Week 10: November 8th - 14th

Monday 1999-11-08

It's raining. I paid the rent in Hungarian. Doesn't take too much language skills, but anyway. I thought I took fish for lunch, but it was cheese in breadcrumbs.

There was no one but me and Rebecca on the culture lecture. When we got bored and were just leaving, we met the teacher in the stairs. We should've taken the elevator down.

Mikko and Jarkko did the laundry for 10 hours. I got the machine at midnight, but I was too tired to wash more than one machineful.

The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in the Royal Castle is great. There were three exhibitions. Sigmar Polke's paintings sucked, but I liked the titles. They were like random snippets from some magazine, newspaper article or conversation. Endré Tót's works were funny. He's openly mocking the modern art and ridicules the spectator. Many paintings have just the empty frame and a printed title. The exhibition was aptly named "Who's afraid of nothing - absent pictures".

The third exhibition had the theme Time and the works combined video, audio and different electronic gimmicks. Especially the one where seventeen tiny monitors show a one second film clip back and forth, was cool. (Heaven by Peter Boger, never heard of.) Surprisingly, the museum was free (today).

It rained and was cold all day. An umbrella might be useful. Mikko bought a coffee maker. Normal coffee tasted good for a change. Janne is ill again.

Wednesday 1999-11-10

At the computer lab one of the Turkish guys tried to turn on the lights, and hit the mains. He booted two rooms of work stations. The operators pretended not looking mad. I bought an umbrella. They sell Christmas crap at Kaiser's already. I forgot to eat and took a nap. Slept five hours. I was going to have a falafel, but the kiosk just closed in front of me. Fiddlesticks.

Thursday 1999-11-11

I was too tired to wake up in the morning. In the afternoon I visited two book stores, but they didn't have too many books in English. [The large Libri on Rákóczi út, the small book store in Parízsi udvar, and Atlantisz next to the Elisabeth bridge are good ones.] Today I was clever enough to get my falafel before Vera closed.

Friday 1999-11-12

I went jogging with Mikko and Jarkko on Gellért, after which I was completely dead. I ate with Nakki and J-P in Batka. In the evening we played seven of clubs and drank beer and wine. Sarah had a guest, Ryan, from States. He delivers pizzas; it's a well paid profession in States.

J-P's friend Riku from Nürnberg came. I didn't feel like going out with the others. Janne got a washing machine and so I did the laundry till two.

Saturday 1999-11-13

I woke up at three as the neighbor (Juan) turned the stereos on. He should've done it five hours earlier. I tried to study this and that. In the evening I planned to go to movies in the new shopping hell Westend. The mammoth complex makes no sense. I didn't remember how much I dislike those places. Because of the grand opening it was full of people and there was no hope to get in the cinema. Should've guessed. For the same reason it was also impossible to eat anything, so that I skipped the lunch/dinner/breakfast/whatever.

Sunday 1999-11-14

My alarm clock rang at ten and I got up right away after one. Went jogging. The others had met three guys from Helsinki in Gellért. Me and Mikko ate with them at For-Sale, and Anssi was also there at least physically. Weird place, there are straws on the floor and Super-Goofy peanuts at the tables. The canonical way (tm) to get rid of the nutshells is to drop them on the floor. Food was tolerable and the portions are huge and rather cheap. One of the Finns had managed to lose his phone in his first evening in Budapest.

J-P and Jarkko were going to Piia's place. I left from the étterem before others and walked over Gellért. Jarkko and J-P were waiting at Piia's gate and Piia wasn't home yet. When she came, we watched Häjyt ("The tough ones") on the video. The film had English subtitles that were really lame.

Mikko has planned to go to Italian Alps for Christmas.

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