Another Month, Another Country

I made it to Paris yesterday. It's my last stop and then I'm on my way back to the States. It's so strange to think that my extended holiday is almost over...I feel like I just left Sudan and was on my way to Egypt to visit my precious friends there.

I had a great time in Hungary. I love Budapest and Shanna and I had so much fun wandering around together and catching up. She'll be in Hungary for a while but we made a deal (well, really I just decided) that the next time we see each other will be for a vacation in Croatia. I've heard it's cool and in Sudan they always had Croatia tourism commercials and it looks amazingly pretty.

More to come from Paris!

Szentendre

Yesterday Shanna and I took a little day trip to a little village not far outside of Budapest called Szentendre. It was cute, all the streets were cobblestone and there were lots of shops and restaurants along the river.
When Shanna came to Sudan we had lots of adventures, things like wandering around an island to stand at the exact meeting point of the two Niles, exploring pyramids in the middle of the desert, etc. Hungary isn't so much an adventure filled kind of place but when we were in Szentendre we thought we'd get off the beaten path and see what we found....and we found this cool sidewalk/passageway. It just went to the other side of the street but we were impressed.
There are Roman ruins everywhere around Budapest and all the buildings and things are just built around them. Yesterday we stopped by some ruins that are underneath the highway. I don't know why I thought that was cool but I really did.
Then today I found myself wandering home right at sunset so I took some time to observe and appreciate the sunset over the Danube.

This last picture is at sunset too. I was hoping that things would be a bit more pink but it was a smoggy day and that didn't work out so well for me.

Parliament & Protesting

I thought today I'd go over to parliament for the afternoon and take some pictures. I figured it would be peaceful and quiet since it's Saturday. I got there and all the roads were closed which made the wandering a little easier but I figured there was a reason.

I walked around the whole thing. I just love it. The flag below flies on the lawn in front of building. There used to be a coat of arms in the middle but they cut it out after the fall of communism.

Eventually I ran into the reason why all the streets were closed...yet another protest, except for this time they made their signs a little more tourist friendly.

It was so interesting. This group of protesters were darker skinned making it easy to guess why they were protesting. Eventually they ran into another group of people protesting the same thing except they were all really old. There was another group that met them that were all fair skinned and young. I'm guessing that the older people were protesting against age discrimination but the third group I have no idea. This time the riot police brought their horses. I'm pretty sure this demonstration was a little more scheduled than the last one. Not only were there plenty of police but the protest route was clearly marked AND they had a little separate route for the tourists and photographers so people could continue on with their sightseeing OR stand and watch without being in the middle of everything.

People were handing out pamphlets and stickers. They were pretty persistent but I didn't want a sticker. What do you do when things go bad and people start running. It's a little hard to explain to the police that you were just an innocent bystander when you're covered in stickers supporting whatever it was they were doing.

Notice the tall white guy meandering in the midst of all the people? I'm guessing he was just another tourist along for a stroll oblivious to everything going on around him and wondering 'wow, these Hungarians sure are patriotic...hey, I'm on TV!!!!'

All of this brought back this memory of one time we had some volunteers in Khartoum and we were taking them shopping on a Friday and had to cut through downtown to get there. It was a particularly unrestful, anti-American point in time but we thought that since it was a Friday and people didn't usually protest on Friday we would be fine. All the sudden one of the volunteers says 'hey look. They're having a parade. Let's go see it.' We definitely told our driver to turn around and take a different way. I'm fairly certain that could have turned into a totally different kind of protest experience than the one today.

Some Wandering

I did some wandering today. It warmed up...to about 60...and I figured I needed to spend a little time out and about so I just walked up and down the river and found some cool stuff.

There is a beautiful church behind this statue but the tree is in the way.

The decoration on the ceiling of the patio of a church. This is part of a cave church. (I think) I went inside the cave church but the entrance was around the corner and it was highly disappointing. (not the entrance. the church)

The cave church is underneath this cross.

The Parliament building in Budapest is one of my favorite buildings in the world.

And then there were these guys. You just never know what you'll find when you're wandering around Europe.

Protest Day

I was out shopping today when I ran into a protest. I didn't realize what it was until I saw about a hundred riot police decked out in full gear and lined up on the street. Did I turn around and walk the other way? Of course not! This isn't Sudan. I wasn't the only white girl around.
What did I do? I got closer to take pictures. There were tons of newspaper photographers around, then you had all the locals with their cell phones and all the tourists with their regular cameras.

But I have to admit I got bored pretty quick. At first it was a bit of a novelty to actually be allowed to take pictures without worrying that the police might see me and arrest me. But after a while even the novelty of the freedom of picture-taking wore off. No one was waving swords or large sticks. I couldn't read their signs but none of them included a 'down down USA'. Even the chanting was pretty pathetic, they weren't even yelling very loud. The riot police were just standing around and I'm sure there wasn't a real bullet to be found, just those fake rubber ones. All in all, not too exciting for a protest.

I will say that the Sudanese riot police could take a lesson or two from these Metro guys about how riot police should dress and behave, all those knee pads and helmets.

In Sudan it wasn't uncommon to see trucks of riot police speeding through town. At first I was a bit alarmed. I used to count the trucks and use that to determine the importance of what was happening. Less than 10 in a row meant it was nothing. More than 30 meant I should probably head home soon. After a while I found a new scale to measure by. It all revolves around several observations:

1) Do the soldiers even have shoes on?

2) Are there any large plastic shields?

3) Are they holding up the shields or are they just haphazardly thrown anywhere?

4) Can you see AK47s?

5) Are they using them to pick their noses?

6) Are there any helmets involved?

7) Is there anyone manning the 50 caliber on the top of the truck?

8) And finally, are his hands actually touching the gun?

...It's so strange to think about the things that I have somehow become accustomed to.

Click on the post title to see the last time I was up close and personal with riot police.

Thinking of You

Just a few pictures of some random things we saw today that made me think of random people.

First we ran into this cow. All of you Wayland people know how significant a life-sized, plaster cow in the middle of town can be. Shanna didn't like this picture because her eyes are closed but it's the only one we have with the cow and I just couldn't not put it up.

Second, this is the display case at the butcher shop. It includes duck heads, chicken feet, an unidentified organ, stuffed intestines and lots of liver. Those last two aren't in the picture but you can imagine. My first thought when I saw this was 'where are the stomach and lungs?' My next thought, 'I wonder how you would cook a duck head.'
Here I am in the street shopping. It was so cold. Good thing Shanna is letting me borrow her jackets!

At one point we found ourselves completely surrounded by a ton of Chinese tourists with their cameras out. At the same time we both said 'Ahhh, Chinese people. Brandon and April would love this!'

I love this picture. These are all the cool kids. By the time I managed to get my camera out all the people in the front of the tour group with their cameras around their necks were long gone so I just managed to get the ones who were too cool to be hanging out around the translator/guide.

The Bakery

Yesterday Shanna and I were heading out to a friend's house. We were planning to run errands on our way home.

Me: 'We should just go to the bakery now. We'll have to carry our bread with us but just to be sure we can get some.'
Shanna: 'They will be open when we get back.'
Me: 'Are you sure?'
Shanna: 'I'll look at the times but I'm pretty sure. (she looks) Yep, they'll still be open.'

Sidenote: Shanna is so good at not making me feel like an idiot when I can't figure out how it is possible that things can run so efficiently!!!!

Me: 'But what if they run out of bread?'
Shanna: 'They don't run out of bread?'
Me: 'They don't?'
Shanna: 'No' (as if this was a ridiculous idea)
Me: 'Even at the end of the day, they still have bread?'
Shanna: 'Of course.'
Me: 'What if they run out today? Would they make more? Or would they close since they don't have any more to sell?'
Shanna: 'They don't run out, ever.'
Me: 'Seriously? Well then what do they do with the leftover bread each day?' That was me testing her to see if she was really being serious or just seeing if I would believe anything she said
Shanna: 'They sell it for half price.'
Me: 'We should definitely wait until tonight so we can get it at half price!!' the words 'half price' always brings on a sudden change of heart

It's not my fault that I doubt the bakery. I can't help it. The one good bakery (for foreigners) in the Sandbox was always out of bread by like 3pm and then they closed for the day and if you didn't get any bread then you should learn your lesson and come back earlier the next day. They didn't make more when they ran out and the definitely didn't make more in the mornings so that they could sell more throughout the day. That always just blew me away...if you keep selling out of bread then why not just make more, then you wouldn't run out and you could make more money!! Seriously people.

Reading & Blogging for Darfur

I thought I'd put up a link here. I don't know about y'all but I love reading recent, real life stories from Africa and, as we all know, Sudan is especially close to my heart. If you click on the post title it should take you to a list of some books about Darfur.

I haven't read any of them due to my geographic location and the limited availability of books in English but if you share my passion for real life African stories you might enjoy some of the ones on the list.

Smoking Kills?!?!?

On the airplane coming to Budapest I was looking through the duty free catalogue and I noticed something really wierd. All the cigarettes boxes and cartons had these really big warnings written on them in bold black and white print that said things like 'smoking will kill you'. From the pictures I couldn't tell if the warning was actually written on the box or if it was just put on the picture in the magazing.

Today I was walking and saw an empty pack on the ground and it actually had the warning printed on the box. It was in Hungarian so I couldn't read it but it looked just like the ones from the plane so I'm sure that's what it was. Is that a new thing? Do they do it in America too or is it just another European thing?

In other news today Shanna and I went to this cute little restaurant with one of her Hungarian friends. It was a 'pancake' restaurant which really meant it was a crepes restaurant...about 50 different flavors. Salty, sweet, etc. They had it all. It was really good. Plus we got to sit at this cool table where you had to climb up a mini-ladder just to get to it. What a great place!
Shanna lives about 1/2 mile from the Danube so yesterday we walked down to the river and met another of her Hungarian friends. It was so fun. We just had drinks (I still get excited about the fountain coke!!!) at this restaurant with a little deck kind of thing on the river but it was so cute and the kind of thing you should have when your city is located right next to a river. I never found anything cool like that in the Sandbox and I looked.

Yesterday was warm and sunny but today it's cold and supposed to start raining later so I think I'll just hang out inside until it stops and warms up again.

Wine Tasting

Shanna and I went to see the castle today but there was a wine tasting and they were charging to get in...I might would have paid just to go in but since Shanna is still 'under the rules' and all we couldn't go in. Oh well.

We walked down from the castle to this beautiful church that happened to be under renovation. It offered an amazing view of the city along the river.
We went to another park that had a castle in it. This church was inside the castle.
I didn't realize I had been here before until we came up out of the metro and I recognized all the statues. This is Hero Square where there are different statues for the kings and the tribe leaders. To the left where you can't see is another set of statues just like the ones behind me.

I think we should have this road sign in America. It could be applicable in many areas of life.
I like cool doors.

I love the way the rooftops look just like they do in movies.

You Might Be African When....

So I'm really missing Africa lately and I thought I'd list just a few things that I feel are appropriate for me and probably most of my friends at this point in life.

**You can smell the rain before it comes
**You wonder why there aren't any goats wandering in the streets
**Chicken is a luxury
**All your white clothes have turned a curious shade of brown
**You never know what amazing things you can buy at traffic lights
**You reuse plastic throwaway containers
**You're sure you're going to die 5 times in just 5 minutes on the road
**You know that pedestrians never have the right of way
**You dream about Africa...a lot
**You spend as little time as possible in the toilet and have learned to hold your breath for amazingly long periods of time when you can't avoid it
**You give directions using paved roads as reference points
**The sunset is something to look forward to

**Being an hour late means being on time

**You know not to question the contents of your food, especially when it tastes good
**You know the English TV channels by heart
**You've heard the native word for white person more than any other word in the world because it's shouted at you wherever you go
**Your friends only call you after midnight because that's when the rates are free
**You always cary overweight baggage when traveling by plane
**You know that true hospitality is when total strangers who have nothing are willing to share everything they have with you
**You know that cheese can go unrefrigerated for up to 3 days in your lost luggage and still be ok to eat
**You've been proposed to while walking down the street
**You have another name in another language
**You invite people to come over at 2 and they come at 5 and you're not at all offended
**You pack various meats in your suitcase and don't find that odd
**You wash all your vegetables in bleach
**You have one set of clothes for Africa and another special set for traveling
**85 degrees is cold
**No running water for the day is just another day
**You find all the non-white people when you're in Western countries just so you can feel at home
**It doesn't seem right to pay the asking price in the store...if you don't barter for it you're getting ripped off!
**Someone has actually asked you how many camels or cows your father would accept for your hand in marriage
**Something that would normally take a half hour takes days or even weeks and that, somehow, makes sense to you

Another Day, Another Country

Not a whole lot exciting going on lately. I made it to Hungary on Sunday and have been enjoying the 'cool' weather, although everyone here keeps telling me how hot it is. Hungary is so pretty compared to Russia. Very colorful and the people are so much nicer.
Right now Shanna has a volunteer team here and we've been doing a lot of walking. Today we were focused around the largest housing block in the EU. The building you see houses 800 families. That is a lot of people in the same building.
We ran across these old ladies. They were so cute, out for their afternoon walk in their matching house dresses.
I am loving the fountain cokes but since when do all McDonalds include a coffee shop and, not only wireless Internet but actually computers where you can sit down and use the Internet? Is that just an International thing or is it in the States too? There are so many things that I don't even know about America.
And here's Shanna and me in a 'cross the street tunnel'. I don't know what they're called but it's where you walk under the busy street instead of having a crosswalk. Anyways, here they're all covered in grafitti which I find really cool but really inappropriate at the same time.

Buses

I've had some random culture shock moments since I left the Sandbox but especially in the last couple of days in Budapest. One major thing that I just think is ridiculous is the buses here. I am so glad that Shanna came to visit me in Sudan so that she understands that I'm not an idiot, I just have issues. The first day I was here we talked about buses.

Shanna: 'so I need to explain the bus system here.'
Me: 'ok. What should I know?'
Shanna: 'See that thing over there? That's the bus stop. You have to meet the bus at a place like that.'
Me: 'Wait. So I can't just get on a bus from wherever I am?'
Shanna: 'No, you have to know where the stop is and meet it there. It doesn't pick people up except for at the designated stops.'
Me: 'well that's stupid. What do I do when I want to get off the bus, snap my fingers or whistle or something?'
Shanna: 'Ummm. The bus only stops at the designated places so you have to get off at a stop. You can't just get off wherever you want. And you have to push the button by the door before you get to the stop you want so the driver knows to stop there, otherwise he will just keep going'
Me: 'Huh. OK, I guess I can do that.'
Shanna: 'also, different bus numbers run different routes and you have to know exactly which bus to get on and to do that you actually have to know the name of the stop you want to get off at.'
Me: 'Well that's complicated.'
Shanna: 'And they run on a schedule and only come at certain times.'
Me: 'I don't know how well this is going to work out for me.'

LATER at the bus stop:
Shanna: 'See this schedule? It tells you which bus numbers stop at this stop and then gives you a list of all the stops they will make on their route so that, if you don't already know, you can figure out which number you want.'
Me: 'So it's not an 'each of these unmarked, unnumbered buses ends up in a different market' kind of thing? I guess that seems easy enough.'
Shanna: 'and then see all these charts (there's like 5 of them). This is what times they come on M-Th, Fri, and then Sat. Then you take what time it is, find the next minute of the hour the bus will come and then figure out what number stop you're at in relation to the route and add that many minutes to the time it says and that is when the next bus will come.'
Me: 'What?' (thinking: do they offer college courses on how to read bus schedules? This is major complicated)
Shanna explains again
Me: 'So is this mathematical equation time schedule really that important? Do the buses actually come on these schedules or is it just a suggestion?'
Shanna: 'They come exactly at these times and if you're not standing right at the stop to get on they will leave you.'
Me: 'What do you have to synchronize your watch to the bus schedule? I don't even own a watch! This is ridiculous crazy!!'

And then they have this honor system where you don't pay by the ride but by the month. You just buy a public transportation pass for the month and it's good for as many rides as you can take...they don't check it when you get on the bus. You don't have to scan it or punch it or anything. You just get on. It's like they expect that the people here will be honest and not lying, backstabbing thieves every chance they get. It's so weird!

I haven't taken the bus unsupervised yet. I'm normally amazing with directions and not getting lost and with braving large, extensive transportation systems with no problem but I'm not gonna lie. I'm still confused and just a little worried about this whole thing. Why can't there just be a million buses and all you have to do is wave one down from wherever you want to get on and then snap your fingers really loud whenever you want to get off. It seems so much easier and just a little more convenient, but that's just my opinion.

The End of Moscow

This is my last weekend in Moscow. It's been lots of fun but it's definitely time to move on. It's a good place but probably not my favorite. However I did have a blast with my friend and I actually made a lot of random friends too which was really fun.
And in the past two days I've seen a guy on a unicycle and a man taking an extra large raven onto the metro with him. Plenty of entertainment around here. Speaking of metro experiences...

So I'm on the metro with my friend and an extremely drunk guy gets on, sits down across from us and starts rummaging through his bag. Next thing we know he pulls out a box of cherry juice, takes a swig and then offers it to us. We say no thank you and he looks a little confused but shrugs it off. Then he pulls out some old Mcdonalds french fries and offers them to us. We politely refuse and he puts them back. The next item was a small orange. Again we declined but by this point he's getting a little offended that he is trying to share and we don't want any of his food that he is so generously offering. Finally he pulls out a second container of old french fries and, again, we say no. I had half a coke in my purse that I really wanted to offer to him but I guess it was his stop because he packed up all his food items and got off the train before I had the chance.

On the same night we switched trains and found another crazy. This guy was not drunk but had his headphones on and was jamming out. At times he would actually stand up, do a little jazz spin, and then sit back down. The middle-aged women sitting next to him was not impressed with any of his dance moves. Now normally on the metro people don't talk at all so it was a little strange when music man leaned over to his unpleasant friend to strike up a conversation. It was obvious to everyone else in our car that the lady wasn't interested but music man didn't take the hint. He kept talking and talking with a jazz spin thrown in here and there.

Next thing we see is him offering his headphones to the lady. She declined and he kept offering and offering, talking all about whatever song it was he was listening to. She flat out refuses and sternly says something to the effect of 'leave me the heck alone. I don't want to listen to your stupid music.' So the guy puts it on speaker and turns it up really really loud so that the entire car could hear. That lady was going to hear his song whether she wanted to or not. Finally he got off the train and several people burst into laughter. At this point I still had my half coke and I really wanted to sit down and offer it to her but she wasn't the kind of person who would think it was funny and I don't speak Russian so I just don't think it would have gone over well.
I also went to this famous church. It's pretty amazing. You can't take pictures inside but it was beautiful and ornate and I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is my last day in Russia. Then I'm headed to Budapest, Hungary to visit my college roommate for a few weeks. She came to visit me in February and I am so excited to see her and get to experience her life.

Real Shoes

I recently joined the world of grown up people who own a pair of real shoes. For the past 3 years I've been wearing sandals...chacos, tevas, reefs, cute sandals, fancy sandals, house sandals, flip flops, etc. I lived in the desert and it was really hot and I wore sandals every single day. There were the few random times where I went on vacation to a colder place and had to borrow closed-toed shoes but really it's just been all about the sandals.

Sidenote: I did own a pair of tennis shoes and I wore them when I was working out but even then I wore flip flops until the last minute and then took off the tennis shoes the first chance I got. And those didn't make the 1 suitcase cut and got left behind for a refugee to enjoy.

Anyways. So this morning it was 40 degrees in Moscow. Another sidenote that I feel necessary to point out: it was 115 the day I left Sudan...that's a 75 degree difference. My body is in shock!!

I am staying with a friend who has 2 roommates and, while I can borrow every other item of warm clothing, my feet are too small for any of their shoes. And it's gotten to the point where even the Russians have put away their sandals and I really can't handle the cold.

But real shoes are hurting my feet. It's not the typical kind of pain, the rubbing on the back of the heel or anything. It's the tops of my toes and in between my toes that hurt just from being squished together all day. These toes are used to freedom and socks and shoes are proving to be a little too much for them! Plus the bottoms of my feet are being rubbed raw from wearing socks? I don't know how that is possible but it's happening.

My friend was like 'did you buy the right size? Did you do the toe press thing like your mom used to do?' Ughhhh. Of course I did. I may not have bought a pair of real shoes in a really really long time but I know the toe press thing and I did that. I even sprung for the more expensive but more comfortable ones in hopes that they would help with this whole toe rubbing thing but, apparently, it's just shoes in general that don't agree with me.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I have to wear shoes. It's really cold and you walk outside a lot in Moscow. So here I am.

A little reverse culture shock advice for all my friends in the Sandbox: Chacos are great for day to day desert life but try to give your feet a little practice with the real shoes or else you'll really pay for it later.