and not having eaten since lunch the day before, I was feeling pretty weak and tired. I got another doctor who spoke English, and he told me the same thing... Went out to wait a bit more, and then another of the more important doctors came around as I was falling asleep in the chair, waking me up with a loud "yoel napolt" (sp?). So he took me in for yet another diagnosis with some other less important doctors around. This guy was a total dick though. I won't go into detail, but he just annoyed the hell out of me. He spoke English though, which was more than I could say for a lot of the doctors I'd met with... I'm pretty sure he was talking s*** about me to his doctor lackeys in Hungarian too... In the end though, he was the only doctor to say that it probably wasn't anything serious.

So I was checked into the hospital. They ran a blood test, urine test, x-ray, and an ultrasound, and nothing out of the ordinary turned up except for the fact that I was super dehydrated (I only drink water when I'm with Zsuzsi and Tibi. And a lot of it too). I got my room and was hooked up to some IVs which made me feel better after a while. I also had a roommate- an old guy who didn't speak any English. I really wanted to talk to him though- he seemed like a really interesting guy. Of course, he had operations on his spine, his shoulder, his stomach, was getting shots every few hours, had a tube in his hand and was urinating blood, and I'm lying in the bed next to him with a single needle in my arm. Great.

By the next day I was feeling much better. The IVs really helped, and the odds of me needing an

operation dropped to 10%. I have no idea where that percentage came from, but that's just what I was told. For breakfast, they served me a yogurt carton of... sour cream... and some cold meat. It was gross. However, I'd not eaten in about 40 hours, so I was pretty damn hungry and I finished it all. I was unhooked from the IVs by this point. Zsuzsi and Tibi would come in to visit periodically throughout the day and would bring me soup or snacks- much better than the hospital food I was getting.

Every meal though they give me one of these little yogurt cartons, and every single time I prayed that it was actually yogurt in these yogurt cartons (labels were in Hungarian...). They were never yogurt. They did start giving me bread though, which was good. I figured out to put the meat and sour cream in the bread and eat it as a sandwich- made it so much more tolerable. I also started reading The Scarlet Letter. Been a while since I read anything, but it was interesting. Definitely more difficult than my normal reads. Saw some fireworks that night.

By Sunday, I was feeling completely fine

aside from the sore throat I'd had, though my dickhead doctor wouldn't do anything about it no matter how many times I mentioned it. Zsuzsi and Tibi came to visit a few more times, and my meals were getting more complex with some better meat thrown into my soup. I was also walking around the hospital a bit too, which was good. Pretty boring day though- Not much to do in a hospital other than listening to my ipod.

I was released the next morning (thank god), and Zsuzsi came to pick me up, and I spent the rest of the day just resting and drinking lots of tea. Zsuzsi made chicken paprikash for dinner, which was awesome, and I went out and bought a cucumber. I learned both how to get to the grocery store and what a cucumber looks like. Communicating with Hungarian people by myself without knowing Hungarian is actually kind of tough...

So today Zsuzsi kicked me out of bed around 8:30 because she wanted to take me places... No work again apparently. We drove around for a while with me feeling pretty sleepy, while she checked up on a few things before we headed off to this museum thing. At one stop I found a pretty cool church, so I took some pictures. We also stopped at this dinky food place by a railroad station. I got a double cheeseburger. This thing turned out to be a monster- not what I was expecting from this tiny place. Easily the biggest cheeseburger I'd ever eaten. It was the first burger I literally couldn't fit into my mouth, even after compressing it as much as I could. It was a really good burger too. Props to the little old lady who ran the joint.

We got to the museum thing, which was basically a recreation of an bronze age Hungarian village,

with mud huts with sticks and straw and stones and what not. They were surprisingly interesting houses. We also checked out a recreation of a mound grave, which had a video inside of it which talked about the function and purpose of all the stuff inside of it. Basically it was the functional equivalent of a pyramid. It was pretty interesting. Left afterwards because it was raining. Drove home, drove under a new bridge, chicken paprikash for dinner, and I've been taking it easy and drinking a bunch of tea. Good stuff.

Sunday and Monday were both pretty lazy days for me. Mostly I was still super tired from my walk on Friday and from the birthday on Saturday. Plus Sunday was really hot, so no one really felt like doing anything. Fanni and Tusi did come over that day in the afternoon, though we still just hung around the house for the entire time. I did make some cookies with Zsuzsi that night though (which ended up tasting really good). They were super easy to make too, so I could probably make them when I get back if I felt the urge...

Monday was also fairly uneventful- Zsuzsi and Tibi were out for the morning/early afternoon, so I was by myself for the first part of the day. There was nothing in the fridge that I knew how to eat, so I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. Found this small food shack thing. I couldn't read anything on the menu except "hamburger," but that was plenty. Got that and a coke for the equivalent of about 3 bucks, which

I thought was a pretty solid deal. The burger was actually really good too. I'll probably go back a few more times and risk some of the other stuff on the menu. I think I saw gyros on it, which should be the next step for me I think. I walked around for a little while longer before going back to the house. Otherwise the day was pretty uneventful.

Woke up today and had lunch with Zsuzsi and Tibi before going off to studio. I actually haven't done any work since like Thursday, which kind of bugged me, so I asked for something to do. Eventually, they had me start to learn Archicad,

which is more or less an architect-geared version

of autocad. To be honest, I'm hating it right

now, though it took me a long time before I actually started liking Adobe Illustrator or Autocad (I'd preferred Photoshop before...), so I'm giving it a shot anyway. I used it to draw a

plan/section of a shed that needs to get drawn up so it can be demolished... Apparently that's the process. I'm really happy that the stuff I do here is actually being used, and isn't just busy work though. But I fought through that for a few hours until Zsuzsi and Tibi kicked me out of the office, this time because they had to go to some event and they were dumping me in the city. I was all for it.

They dropped me off in Moscow Square, which was where I'd gotten to by tram on Friday, I got

some money, and I started walking around. They gave me a map, but I didn't want to use it. My goal was really just to get to the Danube, so I just headed in that general direction. It wasn't really that difficult to get there. I recognized some of the streets from my previous expedition, which

made things easy. Once there, I had a beautiful view of the parliament building and of the Pest skyline. There are a bunch of bridges between Buda and Pest, and I didn't really like the one to the north of me aesthetically (the name escapes me at the moment...), so I headed south to the chain bridge along the river. Stopped at a church to take some pictures. Not sure what church it was though. I like churches though... Anyway. I apparently hold the camera at a slight angle...

The chain bridge is a really neat bridge I think. I walked across it and had some interesting views of the city, and arrived at the other side where I started walking back north along the Danube towards where I was supposed to meet Zsuzsi and Tibi. I got to the parliament building and the folk museum Zsuzsi had taken me to, and finally got the pictures that I wanted with my camera, which made me happy. Also bought a coke. I think I'm slowly getting to know my way around the city- not necessarily by street names, but more so by land marks. The bridges are a good indicator, and certain squares and buildings also help me a lot. Granted, I've still only been around a small portion of Budapest, but I'm getting to know it pretty well I think.

Anyway, met up with Zsuzsi and Tibi a while

later and had some dinner with them. Hungarian

bufe's aren't like American bufe's... At least this one wasn't. You pay for the stuff you take, rather than paying once and taking as much as you want. I actually held the line up a bit trying to figure this out, but oh well. It was good food. Afterwards, we walked around for a bit to check out a plaque with my great grandparents' names on it, on the side of a building. Apparently they'd lived there a while back. Buildings have plaques on them with the names of famous people who'd lived there in the past. It was interesting for me. We walked back across the bridge I didn't like as much as the Chain Bridge to the car and drove the rest of the way home. Saw a bus that was driving through the danube. We were all tired.