Originally I did not intend to write a blog about my semester abroad in Budapest, but for the past couple of days I have been reading a blog written by a student who participated in BSM in 2007, and it's great. I sit down and think I'll read one of her posts, and the next thing I know I've read four or five. Also, through out the day I'm usually struck by thoughts about the various aspects of this adventure I have begun in a faraway land and want to record them. So, if nothing else this blog will serve as a reminder in years to come of my thoughts, opinions, and emotions while on this voyage to achieve, not only a higher level of knowledge, but also a greater sense of self. It also will provide an account for those I have left behind as to where I have disappeared off to and what I am doing.
With that said, I suppose I should begin at the beginning (I've already been in Budapest for eleven days, so I have some catching up to do). After many of hours of traveling I finally arrived in Budapest on September 3, 2009. The overriding emotions when I arrived were exhaustion, intimidation, and anxiety. On the final leg of my journey from Frankfurt, Germany to Budapest I was so tired I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I felt like I had been drugged, and struggled to pay attention enough to know what was going on. I was relieved to finally land and enter the airport, but feelings of relief were soon replaced by anxiety. Would my luggage be waiting for me on the carousel? Would the person meeting me be there waiting? Would I be able to handle everything? But, despite my worries, everything went smoothly in the airport and I met the person sent by Anna, our student coordinator, and made it to my flat without problems. After running through the logistics of my flat with my landlady, I was left to myself (my roommate didn't arrive until the following day) to settle in to the place that would be my home for the next four months.
My flat is wonderful! It is in a fantastic location. I am within minutes of some of the most famous sites of Budapest including the spectacular Parliament building, the Danube River, St. István Basilika (St. Stephen Basilica), the Museum of Ethnography, the Opera House, and so much more. I am also very close to the Arany János metro station (the means by which I get to school), a 24 hr. grocery store, and a spectacular boulevard lined with designer shops and posh cafés.
It has taken me these last eleven days to determine just how close I am to all of these things. When I first arrived, the feelings of loneliness, disorientation, and vulnerability were crippling. The first night I was here, I managed to work up enough courage to cross the square and buy a few groceries, but that was as far as I was willing to wander. This is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I knew the first few days would be tough, but my expectations were much too low. Although the adjustment required to make Budapest my home (at least temporarily) was very similar to what I experience when I started college, the emotions themselves were magnified ten fold. Budapest is far more intimidating than Ripon, Wisconsin. A wrong turn could leave me stranded in dark streets walled with graffiti marked buildings and no means of communication. Hungarian is a very difficult, strange language that is not similar to any other language in Europe, and alienates natives and foreigners alike. Natives have no means of communicating with the outside world and foreigners are hopelessly lost if trying to communicate with natives.
My most immediate concern here was making a friend who could be my refuge, a person who would be an island of comfort and familiarity in a sea of off-putting unfamiliarity. My roommate, Daisy, arrived the second day I was in Budapest, and while she is very nice and we get along well, we are also very different. I didn't feel the immediate spark of refuge in her. She is also one of eight people who are from Carleton College, so she has a friend of hers here in Budapest. We met up with Daisy's friend, Ernest, and his roommate Cory on my third day here. After somewhat awkward introductions and common formalities, I found what I was looking for! I found in Cory someone who needed me as much as I needed him. Someone very much out of his comfort zone in a mysterious city with all new people and wary of wandering around on his own. Through Cory, who also goes to Carleton, I have since met his friend Claire, her roommate Sylvia, and John and Franky. We have formed a nice little group in the past week and a half, which has supressed my feelings of loneliness, if not destroyed them altogether. We get along very well and have a lot of fun together.
In fact it is thanks to them that I came up with the name of this blog. Coffee Pot is a game I was introduced to in which a person thinks of a verb while the other people ask them questions about it to figure out what the verb is. When asking or answering questions, the verb is replaced with coffee pot. For example, someone might ask, "can you coffee pot inside?" or "does coffee potting require special tools?". Since coffee potting can be any number of verbs, I thought it would be an appropriate title.
While I still have a lot of things to recount, I am going to take a break for now and turn my attention to the homework I have neglected all weekend. A detailed account of my first few days of classes and of some adventures I've already had here will follow shortly. Stay tuned!
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