completely exhausted, nothing interesting

apologies for the lack of exciting updates but this whole getting-up-at-6:30-thing is really starting to get me down. Maybe I'm getting sick too because by the end of each day I'm completely wiped out. I've been under the covers before 10pm not once, but TWICE already this week. Those who know me know that this is simply not right.
on the bright side one of my classes was observed by my employer and she gave me some really encouraging feedback. i've got a few more classes on my schedule, starting this week, which means i will definitely be able to pay the rent, and eat, and maybe - just maybe - drink some beer next month too.
i am completely at a loss as to what to do after June. stay here for a few more months and teach some more (not gonna save much money though - maybe a little bit, but nothing substantial)? look for a contract elsewhere in Europe? travel for the summer (the thought of living on a Greek beach is appealing)? go home for a little while (probably going to save that for the fall or winter though)?

learning dirty Hungarian words from a middle aged woman

So our housekeeper/cleaner is back this week, frying up some pork balls on the stove. When I got home from class around 10 am she was already finished with the soup and creamy potatoes and I must have accidentally told her I was hungry cause she served me up a big old plate of lunch at 10:15.
Now she's cooking up the aforementioned pork balls - pronounced "fashult"...don't ask me for a spelling because when I looked up the spelling she provided me it seems to translate as "fascist". Fun as that would be, I don't think she's frying up any fascists today.

The entertaining part was when I, trying to pronounce the name of this food, said "fass" (i think the Hungarian spelling is fasz) and she started giggling and waving her arms, "nem! nem!". Clearly this was a dirty word so I would just say it every so often to make her laugh.
Finally she said "puszi, angolul" (puszi means "kiss", but sounds like "pussy"). so I told her, "puszi means kiss".
"igen igen, something something puszi angolul"
"puzsi in english is kiss"

this went on for a couple minutes till it finally became clear that she was saying "yes yes, i KNOW that it means kiss, but...".

I still couldn't figure out what she was talking about. Maybe fasz was a really specific word for some sort of dirty kissing activity?
Finally I turned on the computer and discovered that fasz translates to "prick, pizzle, pintle, dick, cock, pecker" (PINTLE? I have never heard of a pintle).

She brought out the fried fascist balls and we sat at the table and nibbled at them. I said, with a knowing look on my face, "Ah, fasz...nem yo." (ah, fasz is not good). She laughed and said "igen, ferfi" (yes, man) and pointed downward. Then she said "puszi? angolul?".
Aha! Finally I understood. She was getting cats and chickens confused.
I said, "pussy, angolul...two things. meow meow!"
"Nem!" she gasped, a shocked look on her face.
"Igen! meow meow! And also...noi"...and I pointed at my lap. (noi means woman)
"Ah!" she said, laughing again.
Then she got serious.
"fasz, angolul?
"fasz in angolul is..um.....cock."
"COCK?"
"igen. um......also....um...dick."

I was deliberating whether to also provide the more formal "penis", but decided that two new vocabulary words were good enough for one day.

good. soup.

yesterday our housekeeper (a very nice lady who comes in once a week to clean, so I guess housekeeper is a good enough word, that or cleaning lady) made an enormous Hungarian feast - goulash soup, vegetable soup, pork schnitzel or something, french fries, fried cauliflower, rice, noodles with lard. the common ingredient is lard or oil. i came home from a class to find her halfway done everything but I got to help out with the dumplings for the soup.

we had a long conversation while I rolled out the dumplings. unfortunately since I don't speak Hungarian, I have no idea what we discussed. but at the appropriate pause I would say something like 'jo leves!' or 'uborka?' or 'ah, paradiscom!'.

to put this in context, imagine you have a foreign visitor. conversations consist of you saying intelligent things, and your companion responding with 'soup good!' or 'cucumber?', or 'ah, tomato!'.

mother may i? duck duck goose?

tonight i begin tutoring two little boys (6 and 8). i don't even know what a 6 year old is. as in, I couldn't pick a 6 year old out of a line up that included a 4 year old and a 5 year old.

and I can't remember ANY children's games.

they lived in Canada for a couple of years so they should have some language, my job is to keep them from losing it. and, today at least, it's to make sure the parents ask me to come back for a second lesson!

it's not that i don't respect you...

dear Slovakia,

i'm sorry about the way i keep using you and then throwing you away.

love,
a

bird meets head

yesterday a bird flew into the side of my head.

this morning I got up at 6, to go to a 7:30 lesson in the middle of nowhere. the guy didn't show up so I spent 90 minutes sitting in the lobby of an insurance company.

this afternoon I'm going to Slovakia. again.

imperium

spent most of this beautiful weekend reading Ryszard Kapuscinski's wonderful Imperium, about the Soviet Union. Imperium in one hand, a small atlas in the other...you can now add Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the list of places I want to visit.

wanderlust also triggered by Gina's recent blog entries....that passport! those photos! my god. what am I doing in Budapest, working for The Man?

because that's what I'm doing now - freelance english teaching, for anyone with any sort of 'business' background in their previous life, means Business English. and that is all about going into oil companies, insurance and finance corporations and government agencies....