Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a WHOLE WEEK since my last update.
To be fair, I was away in Barcelona last weekend arriving home Sunday, then I have been focused on my thesis…which left no time for updates. I would also like to note that there are several emails that I started, that I have to finish. They have found a home in the ‘drafts’ folder, but I assure you they are coming!
However I will give an update now. (the photo is of Raday Utca, around 8 am).
The last post I made was on Canada day. Or, rather, the day before Canada day because I actually left of Spain on Canada day. The photo I posted was of the center arrangement that I made for all the cocktail tables at the reception that we had at work. I just played around with the contrast on the computer. The reception was really nice, and we even had some Canadian sponsors and Canadian business who donated things (like food) for the event. I happily ate some McCain fries and cheddar jalapeño poppers. While Heinz ketchup was no where in sight, I was happy to taste something ‘homey’….even if McCain fries are not exactly gourmet….
My ‘duty’ at the party was to both schmoose (which I am getting much better at!), and take photos. I think having the camera actually made it easier as it was the ice breaker so to speak. Actually, I forgot the mention my first two jobs. One ended in a gongshow the other was kind of fun….in a work sort of way.
Firstly, the gongshow. I know there is a heat wave currently plaguing most of central Canada and the US (evidence: the thousands of facebook status updates related to the ‘heat’ from my Canadian and American friends). In Hungary, there is no heat wave persay…but rather, a serious mosquito problem. In fact, this year they said that the mosquito population is 50 times it’s normal rate (from 50 bites per hour to something like 100 to 120 bites per hour…I have no idea where or how they get/got to this fact, but I believe it). They say this is because of all the rain that bpest had in the spring, coupled with the large puddles in the streets, coupled with the fact that the rain delayed the 'spraying' meant that a perfect breeding ground was created for the pesky things to procreate......In the span of 30 minutes, I had been bitten over 10 times, and large welts were appearing…..(as a note: these welts then bruised, and I looked like I came from a war zone when I met my mum, David and Max in Barcelona).
Due to the mosquito bites and general mosquito population at the party, I was sent out to buy repellant to appease all of us stuck in the grass for the night. Actually I was sent out for batteries AND bug spray and asked to get a proper business receipt too. I failed to find bug spray (but found batteries) and went to the cash and said ‘Kanata’ receipt Canada. The women had no idea what I was saying. Really, I didn’t really know what I was saying. I remember a colleague told me the words that I was supposed to say, but I guess I just got nervous, I ended up mixing up ALL the syllables and saying a jumbled mess of words of Hungarian, French and English. So after about what felt like years of in Babylon, I took out my cell phone and called a Hungarian colleague, told her my issue and gave the phone to the cashier. At this point the cashier probably thought I was nuts. You know, I would probably think that if a strange person speaking nonsense handed me a cell phone….anyway…it worked, my colleague told the cashier what I needed and all was swell. Sort of. The lady didn’t seem too happy, neither did the 10 people waiting behind me. Apparently this was something I should have said at the beginning of the purchase….that I am actually totally just assuming though…she might have just been angry that I was causing a backlog of people, or hell, that I asked for something that she didn’t want to deal with. Anyway, she pushed some buttons, looked at me and said Nev. Nev. Nev.
I have (or, actually, had) no idea what Nev was.
Then she moved on and pointed to the word Cim.
Again.
I was clueless.
So I called my colleague again. Told her about the current Nev/Cim standoff occurring in the check out line and she said:
Jessica, Nev is your name, Cim is your address. She needs your name and address to give you the receipt.
So I wrote down my Nev and Cim on the back of an old receipt (including the words Nev and Cim and arrows pointing to each) and handed it over. There was NO way I was going to attempt to actually say the letters (attempt is even a long shot as I don’t actually know the Hungarian alphabet of by heart).
I half laughed/half cried/half wished I could communicated better/half wished I’d pay attention more in my impromptu lunch/break Hungarian lessons…..but I will never forget my Nev and Cim……and I did get the proper receipt…it just took longer than expected and required two phone calls and a very long backlog of people at the cash….
My second task was to greet all the VIP people who came to the party. I greated them in Three languages J. That was fun. Except that I wasn’t told that this would be my job, and therefore was not prepared for it. These people were soooooo VIP that they didn’t care to tell me who they were (and I had no idea who they were), so there were some awkward moments when I just asked them….But knowing after the fact did help with my job as camera-women and general schmoosing.
To be fair, I did recognize some from other things as well…but still…the people that I knew introduced themselves, it was the people that I didn’t know, who also didn’t care to tell me who they were, where tense-ish moments occurred…at one point me and the security guard had devised a plan for figuring who was who half by the cars they drove up in (and the labels on the cars). He also delayed some of the drivers, which gave me time to scan my brain in the hope that I would recognize the flags and labels on the car. Had I been able to communicate with the security guard, I probably would have asked him to ask the drivers in Hungarian….However, due to linguistic issues and security issues, after the VIP were all ‘in’, my job was handed over to someone who could speak Hungarian. So this meant I got to grab my camera and shoooot. And that is what I did. I also got to meet and chat with some really interesting people. One guy asked me about my research and he actually seemed more excited about it than me. It gave me hope.
The party ended around 8 30, and I got home around 10 30….when I decided that I’d better pack and get ready for trip to Barcelona! !
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