A friend of mine works at the International Museum of Women, which is a non-profit that “values the lives of women”. Two weeks ago was International Women’s Day (March 8th), which was the launch date of a project she’s been working on called Imagining Ourselves.

The entire project consists of a book anthology, global gatherings, and an online exhibit. “Imagining Ourselves” is basically a collection of artwork and thoughts of young women from around the world, answering the question, “What defines your Generation?” The goal of the project is to connect women in a global public venue to define what it means to be a woman today, and how they can implement that knowledge and understanding to create positive change.

So, please click on this link to check it out and support the project (the more hits, the more funding, get it?)

http://www.imow.org/

So, it’s been a week and no word from BBJ. I’m not too surprised, but I’ve been too busy to notice.  It turns out that the interpreting gig that I blogged about NOT getting here fell into my lap.  Here’s the story from start to finish:

So Andi, of E’s Kellner Scholarship bretheren, works for a Hungarian film production company called Pioneer.  They landed a deal with giant Japanese advertising conglomerate Dentsu to shoot a commercial for a shoe called the Midori HiGRIP.  Being their first experience with a Japanese firm, they tried to play it safe by hiring a “professional” interpreter from an agency here in Budapest.  Andi contacted me as well as a backup, and that was the source of the previous disappointment.  Luck changed places, however, as the Hungarian director of the shoot took a dislike to the original interpreter, and pretty soon she got the boot, and I got the shoehorn.

(more…)

Lo siento, bocsanant, sumimasen, pardone and I’m sorry to everyone who has checked the site in the last few days and seen nothing but a domain renewal screen!  I don’t know if this happens to you guys, but my webserver company did not see fit to inform me of the domain expiration, and since their support staff is basically non-existent, it took FOR-EH-VER to get things back up and running.

Needless to say I was pretty shocked and appalled that I woke up one morning to an e-mail from my mom and absolutely zero access via web or FTP to any of my online content including the blog, photogalleries, etc.  I’m just happy it’s back up - for now.

The weather here continues to bite - snowy and windy and gray.  I think it’s really getting to everyone because no one seems to be in a good mood.  I’ve been busy the last few days with some job applications/interviews and working on the Nakayoshi site.  Yesterday I interviewed with Budapest Business Journal aka BBJ, but I think they will probably go with someone who has more experience.  I have another interview friday for this company.

Despite the adverse weather, I have been partying a bit lately.  On Friday Zsuzsa, Kachaw and I organized a surprise party for E-star’s 26th birthday.  It worked out well - getting 15 or so people into our apartment undetected while I wined and dined the lady to delicious vegan cuisine uptown - but I think my constant time-checking and conspicuous SMS-writing (we were an hour late for our “arrival”), plus the fact that I was chatting with Zsuzsa at all tipped her off.  Nevertheless, she’d always wanted a surprise party and she got one.  Thanks for everyone who came and HUGE hugs to Zsu and Agika for helping.

The next night we went to a wedding party for one of E’s co-workers, but we were pretty drained from the night before so it was a struggle.  Really good food, though.  One thing that surprised me about this event was that the terrible cover-band did entirely American songs for a Hungarian couple - the culmination being a drunken duet between the bride and her brother (the band’s front-man) of Sweet Home Alabama.  America - winning hearts and minds.

Last night we spent the evening at recently-MIA Akos’s apartment drinking wine and singing karaoke on a laptop.  Yeah, my standards have slipped a little bit since the karaoke boxes of Japan.  We had fun though.

Not many pictures of late, but there was a “graduation” at the kindergarten and another one that I kinda like.  Welcome back, what-what.

Sotsugyou Omedetou

Yeah, I think we got the point.

News today that I failed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.  I needed 60%, I got 59.25%.  What a bummer.  I guess that I had been deluding myself to think that passing would mean I was good at Japanese, among other things, but it still hurts to know that you’re still pretty average at something after 5 years of study and 2 years living in Japan.  This on top of NOT getting an interpreting gig for a Japanese TV commercial being filmed in Hungary and I’m pretty sour on all this kanji and kawaii business.  Shit, I can’t even win at Minesweeper.

I do have an interview with a news-analysis company next week, which is about all I can say on the subject.  The kindergarten will start their spring break tomorrow, so I won’t be singing the “Hokey Pokey” for a while.  Now I can concentrate on doing what I love best - sitting in front of a computer making web sites.  Awesome.

In weather-related news, winter isn’t showing the slightest sign of letting up, with 10cm of freshies just last weekend and a cold front forcasted for this one.  The one thing that gets me outside every day is the park in front of our house, which is being rebuilt with some bizarre wave-like concrete structures that I’m positive are a skatepark constructed soley for me.  Another day, another pipe dream.

Can I get a ganbatte in here?

WEATHER UPDATE: I just looked outside and: