Boldog Uj Evet!

Happy 2006! Here in Hungary, that thought is best expressed with "Boldog Uj Evet!" Literally, happy new year (accusative case). Hungarian doesn't get more simple than that one.

Back in Heves after a magnificent New Years in Budapest. One highlight was calling parents, from atop the Buda hills on New Years Eve Day, with a delicate snow falling over the city and the river Danube below. They're coming in February, I'm really excited to share my new country with them.

Come nightfall, we invited ourselves to a small party hosted by some college students. Counting backwards in Hungarian is beyond my rudimentary grasp of the language, but at the stroke of midnight, the whole group sang "Magyarorszag." A highlight was chatting with a girl named Kitti. She's an English major in college, and I like those sorts of people. We danced together for hours, but I never got around to teaching her the American traditions between a boy and a girl on New Years Eve. Perhaps that has something to do with where I went to sleep in the wee hours of that morning.

i did not sleep on a bed.
i did not sleep on a couch.
i did not sleep in a chair
i did not sleep on the floor.
i did not sleep on a table.
i did not sleep in the bathroom.
i did not sleep outside.
i did not sleep on the porch.
i did not sleep standing up.
i did not sleep in a ball.
i did not even sleep in the bathtub.

I started 2006 waking up atop a wardrobe. With a pillow. Apparently it was the best late night option.

My best for a happy 2006, a year in which I hope we meet again!