Journal of a Sabbatical

April 25, 2001

in budapest (again) (still)

Today's Reading: Budapest 1900 by John Lukacs

Gee, could you tell I was tired yesterday? Yesterday's entry is now in the right columns.

I slept in until about 10:00 AM but still don't feel rested. István picked me up at the entomologist's house on his way back from Budakeszi. He had a colleague from the Botanical Department in the car with him, who on being told I was from Boston immediately said "Pinus strobus" and "Tsuga canadensis". Yup, those would be the major native conifers of my bioregion. What would an ornithologist say? House sparrows and starlings? The entomologist didn't name any insects from Boston last night, but he did show me his bug collection. I confess all the species looked pretty much alike to me. Then again I wasn't looking at them through a microscope.

I invited BiB to come to the Botanical Department to see where I am working. We live in such different worlds. When I was trying to tell him where the Botanical Department is I described the location in terms of Metro stops. He never takes the Metro. I never take a cab. He arrived in midafternoon and we showed him the book, paying special attention to the Serbian spruce. I showed him some of the pine, spruce, and fir cones in the display case in the lobby and pointed out the bizarre tree trunk collection by the front door. When we were done with conifers, I offered to show him the historic bullet holes in the building but he passed on that 'cause he had to get back to Kaposvar. It has been fabulous to see him two days in row even if I am on the verge of sleep half the time.

Today was the first time I have ever eaten sweet rice with cocoa powder on it. Apparently this is popular in Hungary. Learn something new every day.

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