Personal Buddha

I love living and working in Europe, but it has taught me a valuable life lesson: you don't realize what you take for granted until it is gone “hiinnhh hennhh.”

I miss Zita Lasko. Zita, as my hoards of eager readers will likely remember, worked in my office from day one until last week as an intern. She was attractive, capable, funny...and she wasn't Joephia.

Zsophie, or Joephia as I have taken to calling her in my spare time, “henhh hehhh” has a unique trait. That trait is her unusual laugh. That laugh has been replicated throughout this post at intervals which are consistent with Joephia's pattern of speech. A second note of specificity, Joephia also...speaks very..emmm....slowly. And now you should be thinking “Austin, you ass, of course shes speaks slowly in English. You cant speak Hungarian, HAVE A HEART MAN!” I would urge you to stem your judgment because the first thing Balazs asked me when she left the office was “so... does she speak as slowly in English as she does in Hungarian?”

Example text: Normal text is Joephia's words. Italics is my inner monolog.

“So Austeeen.. I have for you the summary which I am needing to be read over hennhh hennh...I dont know if its any good. Don't worry Joeph-meister, it cant be worse than what I am expecting. Kati has told me of the fact that Kinga will be going to Georgia, not like the US state hennhh hehhehhnn hennnhh. A new pattern is emerging! That laugh was in reference to a joke, granted one she made herself, but it is still better than her laughing at jack as per usual.

I have not, contrary to how it may appear thus far, devoted an entire blog post to ripping on my co-intern. The reason why Zsophie stands out in our office, is because she stands out amongst all of the staff in parliament..accept Janet in David Casa's office, she's also rough around the edges. Every guest we have in parliament as well as my supervisors and the other Furman students I have spoken with all remark on how attractive the people who work in parliament are. I have never been around so many put together, sharply dressed, tall and thin people in any working environment. It begs the question...how many qualified people do not get jobs in parliament in favor of Stepford assistants.  Often at parliament I feel like I am surrounded by the plastics. 

The concern with keeping up appearances seems hinder the European Parliament across multiple fronts. Each month the EP moves the entirety of its staff and parliamentarians to Strasbourg for what is in reality a three day working week. What is the consensus on why this commute seems necessary? Because its been done this way for a long time. Originally the idea was the to have the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg would symbolize an end to the conflict between two major European powers, France and Germany.  Alsace, the region in which Strasbourg is located, has been fought over for hundreds of years between these two nations. As such, it would be a nice gesture to have an office building...or a bank...or plaque or something that says "hey lets put this conflict behind us." But as concerned as ever with keeping up appearances, the Europeans voted to build THIS. For 470 million Euros. Some MEPs argue that the whole operation of going back and forth from Brussels to Strasbourg should be scrapped, due the 200 million euros it takes to transport everyone each year. So far however, this idea has been shut down...it just wouldn't look right if the European Parliament bailed out now. 

Back to the real point of this post: my personal saga of finding patience with my new office mate. As an Asian Studies major particularly interested in Eastern Religious Philosophy, I have come up with yet another name for Zsophia, “my personal Buddha.” The Buddha taught that all of life is suffering, and that true bliss only occurs when you become expressly aware of that fact. When Szophia and I are in the office together, I suffer and I am aware of that suffering. I suffer in the way that a teenage girl does when her phone is dead, or lawyers do when the leather in their new Mercedes is still too stiff. Not to mention there are real problems in the world, like a government that thinks it is logical to spend hundreds of millions of Euros a year to go to a building that cannot support itself. So I will suck it up, and learn from my personal Budha, that there are not many things in life worth upsetting oneself over, and Zsophia's laugh is one of them...HENHHNHhh HEEHH!