Transcribing...

... is a pain in the ass. It is so much of a pain that I have been delaying some serious trancribing tasks, which only makes the situation worse. I have about 70 pages (single spaced) of meeting recordings typed up and I estimate that I'll still have to spend another 90 hours typing. And this is only making my data accessible, not including analysis etc. or actually starting writing my thesis. I have to present my analysis in exactly 2 weeks. How will I do that? I've no idea. But never mind, actually, sun is shining (not right now but in general), I'm watching a movie with Gábor tonight, I'm having lunch with Rosemary on Thursday and I'll celebrate koninginnedag/nacht dancing salsa two nights in a row. I just can't be bothered to freak out about my thesis. I'll get it done anyway.

3 campus moments

1. I was here during the first really sunny day of the year. People sitting on the Quad, someone playing guitar, a young politics teacher sitting outside, surrounded by his students... Not a particularly strange moment, but a very UC like one and the first one this year. These are the best days around here.

2. Exam week evenings in Voltaire. I think I once said that Voltaire was much fuller these days than just a couple of years ago. During exam week, it's literally overflowing with the crowd. I was staying with Gábor and I wanted to use my evenings productively, so I found a place in Voltaire. As it became darker and darker outside, it appeared that a whole row of lamps didn't work inside. And what do UC students do? They bring candles!!! How absolutely adorable (and insane) it is to bring huge candles to Voltaire so that they could read their books here. I walked up to Bojan who was also studying at candlelight and asked what he was reading. He was preparing for his philosophy exam. I must say there's something romantic about reading philosophy at candlelight.

3. This morning, 10.30 am. I'm in the Dean's office in College Hall, attending the MT meeting. Loud music outside. A guy driving around a car and a semitrailer on the Quad with a huge poster: vote for Simon for UCSA Chair! and playing music. Annoying as it was, it's quite a creative campaign. It's that time of the year again. Rich, Dutch male kids running for UCSA Chair and Treasurer.

Yes, I'm in Voltaire again. I left my Xs card in Amsterdam, which means that I'll have to ask people to let me in to Locke and Voltaire all week... I have so many thing to do, I don't know what to start with. Should I numb my head by transcribing half a dozen of meeting recordings (approximately 54 hours of work)? Or should I try coding the 64 pages of single spaced transcriptions I already have (no idea how much time this would take...)? Or should I continue looking for jobs? Should I try to find Jocelyn and Tatiana to ask some questions? I guess I should do all this. I might even do the coding outside. The weather is great. I love these days! Life is sweet.

A week at home

I haven't written anything in ages, I know... I have at least 3 unwritten posts waiting in my pocket, I should just write them one by one. Maybe this week. I only have to spend a day in Utrecht and I decided I'll spend the rest of my time transcribing recordings and applying for jobs. Yes, it's that time of the year. I soon have to start the analysis for my research and I also have to figure out my future. I'm optimistic. I think things are going to be just fine. As always.

Soooo, I spent a week at home! I was considering writing something the day before I left, just because I love the excitement, the anticipation before leaving for home. I think about what it will be like to see Jani again, I think about what I'll do during the week, I cut my hair, do my nails, pack my bag and can't wait to wake up next day. Unfortunately, the next day turned out to be very stressful. It was one of the few occasions I almost missed my flight. F.cking OV website told me to get off the train in Best and take bus 145, but the train was late and I missed the bus. Luckily, another train (a stoptrein to Eindhoven) was also late and I took that one to Eindhoven, and then I took a bus to the airport. I got to the check-in desk just in time. What a relief. The flight was okay, but - as always - the seat was very uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep. The pilot was a cool guy. The flight was slightly delayed, so he kept on talking before being allowed to take off. He explained that we were going to take off from runway nr. 22 and not because there are that many of them. Eindhoven Airport actually only has one runway. But it's called nr. 22, because it's oriented 220 degrees toward South-East. Well, I didn't know that.

I did something I don't usually do and that was switching on my phone right after landing. I immediately got a call from Jani, but I didn't want to answer it on the plane. I thought I would call him back once I was in the building. Then, I got another call. Weird, I thought. Then, a minute later, I got two messages. The first one said "don't come out". The second one said "policemen". I called him to ask what was going on... He was very vague. I didn't yet know I was going to wait for more than 5 hours at the airport. Let it suffice to say that he was detained for 4 full hours for something that was a minor offense, but he was cocky with the policeman and the guy decided to teach him a lesson. I waited with him for an hour but then they took him. Then, from 4 to 8 I was sitting in the arrivals hall, occasionally taking a walk around the place, eating a muesli bar and reading a magazine. Getting him back really was the happiest moment of the day. We got home around quarter to nine, warmed up the lunch he made for me and we had that for dinner. We were exhausted, starving and relieved.

Great start for the week that did actually end up being a very nice week. Jani had to work quite a bit and he was also very nervous about the 100th Cinetrip party coming up at the end of the week. He was finally going to play in the main hall, from the balcony above the swimming pool and he spent a week stressing out about the party, selecting and mixing music, and even burning a safety CD, just in case something went wrong on the spot. I also had a couple of things to do. I went to the tax authorities to try to find out why they were bugging me, but that wasn't too easy and I only managed to get half the story. I also started the procedure of getting my UC degree recognized in Hungary. I payed 18350 Ft to get the level approved, but I would have had to pay something like 73000 Ft to get my profession recognized. Thank God, I don't actually have a profession.

The highlights of the week were Zsuzsa's birthday party, baking cakes for Pesach with Irma (we had a pretty hard time with the first one but the second was easy as... pie), spending an afternoon with my grandparents and my brother (and realizing that someone should really get this little guy straight because he's aggressive and mean with my grandparents - what are his parents doing, seriously?), getting drunk at the dinner at my parents' place (that's because Jani and I were late and we chugged a Metaxa-Hell cocktail before leaving, but then we had to drink all the regular stuff at my parents' place), meeting up with two ex-colleagues, Emese and Laci (I haven't seen them for ages, so it was very nice to see them and catch up), being Irma's model at her make-up artist course (my skin - and my eyes especially - didn't like it too much but it was fun), dancing salsa at the Columbus ship on Friday, and the Cinetrip party, of course.

It wasn't the best Cinetrip party ever, but it was okay. I wasn't happy that Jani had left before his friends arrived for drinks - after all, they are mainly his friends, not mine. I could see that Orsi wasn't in a very good mood, but it turned out that they had already been drinking and I mistook her drunken expression for a bad mood. Taki noted that I wasn't in a good mood. Yeah, I'm never in a good mood the evening before leaving for Amsterdam... Anyway, they stayed for an hour, when Tamás picked us up by car. Then, on the way to his place, we picked up Jani from the bath and continued the drinking at Tamás' place while Anita was preparing.

It's always fun to get a backstage pass because you can stroll around at places in the bath that are closed to the public and you can go behind the DJ booth... I spent most of the evening dabbling with Anita and I swear people must have thought we were two lesbians. I was right about Orsi not being in a good mood - she got slightly neurotic about Kincses not paying enough attention to her, but I just didn't feel responsible enough to do anything about it. It's his girlfriend; he does whatever he wants. Besides, he was just talking to Tamás. I did feel responsible enough though to keep an eye on Taki because he got horribly drunk and I didn't want him to get lost in the crowd, fall badly or drown or anything. In the meantime, I was hit on by 3 guys, a similarly drunk Spaniard, a pretty attractive and sober Swiss guy and some other dude I convinced not to jump into the pool from the first floor. (What a mad idea! Although I know that Jani has done that in the past...) I knew Emese should have come along: she would have found a dozen guys to flirt with. The Turkish area of the bath looks as if an orgy could start any moment and aside the couples kissing and stroking each other, I have, in the past, seen couples having sex in the pool. If you think about, it's pretty disgusting: a pool full of all kinds of bodily fluids and beer - but nobody is really thinking about it.

Jani finished playing at 2 and I heard myself through the speakers saying that that area of the bath was closed. We recorded that in two languages a couple of months ago to help the security guards kick people out. Kincses and Orsi left at that point, Jani was about to play in the main area, and I was stuck with a drunk Tamás and Anita. Tamás' every second word was "geci" , they kept on insulting each other and I was just too tired to be with them. I had a task anyway: to record the complete hour of Jani playing. I asked Tamás not to shout into the video camera to which the kind answer was "suck my cock", but I so didn't care. It was 3 am, I knew we weren't going to be at home before 5 and that we would have to leave to the airport at 8. Jani was doing well, he made a couple of tiny mistakes but corrected them. People liked it. He said he was so nervous he checked 5 times whether he was going to press the right buttons.

We got home at 4.45 and landed in the bed pretty much immediately. The morning was horrible. After 2 and a half hours of sleep I woke up like a zombie. We had a quick breakfast and headed toward the airport. He said he hates that I'm leaving him all the time. I said I wasn't leaving him, I was always coming back to him instead. I travelled almost 6 hours home and I felt really lonely in the evening... But this morning we spent almost 2 hours talking on Skype. It was almost like being at home with him.