Somewhere in my dim and distant past in a time period labelled Kuwait, I booked 2 holidays for summer, in a now classic cock-up. Booking the holiday with DAD international in Romania, I knew vaguely that I was going to be flying to Eastern Europe in July and that my light went to Bucharest.
So, being a clever sod I decided that, while I was in Bucharest I may as well do a TEFL course to sharpen up my teaching portfolio. Looking around online I found that Via Lingua does a course in Eastern Europe in Budapest and promptly booked said course.
However, on closer inspection it turned out that Bucharest is actually in Romania and Budapest is a completely different capital city (Kaupunki in Finnish for those of you in the know) which is situated in Hungary.
500 miles away.
Still, with the course starting the day after the DAD project ended I figured I could get the best of both Bloody-ests by just getting a train over the border and that was indeed what I did.
So my past few months have been spent variously on a camp in a forest in Romania and slap bang in the capital city of Hungary doing a course.
The highlights of the trip are numerous, including
* Being kidnapped by 3 Hungarian girls and taken clubbing til 8am (note to Dirty McNasty - stop me if you’ve heard this one before)
* My 2nd group of kids in DAD doing the talent show, when I was convinced that they didn’t even understand we had to do a performance.
* Pali’s Robot
* The Dirty McNasty
* Hobos – specifically the first and second one and not including that nasty one that I made where the potatoes were all crunchy
* Beating the guy who smells of piss at chess
* Beating chess man in the blue coat at chess
* Meeting someone very very special
* Batting away a waterbomb with a badminton racquet just like the kung fu movies
* The night before the pink champagne
* Eating bear pastrami
* Eating everything else
* Jazz on the Danube
* That amazing band on the Chain Bridge that played the bagpipes and the brass oboe. Wow
This weekend I came back with a bang, straight in to Notting Hiill carnival, dancing in the Blackbird of St Giles section for Yaa. Was a little strange to be dancing smalls and I can’t say I quite got the feel for this costume. I had some things on my mind which didn’t really help, but it’s still good to be back.
I want to say thanks to everyone who came down to Notting Hill this weekend, Olga, Caz, Izzy, Jules and Sarah and I’m really sorry I couldn’t see you all. I was a tiny bit exhausted and busy but I hope you had a good time anyway.
So now that summer is over and I’m back in the UK what happens next for Mischief? No more adventure yet lined up it seems. But wait. I’m expecting a delivery from Open University tomorrow morning containing my next adventure. I start a new course with OU, which is my next big adventure. Perhaps on the surface not as exciting as gallivanting around the globe having fun, but certainly as valuable.
The best adventures are the ones that you create in your mind. Anything can be an adventure if you let it, so roll on adventure.
Personals
I’d just like to thank at this point a few people who have made the last 2 months really quite special.
Obviously I want to thank the DAD crew, especially Ginger S for being yourself, Jules for being a great roomie and Izzy for being all round great.
In Hungary I need to send out big thanks to Pali for being the best English teacher in the world. I still am astounded that I had to be taught my own language by a Hungarian, who done more than that, but inspired me to learn a deeper knowledge of English grammar. I also want to thank Agi for being an inspirational teacher and giving me so many ideas. You should write a book you are superb!
I’d also like to thank Dirty Mcnasty for walking me home that night. I never got round to telling you about the rest of that night but I ended up finding myself asleep on the Kitchen floor at 5:30am which was definitely not good. The next day I was gagging for a game of chess which is why I wasn’t there when you got up, and I finally beat the guy who smells of piss, but ended up spending all my money playing him, which left me effectively up shit creek for getting to the airport. I later found out that the bus from Kobanyi-Kispest to the airport actually costs money. But that’s ok cos Alex was going that way anyway on the way back to his village so he gave me a lift down the airport anyway. In his BMW. What a legendary guy!
