Ági cikkei és egyebek/ Articles and Other Reflections by Ági

As I promised, this post will be about a more positive aspect of life than the previous one. So, right after the event detailed in my previous post, a traveller at the bus station asked me how to find the metro station he needed. I needed the same line, so we took the metro together. This was his first time in Berlin, in the framework of a larger first trip to Europe, so he was wondering what to see and whether I was willing to show him some Berlin basics. Alas, during the pretty long metro ride he learned what I had just gone through, so he was only expressing interest in hanging out together and see sights as opposed to wander around alone. The next they was Pentecoste Monday which meant that the archives were closed so I was free for sightseeing. I showed him some of the "must see" sights of Berlin, such as the Brandenburger Tor, Unter den Linden, Tiergarten, the Reichstag, the Museum Island, Alexanderplatz, we also bought some books in a flea market. Thanks to him I ende

hence I am going to write my disturbing thoughts about a recent break-up. If you have advice how to best cope with these feelings, your comments are welcome. So, this post is meant to fill 3 functions: ·          get this negativity out of myself ·          avoiding overburdening my friends and family with repetitive complaints ·          collect positive thoughts This split up had to happen, however, I am very bothered and angry with myself for the fact that it was not me who said it. I missed the right moment and thereby gave the possibility to the other to humiliate me as a farewell. Another disturbing thought is that I will never know if he purposefully and maliciously manipulated me into this situation or he said out the final word out of sudden intense rage. I know it is always the case that we cannot know the full story from the other’s perspective, but it might be understandable that I, as a person who is striving to be an intellectual, hate not understanding things.

Warning: this post is written out of intense temporary rage. I have probably been spoilt too much with my research trips to Italy where archivists (among others) are super empathetic and take it into consideration that foreign researchers have a limited time to conduct their research there, hence they let them stay longer than the official opening hours. Moreover, they are willing to stay there half an hour longer to enable the researchers to finish what they need to go through. In addition, they are interested in people as humans, talk to them, invite them for coffee. To sum up, it is a great experience to research in an Italian archive. In Vienna and Prague I did not experience such extra kindness, but there is a basic level of politeness and helpfulness. In addition to the awareness on the part of the archivists that it is actually beneficial for them that researchers use their materials in their work. With the acknowledgement that also in Berlin the director of the Technical

Figyelmeztetés: a bejegyzés hirtelen haragból íródik. Valószínűleg el voltam kényeztetve az olaszországi kutatóutakkal, mert ott szuper empatikusak a levéltárosok (is), és figyelembe veszik, hogy a külföldi kutatóknak korlátozott idejük van, ezért hagyják, hogy tovább ott maradjanak, mint a hivatalos nyitvatartási idő, sőt hajlandók a saját munkaidejükhöz hozzáadni fél órát. Arról nem is beszélve, hogy érdeklik őket az emberek, beszélgetnek, meghívják kávéra, szóval nagyon jó élmény ott lenni. Bécsben és Prágában nincs ilyen extra jófejség, de megvan az elemi udvariasság és segítőkészség. Meg tudatában vannak annak, hogy végső soron nekik is jó, ha valaki használja az anyagaikat a munkájához.  Annak elismerésével, hogy Berlinben is a műegyetem levéltárának igazgatója nagyon jó fej és segítőkész (és ő is ott maradt egyszer miattam fél órával tovább egyszer, sőt felajánlotta, hogy segít kiolvasni a nehéz kézírásokat), most fröcsögni fogok a Humbold Egyetem Levéltáráról.   A