Quick drops

I've been very busy in the past few days and never got to write anything in my blog. I think I don't have to post daily anyway. As I mentioned before, the way you see things may change at a distance of a few days (weeks/months/years) time.

Shooting the movie on Wednesday went very smoothly. I took the train at Western Railway Station. It took an hour to get to Pazmaneum, which allowed me to "warm up" in mind and to psych myself up to the character.
After I arrived I was introduced to the crew, then quickly went to the changing room to change clothes and do my makeup and we started the shooting right away. It was a bit uneasy at the beginnig both technically and concerning the playing itself, but after a short while and after the director's instructions seemingly things got to their place and it went on pretty well. I still was not too bright I think, I could have been much better. (But anyway, what past, past.) We started the whole thing at noon and finished by 3 pm which was very quick for a shooting. The past movies I shot required way more time to prepare - well, those were longer ones anyway. So after the work was done I left quickly and was back to Budapest. Probably I will get a copy of the film in a month or so.

On Thursday I was completely worn out, probably I felt the change in the weather again. But training was a great fun indeed! Attila showed us the real thing with soft hanbo. We did the Sangpo no Kata first without weapon, and then with soft hanbo, not sparing our partners :)
The coolest one was when we linked all the three elements of Sangpo no Kata and did it with soft hanbo. When he did the demo he hit his poor uke with the hanbo so hard that we were waiting for the hanbo to split. The whole thing was just so funny and comical as he was continuously beating the poor guy with that stick, so he who was not able to escape anywhere - that we were tapping our belly and my tears run out from laughing. :-))) It was hillarious :-))) After then he went around and checked how we did it and when he showed the thing to my opponent, it was my turn to be his uke. It was not that funny from that point on - but I still enjoyed it very much, although he beat me badly with that stick. I still carry the result on my left side at the ribs :-)) It's all lilac and purple :-))

Hmm... it was the first training when I experienced some gentleness from Attila towards me, as a disciple. It was just one moment within a movement (he caught me at my back before I fell on the ground), but I remember, I was more suprised by how that touch felt. His hand was strong but in the same time very soft and caring. It gave me a litle thinking: he changed a lot since he became a father. He became more serious, more chilled out and patient and more caring or understanding I think. I believe he really stepped on the path of being a teacher.

Surprise from Japan

This day was going to be very busy, due to an unexpected surprise.
As I opened my mailbox in the morning at the office I saw a mail that I received from a Japanese guy from Japan-Guide.com, with whom I have started corresponding just 1-2 months ago.
He is an SAP trainer, residing in the UK at the moment, and regularly comes to Budapest to provide SAP training. In this email he wrote that he has just arrived to Budapest during the night and will be here for less than 2 days, and initiated a meeting.

Well, I knew I had a hard day to come because of the rehearsal and the shooting outside of Budapest, and also as he was continuously on his way to somewhere between Budapest and Esztergom. Also, my phone's battery was about going down at any minute and the balance on my phonecard approached Zero, so this meeting seemed to be quite difficult to organize and gave us a hassle with all these flexible always changing conditions.
However he was the only one of those who contacted me from Japan-Guide.com, who looked like a decent one, not wanting to have an affair or such, but really interested in cultural exchange. Also my sense of politeness whispered me that rejecting this initiation would be kind of impolite, as he is here only for a very short time with a serious business issue, hardly can have a few hours of sleep because of the business meetings, the training and the business dinners, and still he offered to spend the remaining free time on having a coffee with a complete stranger. And I am here all the time, I have more freedom in adjusting my schedules.
So I accepted the idea and with a lot of hassle and dozens of SMS messages during the day we managed to put the meeting together in the evening after he finished with the business dues and I with the rehearsals.

We met at a fancy Cafeteria in Vaci utca (one of the most prominent tourist areas in Budapest) and talked for a bit more than an hour. About Japanese and Hungarian language, about the ancient Hungarian rune writing, about what I should expect when I go to Japan, how to prepare for earthquakes, about his job, also why he wants to learn Hungarian, and he asked a lot lot and lot about martial arts. The strangest thing for him was the purpose of my visit to Japan. He said foreigners usually go there to see the country. He could not really get over the fact that I was doing MA :-D
That one hour flew by very fast. He made a very good impression on me, very nice guy, it is obvious that he's been living in the UK in the past few years.

We left the Cafeteria too late, I was not able to catch my train so I decided to go to my office nearby and check some things. He accompanied me. And who did we see on our way to the uni???
A guy playing with Poi :-D I have never ever seen it before, first I have read about it on Liz' blog about a month ago and now... :-))) Liz, if it was you who sent the guy over, thanks very much! :-D (no, it was not "Him", just "a" poi-guy, but it reminded me of your entry about Poi ;-)

Anyway, Toshi-san took a pic of me (he said I was scary on the pic - I will try to get it from him), we said goodbye as he was leaving Hungary next morning. The next time when he comes again will probably be in May, so I'll have to put together some Hungarian language stuff for him to learn by then.

Got the role

It seems that things are coming back, like in an endless circle: yesterday the guy I was talking about visited and gave me the screenplay of the movie in which I got a role. The movie will be about a novel of a famous Hungarian writer, and it has a kind of ironic athmosphere. I will have to play with an actor guy I have never seen or worked with before, and there is also a light bed-scene, which makes the whole thing even more exciting. No, not because of the bed-scene itself - it will be recorded mainly with audio, and some light effects will be used - nothing explicit. I am excited rather because it's a challenge to get close enough to a complete stranger, so that the words you say and the things you do to him would be true, and not lies. Although it's a short movie, I have only 3 pages to learn by heart by tomorrow afternoon, which also makes it a challenge. Especially as the director is one of Hungary's most known movie directors. So tomorrow rehearsal and shooting starts on Wednesday.

So probably I will ask to postpone this Wednesday's Japanese class, depending on how late we finish with shooting. The class by the way goes very well. At the beginning I thought it was impossible to write hiragana with a nice writing, but I am getting to catch the feeling and it is going better every day. Also it seems that the grammar is pretty simple, almost like Hungarian grammar, so it seems that we can take big steps at every class. Although the girl is not too experienced in teaching, but she is a very nice one and it seems that we managed to get on a common wave-length.

Soooo... it was just a short quick one, now I go and learn the text.....
No more entries until Wednesday evening for sure - hope you'll survive somehow!

Coming to live again

The other day I've accidentally run into and old egyptologist friend of mine. We have not seen each other for about 2-3 years and even now we had only a few minutes until we both continued our way to our works. So I took the opportunity and asked him about Egyptian hermeticism. He said it was a difficult issue as the original texts are very difficult to translate and percept even for experienced egyptologists, and those philosophical teachings that run under the name "hermeticism" nowadays are very different to the original texts and ideologies, they are rather the products of the New-Age craziness. So he could not recommend me any authentic sources. Hmm... well, yeah, way too reserved things these are. Nomen est omen. Anyway, I keep looking...

This afternoon an alumnus of the theatre where I graduated called me and asked if I wanted to take a role in a short movie he is shooting next week. I was a bit confused as the phonecall woke me up from my sweetest dream (I dreamt that I was in Japan and met some friends from training :-D ), but I told him that of course I accept it. The shooting will be on Wednesday, with a rehearsal before on Tuesday afternoon. So I'll have to take a day off fomr work for Wednesday and leave earlier on Tuesday. Which means I will not be able to go to training on Tuesday :-(. Well, everything has a price, and it's only one day anyway.
I do not know what kind of role is the one he offers, also dunno anything about the movie either, but I accepted it kind of "blank" - you can not afford the luxury nowadays to reject a role. In fact, it's very rare that you are actually "offered" a role in a movie. So I took the chance and we'll see what will be the outcome. --- Just to reassure you - this pic was taken about 2 years ago in the theatre :-D (although I still have this wild side of my personality, so don't try to mess with me! :-D )

This weekend is very slow. I am hunting for cheaper airplane tickets to Japan, hoping that I'll have some luck. Also, trying hard to find a flat to rent - I am slowly going crazy here with the "family" around me. I hardly can feel that they are my family anymore - in the past few years and especially in the past one year I realized that I have not any kind of connection to them, it's pure shakedown and I have nothing to do with them. Sad but true. I am drowning here - I need to take my own life into my own hands. This trip to Japan makes the whole thing rather difficult financially. If I rented a flat for an average fee it would increase my expenses so much that I would not be able to go to Japan. And I must go to Japan this year. So now I mobilized all my friends and put out posters at the uni about that I am seeking for a flat to rent for a nominal rental fee. Who knows, maybe I will have some luck. And after I have returned from Japan and returned all the bank loan I will have to take now, my first big financial endeavor will be buying a flat and live my life at last the way I want.

Let's dance!

These past few days have been very calm. Boss is away at a conference and not much going on in the office either, so now I have a little time to catch up with some web related work, of course with listening to Evanescence in the background. That band rocks. I don't recommned listening to them when you're in a pessimistic mood. The girl who writes the lyrics and sings might have (had) serious emotinal issues I think. I mean the songs are great, the lyrics have deep meaning and the music itself is so energetic and vital. But their whole music expresses feelings so powerfully, that only those can truely understand, who have been there and had to deal with the same thoughts, in my opinion.

I got a phonecall from the director of the theatre where I graduated. He asked me to join their annual mastercourse on the 30th of May. It will be a one day long event where the students of the theatre will be assigned to put short pieces on an open-air stage. The event always starts with a 30 minutes long physical and energetics warm-up. The director asked me to conduct this part as I am doing martial arts and back then when I was their student I used it many times on stage and he really liked it. I told him I was totally broken down financially can't aford the trip now because of Japan, so he said he would cover my travel costs, I just need to arrange for my own food (which is a good idea, as there are foods I prefer to avoid). He said I can also take part in the stage playing parts, as an alumna, so I accepted it after a short thinking. I need to find out now how many people we expect and what their general physical condition is like. I am not supposed to torture them too much but I want them to remember this day :-D

Training was much of fun tonight. It started with me being clumsy again and not being able to do even the most simple things. Instead I made a lot of huge mistakes (wrong direction, bad kamae, no control, etc). Attila "washed my head" which made me feel disappointed again, but as I recognized lately that it was mainly my self-pity, like "I can't do this", "I's too difficult for me", "I am clumsy" that prevented me from learning anything new and to correct the mistakes I made - I decided to stop this self-pity and when Attila highlights my mistakes, taking those as gifts from him, which help me to recognize what I do wrong and why - kind of opening up myself and letting him to form me, like the ceramist works on the clay. As far as I noticed it works.

At the first part of the training I practiced with a greenbelt guy (not sure about his rank) - it was a good training with him. In the second part Attila suggested to have some fun, so we had to make groups of 3 and do some randori - hehe, this word always reminds me of Jeremy's Randori Chicken :-).
Anyway, the point was to move as lightly as possible, just as much as was absolutely necessary and not more. I was in a group of 4 with some more advanced fellow buyu. And then Hell broke loose :-)) Attila also joined us for a few minutes and made us understand quickly that we really must not move too much cos you just exhaust yourself and that can be fatal at the end. It also became more clear that correct positioning is essential in randori. In most of the cases I ended up stuck among 3-4 huge guys, as I could not "clean" my way out from among them. So I have to work more on positioning, directions and distance, not technically, but rather to feel it.

It is interesting by the way: more and more often I feel and realize that I already can not step further if I focus on how to implement the techniques. And more and more often it comes down to that I need to feel my environment, the opponent in my guts, with my whole being, to be able to apply what is necessary at the time and situation when it is necessary. And the right thing will happen just by itself.

Human body and nature is a wonderful thing, with all its strengths and weaknesses.

Tuesday training

Yesterday's training was held by Botond, as Attila could not come for some reason. We run a bit as a warm up, also stretched and did a quick series of basic hits and kicks. Also some kamae no kata and sabaki kata.
Then we got paired up again. I got together with one of the girls, Zsófi. She's a cool one, tough enough, I mean not a whinning pudding, but of course she does not like being beaten insane, as no normal individual would like that anyway.

Focus was given to sabaki and kuzushi. She did well although had some problmes with taking my balance. No surprise, usually I am the "bad gal" when it comes to working on kuzushi with me, as I am quite balanced and can easily adjust to any change. But I try to behave and be a good uke. Anyway, we practiced some stuff which ended up with a hit with the elbow on the chest. She dared not do it to me, and I was also kind of reluctant to do it to her, because of the obvious reasons, erhm. So I finished the technique another way. But she said that we should practice this particular technique with the guys, as they don't have "those". So we walked up to the 2 guys practising just next to us and each of us took one-one of them.

I got the 10kyu guy, who is kind of a feared person in the dojo. He is very stiff and tensed and generally a nervous type, at least he gets very nervous and wants to "prove" when practising with people with more experience, it seems. Also, it was him who splintered a soft hanbo on his fellow buyu's arm (the other guy is okay, no bone broke) a week ago. So I was a bit afraid of working with him but I accepted what was left to me.

As soon as we started up, he tried to do everything very quickly and with full force and stiffness (of course he screwed up). The faster he moved, the more I slowed down, so after a while he chilled down and started working with a normal speed and strength. Even this way I received a nice punch on my face as an uke, as he forgot that it was only training, so I bit my tounge, which makes eating is a bit painful now.
He is also very talented, but I think he will need to work more on his nervousness. But he was doing really fine with all the kihon happo and the henkas we made.

This time I left earlier cos I had to arrange some paperworks for the Tax Department. While sliding out from the dojo I swiftly left a bunch of red chocolate eggs on the bench for the guys as Easter present. Zsófi was kind enough to distribute it among them at the end of the training, and I've heard the birds chirping that the guys were happy :-)
Well, guys are the same everywhere... if nothing else works, you can always tame them with some chocolate... :-D

The Eggs

So this these are the eggs I have made. Finally I made 9. I boiled 12 but 3 broke so finally it got 9. Heh, I am getting used to bumping into this number more and more often everywhere I go :-D

Anyway, I made 9, but took a pic of 8 only as I gave one to a friend who "watered" me on Monday.

The pics are a bit dark as I took them with my phone's camera and the weather was a bit couldy, but you can still get a hint of how they look like. Click on them to see the original size.

Traditional Hungarian (Transylvanian) patterns:

My own patterns:

And a group pic of all the 8 eggs:

Easter - revival

Originally I planned to write about Thursday night's training and about the first part of this weekend, but I thought another topic was more actual now, and it is Easter.

I was waiting for this very much, it is one of my favorite feasts during the year. I think I can say without exaggerating that I like it at least as much as Christmas. This whole thing might sound strange for those who know me and know that I am not Christian, but I would not say I was a pure Buddhist either. Why? Hmm. I don't think I can explain it here and now. There are just too many things that fit in my picture of the world, included things which are not necessarrily part of this or that religion. Anyhow. Christmas and Easter are also important days in my life, every year. Why? Christmas is because I love to give. Giving to others can satisfy me much more than taking or accepting things. I don't know why but it makes me so happy to see others' happiness over taking what I give. But maybe it is also a ind of selfishness at the end of the day :))))
And I love Easter because it is the celebration of revival.

Let's see a little summary about what Easter is about:

Easter is one of the sacred days of Christianity, a kind of „moving anniversary”. Why do we celebrate Easter on a different day every year? The date is constantly moving because Easter's Sunday is on the first Sunday after the first full moon, following the vernal equinox.
A part of pagan traditions got built into the european culture and also into the Christian religion. Most of our feasts have pagan origin. The first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox was the day of the goddess Ostra, the celebration of Spring.

The English Easter or German Oster words origin from the name of the Spring-Goddess, Ostra. Ostra, the goddess of revival and fertility. She is represented beset with flowers, trailers, with an egg in her hand, rabbits at her feet and birds flying above her, and there is a wreath, woven of spring flowers on her head. The goddess and the egg in her hand represents the revival of nature and humanity, the awakening of Spring. Legend says that Ostra had a special bird, which layed colourful eggs. One day the goddess turned the bird into a rabbit for entertaining the children. Rabbits are said to lay colourful eggs since then. The pagan celebration of Spring melted into the christian holy day. This feast carries on the traditions of mankind which say that we can live in harmony with nature and with supernatural powers, if we adapt to cycles of nature, to the change of seasons, to the course of the Sun and Moon. The revival of nature is also the revival of mankind – this is what we celebrate.

An old tradition in Hungary at Easter time is to paint eggs. Women paint eggs on Sunday. Usually these eggs are first boiled (hard), then decorated with beeswax, with a special tool, called "íróka" in Hungarian. Then they are placed in dye for a few hours, made of different plants, like the outer layers of onion, spinach, elder-berry. When they take them out of the liquids, the eggs have various colorus. Then they are dried and covered with a little bit of fat, to give them a nice glow.
The next day (Monday) men "water" the women - originally it is done by 3 men, two grabs the arms of the woman and the third one throws a bucketful of water on her. It is still done the same way at the countryside in smaller villages, but "civilisation" changed it too recently. Women prefer being "watered" either by soda water or by perfumes. Anyway, the payment for this "watering" is a beautifully painted egg.
Each man gets one. It is obvious that this tradition is a kind of ritual for preserving - attaining fertility.

Unfortunately thanks to the easily obtainble chocolate-eggs, less and less young women dye eggs, and even among those who do we can find a very feew who does it the traditional way, with beeswax and stuff. I am lucky to be one of them, as it makes my heritage richer. This is such a wonderful tradition, that I think we can not afford letting it vanish with history. It is one of our treasures I think.

Tomorrow or on Tuesday I will upload here the pictures of the eggs I made, with some additional comments maybe, so stay tuned! ;-)

Happy Easter to all of you! :-)

False preconceptions?

On Tuesday boss told me to prepare in soul that I will have to give a computer class to four Iraqi people visiting the Uni for 3 months. Three men and a woman. He already talked to them and gave an introductory session the day before and he said they seemed to be quite "cold" especially the men, so he told me to take everything easy during the class. I asked what he meant and he said probably the men would not take me seriously, maybe even ignore me as it is kind of awkward for them to be taught by a woman who in fact could be their daughter.

I have seen people from many nations since I've been working here and I always managed every situation and found the common tone with everyone - those heaps of chocolates and fruit I got from them could prove it as well.

So I said "okay, another challenge". Yesterday I met them and after the introduction we jumped right into the topic. At first they were very calm but after a few minutes the ice started melting and by the end of the class the general mood was very happy and easy. By the end we all were having a great fun while going through the syllabus. Also, they got so enthusiastic, asking all sorts of computer related questions that the class originally planned to last for an hour finished after one and a half. For the time being I was asked to take the lady nuder my wings, as probably she would not initiate building closer cooperation (even if it is about research or work) with my male colleagues. I am happy to do that, hopefully this will give me an opportunity to learn a bit about her culture as well.

So, see how preconceptions work. Almost like castles in the air. Of course I am not 100% naive, and I am prepared for "anything", especially at this American University open for people from the MIddle-East, too. But I believe that a normal everyday communication can be developed between anyone who show respect towards others' cultural values and taboos. We are all human afterall, with more or less the same fears and desires. We have so much in common.

After work I jumped in the Post Office and sent some Easter Cards to my remote family and to a few close but even more remote friends. Then I was off to go out with my friend, Hajni - this time the target place was a Belgian Beer House. She has never been there before, and the fact that my Belgian friends managed to debauch me regarding beer consumption, made it a straight choice to go there :)

She had Chimay, I myself prefer Duvel or Kriek. This time Duvel won, so both of us got quite tipsy after a half an hour chit-chatting about men. After getting somewhat sober again we left, I took the train and got home. Quick hot bath and collapsing into my bed....

Reflections

Thursday...

... brought many visitors in the dojo. There were about 6-7-8. Two of them from my Uni, a Tajik girl and her boyfriend. The girl seems to be enthusiastic about training - or simply she liked our outfit? :))) - the next day she wrote me an email asking about places where she could purchase the training gear. I told her to slow down a bit and try the training for a while in plain jogging suit or I lend her a white Gi - as balck Gi is quite expensive here and it would be a waste of money buying it just to find out later on that BBT is not the thing she wants.
That day we had a very exhausting training: we did a lot of kuzushi work, mainly against attacks started with kumiuchi, and we went through on Goho no Kata. We did a lot of henka which I really liked. I like it when we do different henka on Thursdays, as those are 3 hours long trainings and I always get mentally and physically tired by the end of the training. And the real "fun" starts only after then, when you have to do things while you don't feel like, not in the mood, tired, hungry, thirsty, annoyed. I noticed that in these cases it is easier to go on if you release all these and just be there and do what they tell you, and don't bother about anything. Not even about how to do the technique properly. So I really enjoyed that training.

Friday...

... I met the girl who will teach me Japanese. See below. I even got somw homework. I have a week to learn to write and recognize the first four "a, i, u, e, o" lines. Now I am not bored. is all I can say.

Sunday...

...turned the life of our little country upside down. It's the usual 4-yearly election again. MSZP (Hungarian Socialist Party) won, the same group that has given the Prime Minister in the past 4 years. I am not too optimistic about the future...
To forget about the disgusting politics I went for a walk to the nearby field. Also planned to train there but I had such a migraine again that I wanted everything but moving. So I turned back after a lenghty walk. Probably my body suspected something. I can always predict major changes in the weather with my head.

Monday...

...morning I could hardly creep out of the bad and felt dizzy all morning. Then I've learnt that a huge cyclon is approachnig towards the country, which actually brings a tornado in the area!!! WOW! I've been living in this country for 31 years now but never seen or heard of a tornado in here!!! What the heck is going on with the weather?? Weather forecast said it is expected to reach the area on Wednesday sometime and can be felt in Southern Hungary, also probably a bit in Pest County where I live. We'll see. I put my scarf and an extra pair of socks in my back pack tomorrow, just in case. As the weather turned to good by the afternoon, I went for running. I have run about 3 kilometers in 20 minutes which I think is good, considering that I have not run since about October, when the bad weather came in.
I could hardly wait for it, running just throws me up and I always feel much better the next day. So I am planning to do it regularly again, every other day after returning from Japanese class, when I don't have training.

Tuesday (today)...

... training was a real delicacy, although I got injured cos I was stupid. We did a fair amount of ukemi in three lines, but only two had mats, and I had to be in the 3rd one, on the hard floor. Which is usually okay if I do ukemi properly but this time somehow I was so clumsy that when I put down my right shoulder I always hit it. After a while it got all bruised and badly swollen, even now I can hardly lift up my arm. So I've put some cold wet cloth on it. We did the most unique ukemi, which I have never seen/done before, and I really liked them. Cool, some dessert for practising :) After then we played a bit with reflexes and kuzushi. I distributed a lot of slaps on my opponent's face which made Attila staisfied, but I also got a fair amount so it was a real give and take :-D It was very long ago when I got hit on my face with a slap anyway, so it was kind of an interesting experience to feel it again :-D

In the second half of the training I was paired up with another beginner, an Aikidoka, who just joined us today. It gave me a little nostalgy to see the same movements done as I did back then when I was 14-16 years old. And the same mistakes :-D I don't know how it is in Japan, but most Aikidokas in Hungary can't do a proper ukemi, they always end up sitting on their whole foot stretched out under themselves. Also, they can not attack properly, can not deliver a normal punch. This is really a great problem of Aikido here. It's been like this about 15-16 years ago, and it did not change a bit since then..???** *shaking head***

Anyhow, I'd let the guy have some success as knowing it from my own example, it can be very inspiring.
I also did try to do the techniue on him but hardly dared to hit/wring/grab his limbs cos it always hurt him pretty much. I just only indicated a hit on his stomach and he was padding on it for quite a while.
I asked him how come that an Aikidoka shifts to this MA? (In Hungary Aikidokas consider us as kind of enemies, assassins, cos we learn to kill and stuuf, you know - and they mean it! Quite a prude crowd in this means.) He said he was curious and wanted to try it out. We will see whether we scare him away or manage to debauch him :-))) hehehe

Heavenly blessing

"Blessing from Heaven" or initiation into the secret level of Life

Thursday afternoon gave me kind of a hassle. I left work at 17,45 to be able to arrive to training which started at 18,30. Crossing a nice park close to my Uni, one has to pass by some beautiful trees all along the road. As I was peacefully walking there, suddenly I felt some strange hit on my shoulder. I looked at it and saw a huge white spot, as big as my palm. I was so surprised by the amount, that I looked around and saw that the other half of the "package" landed just next to my foot, also the same size as the one on my shoulder. That's where I lost the line and started passionately laughing. Also, looking up I did not see anything. No bird, no moving, just thin and clean branches. What made me ponder was the possible size of the "dickey-bird". It must have been a griffin, I am sure. Or at least an eagle or something. I don't know how it is at you but this kind of "event" means luck. Well this one should mean a greater luck than what I can ever imagine! So I really expect something very good to happen! Can you hear me, gods and demons? :-)

The Japanese invasion

As I was desperately trying to get rid of te "stuff" with some hankies, a group of some elderly Japanese tourists spotted me for themselves and asked if I knew where the Herendi Shop was. (This is a world-famous Hungarian porcelain brand.) I told them how to get there, but they hardly could understand even the "emulated" English, so I decided to take them there. It was just 5 minutes away so it really was not such a big sacrifice. They were still veeeeery grateful and all of them were iterating "Gomen nasai, gomen nasai" I could hardly keep up with them responding "no problem". After we found the shop we said goodbye to each other of course in Japanese, accompanied by some deep bows. Hehe, amazing :)

I don't know why is that, but Japanese tourists keep spotting me out for help. It happens every week which i think is kind of frequent. I am happy to help them but the fact that they hardly speak some basic English really does not make my job easier. So this is also a reaso for why I want to learn the language.

The language

I've met the teacher this afternoon. She's a last year student at the Department of Japanese Language and Culture, and spent a year in Japan - she returned not long ago. It seems that at the beginning we will meet twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday, but if I manage to consume and learn things as quickly as I could in case of English and Russian, we can even switch to a "3-times-a-week" mode and I will have a good chance to achieve a basic conversation level, we'll see. We collected all the important topics that I need to get familiar with by the time I leave for Japan, so we focus on those now. But I will continue it after I've returned.

Sooo... that's all. Oh, one more thing, one of my poems got into the next issue of the University's cultural gazette. It seems that I will have to submit more. I wrote them in English in order to improve my language skills and originally I did not mean to publish them - I rather wrote them for myself. However others said they were good, so it seems I started something. Maybe sometime when I'll have some spare time I willl create a site and upload them there. It won't be before this autumn for sure :-)

Nature - training

Nature, hmmm...

Sensei might have known something when he chose this year's theme.

Nature gives us a hard time recently in Europe - especially in Hungary, as two great rivers divide the country to three equal parts in the Carpathian Basin.

This last winter was a long and hard one as I already wrote, with a huge amount of snow in Europe, especially in the Carpathians. In the past few days we have been fighting against the flood which started with the melting of the snow in the mountains all around Hungary. It came all the way along on the Duna (Danube) river - this is the one that cuts Budapest in half. This last night the depth in Budapest broke a record: 861 cm. The flood has never been so high in the capital. Some night shots about the flood here on Index.hu.

Weather forecast says it will be worse in the next few days, as more rain is to come and melting will be faster in the mountains too, due to the warmer weather. Also the other river (Tisza) will flood in a few days, and I think that will be even worse as it runs along a very flat land. I guess we can forget about wheat export for this year, and prepare for really high prices at the markets.

Training

Yesterday and last week I was training with a beginner - A. made us go through the very basics again, Sanshin and Sangpo no kata, and some other Goho no kata stuff.

The guy has been training here with us for about 2,5 months. He has talent I think, but he is having serious problems with getting into close physical contact with the opponent. Which is a crucial point at taijutsu I think. After a while you (have to) get used to being touched, grabbed at parts or to being in postures which, you know, might be kind of a tabu in civil life. This guy was panicing every time I got close to him, be that ganseki nage or tai hodoki from behind, or anything else, and always tried to pull himself away from me. I was kind of understanding for a while, but after a certain time it became quite problematic, so I decided to go mean and not to let him escape. In the short break I told him to loosen up cos this kind of fear will be a great obstacle for him later on. I explained that after a while being touched at certain spots by others (even by females) will be so natutral for him as natural it is for us now. And that it is really not about having any interest in the other person's body (even if s/he is the opposite gender), but the principles about how the human body works. The entire human body. Chest, armpit, hips, inner and upper parts of the thighs included. He looked a bit embarrassed but he will be over it :-) Cruel me :-D

Otherwise these past trainings went on a normal manner... like a woodcutter's job: just do it, do it, do it, and more, and more, and more, basics, basics, basics, and mistakes, adjusting, sweating, trying, doing, doing... So you know how it goes :-)

Japanese language

It seems that I found 2 teachers who can help me learning Japanese this year. If everything goes well, I can start learning this Friday. I can hardly wait for that. Luckilly I am gifted with learning languages very quickly, so I really hope to take it to a level by August where I can say a few words or understand and answer some basic everyday questions properly, without an interpreter.

So many other things on my mind now, but lack of time and space ... Maybe in the next entry. Enjoy Spring! :-)