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!