Fun / Nice things that have happened to me so far (in a bulletted list form to celebrate my new status as teacher in training) :
- Met a nice Hungarian girl at the baggage carousel at Budapest Airport who spoke no english but fluent french, who offered to take me in her parents car to where I was staying, and gave me her number so I could "meet her friends and go for a drink" while I'm here. Sweet.
- Met a classful of what seem like really nice, reasonable people on my first day as a trainee EFL teacher.
- Queued for 3/4 of an hour to buy toothpaste and ibuprofen in a drugstore (ah, eastern Europe!)
- Tried to get directions to said drugstore by someone who spoke not a word of english, and got nowhere until she used the internationally recognised magic word "Burger King" to describe where it was.
- Randomly asked a group of Hungarians where an english boy could go to get a little conversation and maybe drink a little red wine and got offered 2 tickets on the tram for free as the girl said the place you buy them was closed. Ace!
- Agreed a flat-share scenario with a nice english girl called Hazel who's from Shropshire (no, I've never heard of it either. England apparently...). This is because we both requested shared flats but both got given single flats. You do the math....
- Learned Malay.
The only downside to this cushy scenario is that my exciting 'new' for which read 'shit' phone won't send calls or texts to anything but Hungarian numbers. The only Hungarian I know is the girl I met at the airport and she has a french SIM card. Shit.
I'll just have to seriously apply myself to making some Hungary friends. So, come on feet, off I go into the Magyar night (look it up) to find some people I can spend 100 Hungarian Florints (HUF) on texting for the rest of the month.
Hurray!
Oooh I want a Hungarian Florint! Can you save one for me?
ReplyDeleteSteady on with those Fonzys... I see you learning Malay and Magyar, well I'm going to have a go at Maya and I met a Bulgarian! Kudos points?
ReplyDeleteHello love, happy new year.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the goulash in what I think you'll find Hungarians (like Czechs) consider to be Central Europe.
you can send a text via yahoo mail, andexplain the whole new=shit SIM thing to your carousel friend
ReplyDeleteRob It's Hugh!From those heady Montepellier days..
ReplyDeleteYour trip is still going!You are positively an inspiration!You'll be deee-lighted to hear that my final exam year is both soul crushing AND sodden, the rain, Oh the fucking rain!
Here's something, though, that WILL make you wanna come to Ireland:
Father Ted festival on Inish Oirr!!! (one of the Aran islands, the Father Ted opening sequence passes over it.Tis one of the lovely Aran Islands.And I've thrown stones at the big rusty ship that you see in the sequence.So There.rassssp.)
How amazing would that be!!It apparently features a Father Jack Cocktail night and a (sweet lord this is brilliant) a Lovely Girls Competition!Haha!
Oh and here's the truly fantastic twist, worthy of a Father Ted plot: There's a rival Father Ted festival happening on Inish Mor(the other Aran island) at the same time and they're fighting over it!Isn't that hilarious?It's been in all the papers, this ridiculous dispute.
Well I hope you enjoyed that slice of Irish misery (we're great at them).
Slan,
Hugh