I found this quote in the book my mommy bought me as a “welcome home” gift of sorts. It’s called “Everything’s Coming Up Josey” and it’s about a girl (named Josey) that is moving to Russia for a year of missionary service. Sound familiar? She’ll be teaching English, but is not a teacher. Sound familiar? She’s in her mid-twenties, recently realized that she was really where she wanted to be in the world and having issues with men (is any of this really sounding familiar?!), she decided to pack up her bags and move across an ocean. Interesting…
Anyway, the quote struck me in regards to my life right now. I am slowly realizing that I am where I am and leave behind those who are there. There is no gap of people that in both places. I am not going to come back as the same person I was 2 months ago and I’m not going to come back to friends and family who are the same people I left 2 months ago. My good friend, Nick, put it very simply when I was bummed one evening at the lack of people available to hang out. I am the only one that left. Yes, my life got turned upside down, but their lives are only missing me – they still have everything else familiar around them. So, I can’t blame them for continuing without me. Yet, he understands having been in my shoes. Ejha – talk about downer post.
Anyhow, I am now home.
I have only seen one of my three roommates because last night I got home and CRASHED. I got off the plane, grabbed my luggage, walked through customs (which was hilarious! Only in Hungary is there a customs booth with NO ONE sitting in it!), walked outside… I only had 2 seconds to wonder where my bus stop was, when I realized it’s sitting across the street, just waiting for me. I hopped on and it left. It dropped off at the metro station and I hopped off, then lugged my suitcase up stairs, then down stairs to the metro which was ALSO just waiting for me. Got off at Deak Tér, switched trains and got on the other metro that was just arriving… Talk about perfect timing! It was great after a terrible plane experience.
My trip TO Grand Rapids was amazingly easy, despite the fact that computers were down in Budapest and Brussels. I never had to sit next to anyone and everyone was crazy nice. My flights back to Budapest were another story. I got on my plane in Grand Rapids and I had seat 1A – the first seat on the plane, in a row by itself. It’s a nice seat except that there’s absolutely no storage for any carry on baggage. Well, I had my backpack and saxophone with me. Turns out that I had to gate check both of those (after removing my computer and book from my backpack, of course) and the stewardess was crazy cranky. I’ll blame the fact that it’s evening time and she’s the only one on this flight and she was probably hungry and tired. Plus, of all the seats, I get the one where the reading light doesn’t work. Anyway, I land in Newark and that stop turned out okay and while I was rushed, it wasn’t too terrible. I ended up landing an aisle seat in the smallest trans-Atlantic flight I’ve ever been on – 6 across!? Anyway, I sat next to a newly engaged couple visiting Paris for vacation. They were cute and so in love! And yes, Pastor Darrell, I totally got to watch the movie I was waiting for – “My Sister’s Keeper” and yeah, so glad I didn’t pay anything to watch it – the ending was NOTHING like the book. Grrr… However, the whole time I was watching movies, I got stuck with the one seat with an annoying ring in the background of my headphones for the duration of the entire flight. I didn’t sleep much. I blame the massive amounts of coffee I drank Monday and the turbulence. I slept more on the flight from Paris to Budapest, actually. I was out cold except when the little dude next to me nudged me and handed me a sandwich. We bonded a bit as we munched on our cheese sandwiches and pointed at the Alps. We didn’t speak any similar languages and with one glance at his comic book, I know he wasn’t Vietnamese or Japanese, but couldn’t properly place which language he actually spoke. After a few seconds of wondering and smiling at him, I was out cold again. Thank goodness you all get off at the same stop on planes, because I somehow even missed the landing. Wow.
Anyway, I am home now and working on getting acclimated to life back home. I went shopping last night and got my bread, cheese, meat and cola that are essentials to my life here. I was in bed by 8p. I slept until 9a, when my roommate woke me up to see if I was joining her for school. I responded with a “maybe later, but I am too tired now.” I should have gone, but I didn’t and I slept all day. I woke up at 4p to Silke coming home from school. Hah! Today was a major FAIL on my part. Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day and I will surely join her tomorrow. Apparently we’re having pizza for dinner tonight? That’s exciting! :) Then Silvia and I are going to head to the internet bar, where I will be posting this. Life has continued in Budapest :)
Thank you for your prayers and your support – I appreciate them all. Tomorrow I will talk with Jozsí about the status of my residential permit and for now, I leave you with some pictures of the place I came home to – my flat!
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These are my flatmates: Silvia (Italy), Andrea (Romania), me and Silke (Germany) just moments after arriving in our flat… and at the exact moment we realized we’d locked ourselves out of the flat. Whoops!
This is mine and Silke’s room. It’s the west bedroom and the smaller of the two, but it’s cozy and cute :)
(somehow I lost this picture... hmmm...)
This is our kitchen – also cozy and cute :)
This is our bathroom – complete with shower, washing machine, sink and water closet. Notso cozy or cute, but small and clean :)
This is Andrea’s and Silvia’s room – the east bedroom and the larger of the two, but also cute.
All in all, it’s a nice apartment in an very nice area.
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