This Anachronistic Post from July

And there's also this anachronistic, never-before-seen post from July that I never finished and forgot to publish...

My Summer, in a Nutshell
by Layra A Sparks

My whirlwind of a summer started with the visa application process, with its fashionably late I-20 forms, unmentioned scholarships, unresponsive international student counselors, slow deliveries, worldwide technical glitches in the US visa system, rescheduled appointments, unconventional photo dimensions, automated phone systems, dads not keen on giving me bank statements, people attempting to enter the US embassy with pocket knives, and with crazy photo lab ladies telling me that they won't accept my visa photo because my ears aren't visible. That's right, my visa application was a succession of mini nervous breakdowns on my part, which were only tamed by the fact that my visa interviewer happened to be a USC alumna, and the interview she conducted lasted about two whole minutes and went as follows: "Which scholarship did you get? Are you going to do Thematic Option? Yes, I am a Trojan, fight on! I did TO, I loved it. You should get a pass for the football games. Which instrument are you going to play in the marching band? Silks, that's cool, well your visa has been approved." But before you start thinking everything went well after that, my visa was subsequently delivered to the crazy elderly lady next door. Interesting.

I didn't really have time to think about all this, though, because after getting my visa came the time for all the fun things that come with moving abroad to college - doctors appointments, blood tests, dental surgery, opening bank accounts abroad, getting health insurance sorted, yelling at employees of the National Tax and Customs Administration, buying plane tickets and wondering why one piece of extra check-in luggage costs $100 and why two pieces cost $400, saying goodbye to friends, and in midst of all this, getting a haircut that makes me look like a housewife from the 1950s.

And if that's not enough, my high school made national headlines when the government replaced its unanimously supported headteacher with a former teacher who left her graduating class, plagiarized her application and was appointed through nepotism. Now, as a person with a very strong sense of justice, I could not just let this happen without voicing my opinion, and no, posting a couple of semi-aggressive comments under articles doesn't count so when one of the teachers asked me to speak at a demonstration organized by some parents, I had to say yes. I had to do this for my school. I had to edit that badly written speech and make it into something more strongly worded, and I had to recite it in front of the media. That is right, you guys, I was on f!@#ing national television, with my name in published (or whatever you call that) and everything. Unfortunately, though, it was all pointless and the evil bitch is still reigning over my high school. Yeah, there's that. But we never give up.

Moving on. Just like last year, I took the train down to Sopron for the annual Volt festival, where - instead of the Arctic Monkeys - we saw Bastille this year. Well...it's not that it was bad, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations, and what probably hurt the most was that all the pictures I took turned out to be shit. I was so upset about the photos - and yes, taking photos is a huge part of concerts for me and please don't try to lecture me on how it takes away the joy of jumping up and down in a moshpit - that I couldn't enjoy the concert as much as I wanted to. I was also stuck in the third row, which meant that I was trampled on and pushed around half the time, but turned out to be extremely convenient when I got to HIGH FIVE DAN SMITH!!!!

Yep. I'm trying to finish this post in December and there's nothing else I can think of, so I'll just leave it here. Bye. 

PS. Sorry about the lack of photos, they're all on my other laptop. But check my twitter (@lillaspanyi), I have some there.

Arctic Monkeys Concert

Prior to attending this concert, I had the privilege of seeing one Arctic Monkeys T-shirt in person - mine. Now I don't know whether I can ever wear that shirt again without sacrificing the last shreds of my individuality. Especially since, thinking it would be completely original to wear a flower crown, I had to face the fact that about 80% of the girls present had the same marvelous idea. So. Many. Flower crowns. So. Many. Arctic Monkeys T-shirts. I mean, where did they even get them from? I had to order mine from Etsy, and for some mysterious reason it shipped from Bulgaria.

Anyway, the concert being discussed here took place at the Volt Festival, which is an annual music festival in Sopron, Hungary. I'm not much of a festival person myself (don't mind the festival, do mind the all drunk people), but, I mean, I'd been longing to see the Arctic Monkeys since SEVEN years, so I had to be there without question. I bought my ticket the first day it was available, and within the first hour. And so began this epic journey...

...which continued at 11 AM at the train station. Now, I was a bit worried about getting there, since I knew absolutely no directions or transfer options whatsoever, but all my worries evaporated when three kids about my age sat down next to me. From then on, the three hours spent on the train were a blast. We talked about the concert, about traveling to London, about not exactly liking our capital city, about how the Russians have a separate word for three-day sleep deprivation and so on... I didn't even get to continue reading my copy of On the Road, which I've been struggling with for a year precisely.

By the time I got to the venue, it was 4 PM and by the time I found my friends, it was 4:30 PM, since during the time I took the bus there, they were walking down to the station. What a perfectly coordinated meeting, right?

We still had a couple of hours to kill until the concert started, so we left the venue and were walking around town and, well, this is the part of the day that is better left censored... Erm, so, long story short, while the friends of my friends were eating shrooms and going psycho with seven other people in a one person tent, my friend and I went to see the opening act, which was The Strypes. And they were surprisingly good, really! I spent my time staring at the lead singer, who happens to be gorgeous, but it turned out that he's younger than me, so I transferred my affections to this random guy standing next to me. So it was perfect. Well, except for the tiny detail that I urgently needed to use the bathroom - which is a total mood killer. Oh, and that I couldn't change my camera's settings from B&W to color. And I couldn't find the flash either...

The first color photo I took - of The Strypes

By the time I got back from the bathroom, a huge crowd had gathered in front of the main stage and I couldn't find my friend. Nice. But after a couple of phone calls, raised hats and aggressive elbowing from my part, I did manage to find her, she dragged me into the great sea of Arctic Monkeys T-shirts, and before I noticed, we were already in the front rows. And we were pushed and kicked and jumped upon, but there we remained.

AND THEN IT WAS 9 PM AND THE CONCERT STARTED. And...they were there!! The four of them, they were there, in front of me, and suddenly I couldn't see because everyone was raising their hands and I couldn't hear because everyone was screaming and then they started playing Do I Wanna Know? and we were all singing along and my gosh, it was good! I mean, it wasn't 2007 Glastonbury good, but it was as good as it gets! Here's a video of it that I did not film (mine turned out to be OK, I just don't upload videos that much) but it's the best you can get!

So the concert lasted about one and half hours, and it was a blast. Really, all the reviews I've read since unanimously agree that it was boring and that they played lifelessly, but I couldn't disagree more. It was a decent concert. Apart from the ones in the UK, it was like every other Arctic Monkeys concert. I don't know what everyone was expecting and I'm sorry they didn't get what they hoped for, but personally, it was everything I wanted to see and hear and experience. The only thing I disliked was the setlist, which - apart from a few classics - was mainly from AM. Now, AM is my least favorite album of theirs, and not hearing much of their previous songs, especially When the Sun Goes Down, kind of broke my heart. I mean, they performed 505 which partly mended it, but still... Anyway, despite that, this was absolutely the best concert of my life. It was also my first proper concert (bad Hungarian bands and that arcane Patti Smith concert don't count), but it was the best.

Here are some photos:

Following the concert, we roamed the streets again, bought/stole posters, packed up, went dancing and before 3 AM, I was on the bus taking me to the station. 

The train was full of sleeping people, and I joined in.