Barack Obama Music Fest

So Thursday after school, I decided I was going to travel back into Budapest to attend a “Barack Obama Music Festival.”  I wasn’t sure what this would entail, but I figured that there would at the very least, be some other ex-pats that I would be able to meet.  I left right after school – my 9^th graders assured me that I could make a 2:22 train – when school lets out at 1:45.  I wasn’t sure that I believed this, so one of my students offered to take me to the bus station and make sure that I got on a bus to the train station.  We waited (impatiently) for a bus to come, and then as we packed on, I noticed that it was 2:12.  So I was getting a little restless because if I missed this train, I had over an hour to wait, and I’d have to go back home, and then back to the train station.  Luckily I had nailed the trains (yeah right) and I breezed through the ticket line and onto the track with more than a minute to spare.  Panting breathlessly, I boarded the 1 hour train ride to Budapest.  When I arrived, I was going to meet Hanna, but I had some time to kill, so I went in search of Tree Hugger Dan’s bookstore.  There are a couple throughout Budapest, and one in Vienna I guess, but there are all kinds of English books there, and internet and fair trade coffee- the whole thing is very granola.  BUT, I had read about Tree Hugger Dan when I was in the states, so I thought I’d check one of them out.  I wasn’t that impressed when I got there, it was smaller than I had thought, but there was a wealth of books in English – which is hard to come by here.  So, I checked things out, and then headed to meet Hanna.  We had a drink (and I had a “hot dog”) at a nice little place and we met Jake and Ellen for our big night out.  Once we arrived at the spot, we ran into Lyla, Lauren and Ashley (who had some of her students there…?)  As it turned out, there were several other Americans there, and some random Hungarians, but it was a nice night.  There were “barack’s” (barack in Hungarian = nectarines, peaches or apricots depending on who you talk to) on the tables (see the pics) and some nice Obama posters and such at the place.  Probably the most exciting part was the fact that I turned around at one point - and there was Tree Hugger Dan!!!  Of course I told him that I had just been at his store - and he was thrilled, but it was quite a (non)celebrity sighting for me.  It was a nice evening- worth the trip.  UNTIL… 5 o’clock the next morning.  Jake and Ellen let me stay at their FABULOUS place – (it’s really beautiful, but some parts are extremely scary- the stair well and the bat cave).  I woke up bright and early to catch a 5:40 train back to Tata to make it home in time for my 8:00 class.   As I was walking to the train station, I was able to witness the evening crowd coming home from a long night of drinking – and I witnessed my first European streaker.  They’re the same as they are in the states – annoying and inappropriate – but needless to say, it woke me up.  I made it to my train (at a new station – it was a little stressful to seek out a new train at a new station at 5:00 in the morning) and made it back into Tata by 6:45.  I ran into a student at the Tata train station, and though she knows very little English, she helped me get to school on the bus – and made sure I got off at the right stop.  We walked together to school, not really saying much, but she pointed when we needed to turn and things like that.  She was very concerned that I get there safely, even with the language barrier present.  The people here are so nice – I am very lucky to be here! 

In the pictures - Tree Hugger Dan is the one in red with the ponytail - I took a picture of Hanna to show him in the background...