In the mall

I believe it's the "west end" when I see the homeless guy searching through the contents of a bin (in the middle of the city)! I was late although I started my trip to Budapest in time, because I got lost in the mall..It’s like a jungle dotted with strange creatures! The city is only 50 minutes by train from my “village”, followed by 25-30 minutes tram ride (I have to change three times, because of some construction works on the way…well I don’t really know what they are constructing, because I didn’t see any one working on the line, but C’mon people, it’s fun to get on and off buses and trams, especially if you don’t know where the hell they depart from).
But finally I got to the mall, and after about half hour struggle to find out where it is, I found the shop, and a “soon coming back” sign greeted me on the door. The shopkeeper girl soon arrived, let’s call her Gabi, and then my 1,5 hour of fun-tastic “trial” started. Among other things, I got to know, that they earn 60.000 Forint*. If they manage to sell some bags, it can be up to 83.000 Forint (!). As far as a flat to rent near (or far from) the centre is around 80.000 Forint (if you are lucky), which is actually equal to her salary, she lives with her mother, in an outer district (Soroksár). Like so many of us, some with mothers, some with mothers and loudly and constantly burping grandpas, dogs, cats, other relatives..You name it!
She is a typical, what we call here “pláza cica” or mall rat**. She explained that I can take the phone, if they are calling about jobs, because they were examining a few more people in the previous days, and there was one already who looked promising; when I asked, how many positions are available, she said 1(!). So I have to be goddamn lucky! Also she told me that I have a good chance to get a job at the end of the summer, because a lot of shops here at the mall take people with “trial” contracts for the summer (which means you can quit any time without notice, but also they can fire you at any time for no particular reason) and then get rid of them at the end of August. Yeppee! I just have to wait until tons of young Hungarians get fired, and I will have a job!
Fortunately some English speaker customers arrived soon, so I could jump up, and try to encourage them to buy (she said I should be very active in serving the customers..hungarian habit, which I hate the most when I go to a shop, the constant and pushy canihelpyou). So far my English knowledge brought me jobs, a swedish scholarship, and even more jobs…among other more joyful things like friends and etcetera ;-) Great! I’m in the line of some 10 or 20 people waiting for the job. She also mumbled various swear words when a customer didn’t buy but yet was asking a lot about the goods, saying “I hope this asshole will come back, and buy this f**ing shit later”, because as she said, she didn’t get her salary. The boss does not like to take cash out of the cash machine (?!) and therefore she has to take it out of the till at the end of the day, equal to her salary, otherwise, well…she does not get paid! Based on the customers of the shop one could draw a nice map of the society of Hungary (or at least the hungarian malls) but even better, get a ride to Tököl on the domestic train service, that will overdo your worse expectations! Every day you learn something important from various strangers’ family, love, etc. life, and sometimes the tracks stored on the phone are tried out and showed off so loud for half hour, you can’t bear, and rather get off and walk home.
Anyway, back to the point, at the end of the trial (free work for 2 hours) Gabi said, they will call me back, so let’s see, if I will be a “bag-lady” or not ;-)



*1Euro=280 Forint, you do the maths ;-)
** mall rat or mall kitty= acrylic nails, polyethylene clothes, high heels, low IQ; guys almost the same, except without heels and acrylics, more arrogant, and accessorized with a lot of gold/silver necklace (we call it fux)