Blast to the past...
It snowed on Monday (Nov. 24)!!! For about an hour...then it turned to rain. :( I want snow! Mounds and mounds of fluffy white decorating the town in a glitterly frost! However, it was beautiful for those few minutes.
Last Tuesday was a typical crazy Tuesday. However, I had switched voice lessons with Caitlin, so I had an hour lesson on Tuesday rather than a 1/2 hour on each day. Plus, Zoltán was not there in the afternoon, so no conducting!
My lesson went pretty well. And the most amazing part...János finally gave a somewhat literal definition to "the point"! Incredible! (But only after I was so frustrated with trying to find "the point" that I gave him a disgruntled look and asked what exactly this point that is never defined really is.)
Wednesday, I had to take the train to Szeged to straighten out my residency permit/visa papers. Agi could not come with me, so I went on my own. Piece of cake. Hop on the train. *do-do-do* Take the bus across town. *do-do-do* Go to the immigration office. *do-do-do* Hop back on a train to go home. This traveling thing is nothing. haha! (Of course, just a few months ago, it was the scariest thing! haha!) The trip went so smoothly, too. I was kind of shocked. When I got to Szeged, I took the bus Agi had instructed me to take, and the bus driver was super nice. I told him where I needed to go, and he made sure I knew where everything was along the way and that I got off at the right stop. Once I knew I was on the right bus, I knew where I needed to get off, but he was so sweet about it, being so helpful. The moment I saw he had fuzzy little puppy stuffed animals on his dashboard, I knew he had to be the softy Papa-type. haha! I ended up getting there about a 1/2 hour too early, and they would not let me in, so I took a walk down the street towards one of the big main squares of town. I found a lovely little pedestrian-only area and a little confectionary rightly titled "A cappella" where I got a pastry and a tea. Then, I made my way back to the immigration office taking a different route and WITHOUT using my map! (I guess my sense of direction is getting better!) At the office, I had to wait a bit but only about 30 or so minutes, and then it took them approximately four minutes to stick a sticker in my passport and have me sign a couple of papers. Then I headed back to Kecskemét where I had my pile of work waiting that had yet to be touched since I had to take that last minute trip. Nem baj. I was somehow ready for Thursday.
Thursday was Thanksgiving! Woohoo! We had a big feast planned at the Institute that evening, but we had to get thru classes first. In solfege, I got all of my dictations correct! But I didn't believe they were right until Klára confirmed it...in response, she said, "Nagyon jó, Samantha! How much you've progressed! But our work definitely is not finished if you don't believe/know for yourself that it is correct." True. We'll get there someday. I have discovered that I really don't trust myself to give the correct answer or that I know how to do something. I'm a work in progress.
Our turkey feast was amazing! (Gratitude 43) It was really neat to share our holiday with so many other cultures. And so much food!
Friday, I had double conducting (to make up for Zoltán's absense on Tuesday). Other than that, I accomplished very little work. My brain was on Friday mode. Nem jó. In the evening, Sun-Xing and I decided to cook dinner together because neither one of us wanted to cook, so we thought we'd suffer together. haha! Later, we just needed to get away from the Institute for a short time, so a bunch of us went out for a bit.
Saturday morning, we caught an early train to Budapest for a day of ice skating and a visit to the Christmas markets!
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