« May 2005 | Main | July 2005 »

  stupid monkey

Running into drunk people is kind of a part of daily life here in Kispest, but the other day I had one of the funniest experiences yet. I was coming home with Jon after a class banquet. It was about 12:30 am and we were on the 50é night bus. I was sitting and Jon was standing in front of me and we were talking. At one stop a tall, skinny, very drunk guy got on. He stood right next to me, grabbed the hand rail above my head, flopped his chin onto his chest and stared at me. I knew her was there, but I chose to ignore him. After a few minutes he began to talk. It seemed like he was talking to no one in particular, and it sounded at first like the normal drunk-guy talk. Soon though, I began to suspect that he was talking to me. I still didn't look at him, but I started to try to listen. He was saying, "Get out of my seat! I want to sit there! Move to the back of the bus! Get out!" (All these translations are figurative because my Hungarian isn't that great, and this guy couldn't really form syllables and enunciate. So my translation kind of fills in the details from the words I understood and the floppy gestures he was using). I ignored him for a few minutes, then he started to complain to Jon about me and how I wouldn't get out of his seat. Jon explained that he didn't speak any Hungarian, but that if the gentleman were willing to speak English, he would be happy to talk to him.
So then the drunk guy turned back to me a little more agitated than before. This is where it starts to get funny. Normally when I run into drunk guys on the bus, they curse like sailors, but not this guy. He cursed like a 5 year old. First he said, "You're stupid!" Then he said, "You're a stupid baby." When I ignored him, he got a little more agitated and called me a "stupid monkey". Then he told me to get out of his seat again and I said, "no".So he got really mad and called me, "hülye majom pokol" or "a stupid monkey from hell." While he was yelling this, I was looking around at the other people on the bus and they were laughing because his cursing, though it was loud, was so childish. So when I still refused to give up the seat to him, he pulled out his final volley. He put his fingers on my head and gave me a brain sucker, called me a "hell monkey" one last time and then wandered up the aisle to harass someone else.
Had I been in another big city, I might have been concerned, but random violent crime is rare in Budapest so I wasn't worried about my safety, I just wasn't sure how to deal with him. After he left me, he stood by a woman in another seat and just stared at her for 5 minutes until she gave up her seat to him. As soon as he sat down, he flopped his head against the window and promptly fell asleep.
Should I have given up my seat? I don't know. I feel bad that he went on to pester that woman, but I didn't feel like being bullied out of my seat. He was skinny and very drunk, I think I could have taken him in a fight.

Posted by neal on Jun 24, 2005 at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

  well.....traveled

I've had this thought several times recently and I wanted to share it. I am amazed at how small the world has gotten. I was at a friend's graduation party a few nights ago and as I looked around the room I was amazed at the diversity and well-traveled-ness of the people there. There were a couple Americans who have lived in 5 different countries. I norwegian born Korean, a Korean-born American, a South African/Irish guy who has permanent residence in the US, a guy from Reunion Island (off the coast of Madagascar), 2 Norwegians, 1 Swedish Norwegian who grew up in the US and Ethiopia, An Australian, two Scots, and two Israelis. And (this is just recollection of conversations I remember for sure) that all these people have traveled to more that 30 different countries in the last 4 years. It's amazing how small the world is an how easy it is to get around it. It's also amazing to me that we would all end up in Budapest and all find each other. I feel very lucky to be able to spend time with people from so many different places.

Posted by neal on Jun 20, 2005 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

  First Goodbyes

Today was the Closing Ceremony for Trefort. This is different from graduation. It's for students that are coming back next year (There's also an opening ceremony at the beginning of the year). This is the last time I will see many of these kids, so it was emotional for me. I was surprised by how flippantly some kids said, "yeah, bye" and ran out, but also by how some hung around long after the ceremony to talk and exchange email addresses and talk some more.
It's hard to leave, but I've been expecting this for more than a year now, so it's not a shock. It's just part of the process of leaving and it makes me sad to leave this place and lots of people that I like.
On an added comic note, I had to bust a kid for "inappropriate behavior" at the ceremony. One of my students, a guy I call Pinky, and one of the only students I've ever flunked, started making out with his girlfriend in the middle of the ceremony. It wasn't a minor, discrete thing either, there were tongues flapping all over the place and it would have made Ron Jeremy blush. Good grief.
Plus I got another bottle of wine from a class. That makes 4 for this semester.

Posted by neal on Jun 17, 2005 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)