why

another long day of research and my feet are tired and budapest wont stop raining on me when i have to walk the most. im waiting for my metro to the coffee shop to get some badly needed coffee and write and some man asks me if i speak english and if this metro goes to the city center. i say yes, and then i dont say anymore. and then he walks away and i realized i could have been more helpful but i didnt feel like it at that moment, but then a moment later i did, but oh well i just kept staring at the wall.

then i hear a bunch of loud german men and i turn around and this man is part of the loud german men group. we all get in the metro when it comes and i sit close to them because i plan to eavesdrop on them. but i feel it is okay for me to eavesdrop on people speaking german because im not nosy, and i dont care what they are saying (i mean not really..) but i just need to practice my german comprehension and i dont often get the chance and my biggest summer goal is to be semi-fluent before the end of this summer (or rather highly conversational.) so im listening in on them and then i hear them talking about the USA but then i cant understand what they are saying and I wonder if they are saying bad things and now i actually care about what they are saying, and think its funny how people talk in foreign languages and dont seem to ever predict that someone else might understand. they all try to jump out at the wrong stop and then i had to intervene and i said nei, nachste halt (next stop). and then they looked a bit startled, and said oh ja, nachste halt? deak ferenc? and started talking in german but then rolled into English before i could respond and i wondered why the conversation so often rolls back into english like its at the bottom of some steep language hill. then i tell them to get off, and they ask me where kiraly utca is and i try to explain but they are all loud and its crowded and bustling with awkward map movements so i say just follow me and ill show you. so we wander out, 11 huge german guys following me, getting lost and wandering off like elementary schoolers but the one who is guiding the group is really nice. he had a whole itinerary printed out, everyday and night planned, ask we passed godor i told him to go to balkan beats on sat night although he had the dokk club planned. i had never heard of this bar, but it was on the island next to margaret island which i heard has prostitution so i asked him if it was a strip club and he was like heavens no! there are no strip clubs on the itinerary! ... our wives see this you know! and we laughed. and then we stopped and i told them they had to turn here without me and suddenly im standing in the middle of this huge crowd and they are all listening and i felt like an awkward tour guide without an umbrella. and im explaining they should go here and there. and one says where are u from? and i say florida. and he said University of Florida? and Im like um yeah..you too? (he sounded american) he said no, im from dusseldorf like the rest, but i went there, i got my MBA there. and we talked about gainesville and the gators and how UF has this sort of cheesy 'the gator nation is everywhere' slogan but i had no idea how true it would be until i left. i meet gators everywhere and i mean everywhere. its crazy. they were all adorable and tried to get me to go to the bar with them. no no no, (be strong margaret) i have my MA research do REALLY soon, im off to the library. and then i said freut mich cause it means nice to meet you. but i said it to 11 men at the same time, and way out of context i think, and they just sort of smiled, i dont think they got it. then i walked off in the rain with a big smile. i like sharing love for gainesville with random people on the street in budapest. people like to feel understood, and share things they feel and love. and i like to feel random connections with absolute strangers. and that seems to happen to me all the time, and you never know when it will turn out to be your best friend. so now im procrastinating from writing on my thesis. the ngo im working with just got really excited about it, and told me they would 'publish it everywhere.' wow, pressure. to work!!!