Let me introduce you to my friend Keaira

So Jaron has been learning a lot in his program about the business world and as is to be expected when being introduced to the enthralling information which the subjects of accounting and economics have to offer, he has a desire to share that newly-acquired information with me.  and although my brain has the absorbent capacity of a no-name- non-quicker-picker-upper Bounty paper towel when it comes to topics like accounting and economics, there are a few drops that it manages to suck up and retain.  

Let’s take opportunity cost for example.  Opportunity cost: the value of what is forgone or sacrificed in order to have something else.  This is different for everyone according to their current needs or wants and priorities.  So for this year in Budapest, we could say that Jaron has sacrificed fun and time with his wife (kind of synonymous those two) in order to learn how the “invisible hand” turns the wheels of the economy, that elasticity is more than just a necessary feature for every waistband, that absolute advantage is preferable to comparative advantage, and to learn the mysteries of how to ensure a production that meets the quantities indicated by the production possibility frontier.  While fun with wife in exchange for lasting knowledge may be a worthwhile temporary trade, it means that I’m short a husband and a friend the majority of the time, and seeing as how Jaron is kind of my only friend here, I tend to get a bit lonely.  I mean, I’m easily able to fill my days with wonderful things like exploring Budapest, which is an amazing city with endless churches and streets and museums to explore, with food, I get an unusually high level of satisfaction from concocting new meals and recipes and have succeeded in producing surprisingly good vegetable samosas, chapatis, veggie lasagnas, soups, raw vegan energy bars, raw nut milk, and nearly mastered the art of raw vegan chocolate making, I paint till my eyes hurt and practice the guitar till the tips of my fingers feel bruised (actually I don’t but I should be). I fill my days. But I still miss human interaction and since it’s not every day that a group of fun British men willing to let me gamble away their savings comes rolling through town, I set out to find another outlet to fill my social needs.  

Enter youtube sensation Keaira Lashae, a beautiful, curvy, spunky woman who teaches Zumba from her living room.  As we were shimmying together in my kitchen to the beats of her music selection and her encouraging words, I found myself responding to her comments and chuckling at her humor.  I realized that I liked her company. I liked having someone to talk to.  It felt good to have another voice in the room, even if it was coming from my computer speakers.  Keaira opened my eyes to a whole world of possibilities and potential friendships.  I have her to thank for my current chummy relationships with the likes of Gillian Michaels, Chris Freytag, Denise Austin, and other sensational youtube fitness personalities.  We hang out at my place for about an hour every day.  They are always available, always have motivational things to say to me, consistently energetic, and when I’m sick of one, I just have one of the others over and never have to worry about them getting offended.  It may not be a legitimate relationship or ideal, but it fills the void, and they smile at me, which, in spite of their good looks and ridiculously perfectly toned bodies makes them more approachable and less intimidating than the unsmiling strangers on the street.

Top 10 list of things I love:

1. I love walking by an old building and experiencing the cool air and musty smell that wafts up from their basement windows.

2. I love our apartment.  I love its high ceilings, the super efficient shutters outside the windows that make it so dark it seems like it’s the middle of the night even though the sun has been out for hours, our down comforter that keeps me toasty on the coldest of nights, our balcony, the smell of smoke that permeates our entire apartment when our neighbors are smoking in the stairwell, the hospital and therefore the many hospital patients smoking in their fuzzy pink and blue bathrobes across the street, the lovely older lady on our same floor who hates wearing a bra but loves wearing a tank top while she’s hanging clothes outside to dry.  There are many things to love about our apartment, but I have to say that the thing I love most about it is that it came fully furnished, not only with furniture mind you but with towels, sheets, cleaning supplies, random and completely uncoordinated artwork on the walls, dishes, an immersion blender, and a bottle of beer in the fridge.   All of these accoutrements were taken advantage of right away except the bottle of beer.  Since we don’t drink alcohol it just sat there in our fridge unmoved for the better part of a month, until one evening when I was home alone, feeling bored and missing Jare, one thing led to another and I convinced myself that I couldn’t just let it go to waste and since I didn’t have any friends whom I could give it to, I would just have to make beer bread with it!  So I did just that and it was amazing and the easiest bread I’ve ever made in my life.  I love beer bread.

3. I love walking.  I prefer walking to taking the metro to explore the city because when I walk I get lost slower.  I figure with my track record, I’m inevitably going to get lost but if I’m walking, it talks longer.  Plus, when you walk somewhere you see and experience so much more that you would have otherwise missed had you taken a faster method such as the metro or bus.

4. I love how the clothes people wear here are chosen with complete disregard for the actual temperature outside and influenced wholly by the date.  There seems to come a day when the collective understanding is reached that summer is officially over and therefore any outfit which does not include a sweater and scarf is deemed inappropriate.  It’s the most amazing phenomenon, like there’s this rule that everyone strictly follows, that on a specific day everyone is to don their scarves, sweaters, jackets, and boots –and everybody does it, really, and I’m pretty sure it’s on the very first day of autumn because I first noticed it on the same day that google’s doodle was a cute little animated man jumping around turning green leaves on trees all the beautiful yellows and reds of autumn, indicating I’m fairly certain, the commencement of fall.  Even though it wasn’t even all that cold outside yet I thought I better follow suite.  So against reason, I made an attempt at conforming, and it was even with a bit of enthusiasm that I slipped my cozy sweater over my head and wrapped the familiar scarf about my neck, fully equipped to face the blustery autumn air.  I only lasted five minutes outside before the scarf was frantically being unwound from my stifled neck and it became absolutely necessary to remove my sweater before all the water I drank previously was lost through my armpits.  I’m now back to lighter clothes and regardless of the date, will remain so until a significant drop in the temperature indicates the necessity to do otherwise. 

Tomorrow: Top 10 list of things I love continued