I, Muehlenhaus. U, Riedermaus.

2005.VI.30 – Not much news here recently. But big news overseas! Birgit started her new job at Macalester College in St. Paul and is loving it. And I just found out I am going to be teaching a European Geography course at the University of Minnesota this fall! Finally, something other than being a TA. Though I have loved TA-ing, I have to admit that after four consecutive semesters, it was getting a bit tiresome to teach “Introduction to Maps and Geographic Information Systems,” etc. Plus, this is a topic that I’m really enthusiastic about, so I think it will be a blast! A lot of work too, but some tangential, three day a week responsibility will probably be good for me.

Classes have been going well. I’m beginning to realize just how much I’ve learned as the first three week section comes to a close. It still ain't smooth, but then again, neither is my English. Three more weeks to go before I will probably begin to forget it all again... merde. Or Baszki! Now that's more like it. But I am serious about stockpiling Hungarian media so I can't forget it that easily. I was watching Asterix and Obelix last night on my computer. That was surreal. The movie was in French and the subtitles were in Hungarian, but I started getting in the flow and caught most of it.I took a test today in school just so they can gauge my progress. I think it went well, but it was fill in the blank, and I often bomb such tests. Luckily a good chunk of the exam was essay, which is normally where I can let my imagination do the talking for me.

Yesterday I was just working like a mad dog. Today as well, but I spent a good chunk of the day walking to the Eastern Train Station (Keleti) and standing in line waiting to buy my tickets to Wien. I’m off to Vienna this weekend to visit my old Hungarian language classmate from 1998, Sissi. She and I were the only two students in the class for much of the year, and we became good friends. I can’t wait to just hang out and chat about life. Plus, Wien is by far my favorite city in Europe, if not the world, so I’m just happy to be visiting it again.

It is the end of the month and in many ways this terrifies me. I had so many plans, many probably grandiose, for the summer. I have only completed a few of them and I’ve decided to just complete a few of my initial plans well and worry about the others later. My Hungarian is really coming along well. I feel in the groove again this week now that I’m forced to only speak Hungarian again. As for my research, I’ve attempted contacting a few of the smaller political parties that I initially wanted to contact, but I haven’t heard anything back yet. I am going to keep trying and keep my fingers crossed! As for my preliminary exam, I have begun reading again after a bit of a hiatus due to exhaustion from the semester and foreign language learning. It feels good to be reading academic texts again, which actually scares me somehow.

That’s all for now. I’m off to Wien!

Oh yeah, one more thing. Nothing that anyone out there cares about or will notice, but it was driving me nuts. Now if you go to Ianville from my regular website and visit the house, the links aren't all broken in my office and I posted pics from around the world that you can access from the wall map. And I made it more aesthetically pleasing... I'm over my crayon phase, but after putting so much work into animating the small town, I'm not going to mess with that for a while. Sziasztok!

# posted by IanM : 22:24