Good Wine And Even Better Ideas

This past Thursday I found a used English bookstore and café just a short walk away from my apartment in a really cozy area of the city, and not only did I find a really great book, but I also stumbled across a flyer for an event called 'Ignite Budapest’ that was happening there that evening. The expat event featured about a dozen individuals from various creative backgrounds, who each had about 5 minutes to give a mini lecture on their topic par excellence. The owner of the bookstore assure me that it was going to be great and the evening turned out to be nothing short of what he promised.

After listening to some really interesting thoughts and ideas, everyone was given the chance to talk to the speakers as the venue opened up its bar, and I took every advantage of this opportunity to pick the brains of my three favourite:

Tibor Kocsis - really cool Central European documentary film director. Right now he's working on a film called "The New Eldorado" about how the Canadian (shame) gold corporation is planning on destroying a huge mountain range in Romania to create one of the biggest gold mines in Europe. Over 5 000 people live in this area of Romania and will be "re-located" if all the plans go through.

Patrick Judson - DJ from New York and I can't even think of how I should describe him. His masters thesis was on DJ culture and postmodernism, and his discussion was all about how electronic music and the space where people collectively dance to it has like a shamanistic power that connects and brings us closer to each other and the technology that actually disconnected us in the first place? ....it was intense.

David Erickson - freelance photographer. His photos were absolutely amazing and in only 5 minutes he shared some of the best advice I've ever heard about how even someone with absolutely no experience can take beautiful pictures.

The Real "Boho Chic"

On the first day of my internship the other two interns and myself were given the grand tour of the museum and its current exhibitions by our one boss Janos, who's the guy who keeps us on track because our real boss is far too busy (he's much more like our big brother who has to keep us on track, fix our mistakes and pretty much take care of us in every sense). Buy anyway, we were shown the exhibition on Mucha called "In Praise of Women", which was obviously great, when our real boss walked in a told us that we were supposed to attend the party to commemorate the exhibition on the coming Saturday. The party/fundraiser was called "Bohemian Ball" and she said that just like the exhibition, it was really going to be a celebration of women.

I really had to idea what to expect out of this event but for some reason I feared the worse. When I think of these types of evenings in Canada that often 'celebrate' or 'honour' women, they are usually so disappointing. Most of them are centered around this campy (Vagina Monologues) and hippie mush, or worse, they're filled with this uptight and conservative career mom (Sarah Palin) discourse that I find as equally unappealing. Aware that I might be tainted by these too common past experiences I reminded myself that after all, this was the "Bohemian Ball", but then I realized that in Eastern Europe this could take a derogatory turn for the worse.

I was however proved wrong on all accounts and the night ended up being quite lovely. There was really great Czech food, a station of hairstylists who were giving the willing women bohemian dos and many people even came in costume! Just like Mucha's own vision, the evening celebrated all the fine and sensual elements of femininity with grace and class. I also couldn't help but note the diverse and inclusive definition of female beauty that was presented during the evening and felt like for once, the "Praise of Women" was finally being sung on the right note.

Beauty and the Beasts

Working in the castle district is one of the best things about my internship this summer. It takes almost 45 minutes for me to walk to work from my apartment, but it's one of my favourite parts of the day because as soon as I cross Chain Bridge and enter Buda, the scenery is so beautiful.

The weather has been perfect almost everyday since I arrived, and the way that the sun was shining onto the narrow cobblestone streets early this morning made me want to just sit on the terraces of all the little cafes instead of going to work.

I managed to escape the indoors at lunch for about 40 minutes, but the neighbourhood had lost much of it's early morning charm as giant tour buses crowded the little streets, pouring out more tourists than I've seen in ages. As I walked down the street I heard a guy in a baseball t-shirt try to barter with this old women selling hand-stitched tablecloths that she was already asking too little for, and when I went to buy a sandwich at a cafe I had to wait behind this woman who kept shouting her request at the barista to have a non-fat cappuccino instead of a regular.

What is wrong with people?! Pay the asking price, and I mean how much fat could one little cappuccino contain? Maybe I'm being a little judgemental, and I know I'm a tourist to this city in many ways as well, but let's get real.

Welcome to Budapest

Just over a week ago I was heading to the city from the Budapest airport after a long international flight from Toronto when a holy **** feeling collapsed upon my shoulders. All of my luggage had made it across the ocean with me, the weather was beautiful, and I was returning to a city that I loved to take part in a dream internship at the National Museum of Fine Arts, but all I could do was think that I had just possibly made the biggest mistake of life.

It’s not like I have never travelled in a foreign country, or lived away from my family, friends and home before, so why was I spending my first day of this exciting adventure cooped up in a phone booth teary-eyed and panicked with my now incredibly concerned parents on the line?

Surprisingly, my undergraduate education helped me answer this question upon reflection in the past days, and I’ve realized that this confused, overwhelmed and somewhat scared disposition came about because I’ve entered a defining liminal state in my life.

According to philosophy’s favourite uncle, Pierre Bourdieu, liminality is “a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed…and ones sense of identity disolves to some extent bringing about disorientation”. Within the past few weeks I’ve graduated from university, started to plan my career, have seen many friends move away from home and now myself have moved (temporarily) half-way across the world. Am I in a liminal state? I think so.

Bourdieu’s buzzword roots in a Latin term that translates into “a threshold”, and he tells us that this transitory time leaves us open to numerous possibilities, leading to new perspectives and discoveries about ourselves and the world around us. So all being said, and now feeling settled and much better about…life, I’m excited about the months to come and the experiences, adventures and unplanned shenanigans I’m in for.