Note to self...

So I have learned (several times over) that official people – airport officials, immigration officials, those trying to establish a bank account for you – don’t really appreciate the “decorative” stamps in my passport.  When I was in Japan, we visited some castles and temples that had souvenir “passport stamps”.  Well, of course I stamped them in my real passport, and every single official I have come across has looked at them (yeah, there is more than one) and looked at me, and looked at them – rolled their eyes and kept going.  Today at the bank was no different.  Mirtill took me to the bank during the second period today.  I didn’t have class, so we were going to stop by the bank.  I should know that every time Mirtill takes off her jacket, we’re going to be there a while.  She did it at immigration, and she did it at the bank.  I didn’t think it could take that long seeing as we had all the paper work, I had my passport and Mirtill is a native speaker. SO- what could really take so long right?  Wrong again.  It took almost an hour – with computer problems, paperwork, photo copies – etc.  In the time we were there, I received another text message from my Hungarian boyfriend in Kalocsa.  Apparently he thought he heard my voice on the radio this morning.  Nem Sily – Nem. 

While we were waiting at the bank, I told Mirtill about our experience with palinka last weekend.  She looked at me and said, “how did we go from me recommending honey palinka – and you talking about a beer with a sprite – to several shots of the two strongest kinds of palinka?  Are you some kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?”  She was joking but she was shocked that we had consumed the two strongest types of palinka. Oh well.

The other funny thing is that I figured out why every car here has a cardboard clock in it.  They are about 5 inches by 6 inches, and are usually used to help young children tell time- but not in Tata!  Parking is free for two hours.  SO – when you park, you take out your little blue clock, set it to the time that it is currently, and leave it on your dashboard.  Seriously?

There was also some political hype at school today – the “conservatives” (non-attenders of the beginning of the year party) were all hyped up, and the “liberals” then talked about all of them when they were gone.  I don’t know what they were talking about, but it was evident that things are heating up in our office…. There is a mystery list hanging up on the corkboard in our office, and my name is on the list, but I’m not real sure what it is about.  I haven’t asked yet, and they probably won’t tell me unless I ask… so I’ll let it roll for a while and see what happens.

The last funny thing from today – I was walking by the castle to get to the Sparr for some groceries and I ran into a group of about 20 English speaking kids.  They are 12 years old, and they are on an exchange program from Cincinnati Ohio.  What are 12 year olds doing here?  Staying with Hungarian 12 year old girls of course.  THEN – one of the 12 year old Hungarian kids lit up a cigarette – so I said to the American kids – if you start smoking here you’ll die –don’t do it.  I think I scared the crap out of them, but whatever.