A few days after the snow I took my final exams. Nothing out of the ordinary there, at least in American standards. But these standards can indeed be different from what you already know. For one thing, apparently there is no such thing as failing a class. Technically, of course, it's possible but that requires that one doesn't show up for the exam or turns his paper in blank. Otherwise, the worst grade you can get is a C (about 3 in Hungarian terms). But everyone is graded on what they call a curve: the distribution of the grades resembles a bell curve. (Feel free to Google is you need to.) Quite to my surprise, I've done really well on all my exams. I thought that not being from around here would put me into a disadvantage but, as it turned out, having a law degree, even if from elsewhere, was in fact a huge advantage over the JDs. Perhaps I already have a sense of legal reasoning, or I might have been that I've seen real live cases requiring the exact skills these test were supposed to gauge. I don't think I'll ever find out why I did well. (Maybe because I had studied? Nah, that never worked at home.)
Just days after my last exam on Dec 15, I had a flight leaving for Paris and then to Budapest. Yes, I decided that I want to spend the holidays with my family and friends at home and had bought the ticket early in October. But I still had a few days to kill in Houston, so I asked a friendly family who I had known since early September if I could stay with them for those few days. They live in a nice suburb just outside of Houston and have a huge garden. The latter was no help in December. Despite its relatively Southern location, Houston was somewhat cold in December, perhaps because of the Northern winds pushing down freezing cold from Minnesota.
Anyway, during my stay, this family took me to a lot of gorgeous places, really good restaurants (Mexican, Italian etc.) and to a gathering of their friends at one of their houses. At this gathering I met E, a girl who, as I later leaned, goes to the same law school. Later when I was already on my way to Budapest, I got an e-mail from her telling me she planned to visit her cousin in Cambridge (England, not in Massachusetts) and asked for tips about other cities in Europe to visit. As you may have guessed, Budapest just knocked out Prague after I wrote about it. :) The funny part was that most of this e-mail exchange took place at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport during my 5-hour layover.
So, on Dec 22 I boarded the Air France plane flying from Houston to Paris. You may or may not know that there are two majro airports in Houston: Hobby Airport, which is quite close to my place, and George W. H. Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston. (if I got the name right). It must be odd for then president Bush to fly to an airport named after his dad. Or just imagine if G. W. H. Bush flew commerical and he went to the check-in counter showing his ID and his ticket with his name both at the holder of the ticket and the destination. (Would anyone care to name an airport after me sometime?) Once we took off from Bush airport, which the locals simply call the intercontinental airport, it was 4.30pm. The flight took around 9-10 hours to Paris, so I arrived the next day and was supposed to sleep on the plane. That didn't happen. I, apparently, can't sleep on a plane. This made me really tired by the time we landed and it was morning already in Paris (around 9.00am). To top that I had 5 hours until my plane left for Budapest. At the time I bought my ticket, I though I'd go out to the city and do something. Now that I hadn't slept that was out. I dragged myself and my bags to the check-in counter for the next flight and sat down. I still coudn't sleep. Luckily, I had Armadeggon (the movie from the 90s) on my iPod, which I though would be boring enough to put me to sleep. Didn't help. But at least I saw the movie after who knows how many years. It took 2.5 hours away from my idle time and I also managed to do a few e-mails. I have to say I was really angry not to find a free wifi hotspot throughout the whole Paris airport. I had no choice but to pay a few euros for half an hour. Then finally, they called for the passengers of the Budapest flight. We took off. Still couldn't sleep. Another 2.5 hours have passed and we landed at Ferihegy. You can't even start imagining how tired I was. Got my bags, hurried through customs and met a colleague who asked me to bring her an iPod (it was half the price here at the time). Then I finally ran into my dad and sister. An hour-long drive followed from the airport to home. Then: Project Hit the Sack. Big Time.
The holidays went by with the usual festivities. I met tons of friends in both Budapest and my hometown. I was busier than if I had worked. :) Truth is I had to get some work done too. I save y'all from having to read through my stay at home, most of you were there anyway. In fact, most of you met E when she in fact came to Budapest just three days before I had to go back. We rushed through Budapest's sites and she gave an English class in a high school in my hometown, which she seemed to have enjoyed. My English teacher friend was also really excited about it. Poor students, half of them had no idea what was going on but luckily E prepared a picturesque presentation about Texas (armadillos, cacti, cowboys and oil rigs) so that saved the day for the beginners' class. (Sometimes I had the impression that the other English teachers have lost her, too.)
In mid-January, I again had to face the horror of long haul flight. Not that I don't like flying, indeed I love it, especially take-offs. But sitting in one place (two places actually) for over 16 hours? That's just cruel. But I landed safely at beforesaid Bush airport. It was pretty warm compared to home, which did make me feel glad after so many hours of flying in the over-aircontitioned plane.
I'll continue to fill you in with the rest of the semester so far, including a brief trip to San Antonio, Galveston and my plans for spring break.
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