18-2-09 Buda Business

Today was excellent. (Which certainly means that I should start working T minus 24 hours ago.) It began with a venture across the river to Buda as a group to get residence permits. I had actually never crossed the river in the day. I cannot believe I did not bring my camera. We went out to lunch and then I went to the mall with a few girls from my program. Malls are all the same, by the way. Price and attitude wise. I was going to head home, as the mall is one stop away from my transfer, but there were police and ambulances and Terez Korut, a large street, was closed in both directions. People were just gathering on the platform, staring.

I decided to detour to the grocery store. That is, I even knew where a nearby grocery store was. I knew what I wanted to get, and I didn’t have to stare like a fool at every picture on every package while getting it. When I got to the juice isle, I actually thought “I am not paying 399 for a liter of mango juice.” On my walk home, I started laughing when I realized that is about two dollars. I have paid twice that for an odwalla.

This led me to a strange thought. It is starting to feel like I live here. I love the Metro that takes me from the nearest commercial area home. It is the oldest in europe, and runs right under the street. The M1. The yellow line. Unlike the M2 and M3, it is old. You do not take a tilted escalator which gives you vertigo past angled walls posted with ads and scrawled with graffiti. You take the stairs, down to a tunnel supported with decoratively cast beams. On the tram, there was a little girl counting to a hundred for her father. I wished I could tell her that is what I learned in school yesterday, too. (Actually, I could only guarantee getting up to 20). Hösők Terre is my stop. I walk home without thinking about where I am going. I am just walking home.