Naponta Un Pensamiento: 2013 in Review (with random vignettes for fun) Part One

January: I rang in the New Years in the Clifford House for probably the last time.

Flew back to Hungary and went back to work, knee-deep in end-of-semester nonsense. It snowed a lot. Not much else really happened in January until the end of it.

I went to Geneva on my annual "I'm going to kill things if I don't get away alone" journey. I climbed bell towers, wandered botanical gardens, walked around that massive lake (not the whole way!) and took a normal city tram to France. I also ate a lot of cheese, and spent one long evening tucked into a little pub, on a velvet couch, reading The Book Thief from start to finish. The owners brought out a lamp for me when it got too dark, and tissues when I predictably sobbed at the end. I ate what can only be described as an obscene amount of food, particularly cheese.

February: I headed to Scotland for a reunion with Juliet and Jessica. Juli was visiting her boyfriend's family from Vietnam, and Jessica flew in from Spain. We traipsed about Edinburgh (mainly sitting in pubs, playing cards and drinking bitter ales), which was amazing. The best part, though, was traveling to stay with James' family, the Blocks, who thoroughly welcomed us into their home. They took us to a traditional dance, where we were spun around by locals totally bemused at the sight of all these foreigners in their community center. I don't think I've ever had so much fun while sweating so profusely!

At one point Juliet was dancing with an older gentleman, and her boyfriend James was just sitting there, staring. I sort of cleared my throat, and he grinned at me, and looked down quickly before catching my eye. "Isn't she so beautiful?" he asked. At that moment, through his eyes, I couldn't say no.

I cat-sat for a week in a luxurious apartment and decided that someday I would like to earn a bit of money. That, combined with the ever-increasing anti-foreigner sentiment I experienced on street corners and public transit, plus my job being just untenable (no matter how much I loved the teaching parts of it), added up to a growing feeling in my stomach that it was time to go. It was time to do something new. So I applied to EPIK at the end of February.

I also celebrated my half-birthday with Rachel with one of the best dance parties ever, thanks to the 2003 top forty countdown. Remix to ignition! I took Balint bowling for his birthday and finally met his parents, who it turns out are real, and not imaginary as we all suspected. February was a good month.

two of my favorite men

March: March came in like a lamb, bringing unseasonably warm weather to Budapest. Anna and I rode our bikes around town, and I could even bike to work again. And then the snowpocalypse happened for the March 15th holiday, stranding me in Budapest as trains broke down and the country ground to a halt. We had the most hysterical pub quiz in the history of pub quizzes, courtesy of St. Patrick's day and getting a bit punchy, which resulted in THE U2 ROUND:

My rats got sick; I had to take them to the vet and give them medicine via syringe. They were troopers about it and got better, but in the meantime they waddled about grunting adorably. I became obsessed with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which (thankfully!) came to an end, as most things should. Good stuff happened for gay people, and I was happy. And, finally, I created you, little blog. I'm really happy I did that.

April: I spent the Easter holiday with Lyla in Belgium and the Netherlands. Mainly we ate food, walked, and drank beer. We also wrote reviews of all the beer we drank, after drinking said beers, so those got ridiculous. I decided that I would never want to live in Amsterdam, because it's the weirdest place ever.

The day after getting back from that trip, I interviewed for EPIK. My interviewer (I applied directly) recommended that I request a city if I wanted to be in a city. So I looked briefly at all the cities that you could request, and chose Daejeon. (It just looked right. I found out a day or so later that Budapest is its sister city. I liked that coincidence.) I found out the following Monday that I got in.

I wrote a resignation letter in English for the foundation and handed it in, feeling nothing. I wrote a much shorter, much more awkward resignation letter in Hungarian for the school and handed it in covered in little wet spots, sobbing on Principal Anna's shoulder. She asked me if I was planning to come back again, like last time, and I shook my head, then she welled up, too. "El kell mennem. Szükséges. Nem akarok, de nagyon szükséges." She nodded. I feel like I grew up in Krudy school. I became an adult there. Then I washed my face and told my students.

I saw a bunch of shows, of the theater and ballet persuasion, but of tv, too. I got reading glasses. I ran my first 10K, in 64:48, and didn't even die. I ended the month with The Weekend of the Lyla, to celebrate her 27th birthday, and her.

May: The first of May was Labor Day, so Lyla and I went to Esztergom and walked across the bridge into Slovakia, but everything was closed, so we headed home. I did get to touch a live, wild bird, fulfilling a life-long dream. I don't even care that it was a pigeon.

my grope victim

I became somewhat disillusioned with Doctor Who. A friend from home, Abbey, visited Budapest and I showed her the city. I attended five parties in a span of three days and then refused to socialize for a week. I got an eye-lash infection, did all the videos of the students for the end of the year, and wrote and administered a bunch of finals. Eurovision happened, and it was a tame disappointment.

I spent the last weekend of May in Madrid, which I've already written quite extensively about here, here, importantly here and most importantly here.

June: The first weekend in June, Jessica visited Budapest. I showed her around, took her to all my favorite restaurants, and we even went to the Opera and baths together. Mefi kitten adored Jess, spending every moment possible glued to her legs, which was adorable and hysterical.

Then I went to Forest School with 7A, which was amazing and also broke my heart. The last night, we sat around the camp fire, singing songs, five or six of my girls leaning on some part of me. I looked up at the sky, and all the hundreds of thousands of millions of stars, and I still felt significant. I still felt like I'd done something important, and that these young people were themselves important and real. We might just be specks of dust, but who is to say that dust doesn't matter?

Budapest flooded. I got my placement to Daejeon on the same day as Krudy's closing ceremony. I thought that was good and right. I missed saying goodbye to most of the teachers because I was at foundation camp during the year-end meeting. This was sad, but probably for the best. Then I went to foundation camp, which was fine, even if it lacked the students I loved. I got my last paycheck from the foundation, and literally dusted off my hands as I checked my balance. I was done. The goodbyes started.