Bye Bye Boots.

I’ve experienced a loss… today as I made my way back into the office after lunch, I literally tripped over what seemed to be my own feet. In fact, the sole of my boot was starting to peel away from the bottom of the boot and whatever was under the sole started crumbling out. You’re probably asking what I myself am asking as I read what I just wrote: what the hell kind of crappy boots are these that they’re literally crumbling away? Who knows. I bought them for about $20 in Budapest over four years ago, so I should probably be happy that they’ve survived this long. I am still, however, quite sad that they seem quite unfixable at this point, and most unwearable since I’ve been falling all over myself trying to walk around in them all afternoon. Alas, I will need to say goodbye to my favorite black boots… they might not understand English though, so instead: viszlat, boots.

Thinking about my boots and how it means I’ll need to spend the money to go out and buy another pair to get me through the winter (ugh.), I realize that they hold much more sentimental value than anything else (obviously, as I mentioned earlier, they’re clearly not the BEST boots…). It feels like I’ll be getting rid of part of my experience of studying abroad, a piece of the short four months of my life that I spent halfway around the world. My life did change pretty significantly in those short four months… it was my first time out of the country…I learned so much about my family’s history and culture when I had the chance to go visit relatives still living in my grandparents’ hometown out in the middle of the Hungarian countryside... I also got engaged! It was a life-changing experience that I’ll never forget. 

And oh, the shopping. The unbelievable deals and strength of the American dollar in a country not yet on the Euro. And, especially now as we get closer to Christmas, I remember the festive Christmas market in the middle of the city in the weeks before Christmas. Walking around in the cold after class, browsing the handmade crafts, smelling smoked sausage and fresh pastries, drinking a hot mug of mulled wine. We’ve tried recreating the mulled wine at home, but of course, it’s never as good. Plus somehow drinking wine out of a mug in my own house makes me feel a lot less festive and lot more like an alcoholic.