Memories I am afraid I'll forget

Day 32, I'm alive!

That's my motto for today. I'm alive and hiking! Don't you worry! I'll keep on annoying you with my 'lucky' life's boring stories. Swelling on my legs are a bit better now, but oh imagine all the colors they are showing already! Beautiful! (I hope that by this far into the journals, you get the irony without me pointing it out to you – next time, no pointing it out!)

Today, the alarm clock went off way to early (wait until I tell you about tomorrow's plans...), so I got out of bed at 7:30, got dressed for a hike and swiped through my notifications on my phone half awake. I proudly took my brand-new Stanford hat and felt I was prepared for the hike. Meanwhile, we had a seriously long discussion with my husband (about 30-40 minutes, which usually is the exact time we get for a whole week otherwise) about lamps we were about to order for our new apartment.

New apartment update, I am giving you right away: Lamps chosen, my husband is going to buy them next week. Fairly surprising that we both agreed on the lamps. Maybe we are just too tired of interior design debates anymore. It really does not matter at all now.

Sharp at 8:30, Christine and Minh (a lovely lady from SJSU I just met) arrived with the blue Honda and we went off on our way to the Arastradero Creek Loop. Christine opted for a shorter and less demanding hike, as it was supposed to be hot today, but we conquered the loop even before the weather started warming up. Mysteriously, the weather here can turn from stone cold (15C) to unpleasantly warm (25C +sunny) in just a matter of minutes. Welcome to California!

Mid-way in our hike, we spotted an animal. First, we all thought it was a deer, but then as we (and they) approached, it turns out it was a Hungarian vizsla (a dog breed) with a woman (we took the vizsla for the deer and not the woman for the deer). I immediately and presumptuously asked the woman if it indeed was a Hungarian vizsla (ofc I knew) but was testing her a bit. Guess what! She said 'Yes, indeed, we brought him over right from Hungary three years ago.'

You can imagine a situation unfolding: me telling this woman I am Hungarian, she telling me 'Én is. Beszélsz magyarul?' meaning 'Me, too. Do you speak Hungarian?' Literally in the middle of nowhere, you randomly just meet Hungarian people! She and her family moved here a while ago and live in San Diego. Her son just got into Berkeley, and they were now in the Bay Area for the son's water polo match. She even knew SJSU and half the SJSU water polo team, as they are also Hungarians. OMG. I was literally shocked. We had small talk in Hungarian (which was something new for me, I am much more comfortable with it being done in English, so I was seriously searching for the appropriate words.) Maybe I was just in short of words because of this sudden meeting. All day I was wondering if they could do it (moving to the US after 30 years in Hungary, getting US education for their kids after primary school only) and now their son goes to Berkeley, we could do it, too.

The rest of the hike was free from Hungarians. We saw a snake (an ordinary one, not a rattlesnake) and met lovely dogs and ppl on the way. I had to do the navigation based on Christine's advice and my phone, as she left the printed maps at home. We managed and got back to the parking lot just fine.

Then I came home... omg, I just realized I left my washed clothes outside on the hanger and it's kinda later at night now ... let me just get them quickly. I promise you would not notice I was gone.

Ok, I am back. They are half-dry, but I don't want them to get more dump by the morning, so I just hanged them inside.

So where was I? Yes. I came home and did the most unbearable thing called housework. Cleaned up a bit and used the washing machine to clean my clothes, had lunch and then started working a bit. We got back the IRB review stating they still need some modifications in our application for research. We keep sending it back for the past 2 months. Wonder what would have happened if I only submitted it in early September. My Fulbright period would have ended by the time the research had started. Well, now I had the contacts and some people to invite to the research, so I would like to schedule the data collection to no later than October, as at the end of October, we are going to SEATTLE! I just booked the tickets. Yuka is coming with me, too!

Seattle has this unexplainable effect on me. I am very much attracted to it. Much more than Amsterdam! (Omg, the backlash I am going to get over this sentence! lol) So I cannot wait to explore the city, climb (not literally) the Space Needle and to take the ferry to one of the nearby islands. I need to watch some vlogs about the city, so that I could enlist and eventually visit much more things than just these.

Having been preparing for tomorrow's night (or tonight? and early tomorrow morning?) I think I deserved to book this trip. As tomorrow, I am going to wake up at 12:30AM, then at 2:45AM, then at 7:30AM. All because of the meetings I am going to have according to Central European Time. You might rightfully think I am crazy. You may be right and hands down I agree. I took this responsibility of being part of my faculty's EFMD accreditation process and I would not think it fair to just cancel because of my sleep inconveniences (a.k.a. normal sleeping cycles, or human needs). So tomorrow, or in a couple of hours, I am waking up three times. I cannot wait. (I told you you'll get the irony next time.)

So now, I've got to get going, have a shower, binge watch Netflix and try to sleep early. I'm getting up in 3,5 hours. Good night! hah.

Update: still not sleeping. Have 2,5 hours to go until first meeting. Holy fuck.

25 September 2022