A Short Guide to Current Events, and More

It seems I write every two weeks. This, of course, is not my intention. But things are going at a rapid pace and I am generally exhausted all the time. The 8 hour work day, while most people have them, is something generally new to me, especially after working part time here and there in Prague, and then not working in general. The coin has definitely flipped, though I'm not sure in my favor...

Some things I have noticed now that I am back:

• Chivalry is alive and well in Hungary. When I wait for an elevator in my office, the women always enter first, and exit first. This is just how things are. Even if the elevator is filled to the brim with people in suits, and I am leaning against the opening and closing door, I have to wait for the women to exit before I can go. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I think its funny how it is here. Of all places. And no one told me this was how things were. I had to watch and learn, which I generally do anyway. I still sometimes forget myself and leave before the women. When I get nasty looks I smile. That generally does the trick.
• Never ever ever write an email when you are stressed and missing someone and fucking mad. It might be one of the most eloquently bombastic emails you have ever written, for that very purpose, and you might be speaking your mind and the whole truth...But the one who reads it probably wont think so. I had the unfortunate opportunity to send one of these emails to my last landlord in Prague. I can safely say I will not be receiving a Christmas card from her. Nor her from me.
• While chivalry is not dead, it seems that monogamy is. My friend Jaro, who is American but has been living as an expat here in Budapest for some time now, went off on a tirade a couple days ago about how many girls there are out there. And that once it got warm there would so much tail running around it would be hard to keep track. Now, in his defense, and because he is my good friend and I wouldn't want him reading this and thinking I had sold him down the river, he is the type of guy who doesn't like the monogamous lifestyle and has no one to really talk to about the tail running around (so it seems). His example is a bad one, but the next couple are not. There was a conference in my office that I taped, and I got to know the participants pretty well over the past weekend (read: margaritas, dancing, and the next morning thinking it was better to chuck myself out a window then to endure another minute of hang over land). During that time, I met one guy who was married and another with a girlfriend, and both of them had their eyes out for whatever came their way. Now, to be fair to them and Hungarians alike, they werent from Hungary. But I feel like this is a common theme with men in this region. They have wives and girlfriends at home, and when they travel, someone else is waiting for them. Another one of those cultural (global?) mysteries one can muse over.
• The more I think about writing or doing something productive, the more I seem to veer away. Not because I want to, but because I get caught up in Budapest and the living and everything that seems to drag me away from those things. Is it a bad thing? For now, I suppose not. With Jamie gone I don't have that physical (tangible-not sexual...) relationship that I had become accustomed to in Prague. And now, without that tangible relationship, with only email and the occasional skype call, I am cast out alone in this crazy world of Magyars.
  

Ok, enough of the bullet points. For those of you who don't know, and none of you should, because she has been mum on the situation and I just have not had time to write. Jamie is going back to the states in less than a week's time. The reasons are numerous, but the most pressing matter is the Schengen laws, which for you readers who have read my angry rants against the (new) immigration laws sweeping the EU know a little about them. Now, this also has a lot to do with me, but I will leave that to your (and my) imagination. I don't know what I am going to do, honestly, but I will figure it out in due time. Whether this means moving to the Russian or Ukrainian or China office for 3 months, officially remains to be seen.

So Jamie is leaving, for at least 3 months. She comes to Budapest on Friday afternoon, to say goodbye to me, and then I will probably not see her for 5 or 6 months. There was a time when I was angry and frustrated with this whole situation, but when that girl gets something in her head, even I can't get it out. Oh, and, she has to leave in order to be legal. She has to be out of the EU for 3 months in order to come back in, and get a work permit legally.

So that's that. I am still staying in the company flat. I managed to persuade Jon to let me stay until April 1st, but even then, I probably won't have enough for the 2 months deposit plus one month's rent that is uniform in Hungary's real estate.

I hope my future land lord likes graduated payments.