Sweet Dreams of Budapest

Last night (or this morning actually) I was dreaming about being in Budapest. It was so amazing, though different than it is in real life of course. There was a giant building shaped like a box of Crayola crayons. We ate amazing food, and I went swimming in the Danube. Only 7 more weeks until we are done with college.

Dreams of Sinking Parisian Balloonscapes

Last night I had a strange dream. I was in Paris, and I had met a Finnish girl there in a haunted house. I remember telling her that I was learning Hungarian, and we talked about how Hungarian and Finnish are somewhat close (at least in the same language family). I asked her how long she had been in Paris. We got to talking about how we had both entered and had been chosen for this raffle, for a chance to ride on this multi-level floating underwater building thing. It was a scientific breakthrough, it was as big as a skyscraper. It was held together with old cars, and the whole thing was made out of inflatable rubber/plastic. I took pictures of it before we went on the first "test dive". This was supposed to make it possible for people to live underwater in the future. So we went underwater, and were theoretically supposed to be avoiding some evil squid monsters. An announcer said that it was going well, and welcome to this exclusive view into new technology. We were lucky to have been chosen in this raffle. The announcer said that this plan was fool-proof, except when someone jumped up and down. It created a shock-wave that flipped me onto my head, like a waterbed. We went through several underwater stations with workers in headsets. The plastic floor was leaking slightly.
Finally, it was time for us to "live" on this unbelievably huge, underwater balloonscape, held together by old cars, all the while trying to avoid the evil squids which would surely pop our underwater inflatable city. Much happened while we were underwater, my Finnish friend became ill and so I bought her black and red eyeliner in the giftshop. Eventually and inevitably, the squids came to pop our city. Water was leaking in, and we were all struggling to evacuate. We were somehow in this giant pool now. I was trying to gather up all of my belongings, and there was an auction going on for all of the items that had been "orphaned" because of the popping city. I was concerned I wouldn't get out, but still couldn't decide on all of the items from my room that I would take. My dolls? My art? My skull collection? How could I leave any of it behind after I had worked so hard to collect it? Finally my Finnish friend told me I could take two trash bags full of items. I grabbed some of my sister's old stuffed animals. I cried and lamented over the furniture and various marionettes that I couldn't fit into my bag.
The inflatable balloonscape finally flipped, and my friend and I, being on the first floor, were now at the bottom of the pool. I swam to the top and remember seeing floating, sleeping people and all of their belongings floating around them.
I awoke with a vague feeling of sorrow, of all of the items that I love but will not be able to take with me to Hungary. I feel guilty, and regretful that some of my collections must stay behind.

Sweet Nothings

Apparently last night I was saying Hungarian phrases in my sleep. A half asleep John repeated them back to me. I think I can remember it if I think hard enough. There's nothing quite like sleepy Hungarian phrases muttered in the middle of the night.

Dreams of Underwater Cities

I had the most beautiful dream last night. It's slipping away so fast, I'm typing as fast as I can to preserve it's beauty.

I was at Eldorado (my old high school) going to a French class. My teacher wasn't there, so we were all just sitting there. A lot of people I knew from high school were there, and this guy started telling me how there is this internet thing going around now saying "Babysan sucks, Sam rules" or "Babysan dumb, Sam smart". It was something really stupid like that. I obviously knew that Sam had done this and he walked by the open classroom right as we were all talking about this. He threatened the guy I was talking to and went to his class, which was up this green mountain. I could see him walking up the path. He was saying all this horrible stuff about me and the guy I was with, and John. And so I finally craned my neck outside and started shouting insults at him. He was saying bad things about my fashion sense, "Black shirts and jeans, which I bought for her? Come on.." (which is so not what I wear...) So he was getting angrier and angrier and he had a helicopter, and he started bringing it around next to the classroom, and the blades started cutting into the room. I fell backwards and thought my head had been cut off, but I was ok. I ran out into these beautiful gardens, where I was trying to find a hiding place with my dad. I kept changing where I was hiding. There were these green houses, and I kept running from one to another, my dad was getting angry. Then this moose saw us, and was threatening to charge. If the moose did this, it would call so much attention to us that Sam would see us for sure. So my dad wanted me to stay still but I just tried to run to the other greenhouse. The moose started charging as my Dad tried to follow me. I said "Jump!" to try and get him from one greenhouse to the other but he got stuck in these ropes. The moose was in the ropes too, and it was wrapping my Dad up. He said "I'm going to die, right here!" And I said "Dad, come on, you aren't going to die." And then the moose came after me. I ran out where there was a stream, and I knew I needed to jump in. But then I saw Sam, he was with someone else, and he was getting in the stream too. So I tried very quietly to float on my back, and swim away from where they were. "Dig Ophelia" by Rasputina was playing. It was terribly appropriate.

Dig Ophelia Consider it dug,
Flower madness and polar bear rug
Here's the water just ankle deep high
Lay back, relax and look up at the sky

Your eyes never close,
Your mind's not at rest
Lay back get waterlogged,
Give us a kiss.

Water spreads the small seed
Water kills the tall weed
Ophelia

Cut the stem and we'll see how you feel,
Floating orchids just aint no big deal,
Never knowing's like knowing too much
Tap the table now here's more bad luck

Your eyes never close,
Your mind's not at rest
Lay back get waterlogged
Give us a kiss.

Water spreads the small seed
and Water kills the tall weed
Ophelia

I figured that I should probably just lay back relax and look up at the sky and so I let the current take me. I hit a water fall/water slide. I tried to relax and just let it take me. When I got to the bottom, there were steps leading down, like there used to be a castle there or something, that had flooded. I had a lantern and kept going deeper and deeper in. The water was chin-deep now, but I kept going. I let myself slip beneath the water, and to my astonishment, I could breathe just fine. I came up above water in disbelief, and submerged myself again just to see if I really could breathe. I could. I saw that there was sort of a room or bar where a lot of people were underwater. I passed some sort of a threshold where "the water went from smooth to soft, and the fish fins became smooth and disappeared" it was terrible poetic. This line kept cycling. When I passed this threshold, I was in this beautiful, sparkling city (more of a town really). Everything was bright and illuminated, palely colorful. I decided to swim into the bar and when I did, a band began to play and the whole room started in on it. I had seen that they just did this for me, so I was concerned that maybe these people were evil. I acted like I was leaving but really just perched myself atop of some underwater trees. Sure enough, as soon as I left, they stopped playing this music and returned to normal, chatting and the like. I was suspicious but tried to shake off these feelings while I was in the trees, overlooking the town.

I got down because I saw things for sale, and I bought something called "A thousand color jacket" Something so bright and illuminated, the locals called it the "Grandeur Defier" (I'm not sure why). I knew that down in this underwater city I could be bright, cast off my black clothes and be illuminated. I was walking and/or swimming around when this woman approached me. Somehow I told her who I was and she just said "oh dear lord" or something and turned away from me. I was afraid that I was bad for them. But then people began to gather and gawk at me. It was revealed who I was and they told me that I was the sole ancestor of all these people. When I crossed the threshold I had entered a place that was stuck in sped up time, generations and generation reproducing while the world outside trudged along dully. I looked around at all of the citizens, trying to see my face in each one of them. I was somewhat of a myth to them, and my arrival was very important. The old woman from before came and gave me a necklace, a vial with sparkling fluid in it. I put it around my neck. She said something along the lines of "Now that will cure your thyroid cancer". I then realized that all of what had happened had led me down here, so I could get this magic vial from my descendants. I marveled at the way life works out sometimes before I thanked them and left, once again crossing the threshold. Things weren't so shimmery anymore, and the fish went from smooth, sparkly and finless, to grey and sad, fins intact. I had a doll now, I don't know why. I think I had bought her in the underwater descendant city. I emerged above water in the gardens again, where I was to fall down a water fall/slide. I knew that something needed to change after this beautiful experience, so I vowed that I would read to my doll every day, who was now alive. We slid together down the falls into the pool below, where my doll needed to administer the sparkling dust from my necklace. How this is done is by blowing into one end of it while pointing it at the person intended for the cure, and the sparkling dust poofs into their face. So my doll had the necklace and she was just about to do it, when something distracted her and she turned, blowing the shimmering powder into the face of a young boy wading in the water nearby. I was in shock, as my one chance at having my thyroid cancer cured, this magic dust destined for me and given to me by hordes of my descendants, was gone. Just like that. I hadn't even known anything was wrong.

So now, what does this one mean? I think this would make an amazing graphic novel... (add one project to my ever-growing list of unfinished business) Anyone else?

Insomniacs for Hungary

I had a bout of insomnia last night, after not having one for quite some time. In my mind, I was obsessing over Hungary. This small country wouldn't let me sleep. I was fantasizing, romanticizing, figuring out decorations for our Budapest flat, thinking about students and how I would teach them. I kept going over all of the things that I can say in Hungarian. "Valerie vagyok" "Hogy vagy" "Tanar vagyok. Nem ertem". "Hol van a szarvas?" Hungarian was truly littering my mind. I couldn't shake it. After getting up to go to the bathroom and get some water, I tried to let it go. It worked for awhile.

Photo: Chain Bridge, Budapest by night

Dreams of Hungary...part deux

Last night I had the most vivid dream of Hungary, one of the most vivid I've ever had in fact. Unfortunately now that I am awake, the details are slipping away.

John and I were in Hungary, and we were doing a homestay in Budapest (I think it was orientation for CETP) and we were paired with a Gypsy family. They lived in this little hovel, that looked like some sort of Turkish harem. They spoke English very well, and they loved us so much and were so curious and fascinated about America. They asked us if we were sad that we were paired with a Gypsy family. I said "No no, in fact I'm so happy that we got to stay with you." Much more happened with them, including wheelchairs, races, and rope bridges.

The fun really started when we were given a Hungarian driver to drop us off in various towns in Hungary. We were speaking with him and I kept doing this thing where whenever I didn't understand someone, I would just start speaking French. They usually spoke French back to me. We drove out of Budapest and the countryside started immediately. There looked to be mountains or hills all around us, but when I looked closer, they were made up of piles of giant vegetables. Potatoes and carrots and everything else you can think of, just gigantic. I grabbed for my camera as a semi-truck drove by hauling an enormous carrot. It was magical and whimsical.

We arrived in a smallish town where the roads were water. Horses swam neck deep in them, pulling carts of people and produce. As we were leaving, there was a sign up ahead about a "mess" meaning there must be an accident or something. I kept thinking it was babies. So it switched over to Ernie driving us in the Passport. He was driving crazy and we eventually "got 10 feet of air" (my exact words) as we flew off the road and crashed. We decided where we were was not safe, so we started walking these penguins/anteaters down the road. They were on leashes. I asked my mom, "Where did we get these anteaters?" She didn't seem to know. There were giant black eggs all over the road that these anteater/penguins had presumably hatched out of.

The leashed creatures led us to their "home" which was sort of an enclosure made up of cardboard boxes, fencing and the like. There were kittens inside. I started taking pictures but a woman came out of a nearby building and starting cursing us in Hungarian. I answered back in French and we sort of became friends. Then as we were leaving this little place, we saw a statue of a giant fist, and a replica of the Sphinx in Egypt.

If anyone is a dream-interpreter, please let me know. It was amazing.