Poland and Paris

Although Poland and Paris were very different trips, I am falling behind and hence things are getting put into one post together!

I went to Krakow, Poland the weekend of April 25 through 27. This was the one place I most wanted to ensure I made it to this semester. I really wanted to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau. And, although my father's family is from Poland, I was the first person to return to Poland in 64 years- since the Holocaust. Michelle, my best friend from high school, met me and 4 other BSM students in Krakow for this trip. Most the BSM students who went decided totally last minute and it ended up being a really random group but it was sooo much fun! We stayed out partying Thursday night getting maybe an hour of sleep before our 6 AM bus ride Friday morning. Some people did not have such a great time on the bus; one person got to know the bus bathroom well! When we got to Krakow, we met up with Michelle and had a great Polish lunch of pirogies. After that we toured the salt mines, which were pretty cool. You can lick the walls and it tastes like salt. There were also all these statues carved out of salt and these beautiful rooms where all the decoration was made out of carved salt- even the chandeliers!

Saturday was Auschwitz-Birkenau day. Seeing Auschwitz was... weird. Anytime I saw train tracks (anywhere in Poland), I immediately associated them with deportations. Myself and the other Jewish girl there were adamantly against the idea of taking the train to Auschwitz (people generally take a bus but you can take a train but that just didn't feel right at all). It is a mostly incomprehensible place to go to, like not a lot can be said about it because it can't really be understood. I thought the tour was well done and it is weird to see that there are just normal restaurants and a town and normal people living right there now (you can see houses from the barracks at Birkenau, but they weren't there before, but could you imagine living in a place where that is your view from your window everyday). Auschwitz looks like a cute little town, like the work camp, it's the weirdest thing. It is really pretty with nice trees and pretty buildings- it's just doesn't seem to make any sense. The only place I felt really uncomfortable actually being was inside of a gas chamber- I had to kinda edge past another guy in my group so I was standing closer to the doorway, it just felt too weird. It is very weird that it is a tourist attraction. It is good that people see what happened and are trying to learn from it, but it is weird to have all these gifts shops (although they are mostly like book stores, so educational). I did see a group of guys probably about my age posing for a very touristy, "cool guy pose" sort of picture under the "work makes you free" sign, which just didn't feel right. It's just a very weird and different thing to see.

Krakow itself was a cute town. Nice and little, completely walkable. There was a pretty river (like all European towns it seems...). We took the bus back Sunday afternoon. The roads of Poland are awful so it was super bumpy and we played spades so I was sitting backwards in my track, practically falling into the aisles half the time. They also showed American Pie on our bus, which was fun! All in all, Poland was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, trips.

But, in exciting news, I brought Michelle back with me! So Michelle was in Budapest with me from Sunday evening til Wednesday evening. I finally made it to the baths but somehow we were inside when they were supposed to be outside- it was basically the most confusing thing I've done in Budapest. They were alright but I'm a pool snob- I would rather have a private hot tub in my backyard. I went to a European flat party; a friend of Michelle's is studying in Budapest so we went to a party of her program and it is mostly European so that was very different for me. I missed my American math majors! We ate gyros for like at least half our meals. A guy in my program made hot wings for people on Tuesday night and those were really good and then we went out for another girl's 21st birthday.

And then, Wednesday, I was off to Paris for my May Day long weekend! My friend Nicky's family was going to be in Paris so they got a hotel room for four of us. This weekend was planned months ago and always felt like an end of the semester thing so it was so weird that it actually came! We got to Paris late Wednesday night after running through Frankfurt to make our connection and were picked up by Nicky's mom in a rented car- how upscale! On Thursday, we wandered Paris and saw Notre Dame, the Seine, the Louvre (but didn't go inside as it was May Day), Moulin Rouge, and Montmarte. Friday, we absolutely killed ourselves with waiting in line for 4 hours to go up the Eiffel Tower, then walking to the Arc de Triomphe then down the Champs Elysee and finally through the Louvre. I have never been so exhausted in my life- standing for 4 hours is ridiculously hard! We never really recovered from Friday forcing the rest of our weekend to be mellower. Saturday, we went to Versailles but the wait to go in the palace was 4 hours and we were not doing that again. We choose to wander the gardens instead, which were really impressive but Scott and I were tired so we ended up mostly sitting on the steps and watching the fountains! Saturday night we played some spades and then it was bedtime. And Sunday we basically just woke up, ate, and flew home. The flight home was really fun- I bought a Cosmo and we read aloud and then Nicky and I planned our weddings! All in all, Paris was fun and relaxing (after Friday). I was impressed with how much of Paris I recognized once I was actually there after having gone to Paris when I was 13. But, I'm kinda over big European cities. Next time I do Europe, I would try to fit in more small, cute towns and scenic places. But, now I also have covered a lot more big European cities so I won't necessarily have to go see them!

Currently, I am suffering from a really silly mistake. As we don't have dryers here, everything line dries so it takes a day or so. Well, I accidentally washed every pair of jeans I own yesterday. So... my choices for what to wear today are wet jeans or shorts... I really will enjoy dryers immensely when I am back home! Less than three weeks- I can't believe how time has flied!

Still Here and Alive

I've realized I've stopped updating but that's mostly because life here is just... life. It is normal for me to live in a country where I don't speak the language, take the bus to school, be surrounded by math majors from all over the US (and my roommate from Canada), all that. Last week it did feel a little weird to be here because it was room draw and registration is this week so I've mentally been at CMC a lot in the last week. Tomorrow is the one month til I go home mark, which feels weird. I'll end up being 3 days short of being out of the US for a full 5 months. Pretty crazy.

But yes, last weekend was one of my most fun weekends in Budapest. I stayed out late every night- pretty out of character for me but fun to do every once in a while. The first night we went to a bar, then a chocolate bar (chocolate fondue and really really rich hot chocolate), and then another bar with dancing. We stayed out dancing and karaoking (is that a word?) until 4 in the morning but it was a great, fun night. Morrison's (the place we went) will now likely become a regular Thursday night thing (staying out all night to catch a 6 AM bus to Poland on Friday morning is the plan for this weekend). And the next morning, someone hosted breakfast meaning excellent french toast and good company!

Friday night we had another girls' party. Girls' party roughly translates into all the girls in my program get together and share all stories of who is dating who, who is hooking up with who, etc as well as some actual deep conversation about being abroad and stuff. It's great fun! Not too much new stuff had happened since the last girls' party in February that everyone didn't already know about it but it was still a great time. The people in my program really are all nice, good people.

Saturday night was another awesome, fun night. Some friends and I have concocted a Siamese Twin party. The premise is everyone gets randomly paired with someone else and they are tied together for the night and then everyone watches hilariousness ensure. Well, unfortunately, the rest of the program was not very excited about this party idea so it basically ended up being those of us who came up with the party theme. However, we stayed strong and tied ourselves to each other (I kid you not). It was good fun. My twin and another set of twins even decided to attempt a limbo contest while tied together (and I am embarrassed to admit we lost to two guys lol). After that, we attempted to go out dancing but not enough people were into the idea so the idea quickly died. But this evening was also followed by french toast!

I was sure by this point in time in the weekend, after three nights in a row of little sleep, that Sunday would be a mellow evening. I was wrong. Another girl in my program and I had decided to make dinner for anyone who was interested and serve Passover food so we could feel like we did something for Passover, even in Budapest. We made charoset, kugel, matzah brittle, matzah pizza, and a lentil salad- all good Jewish food! It was a success- we had like 15 people and the matzah brittle and pizza were especially popular! After that, four of us decided the night was not yet ever and wandered the street of Budapest while drinking some beer and ended the night with finding some gyros

Now I have a normal week, then going to Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz (and meeting Michelle, my best friend from high school!) then Michelle will come back to Budapest with me for a few days. Then I go to Paris for a long 4 day weekend! After that, we have our last full week of classes and my 21st birthday! Then we have another 4 day weekend (likely with a trip that is not yet booked), then 3 final days of classes, then finals! Crazy how fast time has passed!

Who Knew Hungary was Beautiful?

Finally, springtime has arrived! This weekend, my aunt and grandma are visiting. It has been really nice seeing them. Yesterday, I went on a tour of the Danube River Bend with them. We visited three small towns along the Danube north of Budapest- Szentendre, Esztergom, and Visegrad. The view of the river and the beautiful cute houses along the river was amazing. I really had no idea that parts of Hungary could be so beautiful! These towns were colorful, everything was in bloom, it was amazing! It was really great finally getting out of Budapest and getting to see some other part of Hungary.

It is funny because in my program we all associate Budapest as ugly and grey and cloudy and covered in dog poop. But now, the sun is starting to shine and things are in bloom. I looked out my kitchen window today and realized that the trees at this park across the way are green and beautiful. I totally missed that happening. Literally, everything had no leaves and all of a sudden everything is in full bloom. I mentioned it to my roommate that it seemed like it happened all of a sudden, like overnight. She told me that indeed it had. Last weekend while I was gone, she noticed that on Friday everything was still brown and grey and all of a sudden on Saturday, everything was blooming and green and beautiful. Budapest transformed into springtime with greenery overnight! It is amazing and a wonderful, much needed change.

Wonderful Weekend in Switzerland and the Problems with Cities

This weekend, I went to Geneva to visit Greer. It was such an amazing and needed weekend. I will note, first, thought have flown Air France for the few trips I've flown and I really like them (they are nice, good food) but they are ridiculously inefficient. Like when I landed, we had to wait on the plane for a good long time because the ground crew wasn't there. Um, this same flight itinerary flies everyday... how could the ground crew not be there? And on another flight, our clearance to take off got canceled. What? How does that happen? But anyways, Greer's homestay is on a farm that you have to take 3 trains to get to from Geneva. It is this adorable little town and it is just surrounded by the beauty of Switzerland, and let me say, Switzerland is breathtakingly beautiful. Greer's homestay family was so nice. The food was absolutely amazing- they make everything by scratch and so much of the food was fresh from the farm. I ate fresh eggs that I saw Greer take out from the chickens, jams made from fruits they grew, fresh baked bread, vegetables from the farm, it was amazing! They even made cheese fondue! And served us wine made from their vineyards! Honestly, one of my coolest European experiences this semester. Greer and I walked for hours around the town and the nearby hills and farming fields. After being in a city for so long, I absolutely love getting out of cities and getting some fresh air and some cleanliness and just the slower pace of life that exists out of cities.

Speaking of needing to get out of cities, I returned to Budapest to discover I hate cities. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, I return to discover that public transportation had a strike planned for the following morning (today, right now). This meant I would have to wake up at 6:45 AM to walk to school (an hour ish walk) to make my class this morning. So I got up but then got a call saying that the strike had been called off so I could take the bus as normal. So I left my apartment at normal time, got to the bus station, saw there was no one there and got another call saying they were wrong, apparently the strike was not off. At this point in time, had we walked, we would have missed at least half of our class. So the plan- go back to sleep. Which sounds great, but this class was a midterm review session. And the class that this midterm in is HARD. I feel so unprepared for this test already, I am so upset that I missed that review session this morning. I will get the notes but it is not the same. So because of stupid things like public transportation and strikes, I am really upset with cities. Life in suburbs with my car is just so nice...

End of Spring Break- Madrid

For the final weekend of spring break, we were in Madrid. Immediately after checking into our hostel, two other guys from our program walk into the hostel to check in! We knew they were in Spain but thought they would be in Barcelona the whole week but gave them information about our hostel just in case so it was pretty exciting that they actually came. We then went to El Tigre, a bar where you get a beer for 1.90 euros and then you get free tapas! It was pretty cool but after one plate of random odds and ends (as Nicky read in the guide book, for tapas they use the whole pig) Nicky and I decided to order a plate of actual regular food and eat that haha. And I just didn't feel up to drinking enough to get a full meal of tapas! After that, we wandered around Madrid for a bit and then ended up going back to the hostel to sleep.

Friday we went into Segovia, a really cute town about an hour out of Madrid. There is a famous aqueduct there built by the Romans. It was amazingly well maintained for something so old! The whole town looked like something out of a Disney movie. This courtyard area looked exactly like the town in Beauty and the Beast! There was also this castle, which was pretty cool (although it seems like there are castles everywhere in Europe). We then went down to this path below the main town and walked around. It was so nice to get out of a busy city and just walk around in nature for a bit. Segovia was one of my favorite sights of spring break. Friday night we then met up with Frash and some of her friends who were also visiting Madrid and went to this bar where you can get a 6 liter bucket of sangria. An Irish guy in our hostel room came with us and bought a bucket and wouldn't accept any money so that was pretty cool! We then tried to find an inexpensive place to go dancing but the first place we went to, we were told dancing wouldn't start for another hour or two. Then we stopped by this club we heard was expensive to see just how expensive it was but they said we would have to go home to change first! At that point we were ready to give up so we returned to the hostel.

Saturday we went and saw the Royal Palace, which was less impressive than the palace we saw in Vienna. We then went over to art museums. I went into the Thyssen-Bornemisza (missing the famous museum, the Prado, because the line was too long), which had a really eclectic collection. It was nice walking around an art museum, it made me think of museums I had visited with my CMC friends so I missed them a lot. After that, it was raining and we were tired so we went to Starbucks to work on math. It turned out to be an amazing plan because we got a ton done! Plus, I thought it was pretty awesome that I was in Madrid with a group of people who wanted nothing more than to go to Starbucks and do some math! We went out to a Spanish restaurant for dinner and then just hung out for a bit then bedtime.

Sunday was a short day. I basically just met up with Frash for lunch then it was time to go to the airport. Now, I had a 1 hr and 5 minute connection in Paris and I was told my flight to Paris was running about 10 to 15 minutes delayed but I should be fine. But then, on the plane, they said our take off had been cancelled and we couldn't take off until 6 PM, 55 minutes behind schedule! So I called the flight attendant over to ask about missing my flight and he said he would keep me updated. We ended up being able to take off earlier then that but got into Paris about 35 minutes delayed. The flight attendant told me it was a very tight connection but I might be able to make it. He gave me all the gate information and kept just telling to walk very quickly. I did just that and of course set off security for the first time in my life (chapstick container with metal in it in my pocket... whoops...). I got to my gate just as boarding started. I get on the plane and they inform us that the tractor is broken so we sit there for about 20 minutes waiting (it took me the whole flight to realize that the tractor was the thing that took the plane away from the gate, I couldn't figure out why the plane had a tractor haha). I finally made it back to Budapest but when I got to the train station discovered that the next train to the station near my apartment wasn't for 45 minutes- I was not waiting by myself at the dark station in the rain so I splurged and got a taxi back to my apartment. And thus ended my spring break. Overall, Spain was pretty cool but it is good to be back into normal life. Next trip- Geneva, Switzerland to see Greer in two weeks!

Spring Break Continued- Tarifa (Spain) to Tangier (Morocco)

Following my amazing weekend in Barcelona with my CMC friends, I met up with my BSM friends in Madrid but only for a few short hours of sleep because we were out of our hostel before 6 AM to catch a flight to Malaga in Southern Spain. Just from the plane landing, I could tell we were in a beautiful, beachy area. We had to get to Tarifa so we ended up taking 3 buses and go to our hostel in Tarifa around 2 PM. Nice, long travel time... Tarifa was a lot like Santa Cruz- a small, cute town. Our hostel was adorable- it was this house convereted into a hostel and there was no regular trash, everything was sorted (and I am assuming recycled). It might be my favorite hostel I´ve stayed in so far. We wanted to the beach, saw where the Mediteranean meets the Atlantic, and then had some dinner. After waking up so early, we all went to sleep early- definitely not the cool kids at that hostel!

The next day, we went to Morocco! We did a 2 day guided excursion. A really nice ferry took us over and the ads all over talk about how the ferry is 35 minutes but the ferry definitely left like 20 minutes late and then we had to wait 15 minutes because another boat was in the spot our ferry was supposed to go in so we made it to Morocco about an hour later than expected. Our tour basically involved walking through Morocco and being hounded by sales people and stopping at a few places where the tour definitely received a commission that they wanted you to shop at. And AJ made the mistake of asking a guy how much something cost. When the guy started at 27 euros, AJ said he wouldn´t pay more than 5 (even though he had no intention to buy at all) and when the guy finally went down to 5 euros and AJ said he didn´t want it, the guy followed us for another 10 minutes calling AJ an ignorant, arrogant American. But we did get some good Moroccan food! In the evening, they just dropped us off at a hotel (we were worried where they were taking us but it ended up being pretty nice and it was right by the beach) and the next day, they informed us, was just a free day. We had all had enough of Morocco and there was no way we wanted to wander on our own so we asked them to put us on an earlier ferry out of Morocco the next day. We had to wait FOREVER to get on the ferry (at least an hour after it was supposed to leave) but we finally made it back to Spain!

Back in Tarifa, it was raining so we spent most of the afternoon and evening playing cards. We met some other people in the hostel but nothing too exciting. We had planned to spend the morning in Tarifa then bus back to the Malaga airport for our flight to Madrid but while getting up in the morning, we learned that it was Holy Thursday meaning buses would not follow the normal schedule so we rushed out of the hostel. It was another long travel day. We left the first hostel at 10:30 AM and after 3 buses, 1 plane, and 2 metro lines, we arrived at our hostel in madrid at 8:30 PM. Next time I plan a spring break trip, I will definitely travel around less and situate myself in one spot for a while! Now, I have the final leg of my spring break trip in Madrid so I will update on that once I am back in Budapest!

Start of Spring Break- Barcelona

After a stressful last week with my first midterm, I was super excited for it to be spring break. I am traveling throughout Spain with Nicky, AJ, and Jacob for most of the week. But the first weekend of spring break was Barcelona with Frash, Greer, and Jessa. Frash and I flew to Barcelona together from Budapest on Friday. Nothing too exciting there although we flew through Paris and I found in my first visit to Western Europe after living in Eastern Europe for over 2 months a lot of differences between Eastern and Western Europe. Western Europe is much more fashion conscious. People dress so differently! It was really fun people watching. I also absolutely love the sound of the French language and was able to understand some French through reading, which is good since I took French for like 6 years! It was a super long travel day- we left my apartment at 9:30 AM and got to our hostel around 9:30 PM. Flights with layovers and taking public transportation to and from airports will do that...

Frash and I were staying in the hostel without Greer and Jessa the first night (they both came in Saturday morning) and I was totally intimidated by the hostel the first night. It was a 20 bed dorm room, much bigger than anything I´ve stayed in before and I had not traveled in a small group and without guys before. We walk into the lobby to check in and it was a smokey, intimidating bar with drunken people yelling "Chug, chug, chug!" My exhausted, hungry self was not pleased at this point in time... We walk into the room and it just felt like everyone was watching us walk in and I mean, it was a room with 20 beds! After some cheap falafel (yes, I found cheap falafel in Spain after being there for only about an hour!), we went back to the hostel bar and ended up meeting some Portuguese guys. We hung out with them that evening and ended up having a great time. Of course, we made friends with the noisiest people in the room. They stayed out later than us on Friday night and woke us up to talk to us when they came in at 4 AM and then this other group of Americans decided to have a shouting conversation at 5 AM so my first night in Barcelona did not involve much sleep...

Greer and Jessa arrived the next morning and it was so great just being us. We walked to the beach and caught up over some tea and coffee in a cafe. Barcelona had all these cute little stands with beautiful jewelry and clothes and other various things all over. There were also all these artistic statues which were really awesome. We went out to dinner in this vegetarian organic restaurant where I had some great paella. The food and ambience there was absolutely awesome. After that, we went back to the hostel bar and hung out just us and with the Portuguese guys again. Another really fun night. My two nights in Barcelona were both super fun and the closest to the stereotypical "spring break" nights I´ve ever had.

Sunday morning we finally went to do some touristy things and saw a church (Segrada Familia or something like that) and this park that is basically this artistic architectural structure (Gaull park I believe). It was really beautiful and impressive. We then had some more falafel and basically just made fun of each other and acted like us for a bit longer. After that Frash and I traveled on to Madrid where I met back up with Jacob, AJ, and Nicky who I am with for the rest of the week.

Well this internet place is closing now so I will post more later... well when more happens as well... Enjoy spring break for everyone else who is on it!

Greer and Frash do Budapest

So because my friends are totally awesome, they came to visit me in Budapest! Frash is here all week and Greer was here this past weekend! We actually did not see all that much touristy stuff within Budapest and spent most of the weekend hanging out and catching up.

Frash arrived with no problems but of course Greer reminded us of why we love her as soon as she arrived- she got off at the wrong train station. While Frash and I were at the right train station, I get a text message from Greer "Big problem. I'm at the wrong train station. What do I do?" I knew her train went through Vienna so I was worried she was in the wrong country! But no, her mistake wasn't too bad of a mistake- Budapest has a Kelenfoldi and Keleti station and her ticket just said Budapest Kel. Luckily, it was just a 20 minute bus ride away until we were all together again! And my visitors favorite thing was quickly discovered- how inexpensive good food is here! We first found some great falafel and then also stopped for cheap crepes on the way to Fisherman's Bastion, a place with a great view of the river of the city.

Friday evening, I took Greer and Frash to a BSM party with the theme "Spring Break Wooo!" and lots of Sangria. They got to meet a bunch of people in my program (including a guy who knows Kelsey, who lived on our floor freshmen year and a guy who knows Frash's housemate in Spain) and I have even gotten them to admit that math major parties are more fun than they would have expected! After the party, many BSMers headed over to Szoda, our favorite dance club, which was a ton of fun- it is so much fun when 20-30 people from my program all go out together and having Greer and Frash there made it even better!

Saturday and Sunday were mostly the same sorts of adventures- going out briefly attempting to do touristy things, finding great cheap food, and ending up back at my apartment bonding for much of the time. Saturday night, a guy at the hummus bar we went to recommended a bar to go to later that night, which was a cultural experience. It was super smokey, filled with locals, and had a nice outdoor courtyard, which I'm sure will be filled in a bit as it gets warmer. The weekend ended too shortly when Greer had to leave Sunday evening but luckily all of us plus Jessa will be meeting up in Barcelona next weekend and I booked a ticket to come to Geneva to visit Greer in April.

This week will be slightly stressful as I have my first midterm on Wednesday. It sounds like here you are supposed to get like 70% on a midterm to get an A in the class, which is not what I'm used to at all and sounds terrifying. I've got a lot of studying to do over the next two days... But once I get through that, I just have a few more classes (including a number theory class with Chicago high school students visiting so we'll be doing some sort of fun activity) and then it is spring break and I am off to Spain for a week!

Prague Weekend

This weekend, I ventured over to Prague, Czech Republic with 14 students from BSM. It was a great trip! The adventure started with a 6 AM bus ride to Prague, meaning leaving our apartment by around 4:45 AM! Yuck! One person overslept and missed the bus and did not end up coming to Prague, but other than that we were all accounted for (except for the 4 people not skipping Friday classes who would meet us later). Our bus was awesome- they served free coffee and hot chocolate, showed movies (only 1 out of 4 had English subtitles though), and got to Prague an hour early! Riding through the Czech republic was beautiful- it reminded me of highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz. There were tons of trees and bodies of water (riding through Slovakia and Hungary were much less exciting...). After we arrived, we checked into the hostel and then had some typical Czech food for lunch. One guy ordered this appetizer that was beer cheese, salami, pickled onion, and a few other things which was disgusting and smelled like feet! We then ventured to Old Town Square, the main center of Prague. It is a really pretty and big square with a famous church and clock tower right off of it. We wandered for a little bit then headed back to the hostel to take advantage of the pool and sauna!

Dinner was at a place that only had a menu in Czech. This one guy at the restaurant was able to translate a few things but we basically looked for a familiar word and then ordered that item. Nicky and I shared this excellent chicken curry with pineapple and bananas and a creamy penne dish. Both were great! By this time, we were exhausted and just waited for the rest of our group to get in. They had had some problems and had almost been on the wrong train and only discovered this minutes before the train left. It also got in hours later then we expected (the bus took a couple hours less then the bus- not what we expected at all) and so finally around midnight they checked into the hostel and it was bedtime for us.

Saturday was a our big touristy day. While eating breakfast, it started pouring rain, which had us worried. The weather reports predicted rain for the whole weekend but after that downpour, we had sprinkles but nothing too bad. We went to the castle and inside a church with beautiful stained glass mosaic windows. We got stuck at a changing of the guard ceremony, which we found boring and pointless (these guards were seriously like practically turning in circles and doing all these traditional things we just didn't get). Lunch was at Bohemia Bagel, an awesome bagel place with great sandwiches. Nicky had been talking about it for weeks and it met up to its hype. It is actually a very American type place but they don't have anything like it in Budapest and we all greatly missed bagels so it was awesome. I got a tofu burger, which made me so happy. I miss being vegetarian!

Following lunch, we went up the clock tower, which offered a great view of the city. The buildings in Prague are very colorful, which provided an excellent contrast to Budapest's gray buildings. The stores also seemed more happy and colorful with lots of toy shops and touristy souvenirs. After the clock tower, we went to the Sex Machine Museum! It was just so different, we had to check it out! There were really old porn movies (which were hilarious), patents of recently developed sexual devices (the creativity was surprising in some cases), devices meant to stop sexual things (chastity belts, a device that would ring a bell in the parents' room if a boy got an erection, etc), and of course devices intended to pleasure. After a quick nap time, it was dinner time at a jazz club with 10 of us around a table definitely met for about 6 people! We had planned to go to this 4 story dance club with different types of music on each floor but most people were feeling tired or sick so we ended up going back to the hostel and played card games at the bar. We were there until the bar closed playing Uno, which was way more fun for a Saturday night then it sounds! So far, on the two travel weekends I've had, we've not wanted to go out Friday night in order to save energy for Saturday and then Saturday has worn us out so much that we haven't made it out to club!

Sunday morning, I walked around the Jewish quarter and saw a bunch of temples with very different architecture. It was really interesting. There were about 6 or 7 temples that looked completely different all within about a 5 block radius. One one block, there were 3 synagogues! After this, it was back to Bohemia Bagel for lunch again. We had to stock up before heading back to Budapest- several people bought a couple dozen bagels to bring back! We then headed back to the bus to return to Budapest.

It was really fun traveling in such a big group. Different groups went and did different things so everyone was able to fulfill their interests. Also, I got to talk to some people from my program who I had known from before this weekend but had never talked to all that much before this weekend and I really liked them. I really do generally like BSM students so it was great to get a chance to get a few more a little better. So we can call Prague another successful weekend!

Beautiful Weather

Yesterday, winter seems to have ended abruptly with Budapest being sunny and gorgeous at 60 degrees (yes, who would have thought that I would be calling 60 degree weather beautiful). After finishing off two homeworks (wohoo), we decided to go over to Margaret Island. Margaret Island is an island in the middle of the Danube between Buda and Pest. It has a course that people walk and run along the perimeter and parks, fields, and basically nature in the middle of a city all over it. Yesterday, it was packed with people. It seemed as if everyone in Budapest was crossing the bridge to go over to the island! Tons of families with little kids and older couples- everyone! On the island, they had little food stands all over. The really exciting thing I saw was absolutely massive cotton candy (like 3 times the size of cotton candy in the US) and they had multiple flavors like sour apple and coconut! We didn't try it but sometime this semester I will be back and try it! I see Budapest as a very grey and muted city so it was excellent to see people out, having a good time, enjoying the weather, and possibly even smiling! That never happens here!

I am currently sitting with my window open. For some reason, once it gets to be about 60, my apartment becomes about a million degrees. I could foresee this as being a problem for the rest of the semester... I've woken up at 8 AM needing to open my window to let some cool air in because it is so hot (we don't have air conditioning). But it is so nice to go outside not wearing my big winter jacket! And I can hear children playing outside at the park right outside my apartment. It just feels so much more familiar when weather is nice, the sun is shining, and people are happy.

Sick in Budapest

Unfortunately, I got the opportunity to become more immersed in living in Budapest than I so desired- I got sick and had to go to the doctor! This past week, in perfect timing for my parents and brother's visit, I've managed to catch some sort of stomach virus. Basically, my stomach hurts most of the time and I feel miserable, tired, and flu-y most of the time. And I'm sure we all know how much I like being sick... With my parents being here, it meant they lost a little bit of their time being tourists but I got to have my mommy take care of me while I laid in bed sick. We went to the doctor twice. We actually found this really nice American doctor office where everyone speaks perfect English and it is super clean and everyone in there is probably an American visiting. The first time, the doctor was like oh this is just a flu it's surprising that you've had it so long here are some meds to take away the stomach pain here's a 24 hour supply because you'll be fine within 24 hours. Wrong. So we went back today and the doctor gave me a prescription of stuff to take for a week but said I definitely would be better within a week and I am feeling a little better so I am slightly optimistic but I'll be happy when I'm fully better.
It's scary and intimidating being sick in a country where you don't speak the language and don't know people that well. I'm glad I had my mom to take care of me but when you've only known your friends for about a month... how much allegiance do they have to take care of you when you are sick? One friend has been constantly texting, asking how I am doing, which I really appreciate. But like my mom went to the pharmacy to try to find medicines to fit my symptoms and of course all medicines were in Hungarian. People were helpful but... English is nice when you are sick... I am glad that we found a doctor that felt so American. Any familiar comfort when sick is great.
My family got to meet my friends and take everyone out to dinner while here. They also brought us tons of American food supplies- cake mixes, frostings, marshmallows, packaged Indian food, all the good stuff! My mom had booked for us to stay at this castle overnight in the countryside with all these cool things to do around it like see a frozen waterfall and go to these thermal bathes at night and go to a trout farm but unfortunately since I was sick, I stayed in bed the whole time! I feel bad because I really did want to see more of Hungary than just Budapest and this was a great opportunity to do that! And my family didn't get to do that much of it either because we left early this morning to take me to the doctor again and my mom basically stayed with me in bed the whole time. But my family just left to go to their hotel near the airport to catch their early morning flight and now I won't see them again for 3 months. Pretty long time... I'm glad they got to come see where I live and wish I could have been more healthy to show them around and do more stuff with them but I'm glad I got to be taken care of!

Valentine's Day

This past week has been really fun. My Combinatorics class was canceled, which meant only two 8 AM mornings and Monday off of school! It was so nice having all that free time! I also missed 3 hours of class on Wednesday morning to go get my residence permit so it really didn't feel like I went to school this week. Classes here are usually run such that an hour or two a week is devoted to problem solving and I had that in my Number Theory class on Thursday and it was so much fun. The problems were fairly hard in this one class but the proofs, once you get them, are beautiful. And you have a professor watching every step of your problem solving so I feel it really will help me get down how to do various problems.
My friends and my Valentines Celebration has been a three day extravaganza. On Wednesday night, we went out for our Valentines Day dinner (myself, Kailyn, John, Jacob, Nicky, and AJ- the people who have basically become "my group") at Menza, which many guidebooks call the best restaurant in Budapest. It was so good and even with getting dessert, we paid like $13-14ish for our meals! We will definitely be back there! I only had two hours of class on Thursday because of my other class being canceled and it was such a fun day. Nicky and I walked to class and stopped at fun stores and actually ended up being a few minutes late (whoops). After class, we shopped for supplies for Friday's party and dinner. I then went to see a movie about Paul Erdos, a mathematician, which was very interesting. After that, we had dinner. It is becoming our tradition to get together and cook dinner on Thursday nights. Thursday night, on actual Valentine's Day, some girls had decided to host a girls only party with lots of chocolate desserts. It ended up being really fun. I hadn't even realized that I barely knew most of the girls here and we gossiped and all the info came out. The girls all agreed we should meet back in a month and have another girls party!
Friday night was the big finale of the Valentines celebration in my opinion at least. Kailyn, Nicky, and myself had decided to throw a Middle School Dance party and we had gotten two other guys to host our party at their apartment. We made a great playlist, put up decorations, spent all Friday baking for it, and it ended up being awesome. We all dressed up middle school (Kailyn has pigtails, I had heart shaped pink clips and sparkly nail polish). Nicky and I danced to middle school music for like 5 straight hours! A lot of people got into it and we even had awkward slow dancing to the slow songs! The two guys who hosted agreed to host any of our parties in the future- we're thinking a country party in a few weeks!
This afternoon, my parents and little brother arrive in Budapest for a week (my sister is in school right now and couldn't come). I'm excited for them to see this place I now call home and meet my friends. But for now, math homework (ya, we actually do work here... crazy!).

Pictures!

Here are Nicky's pictures from the first month of our time in Budapest and our weekend to Vienna. This is better than a link to my pictures because she is MUCH better at documenting our time here than I am. I've also posted some of my own pictures on facebook.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nbenson09/Budapest2008

Weekend in Vienna!

This past weekend was our first weekend travel trip! We went to Vienna, a short 3 hours away. The original plan was to take the train but there was a railway strike and we didn't know if it would end in time so we booked bus tickets just in case. We had no problem getting over to Vienna and stayed in this amazing hostel. There were 6 of us, which was perfect because our dorm hostel room turned into our own private room since we filled it! The hostel was super clean, the staff was really helpful, everything about the hostel was amazing. The first night in, we were pretty tired so we got dinner (wiener schnitzel- gotta try everything once... it was fried, breaded pork (better than it sounds) with french fries) at this cute like place near the hostel with a really friendly waitress, which was such a change from Budapest! We then hung out in the hostel bar and played twister, which was an absolute blast! After that, we called it a night, knowing the next day would be a long day.
On Saturday, we did most of our touristy things. We saw the Belvedere Palace (the gardens were impressive and would absolutely beautiful when in bloom), the Hofburg Palace, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and a great breakdancing street performance on this really fun pedestrian street. After that, we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel and did laundry. Now this sounds dumb but they had a dryer and we needed to shrink down some of our clothes since we have to line dry everything in Budapest! It was also Jacob's 21st birthday so we then went down to happy hour at the bar and were given free shots! Dinner was at a really good Italian place with great atmosphere- they had fresh basil and several other herbs just on the table for people to use as desired! We then had amazing desserts at this place with great ice cream sundaes right near St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Sunday, we woke up at the crack of dawn to go wait for free standing room seats for mass to hear the Vienna Boys Choir. We were there really early (first ones, in fact) and it was cold and we were tired but we got in and were actually able to sit down when it started. The choir sounded good and it was my first mass ever (in German, nonetheless) so it was something cool and different but I don't need to do it every week or anything. After that we were exhausted and craving brunch, which is very hard to find in Vienna! It took us about 3 hours and a trip back to the hostel and a ride on a scenic circle tram to find a place that we were satisfied with but we got these great crepes at this really cheap, cute restaurant. We were completely exhausted so we then went back to the hostel where there was this big area with lots of cushions and pillows to take a nap. Then, it was time to catch the bus and come back to Budapest.
It was so weird because coming back into Budapest, Hungarian sounded like a familiar language. It felt like we were coming back home. At the hostel, I missed my bed, and I associated my bed in my apartment in Budapest as my bed. It is crazy how quickly a place can come to feel like home.
Tomorrow, my friends and I plan to make a joint Picasa web album, which will be awesome. Then I will finally have pictures for people to see (Jacob and Nicky are way better about taking pictures than me.). Once we have this going, I will post a link!

First Week of Classes

So I just completed my first week of classes. Because, yes, my weekends start on Thursdays! And I absolutely LOVE my classes. Warning- this post contains some math info.

Well, first I had this Classical Algebra class with this professor who is absolutely crazy. The class is only for the first three weeks, optional, and intended as a make up for things we should already know like complex numbers. Well, this professor is crazy and I did not understand a word he said and my classes are very introductory so I shouldn't need this background stuff so I am not going for the rest of the 2 1/2 weeks... it'll be fine... But ya, after that class on Monday morning I was scared out of my mind. I was just like what did I get myself into, I can't understand this professor at all, I've got to be the dumbest student here, wtf am I going to do... absolutely terrified. Luckily, that guy is just crazy and my other profs are great. And two friends (Jacob and Nicky) who live really close to me are in all my math classes (and Nicky is in Hungarian as well) which makes for an awesome study group. It works out great! We plan to travel together as well so homeworks can be done in foreign countries!

My first class of the week is Combinatorics. I absolutely love Combinatorics. I had some Combo in Probability and it is basically problems like "How many possible distinguishable combinations are there with the letters in the word opportunity" or "How many possible license plate combinations can be made?" These problems are so cool and applicable and fun. And we already finished the first homework even though it isn't due for over a week (class next week is canceled because my Prof is going to Italy for a week).

My second math class is Abstract Algebra. Algebra is a topic I was kinda dreading taking. I had even considered not taking it (I can get out of it at CMC) but it's fairly mainstream and essential for grad school. So I figured I might as well get it out of the way. My professor wears a kippah to class, which I think is awesome. He's absolutely adorable. All my professors are, in fact. It is a nice small class (6 of us), which I think will be fun. And he only uses like 1 hour of the 2 hour class periods, which is great.

My final math class is Number Theory. I absolutely love my professor for this class. A lot of people think he's too nervous and anxious and serious but I have no problem with that. I think he's brilliant, serious, and organized so I am basically in love haha. And he just keeps talking about prime numbers, proving these theorems in an absolutely brilliant methodical way. I absolutely love prime numbers so I am sooo happy and amazed by the stuff he says. This is the only class so far where I have had moments where I am just absolutely amazed by what he has to say. Like brilliants points about how unique factorization in the set of even numbers isn't possible so it is impressive that there is unique factorization in the set of integers. Who would have thought???? It's absolutely brilliant to think about it. I sit in this class and just think how happy I am that I am a math major and how in love with math I am. Yes, I realize if you do not like math I sound crazy but I LOVE math.

My last two classes are Hungarian and the Holocaust. Unlike the schools of most other people here, I am required to take language and a culture class (most people have to take neither or only one- few people have to take 5 classes). My Hungarian class is a joke- the prof plans to give everyone As, have midterms and finals with 10 multiple choice questions, let us out of class ridiculously early, etc. I am sooo excited that I am getting by this credit requirement so easily. Yes it eats up my Wednesday afternoons but far worse things could happen like I could be stuck in a legit language class. The Holocaust seems like it will be pretty cool. I may be the only kid from my program in the class, it is almost entirely made up of students on the McDaniels study abroad program which shares our building and some culture classes with us. But there are people from all over in the class- Germany, Turkey, Nigera, some country I never heard of... I think that part will be really interesting. And there isn't too much required. And I already took the Holocaust class. This one is really focused on how memory shapes things and I am in a country where this actually happened so I am really interested. It is fascinating though- I think I might be the only Jewish person in the class. So different from my CMC Holocaust class where nearly everyone was Jewish...

Tonight, we had a really fun dinner to celebrate Jacob's 21st birthday (a friend of mine here). We made chicken parmesan, which turned out great! Cooking here is always an adventure because they don't have quite exactly the ingredients we went. Like for yesterday, there were no bread crumbs so we bought crackers and I spend half an hour crushing them to make breadcrumbs! It was a really fun night. I think we might make Thursday nights a tradition where we all get together and cook dinner. Tomorrow, we go to Vienna for the weekend- my first trip! We is myself, Jacob, Nicky (the study group), Kailyn (my roomate), AJ, and John. It is going to be so much fun! We are taking the bus (3 hours) and then staying at a hostel- the trip will cost about $100 + food which is awesome. Myself, Jacob, Nicky, and AJ also just booked tickets for Spain for spring break! Frash (a CMC friend) will spend the week before in Budapest and then her and I (and maybe Greer and Jessa) will go to Barcelona, then I will do (hopefully) Morocco and Madrid with my friends from here! Other definite trips (aka already booked) are Paris for May Day weekend (right before my 21st). Other very likely to almost definite trips include Prague, Geneva (to see Greer/Switzerland), Zagreb or the coast of Croatia, and Poland. The current thought for travel after the semester ends is Greece. So I will be adding a few countries to my passport... very excited. I am sure I will have a great post when I return about Vienna!

Almost Classtime...

Hungarian survival language school is over. On the last day, there were about 20 people compared to over 40 on day 1... We did these skits in Hungarian, which was actually really fun and amusing. I am glad I stuck with going to Hungarian language school (although after staying out til 3:30 one night, that next morning was rough...). I met people through it and bonded with my class and learned some useful things, like how to read entertainment guides in Hungarian!

The course schedule finally came out and in the most amazing stroke of luck with no planning and just going with the classes I originally wanted to take, I have no Friday class. Three day weekends EVERY WEEKEND. All of Europe, here I come! It will be awesome. And two people who I have become friends with here who live right near me are taking all the same math classes (and one is in my Hungarian as well) so I have a traveling study group. My math classes will almost definitely be Combinatorics, Number Theory, and Abstract Algebra. I am excited. There are so many other awesome classes I would love to take, but it's just not possible to take 20 classes while here. I will also be taking Hungarian and a cultural class about the Holocaust. Most people are required to do 3 math classes and Hungarian but CMC requires 3 math, Hungarian, AND a cultural course. I think the Holocaust class I picked out will be really interested but it means I have about an extra 5 or 6 hours of my week tied up, which is kinda of a pain but oh well. It will also be mostly people from a different study abroad program that shares our cultural courses so I'll meet different people, which will be kinda nice. The worst thing about my schedule is that I have 8 AM class 3 days a week (4 days a week to start since there's a Monday morning review class or the first three weeks). Not only have I never had an 8 AM class in college, it's about a 30-40 door to door commute to get to school. So it will not be many late nights on week nights for me...

Tonight is a 21st birthday party for one of the girls in my language class. It will be really fun- basically my whole program is going to dress up and drink some wine to celebrate and then whoever wants to will go to the dance club right across the street. I am excited! Although I will probably freeze... I am wearing a dress I have for "California winter" and tights and open toed shoes... and it's probably like 35ish? If that? And who knows how long we'll have to wait outside for the night bus... What an adventure!

First Dealings with Snow and Ice

Although the cold here was one of the things that I was concerned about prior to this program, the weather was been disturbingly nice here. When I saw "nice," I do not mean anything like back home. It has been pretty consistently around 40 degrees. When I first arrived here, there was snow on the ground and I got to walk on some ice in my first few days wandering but it did not snow the all the snow that was already there did was melt. However, I keep telling everyone here that I cannot wait for it to snow. After being here nearly three weeks, it is getting to the point where people are not convinced that I am going to get to see snow falling...
Yesterday however, I saw my first "snow!" I put snow in quotation marks because what I saw was disappointing. It was described to me by the person I was with as "snow flurries." I walked out of the metro and thought ash was falling out of the sky in a similar manner to what happened during the Southern California fires back at CMC. But no, I was informed that these were actually "snow flurries." They melted immediately when they touched the ground (I know because I leaned down to inspect this "snow"). So, basically, my first snow was extremely disappointing and does not count. I really hope it snows again!
We then went ice skating yesterday afternoon. People had been commenting that you couldn't go ice skating in previous days because it was too warm and the outdoor rink would melt down too much (foreign concept to me!). But if it was cold enough to snow a little, it was cold enough to go ice skating. I had a pretty good time. There is a castle like building right beside the ice skating rink so that was cool.
Afterwards, a beirut challenge was made so I ended up going to a bar with 2 guys from my program after beirut (I was the sober one watching out for them, it was HILARIOUS). We randomly met these two French guys who I think might have been hitting on the guys I was with (they kept talking to the guys I was with and they bought them drinks). Then, myself and the other guy who lived near me walked home at 2 in the morning... I have now walked home after public transportation has closed three times. It really isn't too bad of a walk and I have people to walk with so I don't mind. But, as I was in bed around 3 in the morning, I did not make it to language class in the early morning (but will be heading in in a minute). About half the people in my program have dropped out of language school, it is crazy.
In really exciting news, we booked a hostel for Vienna in a week and a half! It will be the 21st birthday of one of the guys going (and it is looking like we will spend the weekend before my 21st in Paris!). I am sure it will be a blast and a great adventure! Math class starts Monday, so that will always change the mood of the program I am sure.

Fun, Packed Week in Budapest

This week has been so much fun. Something exciting has happened after language school basically everyday this week! On Tuesday, we got student tickets for the Slovenian Philharmonic. They were $1 (plus $0.75 for coat check...) and supposed to be standing room but as the orchestra is not typically packed on a Tuesday night, we go to sit in fairly decent seats! It was awesome. You could go up on the terrace of the building and see the Buda Castle and the Danube. We also bought roasted chestnuts off the street, which was really fun! And we bought them in mostly Hungarian haha.

Wednesday night we had a Heath Ledger mourning party. The girls of the group organized this one- we made dinner and then watched 10 Things I Hate About You. It was great fun. Nicky, one of my friends here, brought a ton of movies so that will definitely be nice.

Thursday night was La Boheme at the opera. We bought $2 tickets and were told we wouldn't be able to see. As I did not think they would built an opera house with seats where you could not see, I did not believe this. Well, they did not lie. As the opera went on, people left and we moved down the row allowing us to see better but the subtitles were in Hungarian and I only saw part of the second half so next time I think we might splurge for the $8 or $9 tickets... Afterwards, I went with 3 others to watch Rent (again, Nicky's movie collection) since La Boheme is based on Rent. I have to admit, I enjoyed Rent a little more than the opera haha! On the tram back to watch Rent, it was completely packed and this one guy who is really tall had his hands in his pocket and when the tram started moving, he fell over onto this short little old woman and could not stop himself at all since his hands were in his pockets! Poor old woman... Then, when the tram stopped and someone had to get out, there were in the corner completely far away from the open door so we just shoved her through the crowd of people to get her out of the tram. It was hilarious- best public transportation experience so far, for sure!

They have the craziest method of clapping here, as I discovered at both the opera and orchestra. In the US, we clap constantly (clap clap clap clap) but here there's like a beat to clapping (clap...clap....clap...clap). They clap in unison with pauses between claps. It seems so weird to me! I never would've thought people could clap differently...

At language school yesterday, we had a scavenger hunt in Hungarian, which was pretty fun. I got pretty competitive... I couldn't help myself... but we had this impossible question (that took the judges like 20 minutes to deliberate) and we came in 2nd. Last night (Friday night), I had my first going out in Budapest experience. After dinner, myself and 3 others (the same group that watched Rent) decided to play some Beirut before going to the bar and it was a slaughter with myself and my partner winning, resulting in one guy becoming drunk very quickly! We then went to one bar, which was way too smoky, so then we went to a club to go dancing. It was so much fun! It was all American music (although probably not what they would play at an American club) and I had a great time going out dancing! The one issue with going out in Budapest is public transportation shuts down at around 11:30 PM and doesn't come back til close to 4:30 AM. The city is small so it is not a problem to walk places and luckily, a bunch of the people I have befriended (including 2 of the 3 I was out with last night) live really close to me so I got walked back to my apartment. It was really nice- there was like no one out near where we lived and we walked along the river and saw everything lit up at night. It was beautiful.

I am having a great time here. I am loving having all these opportunities to go to so many places. We are already talking about traveling. It is awesome because 2 of the people I have become close with (who live really near me) are taking many of the same classes as me so we will be a study group and travel together so we can do our homework all over Europe! I am really excited.

A Communist Culture and Apartments

I thought I would post on two topics today, which seem different but are slightly related here.

So Hungary is a post-communist country, which becomes apparent through the service offered here. It is constantly being explained to us that since people are coming out of the communist way of life and didn't use to have to do a good job (or much of a job at all) to get money, they don't offer great service. It becomes very apparent at restaurants. The waiter is rarely seen- they bring the menu (sometimes after you've been there a while), take your order, bring your food and that's it. You have to track them down for the check. Meals frequently take 2 to 3 hours just because there is so much waiting at each step. Tips are also usually just a flat 10% (sometimes they are included in the price) so there is no incentive for good service.

The relation to apartments here is that people don't have much incentive to fix things. My landpeople (there is a woman and a man, technically it is the woman but her boyfriend is always there too so I just call them my landpeople) are actually pretty good about this but my friends not so much. For example, one girl has a leaky faucet (I mean really leaky) and her landlord was like well just catch the water in a pan and use it for your baths or find a plumber yourself and I'll reimburse you. Another girl had a broken microwave, the landlord told her to buy a new one herself and they would take it off of next months rent. So I guess stuff gets taken care of eventually but there definitely is not the service we see in the US. On the other hand, my internet did not work and my landlord came over to help me with it that night (although it still is flaky... grrr) and our lock wasn't working so he literally unscrewed the bolt from the door and fixed the lock by himself! I mean, I've never lived in an apartment before so I don't know what exactly is normal but this is all rather interesting.

I really will eventually post pictures of my apartment but I currently do not trust my internet. I do really like my apartment. It is quiet and cute. However, after seeing all the other apartments, mine is TINY by comparison. I have put up a sheet and gotten around the lack of door issue so that is good. It is by no means quiet or dark if either myself or my roommate is up though- sound travels well and our rooms are separated by glass doors letting in all light. It also is a little far from most places it seems. There aren't really restaurants or anything right nearby. There is a big mall about 5 or 6 blocks away and a market (only open during the day) a block away that has fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses, meats, etc. There are at least 4 other apartments with BSM students within a 15 minute walk and the metro and public transport are easy to use but we're not right next to anyone really. The people who I think I will form a study group with are about a 10-15 minute walk away though so that is good (I really like the people in this apartment and we are most likely taking the same classes).

The size of my apartment comparatively though is its biggest drawback. I don't mind it that much- if I had a big apartment I would feel like I would need to host parties and such which I don't want to. But our kitchen literally just has two chairs and my room just had my bed, desk, and one chair so I don't feel like I can invite people over (Kailyn's room has a couch and three chairs but I can't invite people over to hang out in my roommate's room). Tonight, I was going to make dinner with two other people and the guy's gas was turned off (so no hot water, no stove, nothing) and I felt bad because I couldn't invite them to my place instead because there is literally no room! But of the apartments I have been in, some of the peoples' bedrooms are literally 3 or 4 times the size of mine! Some people have living rooms (though most who do seem to be sharing bedrooms), which would be really nice to have. My apartment could literally fit in some single rooms of the other apartments I've seen. However, our apartment seems better equipped, our landlord seems a little more on top of stuff, and our apartment is quieter- all perks in my opinion. So ya, it is not perfect and I am definitely learning to appreciate things back home (Collins dining hall, anyone? dryers instead of line drying? yup, miss those!).

But some really, really great things they have here that they don't have at home? 400 forint (about $2, $2.50) opera tickets (we were told you can't see much... we'll find out on Thursday...). 200 forint (just over $1) student standing room Philharmonic orchestra tickets. Food at restaurants can be ridiculously cheap. I ate at this upscale coffee shop today where my bagel with camembert cheese was about $2. They had desserts and stuff for between $0.75 and $2- imagine that sort of stuff at Starbucks! I had a sandwich at the school cafeteria (which does not even compare to collins) for about $1.50! I am really enjoying this aspect of studying abroad! It may be a very cultural week with the Philharmonic and the Opera... for about $3! We shall see...

Missing the Familiar

So my internet seems to have miraculously decided to fix itself. Thank the lord. I was getting really stressed out by not having constant access to talking to people back home and such.

Today is my first day off of language school since it started. It has been wonderful. I slept in and then I've just been uploading pictures, answering emails, chatting with people back home, and doing Hungarian homework. I needed that lazy refresh sort of morning. It is exhausting constantly being surrounded by new people in a new place. And having 50+ new Hungarian words thrown at me a day does not help! I also have been feeling a little homesick recently. It has now been over a month since I saw my CMC friends and two weeks since I saw my family. Which really isn't that long given how long it will be til I see everyone again (although my parents and brother will be in Budapest in less than a month!). I miss knowing people well and knowing what to expect and feeling really comfortable with people. And I have spent the past few hours online but as it is around 5 AM in California, no one is up. I really was hoping to talk to some familiar people but instead I just got to answer emails to familiar people (although I did get to talk with Greer briefly, which was so nice). I know that CMC starts back up on Tuesday so people are going back over the next few days and I'm a little jealous- part of me wants to go back too. I mean, I also want to be here, but I really do miss the familiar. I would love to get to go back to my floor and do the post-winter-break reunion with my friends and just hang out and laugh and talk all night. I guess it will be even more rewarding when it has been so long apart and we have even more to talk about but I really miss home right now.

Last night, 7 of us got together and cooked dinner (fajitas... damn have I missed Mexican food) and then went over to a party hosted by some BSM students. All of public transportation except for night buses shuts down around 11:30 PM and we stayed out past that. We tried to find a night bus (they have different schedules and locations then regular buses) but it was absolutely packed so we decided to walk. The city is quite small. Although the apartment I was at would take probably 20 minutes to get to by metro or bus (with waiting, switching lines, etc.), it took only 30 or 40 minutes to walk and there was a big group of us who live near each other walking back together. It was something of an adventure- Budapest at night sure seems to have a different crowd out (more sketchy for sure). I still have not been to a bar or a club and I'm sure I will make it there eventually but it's not exactly a huge draw for most of the people I have been hanging out with. Tonight, a group of us are getting together to cook dinner again, which should be fun. I'm sure as more and more time passes here, things here will feel more and more familiar.

Amsterdam, Israel, and Petra in Pictures- Finally!

I tried unsuccessfully to post some pictures from Amsterdam, Israel, and Petra on this blog but the formatting and getting the pictures to load just was not working with me. So... they are up on Picasa (go Google products) at http://picasaweb.google.com/rmaltiel/AmsterdamIsraelPetra. And I will get on posting some Budapest pictures soon too... hopefully...

My First Week (mostly without internet, hence the lumped entry)

Limited internet access is a bitch. But, I am still alive and enjoying Budapest.

Since I last posted, I have continued wandering around with a constantly increasing group of people as more and more people have been arriving. A student here for a full year (so he was here last semester) brought us a tea house where you order a type of tea (they probably have 200 types) and then just sit around and drink tea. We’ve already gone twice. It’s just a really cool, relaxing place. The second time we got our own room and had cushions on the floor to sit on and just sat around for hours, hiding from the cold. It could very likely become my favorite place in Budapest.

Some other places we explored include this park with a zoo and a circus and an ice skating rink (we still plan to go back to go ice skating), a museum of applied arts that had all sorts of handmade crafts like dishes and books and dresses and jewelry, parliament, St. Stephen’s Basilica, Buda Castle, labyrinths under Buda, and we hiked up a hill in Buda to get a great view of the Danube and Pest. It is fun being a tourist but also discovering a place I will spend a lot of time in- a sort of weird combination.

Things here are nice and cheap although more expensive then they were a year ago and therefore more expensive then we thought they would be. In my past few meals, most have been between $2 and $4. A more expensive meal where I ordered dessert too was about $8. We of course haven’t gone to expensive restaurants so there definitely are places with more American prices but you can also eat for really cheap here. Museum entrance prices usually are between $2 and $7. We also heard rumors today of student opera tickets for under $2. We need to investigate this more but it is definitely nice having these cheap opportunities around us.

On Wednesday we started Hungarian lessons. When they say intense survival Hungarian, they are not kidding about the intense thing. In 3 half days (and they become whole days after tomorrow), I feel like I have covered as much of a language as I did in a whole year of 7^th grade French. That being said, I still can’t really say anything. We’ve learned three verb conjugations, numbers, and some basic foods, jobs, and nationalities. The pronunciation of certain letters is weird. For example, cs makes a ch sound, sz makes an s sound, s makes a sh sound, zs makes a j sound, gy makes a d-ish sound. And the vowels… I can’t even tell you about the vowels… I’ve never been any good with foreign language pronunciation so it’s a struggle. But being in the country where the language is spoken while learning it does seem advantageous because you see things around. Like, I went to the store today and I saw the names of some of the fruits and vegetables we had just covered. And various words become obvious over time, like the word for open on store fronts and the word for push on doors. So, I definitely don’t think I will become fluent in Hungarian anytime soon but may be able to at least read labels on food to get the gist of what I’m buying… hopefully, at least.

Speaking of food, that’s one of the biggest adventures for me here- living on my own. Well, yes I have a roommate, but I have never had to feed myself or anything like that. There’s always been a parent or a dining hall taking care of that. But now I either need to go out or cook myself something. I have eaten most of my meals out but things here take a while- dinner out last night took 2 ½ hours. Which was fine for last night but won’t work out so great once classes start. So far, I have stuck with really basic things- canned tomato soup, pasta, peanut butter and jelly. But most prepackaged foods here are relatively expensive. Also, I have only found canned soups are Tesco, which is not that nearby. Otherwise, there are soups in a bag that I think you just add water to but of course I can’t read the instructions and can’t even tell what type of soups they are. It is definitely going to be interesting figuring out to feed myself while being unable to tell what a lot of foods are and how to prepare a lot of foods I can buy.

The worst thing that I have experiences so far is internet trouble. My infrequent posting has had nothing to do with lack of desire to post. Our internet in our apartment was installed Wednesday evening and worked fine for a little while and then stopped working. My roommate’s then went back to working while mine continued not to work, no matter what I did. I finally called the landlord this morning and he came over this evening, unplugged it, plugged it back in, and it immediately worked again. For an hour. (I am actually currently typing this in word, intending to post it later when I can.) Again, my internet stopped working after a little while. I followed the instructions my landlord gave me about unplugging and plugging back in about 3 or 4 times to no avail. I will have to call him in the morning and tell him the same thing happened again. It is a real hassle. Internet is my way of communicating with my family and friends and I feel really isolated without it. It has really been stressing me out not having regular internet access. I feel really bad bothering my landlord about it AGAIN but I really need internet. It is also a hassle because he will estimate a time that he can be here and both times with the internet he has been late (90 minutes once, 30 minutes the other time) and that means I need to stay in the apartment and wait for him while other BSM students are out and about, enjoying themselves. But, I desperately need internet so I guess that’s the prices I have to pay. Hopefully, he comes by tomorrow and this gets fixed for good.

Update as am I posting this: I called my landlord, he said try again. So when I was home, I tried again and it wasn't working. Then, all of a sudden, I looked down at my computer and it was connected. I actually think when it first became connected, the wireless router was technically unplugged. I don't get it at all but I will go with it and hopefully it will last. Please, please put a prayer into the internet god for me. My sanity will greatly improve with constant internet access. I've been a little homesick and having internet will help me out with that a lot.

First Full Day in Budapest

Today, I wandered around with 5 other students from my program, including a girl from Scripps. We got our public transportation passes, found our school and the language school, saw the river (again), and ate. My roommate also came in today. Her name is Kailyn and she is from Canada. We think she is the only Canadian on the program. I also discovered that a girl who is an international student at Mt Holyoke but from Pakistan went to school with the one Pakistani girl at CMC and that a boy from Stanford (whose internet I am currently using... but we are getting internet in my apartment in the next week!) has a roommate from Saratoga and lived in the same dorm as a girl I grew up with. Small world.

We had lunch at TGIFridays... we are slowly weaning ourselves off of America :). Dinner was at a pretty Hungarian place. It was upscale with techno music, which was a weird combination. I am pretty sure I will not continue being vegetarian here. While there are vegetarian options, I don't want to walk into a restaurant and have what I am getting decided for me since there is only one vegetarian option. I want to try the different types of food here so we'll see. Maybe I'll be vegetarian in the apartment but not when I go out.

It really has been really fun and interesting being with a group of math majors. Over dinner today, we started talking about knitting and got into the mathematics of knitting and knot theory and one boy shared about how he had gotten a really cool book about knot theory. For once, not everyone was staring at him like he was crazy but instead was agreeing that it sounded interesting! And one girl shared a little paper puzzle her professor had given her to explain why she should be a math major. And another girl answered, "You need a reason to be a math major??? What? Why?" rather than the usual "Ew, math, why would you major in that?" I can definitely tell it will be super fun being able to say math nerdy things and have everyone appreciate them rather than be totally scared off.

I feel much better now that I have met a few people and have liked everyone I've met. Also, the promise of internet in my apartment is very reassuring. Once I get internet in my apartment, I will take and post some pictures.

Arrival in Budapest

Although I am posting this at the same time as my final Israel update, for organizational reasons I am posting this separately.

In a slightly nerve wracking episode, my mom calls me after she got back to the US to tell me that my Saturday flight to Budapest had been cancelled. Uh… what???? I could either take a Friday flight or Sunday flight. As I have been really excited to get here for a while now, I went with the Friday flight but did not receive confirmation that I was on the flight until 34 hours before my flight left. I then did not know if BSM, my program, had received information about my flight change until 15 hours before my flight left. This all was a little scary to say the least. If I arrived in Budapest with no one to meet me, I would not have known where to go (I did not have my apartment address) or what to do. But luckily that was not the case.

I got to the airport at Tel Aviv super early Friday morning (try 3:30 AM Tel Aviv time, 2:30 AM Budapest time) and went to check my bags. Everything was going quickly until I ran into a major problem. My bags were very overweight. While I had called the airline and checked about luggage restrictions and learned that Malev (the Hungarian airline) only allows one carry on, the thought of only allowing one checked bag never crossed my mind. I was sure I could take 2 bags of 20 kg each. Yeah, no. I could take 20 kg TOTAL. That’s about 50 pounds. For 5 months. Yeah right. I tried saying I was coming from the US and studying in Budapest for 5 months and hadn’t known to no avail. My carry on baggage was also overweight (Malev allows 8 kg while every other airline basically allows 12 kg… let’s just say I’m not a fan of how Malev has different luggage restrictions than the rest of the world). I had my laptop bag inside my carry on suitcase so ended up just carrying on my laptop bag and checking my carry on suitcase- checking 3 bags. I had to pay $16 for each kg I was overweight- 25 kg. You do the math and try to imagine how happy I was that morning.

After that whole fiasco, I got super emotional. I learned my first abroad lesson. Anything that doesn’t go well while abroad becomes 100 times worse because then it brings on doubts about the whole abroad experience. The whole flight I was just ridiculously overwhelmed and emotional. I wanted to go home to the US, to the familiar. I was just so scared. I was greeted in Budapest and taken to my apartment (more on that later) and then left on my own. I wandered the streets near my apartment, managed to find my bank, exchanged money for what was not a great rate, decided I wanted to eat lunch and this led to being completely and totally overwhelmed yet again. Although I haven’t yet decided if I will stay vegetarian while in Budapest, I was not in a hurry to eat meat. So I wanted a vegetarian meal. Well, I speak no Hungarian, menus were only in Hungarian. Even fast food places with pictures of food left me with no clue what was in the picture. I didn’t have internet and couldn’t get in touch with anyone in my program so I was on my own, confused and hungry.

And then, I found a saving grace- an internet café. It could not have come at a better time. I went in and used the internet and even though I was just sending emails, not receiving emails, I felt much better being in touch with the familiar. My apartment does not have internet and I for some reason cannot connect to any of the nearby unprotected wireless networks. My landlady said we could get internet if we paid a slightly higher rent so I’m REALLY hoping my roommate will agree to that. I will just feel so lost and confused if I can’t have internet in my apartment- I need that connection to the familiar.

By pure and total luck, I was on the facebook group for my program minutes after a guy from my program had posted saying if anyone wanted to meet up they should message him with their phone number (the people who had my apartment before me had left a phone with my landlady which is now mine… wohoo). I of course messaged him and as he didn’t yet have a phone, a couple minutes of facebook message gave us a place to meet up. It was pretty lucky we were able to find each other. We agreed on a train station to meet at and described out coat colors to one another and that was all we had. But we met up! Things became so much better when I had someone to wander around with and talk to. We covered a good portion of the city near-ish to where we live by foot. There is a mall about 5 or 6 blocks from my apartment that we ate lunch at. It was a fancy, more expensive restaurant for Hungary but it had an English menu and I really needed that since I was feeling overwhelmed. But this expensive meal? Between $11 and $12 each, with tip. I am a fan of the price of things in Hungary (except for overweight luggage)! I really enjoyed seeing the snow (okay, there are just little piles of dirty snow in some places but it was really exciting for me) but I didn’t feel too cold, which is great news. I mean, it is pretty warm in Budapest this week for this time of year (somewhere in the low to mid 30s) but I’ll take it! The buildings in Budapest are amazing. So much old architecture. As it started to get dark, buildings and bridges were lit up, which was really beautiful. We got to walk along the river for a little bit. By the end of the day, I was starting to like the city. Even though everything was in a foreign language, with my map I could get around and it really was beautiful. We covered so much ground- I am so sore right now.

I had posted my phone number on the facebook group and got called by another girl who actually lives quite near me. She and I will meet up sometime this morning. Also, my roommate flies in early this afternoon. Now that I have someone else’s phone number and people to see and my roommate coming in, things feel much better. I will figure this city out and it will be fun! The people so far seem nice and we talked about math all over lunch. It does seem like CMC does math a little slower than other schools putting me at a lower level than other students, but that just means I won’t be taking the hardest classes. I do think I can do well in the lower level (for the program) classes.

Lastly, let me describe my apartment. I live on the 8^th floor of a big building not too far from the city center. It is quiet, a block off a main street, which is perfect for me. There is a 24 hour corner store across the street. A block down on the main street there is a market. It is similar to the Shuk in Israel. There are produce stands (and the produce does not seem expensive or bad, I didn’t think I’d be able to get fruits and vegetables in Budapest) and bakeries and candy shops and stands with basic toiletries. I have not yet found a regular grocery store, which I would like to find rather than going to one stand for fruits and vegetables, another for bread, etc. My apartment itself is pretty nice. There is a kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and a balcony. It seems like it is supposed to be 1 bedroom and a living room because although both rooms have beds, one is much bigger and has the door to the balcony, a tv, a couch, and 2 lounge chairs. I took the smaller room because I wasn’t convinced I wanted my room to be the hangout room and I don’t need the tv and couch and all. The one problem is the smaller room has a doorway with no door. I will ask the landlady if we can get a door and if not I will put up a sheet or something. It already will not be the darkest or most private room because there are glass double doors between the two rooms so if one room has a light on, the others room will be fairly well lit up. I am sure we will make do, it just would be nice to have a door at the very least. I have not yet met my roommate, but I am not worried. Right now, I feel good about being here. The complete and total sense of being overwhelmed I was experiencing earlier has passed. I will be okay. In fact, I will probably even be great. There will be tough times but I will grow so much this semester, I’m sure of that.

Final Days in Israel

So my limited internet access over the past week has caused me to fall way behind on my intentions to blog. I have three completely different topics I need to write about.

First, Bush in Israel

As I’m sure many people are aware, Bush had his first presidential visit to Israel from Wednesday through Friday of this week. The amount of attention Bush received in Israel was amazing. A taxi driver told us several days before Bush’s arrival that any road that Bush would be driving on would be closed 4 hours prior to Bush driving on it. Now, Jerusalem’s traffic is miserable without Bush’s presence- this virtually meant that Jerusalem would have to be shut down for days. There were US flags decorating the main streets that Bush would be riding on. Everyone in Israel was aware of Bush’s visit. Various US military men were seen on various tours and in various bars by me and other friends in Israel at the time. When Bush did arrive on Wednesday, Fox News did not mention that Bush had arrived until 3 hours later (instead focusing on the primary that had already happened) whereas the Israel channels stopped their regular programming to show video footage of Bush’s helicopter and caravan of vehicles. I don’t really have any insightful commentary on what all this about Bush’s visit to Israel meant but I thought the way it was received was interesting so I thought I would share that.

Second, Eilat and Petra

My family left Israel between the evening of Sat Jan 5 and the morning of Mon Jan 7 (different flight times because people needed to be back at different times). I spent my last few days in Israel traveling with Matt down to Eilat and Petra. Eilat is a resort sort of town in the Southern most part of Israel. It is in the 100s in the summer but is usually around 70 in the winter. Many Europeans vacation there- there are just tons and tons of resort-y hotels. Petra is in Jordan and is an ancient (or at least old? Is there an age limit for ancient?) city carved into rock. It’s similar to a canyon (but isn’t actually a canyon since it is formed by tectonic plate movement rather than water) and you walk through this narrow pathway for over a kilometer and then you see the treasury (this is a scene in Indiana Jones, which I haven’t actually seen.

Both Eilat and Petra were very nice. Eilat wasn’t very warm so we didn’t get much beach or pool time (when we finally made it down to the Red Sea, the weather becoming cloudy and the sun disappeared and the weather was bad from then on… which was only a day but still). But we got some time to relax, which was nice after Matt’s tiring trip and before my arrival in Budapest, and we watched plenty of Fox News and heard a lot about the primary! Petra was amazing. The structures and tombs that had been carved into the stone were absolutely unbelievable. I don’t think I have ever taken so many pictures in one night (and once my internet gets situated better, I will get on uploading pictures). The walk down the canyon-type-thing (I forgot the technical term) to the treasury was my favorite part. You are in this narrow pathway with rock going up on both sides of you for probably 200 to 300 feet and then blue sky above that and then finally you get to the end and can see part of the treasury, this amazing intricate tomb. It was really a sight to see. We also met some cool people on the tour. We got to talk to Venezuelans, Australians, and a man from England. The Venezuelans talked about disliking their president and the problems currently being experienced with violence in Venezuela, which was really interesting to hear. It’s always interesting to meet people from other countries.

Soldiers, Soldiers Everywhere

In Israel, since the Jewish Sabbath is sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, the weekend days are Friday and Saturday (although schools are 6 days a week with classes ending early on Friday and off on Saturday). Soldiers get both Friday and Saturday off usually to go home so Thursday afternoon public transportation is packed with soldiers. All public transportation is free for soldiers. Today, we took the train back from Haifa. There was only standing room because there were so many soldiers. One of the soldiers sitting in a group of about 10 soldiers got up to offer his seat to my mom or dad. Neither of them took it so my brother took it. They got upset, saying it was for someone old but they were just joking with them. We ended up talking with these soldiers. They were very nice although not exactly PC in their joking around. Eric and the soldier next to him kept asking each other questions. He was showing off his phone; in Israel, they download music which they play off their phone and they also get games and youtube videos all for free. The soldiers were all joking with Eric about whose gun was the biggest. I mean, we were sitting on a train with all these guys showing off their huge guns! It all seemed like so much fun- riding the train home with all your friends from the army.

Seeing all the soldiers on their way home was one of my favorite things that I have seen in Israel on this trip. Everywhere you looked today there were soldiers. The mall was filled with people in uniforms, guns strapped across their back. It's just so different from anything you would ever see in the US. You rarely see anyone in uniform in the US and to have it be no big deal that everyone was walking around with guns is just so different. I mean, these aren't little pistols tucked into their pants (and even that would be weird in the US). I wish I could have taken a picture of just how many soldiers were everywhere. It was seriously as if every other person we saw today between 2 PM and 5 PM was a soldier! It is something that just seems so unique to Israel.