Tiszaújváros

This’ll have to be a short entry, because I’m in the process of - wait for it, wait for it - I’m in the process of cooking something. Oh my god, I’ve become so domesticated... wait, maybe that’s not the word. But it works that way too.

Anyway, I went to Tiszaújváros. It was great. Yes. As much fun as the weekend itself was the travel adventure involved: Gaines and I needed to switch trains in Nyékládháza, with a planned 6-minute layover (being the two people we are, we had multiple backup plans in place). The train was nagyon late, and then made up some time, and then was really late again, and then I had to try and talk to the conductor, and he told me that the connecting train would wait, and I said, “Biztosan?” and he shrugged. Long story short, we had exactly a one-minute wait in Nyékládháza. But we made it. The trip home also involved switching twice, but with longer waits, so all successful.

I have to say Tiszaújváros gets two prizes: Most Well-Designed, yet Hardest To Reach. In addition, Liz’s flat is much nicer than mine... shocker. And that’s it; really; nothing else happened of any interest that hasn’t happened every other weekend. Well, we did go ice-skating, so that was new for some people. Sorry for the gloom; I’ve been teaching personality adjectives to the 8th graders, and I can now describe my life as dull, boring (but not bored, there’s a difference!), stubborn, unchanging, and unstimulating. And I’ll stop now, ’cause I’m smelling burning, and post more later.

No wait, just before I hit the post button there was a knock on my door, so I have to record that I just got out of listening to a speech about Fidesz with a smooth, “Bocsánat, de nem magyar vagyok.” After which he asked me what I was (“amerikai”) and gave me a, “Clinton (thumbs up); Bush hanem nem jó (hands making the so-so gesture).” Oh, the glory of American politics correctly and precisely summed up by two hand gestures. Although, if it were me, I’d have used a different gesture for Bush. But whatever. I do hope that canvassers (or whatever they’re called; I’m using that word because I sort of vaguely remember it from my West Wing-watching days) won’t be making a habit of knocking on my door. Because the elections aren’t until April, and that’s gonna get tiring. Hm, maybe I should just paint a huge American flag on my door... ’cause that wouldn’t be obnoxious or crude...