la vie français

note: when walking down tereza korut, do not allow thyself to stop and gaze at every shoe store.you will never get anywhere.it's about this time in the semester one realizes that her european city, although wonderful and unique in its own way, will never ever measure up to paris. not even the people (rude, cold, closed as they are) compare not to the snobbish exterior of the french. (how i love it!) however, i've decided to bring le Français to hungary. it's a big enough european city, let's establish some culture! to me, french life is about cafes, the arts, museums, and coffee-- all of which i'm willing enough to engage in. so this week i'm making it my personal duty to scout out the most 'european' sites in budapest... will keep you posted.

• some french sites...
  the fine arts museum: large collection of ancient egyptian relics. (what is it with egypt?) pretty cool except the italian masters collection was closed, they were setting up for some sort of big dinner, and everything was jumbled around. typically hungarian, i suppose.
  about 5 bookstores in two days... including 3 libraries. that's just me. thank god for penguin books. i'm reading the classics for three dollars a piece. have already exhausted the roommates' collections of english books, and my hungarian is not progressing nicely enough for me to read in it.
• all of andrassy avenue. as it was modeled after the Champs-Elysées, so i guess this counts as quasi-french. really, really nice to walk on a day like today-- misty rain but perfect temperature. great to people watch.
  am reading les miserables. this definitely counts. too short, unfortunately. have any other french epic-length books to recommend?
• ice-skating in city park. although i have never been ice-skating (shock! she's from illinois and no one's ever taken her...), i long to go. in my morning run today, i stopped short when i saw the rink where the construction/ pond used to be. this early in the year?! so exciting. if you get close enough, close your ears to the machine drills, and squint... it almost looks like the rink in front of the hotel de ville?
• a weird, rockballet called "a proba" (the rehersal) about jesus, mary magdelene, and judas. again, weird interpretive dancing. that's french, right?

upcoming reviews: margaret island, montmarte cafe, october 23rd celebrations, phil collins (okay, this goes under the category of european obsession with bad '80s music), and more...