Another Travelin' Song

As this is my first blog post, I suppose I ought to try and set some sort of precedent for how these posts will generally proceed. I ought to begin by saying that although I created this blog to allow people of concern in my life to attempt to follow in my wandering footsteps throughout Hungary, I have a tendency to stray from the path in my writing, to let a stream of consciousness carry me off to a distant sea and leave me standing on the shore with one thought in my head: "How the hell did I wind up here?"

So. It begins. Currently I am sitting in the midst of what epitomizes the oftentimes used and oftentimes tongue in cheek phrase "organized chaos" and listening to most every song that has to do with traveling (including Bright Eyes' song "Another Travelin' Song", from which I stole the title of this post). Over these past couple weeks I have done almost everything imaginable to avoid having to pack, including, but not limited to, the baking of vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls (the most delicious distraction I have ever eaten, so delicious, in fact, as to induce a sort of blissful denial that allowed me to feel like I had at least seven years to pack), buying a marvelous assortment of fruits and vegetables at the Holland farmer's market and turning said vegetables and accompanying pizza crust/sauce (Italian Herb crust, in case you were wondering, which, unless there's something wrong with you, I'm sure you were), journeying far and wide in search of the perfect bag and perfect journal to take (both finally found at Global Infusions in Grand Rapids. The bag: one-shoulder, perfect size to fit one or several notebooks for on-the-go homeworking and reading, now decorated in pins and even a feather contraption attained from my friend Angela. The journal: a teal-green journal made in Nepal from recycled paper) and spending an entire week in Chicago visiting some of the friends I will not see in quite a while, friends who hopefully will take the time to read my blog every once and a while. I also dyed my hair red and included purple streaks. Oh, and the most recent procrastination technique? Writing this post.

So. In less than 12 hours, I will be leaving this house and headed to the airport to embark on this semester trip. I have to admit that I am woefully ignorant of Hungary, having had a research position this summer that kept me quite busy and limited the amount of reading I was able to do prior to the trip. After an incredibly stressful, incredibly full day of running around, my bag is officially packed and five pounds under the 50 pound limit. Thank you, thank you for the applause. Even more wonderful, my carry on is currently under 10 pounds, meaning I have room for....AN EXTRA DAVID FOSTER WALLACE BOOK!!! (Hopefully)

That's probably enough rambling about packing. For those of you who are interested in what I am doing in Hungary, I'll include a brief list/summary of the trip. This is done for you, but also for selfish reasons, namely that I don't feel like explaining over and over again why I'd want to go to Hungary of all places.

The semester program this  year has a theater focus. The entire group has to take the following three courses.

1. Hungarian Language- Since Hungarian (or Magyar, its name in Hungarian) is of the Finnish-Ugric and has essentially no shared roots with English, this course is intended to teach mainly survival Hungarian ensuring that we can have lengthy, intellectual debates regarding the location of the toilet or the cost of paprika (an immensely popular spice in Hungary).

2. Theater, Politics, and Culture in East Central Europe: Michael Page, the program director this semester, is teaching this course, the title of which pretty much sums up what it will be about.

3. Studies in Central European Culture: Again, Michael Page. Again, self-explanatory.

The other two classes I will be taking are up in the air at this point, but I'm hoping to take a class called The New East European Underclass, which essentially discusses those who were left behind in the transition from communism to a market economy. The other class I'm looking at taking is Contemporary Cultural Trends in Central Europe, for which I will get to read several excellent authors and see how their writing reveals deeper trends in culture and society of a few different Central European countries.

On top of taking classes, we will be making several trips to the theater and exploring Budapest, the capital city where we will be spending the majority of our time. On weekends, we will have the opportunity to travel to a couple of the following: Transylvania for an international theater festival, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland to visit Auschwitz, and other countries throughout Europe.

Well, I suppose I ought to return to cleaning up the remnants of my mad packing-at-the-last-possible-minute experiment. The next post I write will be from Hungary! (Speaking of which, the Internet can be a bit sketchy there, so don't flood me with messages asking for updates...I promise I'll try and keep you all posted!)

-Abby-