Lottery Week

I feel like I won the lottery, it has been an incredible week. On Tuesday, I had my eye surgery. All went well, thank you for asking. It turns out it was 105 Euros LESS than I had been initially quoted and that was not because I only had one eye done. The quote was per eye. Not knowing better, I had planned on having both eyes done, so I saved a whopper amount of Euros there too.

Then our guests from Austin gave me the Windows 7 as a gift! I still cannot believe their generosity. 

You know how things come in threes? Well, I had sent an e-mail to Zack, the owner of Tipton Eyeware to tell him I had left a "Recommended by Frommer's 2010" sticker at the store, but I don't think they understood why and may have ditched it. While I was at it, I had to share that I had brought my friend Kim in there, not knowing we would be there for over an hour while she tried on and modeled frames for me, before settling on a pair. Another thing I mentioned was that due to the surgery, I needed good sunglasses without a Rx, but with 100UV protection. Zack zipped back an e-mail asking me to come in, meet him, and look over the collection. This time it was my turn to try on and model. 

The wowser part about these frames is that they are made from recycled 45 and 33 1/3 vinyl records. The designs are original and not the run of the mill off of the rack kind. When you wear Tipton glasses, you are making a statement. After a few different eyeglass changes, Zack suggested I try one of his newer line of eye wear. All of the temples are made of old, but genuine celluloid cinema film strips. The one Zack gave me to try was from an old 'adult' movie, risqué but tasteful still. 

They looked great, felt wonderful, but could I really splurge on sunglasses? Of course I can! I am worth it. However, Zack would not hear of it. They were a gift with his thanks for putting his wares in both of my books and bringing a eyeglass-a-holic friend to the store. Now, let me be upfront. If I did not like the product, they would never have made it into the first book, let alone the second book. The truth is, I love them and think others will too, so I am going to do my best to direct people to Orange Optika at Király utca 38 in Budapest. But hey, if you are not heading to Budapest, don't despair, there are plenty of other stores on their website.

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Almost Halloween

Ron passed this on to me. I could not resist posting it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/29/christian-broadcasting-ne_n_338738.html. Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network posted a blog by Kimberly Daniels recently that warns Christians to forgo celebrating Halloween because of its evilness. Don't try to find the blog post though; it has been removed. When reading the link above, be sure to read the captions under each candy. They are priceless.

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A Bad Joke Gone Good

WE currently have a great couple of guests from Austin, Texas. It seems to be a trend that we have all the best from the Austin area. Jim happened to call me from TX before leaving and asked if there was any computer equipment I needed. He too is a geek. I jokingly said "Sure, you can bring me a Windows 7 since it was just released in the States." We both chuckled, chatted briefly and hung up.

When they arrived, he handed me a new unwrapped Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade. After recovering from my choking spell, I asked how much I owed him, thinking we would deduct it from their week's stay. When he said, "Not a penny. This is a gift. We always bring gifts when we go somewhere." There was no dissuading him. I am still choked up over his thoughtfulness.

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Eye Can Almost See You

My first follow-up eye exam after the surgery yesterday was this morning. Again, I was examined by the computer and then by the doctor. She said it looks perfect. Eye drops five times a day for a week, four times a day next week, and so on until they are all gone and I will be fine. She did schedule me for another visit on Monday.

My vision is clearing. I am able to get around fine; there is still some blurriness, but that will clear up over time. The improvement thus far has been dramatic. I am sitting closer to the screen than usual, but that should improve too, according to the doctor. I do need to invest in 100% UV protection sunglasses and will have to wear them outside regardless of the weather for the next three months. Since we are going to be in Africa for a month, they will be good to have anyway.

Tomorrow, we will get a Swine flu vaccination, recommended by our local doctor and seconded by the Kenyan government. Our travel agent there said it would be good to have it listed on our medical cards. We may have to get Yellow Fever too, if our last one has expired.

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The Eyes Have It

Yesterday, I went for my eye surgery. I was not the least bit nervous until they gave me the release form to sign; that put me on edge a bit. However, after weeks of researching this surgery and hearing from others who had it, I felt more confident than if I had not prepared.

Once again, they did an eye exam with two of the three computerized machines that they had done the day before. The doctor did a  physical eye exam with the chart and various Rx lenses to read from, just as she had done the day before. 

I was send out to the waiting room and given a Xanax to keep me relaxed. This is standard operating procedure, if you will pardon the pun. 

After a half hour or waiting presumably for the pill to kick in, I was taken back to surgery. Given shoe coverings, a gown, and a cap to wear over my hair, I was ready. In the operating room, there was the surgeon, an electronic engineer for the laser, and an aid. The doctor explained the procedure again.

I had to relax on a cushioned table. The doctor put what seemed like a monocle in my right eye, but it must have been without an isert as the laser presses directly on the eyeball. There is an orange light and your eye is supposed to follow its movements, but toward then end, there is a bright white flash like a sun exploding. This took all of two minutes.

From here, I was taken to another table. They put a mask over my face, but the circular disk went back in my eye. A second laser went to work, creating colorful visions of old-fashioned tie dye t-shirt designs of red, blue, green, and yellow, continually changing the patterns as it went through its paces. Toward the end, the designs changed to something quite different. If you have ever put eye drips in your eye, as they are falling from the bottle, it looks like you can see the molecular structure of each drop. If you can picture this, in red and white, then blue and white, you will have an idea  of what I was seeing. This process took three minutes and it was all over. 

The doctor gave me instructions on how ot administer the two different eye drops prescribed. Two drops every hour until bedtime and then start again immediately after waking up. I could not sleep on my stomach or on the right side for fear of the pillow hitting my eye. 

When I came out, Dr. Simor was there to take me home again. Although I could see out of my left eye, without glasses or contacts, it was negligible. The right eye was quite blurry, which I was told before hand would be the case. It was like looking through thin milk glass, which is what I am guessing cataracts are like.

The instructions included taking a nap as soon as I made it home. You don't need to beat me over the head to take a nap. Two hours later, drops in, my vision was clearing, but still not enough to play cards with our guests.

There was no pain involved, but for the first four hours when awake, it felt like I had an eyelash under my eye. By evening, it was gone. 

This morning, my vision is clearer than last night, but it will take three weeks to three months for it to become the best it will be. Other than having to look at the computer screen a little closer than normal, less than 24 hours later, I am able to be functional without assistance. Today, I return for a follow-up check=up.

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Healthcare Hearings

For a longer version of the hearings go to http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/289547-1.

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IntraLasik Surgery

Initially, I had interviewed Dr. Randy Simor, a medical doctor who happens to be American-Hungarian, at his business MediTours Hungary, for my next Frommer's book. Medical tourism is growing at a rapid rate. I was impressed with him personally and his business, so decided to us his company for eye surgery. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but have now waited for the third generation of laser surgery to be widely used. 

Dr. Timor met me at the eye clinic today for my  eye evaluation where it was determined if I was eligible for IntraLasik eye surgery for corrective vision purposes. He stayed the entire time I was there to make sure all went well.

Because I am over 40 years old, I had three choices after they determined the health of my eyes.

1. I could have both down, giving me excellent distance vision, but still need reading glasses (This would not be true if I were younger.)
2. I can have one eye done with perfect distance vision and leave the other alone for reading. 
3. I can have the cornea lifted and have plastic lens implanted giving me perfect vision in both eyes.

The choice was clearer than the eye chart that I would take option 2. I have done a lot of reading about this surgery and have heard from a number of people who have had it done. They all have to wear reading glasses. With the point being to shed myself of contact lens and glasses, there is no reason not to try going for one eye for each distance and 'see' how it works out.  I always have the option of returning to have the other eye done at a later time.

My surgery is tomorrow at 2:30pm; Dr. Timor will again join me there. The surgery is supposed to take 15 minutes. I will be reporting back. 

MediTours does a big business with plastic surgery, dentistry, and of course eye surgery. Although his business does not do any of the procedures, it does contract for the best of the best in the field here, so a potential client does not have to hunt blindly. They also walk the client through the whole process, so language is never an issue. For dental and medical procedures, they have someone on call 24/7 and apartments where they can put you up.

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Changing the Clock

Our time changes this Sunday in Hungary. This is a fun British video reminder.

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Lorne the Reader Writes

Lorne S. Marr has left a new comment on your post "Funny, This":

Hehe, nice. Can't but love the beautiful Chinese alphabet. It really does look confusing to a person who's never been accounted with it. Nevertheless, it's a very interesting language. Check out my article on weird insurance if you want, funny also :)
Take care, Lorne

I know about this personally. My father had a coin collection that was older than I am. Unfortunately, he never cataloged anything, but when I wanted to do it for him in 2001, he had to tell me the story of very coin as I logged it. He had about five thousand coins. After five hours, I had 10 coins in an Excel program and through in the towel. After he started letting strangers stay with him, because of their hard luck stories, the coins mysteriously decrease in number.

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Funny, This

I was Googling looking for the link for my book on Amazon today to send to an old friend. I came across this. You can click on the picture to make it more comprehensible.

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Celebration Time

Time to celebrate...I finished my book, Frommer's "Budapest & the Best of Hungary" 8th edition. The most difficult part was the page limits. I have a maximum of 280 pages, but with all of the new information going into these new books, it was a major struggle. I came in at 281. There is usually a minute bit of wiggle room, so I have my fingers crossed. 

I still have the maps to work on or rather to assist Ron is assisting me with the maps. Then off it goes.

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Reaching Out

Sometimes team work means reaching over the other side to the other team. I tried embedding this video, but it would not show up, so you are on your own. This is based on a true story. To move on to the show, just click on the word video above.

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C Flat, B Sharp

Could this trick you into exercising more? It may work for me until I fall FLAT.

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You Light Up Our House

We had some incredible guests leave today, Mark and Enid Sherman. Originally from NYC and still sounding enough like NY'ers to make me homesick it was exacerbated when we discussed the quality of bagels across the US. Mark is a retired psychologist, formerly both as a practitioner and educator. Enid runs a business with her daughter designing, manufacturing, and selling luggage tags and hair barrettes. You can see some examples here. The back has a hidden compartment for your name and address. As a travel writer, this is a great advantage as most experienced travelers know you do not want people at airports seeing your name and address, knowing your house may be ripe for the picking. Here are some examples of their offerings. Click on the picture to be redirected to their website, but not until you finish reading here. 

Mark surprised us with a leaving gift, a copy of one of his paintings. He had taken painting classes and later offered lessons himself. His specialty is lighthouse paintings as you can see here. We were also treated to his small gallery of paintings that he created while on their cruise here. Each painting was a stunning piece of art with extreme detail. With  my lack of patience, these only assured me that if I were to take up painting, it would have to be the modern splash paint in large areas type. As OCD as I can be at times, it has to be with larger things, like categorizing my books by genre, author, and in alpha order by title. Mark picked up on this habit of mine. If you click on Mark's painting, you will be redirected to one of his web sites.

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Language School

I had gone to a unique language school to interview them for the new Frommer's book, because the new edition has a section for this. I was impressed with the technique, which is innovative, but expensive. If it were not so pricey, I would have considered taking Hungarian lessons there, but it is out of reach. However, non-traditional methods for teaching languages to adults is one of my professional areas, so I was curious about the methodology and pedagogy used to create the program and told the school owner. 

She did not feel qualified to answer my questions, but since my interest was to possibly publish a professional article in a professional language journal, she offered to connect me with the founder of the system. All of us met this last Friday. Unfortunately, he did not speak English, so we had to depend on the school owner to translate everything. When I asked how he came to create this program, he stated that he had heard from a friend that the average person here in Hungary spends 750,000 to 1 million Huf to pass an intermediate language exam. This gave him the business idea to create an accelerated method.

Fine, well and good, but I needed to know his research background for the development. After all, I was not planning an article for an in-flight magazine, but a professional journal. He said he had heard of Lozanov and his methods as well as Jose Silva's Mind Control research. Did he study with either of them or study using their methods? No! He just spoke to people who knew OF them. I asked if he had any teaching background. No, only business. 

Were any educators involved for resources for the pedagogical or methodological portions of his program? No! Do they do any testing after X number of lessons to assess what the student has learned? No, they repeat a lesson if the student did not get it the first time. Do they do any research and data collection on the effectiveness of the program? Yes, they have received e-mails from former students telling them how pleased they are with their new language skills. One student had to go to another country for work and was able to speak and understand things at a business meeting. Do they have any hard data? No, e-mails only from students. I also asked how he arrived at what vocabulary was to be used with each lesson and what the foundation was for building from one lesson to the other. From the response, I gather it was all by chance.


He kept repeating that students had to have a strong motivation for learning and to be stress-free during the lessons. I asked how they measured motivation. They ask the student. Personally, I would think the cost would be a motivation in itself, but not something that would appeal to a professional journal article. At the end of 26 lessons, they state the student will have a 1200 word vocabulary. True or not, this is not enough to pass an intermediate exam for writing and oral skills.

Finally, after an hour and a half of asking questions, I came out with as little substantial information as I had when I went in. When he asked if I would write the article, I honestly, but politely explained why it would not be possible without research and data to support it. Strangely, he has not used his own method for learning English.

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Survey spotlights Hungarians' poor foreign language skills - Caboodle.hu

Survey spotlights Hungarians' poor foreign language skills - Caboodle.hu

I will relate a recent experience connected with this in another post.

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Frustration Knows No Limits

I have had the computer guys here so often, they are thinking of renting one of our rooms. They could not seem to figure out why my cable box and router goes out more often than Brad Pitt did in his twenties. Finally, they decided it had to be the cable box and they called the cable company to fight the point. Each time I called they said they ran diagnostics from the office and all was well. The cable man cometh yesterday, worked at the junction box on the third floor, and then replaced my cable modem. All seemed to be smooth Internet surfing until last night when it went out again. Perhaps the router needed to be rebooted to recognize the new cable box. Today, all seemed fine until an hour ago when it showed I was connected, yet I was not getting anywhere I wanted to go on the Internet highway. Not even a yield sign came into view, just stop, and in stop trying, because there is no connection. The cable man said it may be because the box is on the third floor and the connection has to travel too far to reach my computer. Ah, duh! I cannot imagine we are the only people one floor away from the junction box. Wouldn't logic dictate that a solution needs to be found?

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NileGuide: Five of the Best Sweet Eats in Budapest

Here is an article I wrote for NileGuide as they "destination specialist". NileGuide: Five of the Best Sweet Eats in Budapest

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Life Musings

It has felt like there has not been much happening, yet it is not true when I reflect back. Besides working diligently on trying to get my book finished, little things change daily causing me to edit and rewrite what I have already written. When I called the Dohany Synagogue for a guest, the number I had was changed. When I called the new number offered, that was disconnected. Finally, I had to track down the new-new number. Ron and I were invited to a US Embassy reception, hosted by the Regional English Language Officer. We went for a relatively short time. The room was suffocatingly hot and although many were from IATEFL, I knew few of them. We did meet the new English Language Fellow (ELF), who is working with Roma college students and their English skills. It made me wonder if I could get any of my students to volunteer time to assist them as well. Something to ponder. It would intertwine nicely with my Race and Ethnicity class. It they had turned on the A/C, which they do have in the building, we may has stayed longer. After interviewing a medical tourism company run by an American-Hungarian M.D., I have decided to have laser surgery for vision correction. Later this month, I will go for a two hour exam to determine if I am eligible and if so, will have the surgery the next day. The surgery takes 15-20 minutes, but they tell you to block out two hours. Once the surgery is over, my next medical project is an evaluation of my teeth. My whole mouth has been non-stop annoying pain, sometimes throbbing, while other times just painful enough to make me aware of it. Our regular dentist is great, but he is not a cosmetic dentist. Both he and my dentist from CA both muse that even if I am a model patient who flosses abundantly and brushes as prescribed, I am the victim of three generations of really poor teeth genes. Fortunately, Hungary is known for its dentistry, with substantially reduced cost. That is life in the big city for now.

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