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.

Party Like a Rock Star

So I rolled myself out of bed today at 9:30 because we were supposed to leave at 10 to go to a friends house and do some bike riding. We ended up leaving at around 10:20... I was a bit cranky this morning too, still tired from yesterday and having to get up earlier than I'd like. Anyway, we got to the friends house around 12. It was the husband's (Steven... Ishtvan(?)) 59th birthday, and there were a bunch of other people over for this birthday, most of whom were in the generation before mine.

Fortunately they spoke English, so I was able to chat with pretty much all of them for the five or so hours that we hung out there, which I enjoyed a lot. Admittedly, I've also been doing a bit of drinking - Sorry. I see it more as an educational opportunity. I think it's better to learn to drink when and where I have people I can trust rather than learning how to drink with other kids... That's my opinion on it anyway. I think I've been pretty responsible about my limits so far, anyway. Plus I can drink legally here...

So afterwards we went to go visit Tusi at the contemporary art museum where she works. I had her guide me around one of the galleries. I enjoyed it a lot. I feel like I've been able to appreciate art in general ever since I started going to architecture school. They do something with your head over there in art school I think... But I enjoyed it. I took Zsuzsi and Tusi out to dinner while Tibi babysat Shebi. I had a catfish dish. Headed back afterwards and got home around 9:30. Short entry today, but I'm pretty tired. And the pictures I took today are on my phone, and the cable is still in the studio... I'll go get it tomorrow.

Check Out the Big Brains on Brett

So I rolled out of bed today around 10 AM. For whatever reason, I was really hungry, and had two bowels of my cocoa puffs/cornflakes ripoff combo cereal and took a quick shower so I could get into work. However Zsuzsi was quick to kick me out, telling me to go check out the city. I was promptly handed a map and sent out the door. So I walked over to the tram stop and took the 61 tram down to district I of Buda.

I got off in a big square, and the first thing I saw

was a McDonalds. Figuring it was about lunch time (a bit after noon), I went in and ordered a McRoyal with cheese (cashier spoke some English). Of course, this is the European version of the quarter pounder. Why is the name different? Because of the metric system. I'll upload a picture of the receipt tomorrow. Forgot that my cell phone's cable is in the studio.

Anyway, I ate lunch and got a free Coke cup out of it (glass and everything), and headed off towards the history museum which Zsuzsi had recommended to me. Took me a little while to get my bearings, but thanks to a Burger King I was able to figure out which direction I was headed. Walked uphill for a number of blocks until I stumbled upon the castle which I'd visited on the

first day. Now equipped with my camera, I took some more pictures on my way through, and bought a bottle of coke. The castle was definitely a lot more lively during the day too, and I was able to see all of the shops and restaurants that were set up throughout the castle's grounds. It was kind of refreshing to hear some of the other tourists speaking in English too. I was also happy to walk along at my own pace too, being able to see all of the old, large-scale architecture without worrying about being too slow or too fast.

I found the history museum completely on accident. I hadn't realized that the museum was actually in the castle, and what I thought initially had been a dead end turned out to be the

museum itself which made me happy. So I went in and bought my ticket. Dude gave me a student discount without me having to show any ID. That's the first time I've gotten that discount here just because I look like a student. I actually left my school ID back in Jersey... What I thought was interesting was the fact that I had to pay an additional fee if I wanted to takepictures with my camera. I'm no miser or anything, but I didn't want to pay just to take a few pictures, so I didn't. I took pictures anyway.

So I left after about 2 hours because I was supposed to be at Tusi's place at 4, giving myself about an hour to figure out how to get over there. I took another exit out of the castle which offered a better view of the Danube and of Pest across it. I was also heading back in the general direction from whence I'd come. Somehow, it was uphill in this direction too... Just my luck? It was a good walk though. I came to realize that people in Budapest don't jaywalk as well as New Yorkers do, being stopped at street with a clear opportunity to cross and not taking it... I thought it was interesting, anyway.

It had been pushing 30 degrees Celsius (no idea wtf that is in Farenheit...) all day, and all I knew was that it was pretty hot. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by the time I got to Tusi's flat. I chatted with her for a while though (she'd gotten hit by a bicycle yesterday...) and showed her some of the pictures from Grandpa's birthday 3 weeks ago (can't believe it's already been so long). Tibi came over a little bit later and did some work installing some metal bars on the window on Tusi's front door (don't want anyone breaking in...). Tibi drove me home a bit later, and Tibi, Zsuzsi and I had some microwavable meals for dinner. Weinerschnitzel and chicken liver with vegetables ftw. Since then though I've been lying in bed. Pretty tired now.

First Impressions

Unfortunately, my expedition to Hungary began on a more or less sour note, when the flight (May 28) was delayed for two hours due to the plane having some engine trouble. Eventually I did board the plane (a different one from the one having the issues, thankfully), and was excited to see the seat next to me remaining empty throughout the boarding process, getting ready to spend the next 8-9 hours with a considerable amount of elbow room. Unfortunately, a Hungarian girl asked if she could take the seat, her two friends sitting in the seats behind me. I grudgingly obliged, a decision I would regret once she began talking quite loudly in Hungarian to her friends for the first hour or two of the flight. I told them to keep it down a few times, though I didn't get much peace until they all fell asleep... Other than that, not a bad flight once I managed to fall asleep myself. Arrived in Budapest a little before noon local time (May 29), and made it out of the airport without any issues, Zsuzsi and Tibi already waiting to pick me up.

I was a bit groggy from the plane ride, but I was excited to be in a foreign country that was so far from the US. Driving back through Pest, I could immediately feel a difference in the figurative atmosphere. Having gone to school in Brooklyn for a year now, I've more or less developed a sense as to what a city is like, from the way people act, to the way buildings are built, to the land which the city resides on. Pest just felt different. It's definitely a city- but it feels older. It's an experience I really haven't felt in the US, but you can rea

lly feel the history in the city, from the architecture (which was the most obvious

to me) to some of the customs and traditions that I would learn about later on.

Anywho, I had lunch with Zsuzsi, Tibi and Tusi and crashed for a few hours, still tired from the plane ride. Afterwards Zsuzsi and Tibi took me to an old castle in Buda. I'd like to go again, since I

don't remember a lot of what I saw (was still messed up from the plane...) and because I didn't have my camera with me. Took some pictures with my BLACKBERRY though. Didn't go insid

e of any of the buildings. I would have liked to go inside t

he big church though. I like churches/cathedrals. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do that next time I'm over there.

Sleeping that night was a trick though. Since I'd taken a 3 hour nap earlier that

day (whoops.) I was having a hard time falling asleep for the night. It was probably around 2 AM (May 30) by the time I actually knocked out, but I woke up several times that night anyway for half an hour at a time (6 hour time difference between Budapest and New York by the way).

Got up the next morning to hit the bikes with Zsuzsi a

nd Tibi. When I left Jersey, I was a good 185 lbs. There's a lot of traffic around Budapest, so there are a lot of people who bike around, or take the trollies/trams/subways. Zsuzsi and Tibi like to bike, so I'm hoping to lose some weight by the time I get back to the US. Anyway, we were going to go meet Fanni around 3 in Pest, and we left the house around 10 AM. We also passed by some of the buildings that I'd seen/been to when I was in Hungary two years prior for Fanni's wedding, which was pretty interesting for me. Then my camera died =[. On our ride, we took a look at some fort ruins, passed over the Danube, and had lunch outdoors.

Anyway, we met Fanni and her one year old son, Shebi (sp?) after biking for a few kilometers in a sudden downpour of rain. We went on a walk, and checked out one of the churches that was around. It was pretty interesting. Zsuzsi knows a lot about the architecture of the buildings around the city, and it's pretty much impossible to remember everything that she tells me.

The church was pretty cool though. All the designs inside of it were designed by the original architect apparently, from the wall patterns to the stain glass windows. Took the car home since it was still raining/I was tired.

Hung out with Tusi and some

of her friends that night. Went to a Starbucks-esque coffee place and then walked around the city for a little while. I can't get over how cool the parliament building is. Eventually went home because it started raining again.

I started working in Zsuzsi and Tibi's studio the next day. It's actually two different offices, with Zsuzsi running the structural engineering end, and Tibi running the architectural end, so I set up camp on Tibi's en

d, and met the other architects, two of whom speak enough English to put forth conversation, which I was happy about. I was also pretty happy that I was able to put my Autocad skills to use. Got to work drawing up some plans for a garden shop. It's strange, working in the metric system now. My sense of size is completely thrown off...

Anyway, studio here reminds me a lot of studio at school. Granted, it's not nearly as crowded, but I get into the same mindset when I start working where I get completely focused on whatever I'm doing and I draw lines for hours on end. But this is the kind of thing I've always enjoyed, watching things build up from nothing. Used to play with legos a lot when I was a kid, and this is a similar concept.

Another difference from studio at school - people start heading home between 4 and 5 PM. First few days, I felt a bit off. Leaving studio so early at school is basically like signing my own death warrant, since there's no way I can leave so early and still finish whatever I'm doing for the deadline. I do think though that if I can handle studio at Pratt, I can handle anything. Grandpa said once that the hardest part of architecture was actually becoming an architect, and I think I see why.

So I worked during that week every day for different amounts of time based on what Zsuzsi and Tibi wanted to do with me, though every day Zsuzsi would take me somewhere new, and would tell me something about every single building we passed by, whether it was some building related to Papa Jozsef, or how it used to be something else when she was little. It's really hard to retain everything she tells me, and after a point, I just start forgetting things on the spot. She's really knowledgeable though, and everywhere we go is really interesting.

The power in the studio went out one of the days, so we went to a Hungarian folk museum. It was actually pretty interesting to see all of the old clothes and renditions in the museum. Of course, Zsuzsi seemed to know something about everything, and she was able to bring a lot more to the table than the museum on its own was able to.

We also did some more biking- about an hour and a half, mostly uphill. The hill kicked the crap out of me. Stopped at a little bar type place and I was able to get my first glass of Coke in almost a week.

Monday (June 7) I didn't work- Fanni had stayed over the night

before with Shebi, so I was keeping them company. I keep trying to make Shebi laugh, but none of the normal tricks have been working =[ Also got to chat with Fanni for a while, which was nice. We'd also taken a walk with Zsuzsi and Tibi the day before through the woods behind the house, which I'd walked through two years earlier. Slowly working on getting in shape...

Tuesday (June 8) was different- Zsuzsi and Tibi took the

engineers out to Lake Balaton (sp?), the biggest lake in Europe, to celebrate having reached a big deadline. I actually had a lot of fun. The lake was pretty cool, and we saw some cool scenery along the way. We also took a look at Zsuzsi and Tibi's "weekend house," which was pretty interesting architecturally. I did a bit of manual labor when I was piling up some dead grass so we could build a

fire. It was good for me. Zsuzsi then took the engineers and I out to some special hotspring which is supposed to be good for your body or something. I don't really know too much about water or health or anything, but I enjoyed it anyway. I totally felt younger by the time I was done with it...

Anyway, we got back to the weekend house a few hours later and Tibi had cooked up a stew which we ate for dinner. At the same time, I was being eaten alive by mosquito's, and I'm still itchy from that... We drove home afterwards, and didn't arrive until around 11 PM. I enjoyed the day.

So since then, I've been working in the studio. We checked out a house that had been damaged by the Danube's flooding (which is reported to be the worst it's been in a hundred years or something) which was interesting, and today (June 10), Tibi ran out of stuff for me to work on or something, so I figured I'd start up this blog... By this point, I'm on an American food deficiency, and am craving a cheeseburger or a hotdog or something pretty badly. Hungarian food is really good and all (and Zsuzsi is an excellent cook), but I miss the unhealthy foods from back home =[ Other than that though, so far so good, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the trip. We're actually going to Rome a month from today for a week, which I'm really excited about, and there's a week-long bike trip at the end of my stay which I'm trying to get in better shape for too. This summer is quickly looking like it will be one of the more memorable summers in my life.