Friday, April 18, 2008

village girl comes to town....

My former roommate, Anna, called me today and wanted to see if she could crash at my flat for the night. No explanation needed but she was going to be visiting a co-worker at a hospital nearby and with public transport not operating, it would mean she would have to hail a cab home. We haven't hung out since Christmas time, if you can believe that -- so it was nice to catch up.

I love spending time with "village girl". She makes me laugh - a lot. I'm proud of her but she's such a show off. She got her name because she loves to mix it with the locals, completely immersing herself in the culture. It's awesome, actually! She's going to live in a village for two weeks this time so she can master the language. She said, "You could go with me but we'd probably be in different groups" and then she busts out laughing because we both know I've been avoiding my Hungarian teacher. I'm mad at myself for letting it go this long but not mad enough to call Gabi . At the same time, I keep justifying my decision that I won't be living in Hungary forever. Yet I wrestle with "shouldn't I learn the language while I'm here?" It's a tough one in my situation as everything I do is centered around English and everyone wants to practice their English. So I'm in a different situation than Anna who is surrounded by language situations in a Hungarian school every day.


** same spot, same table, same everything pretty much **


So, Anna and I met at Hero's Square and walked to our old neighborhood to eat dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal, on the corner of our old street. The funny thing is the last time we did something together it was in December and we went to the Taj Mahal and we sat at the exact same table. I ordered the exact same thing because why change something that works for you!? So tonight after a delicious, spicy, incredibly filling meal we walked back to my flat which took about 20 minutes. Great conversations about life, God, guys and living in Hungary as Americans. So thankful for Anna, the village girl!
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Today I ran 2 miles at 20 minutes through Hero's Square. I'm feeling rather "non-stellar" these days, but the run was part of a 3 month training schedule. I'm going to try and get in all the swims, bikes and runs suggested on this training plan and hope for the best in July.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the training plan. I am trying to get in my assigned runs as well.

akshaye said...

Cool.. so what did you get at the Indian restaurant? I just got back home this afternoon and cooked myself a huge Indian meal - chicken in a dried fenugreek/tomato sauce with crisp okra on the side and rice. Cant tell you how good I feel to eat a proper Indian meal after three weeks :)

Jen in Budapest said...

Nice, Rob. All the best with that. You are stellar and I'm sure you'll do fine.

Akshaye - How do you make fried okra? yum. I ate this chicken curry and rice, but it was in a red sauce and really spicy. Anna got the same with pan garlic bread instead of rice. We shared bread and rice. Honestly, it's the best Indian food I've ever had and Anna and I have gone several times. Everyone dresses up in Sari, they have these cool wall hangings, the atmosphere is awesome!

~Robyn~ said...

Don't worry about your race...if you put in the time, you will rock it. And the only reason my workouts seem ridiculous, is because they are. haha. Ironman has taken over my life, and I still have 4.5 months to go. I have a race in a few weeks though so I"m really excited! Keep up your training! When is your race?

triguyjt said...

hi jen...very nice blog....

i agree swith ursula...the journey is the main thing..its whats important...
best to you on your journey overseas in budapest..
good luck in pursuing triathlon

akshaye said...

Jen, the Taj sounds great! Both the atmosphere and the food sound very authentic. I usually dont eat out at Indian restaurant's here since the food is not always good. As a result I have started to become a fairly decent (edible) cook! I found some fresh okra at the farmers market yesterday. Its important to use that and not the frozen one. Its really simple. Just fry them till theyr'e crisp and season with salt, red chilli powder and crushed pomegranate seeds. Quick n tasty!

BreeWee said...

Jen you are so lucky to have a cool chick buddy, cherish your time with her and YOU BETTER go learn the language! Life is so short, LIVE it up, SPICE it up... who knows your future hubby might be Hungarian and you need to be able to chat and romance it up with him! Ha ha ha... enjoy the weekend... and good job finding time to take a little run :)

Jen in Budapest said...

Robyn - thanks for that encouragement. I'm sure you're going to do great in 4 months. :D

Triguy - I like Ursula's quote too. Great stuff...

Akshaye - yum! OK, so I convinced some other friends to go back with me last night! So spicy and SO delicious.

Bree - you are hilarious but point well taken. Life is short so live well :D

Kellye Mills said...

I'm with Bree!! Learn it while you can.. at least the cool phrases! :)

I'm glad you and your friend had fun and no worries with the training. Less thinking about it more just doing it works for me!