#xpat

Michael Blumenthal graduated from the Cornell Law School with a J.D. degree in 1974, after studying philosophy and economics at the State U. of New York at Binghamton. His seventh book of poems. And, will be published by BOA Editions in early 2009. A graduate of Cornell Law School and formerly Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, he is the author of the memoir All My Mothers and Fathers (Harper Collins, 2002), and of Dusty Angel (BOA Editions, 1999). His novel Weinstock Among The Dying, which won Hadassah Magazine's Harold U. Ribelow Prize for the best work of Jewish fiction, has just been re-issued in paperback, and his collection of essays from Central Europe, When History Enters the House, was published in 1998.   A frequent translator from the German, French and Hungarian, he practices psychotherapy with Anglophone expatriates in Budapest and spends summers at his house in a small village near the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary.  1. When did you arrive in Hungary and what brought you here?  1992. I came as a Fulbright professor at ELTE.

2. Have you ever been an expatriate elsewhere?  Yes, France, Germany, Israel

3. What surprised you most about Hungary?  How absolutely beautiful, and sweet, the women are.

4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?  Walk across Chain Bridge at night or early morning; have palacsinta up in Normafa

5. What is your favourite Hungarian food? Túrós palacsinta

6.What is your favourite Hungarian word?  Szerelem.

7. What do you miss most from home?  60 Minutes. Women who get my jokes in English.

8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?  Primate zoology

9. What's a job you would definitely never want?  Vacuum cleaner salesman

10. Where did you spend your last vacation? In South Africa working with baboons.

11. Where do you hope to spend your next holiday?  At my house near Lake Balaton.

12. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?  The Rolling Stones.... and Beethoven.

13. What can't you resist? A beautiful woman who is also kind and intelligent.

14. Red wine or white?  White

15. Book or movie?  Better a good movie than a lousy book, but both.

16. Morning person or night person? Definitely morning.

17. Dog person or cat person?  Cat 18. Buda or Pest side? Pest... except for walks in nature.

Today was hot as fuck. ("Hotter than Satan's dick" as Bailey would say.) Seriously, it felt like Florida. Well, maybe not as humid, but still .. unappreciatively warm. Exacerbated by the fact that I walked all up and down Shepherds Bush and Bethnal Green today filling out estate agent forms to no avail. Everywhere is either already letted or not available until the end of October. I need a place now! So, right now I'm scouring the internet for cheap hotels since I'll be staying in one a bit longer than I originally predicted; and the Best Western I am in now is hella expensive and probably booked for next week anyhow.

Things I learned today:

Rocket (or roquette) = arugula I'm not sure if this is primarily a British thing or if I am just ignorant, but I saw it on a menu and was, like, WTF?! Then I googled it and was, like, "Oh, arugula... that's boring." Flat white = latte I kept seeing this on cafe menus and had no idea what was meant by it! I guess technically it's not exactly prepared the same, but it's basically espresso with foamed milk.

Speaking of coffee, you know those Starbucks frappuccino things that come in the glass bottles? (Not a frap then, btw... more like a chilled latte, but I digress...) Here, they have them in strawberry flavor! Like strawberry milk :) No coffee inside obviously - ew. Also, they have these Krispy Kreme donuts that are called Glamour Glaze donuts and are basically a plain glazed donut topped with an orange (orange flavor, duh) or magenta (strawberry flavor) glittery glaze!

I suppose they are promotional for London Fashion Week and I have yet to try them but I will soon because they're only going to sell them until Oct 2.

Ok, moving on from food... I'm still on US time which means that I stayed up 'til 4 am for the past two nights and slept until 3pm yesterday - I woke up thinking it was 11:30! ...lol nope! So, today I forced myself to wake up at 8:30am to try and reset my internal clock.  ... I almost fell asleep on the tube today but other than that I think it's working - definintely going to go to bed early tonight; I'm fucking exhausted.

I went to LCF today to enroll and pay my fees.. my credit card declined the payment (fucking Old Navy, gawd) and when I tried to call them, the number wouldn't go through... But, the guy working the pay station (I think his name was John) was sooo nice and let me borrow his cell phone to call. For some reason the voice automated robot wouldn't accept my birthdate so it wouldn't confirm me as the card holder - super frustrating. But John told me I could come back Monday or Tuesday and just go straight to him and skip all the bullshit to pay my fees and complete enrollment. I called when I got home and now the call went through, and I cleared everything up so I can pay my fees on Monday. It's just really frustrating because I made sure that I alerted all of my credit cards that I would be traveling out of the country and they still put a hold on my card. I know it's because it was, like, $4600 or something but aldkjfakheklhr I just wanted to have everything taken care of today, you know? Instead I feel like I didn't get anything done even though I spent all day doing stuff.

I will feel so much better once I have my own flat and can get settled in. I don't feel comfortable in this hotel; I want to feel at home and I won't feel that way until my living situation is settled.

I walked around a lot today trying to get the feel of the neighborhoods. I decided that I really like the Ravenscourt Park area - it's very nice and shady and rather quiet; I think a lot of families live there. And I decided that I really don't like the Mile End area .. it's very dirty (lots of riff-raff as Kathy would say), which is unfortunate because it's affordable.. I think you can tell a lot about an area by the quality of its parks, and Mile End Park is really shit.. Full of trash and completely unmowed or landscaped at all... Just really not taken care of :\ I really hope to find something in the Shepherds Bush/Ravenscourt area because it's close to the school and the park (which is gorgeous, btw!), and close to the Central and District lines, so that will make getting to Central London easy.

Somehow I demagnetized my travelcard for the tube and now it can't be read, so now every time I go to put it in the ticket machine, it says "See assistance" which is really inconvenient. And it's a 7 day travelcard and I still have four days to use it all fucked up like this. Just another small annoyance..