The end of BSM

So yesterday was the last official day of BSM. We had our farewell party, took group photos, got our transcripts, and popped champagne. I'd like to say that it was an emotional event for all of us... but I'd be lying. Most of us couldn't wait to get out of there. First, it was super hot in the room -- everyone was sweaty and gross by the end. Second, they said it started at 4 -- we didn't start getting our transcripts until about 4:45-4:50. Third, most of us are staying a few additional days so it wasn't really goodbye for a lot of us. That being said, I had a moderately pleasant time. I got my transcript and was so stunned that I had to sit on the floor. Film: A Philosophy: A- Combinatorics: A Dynamics and Bifurcations: A-. I just KNEW going in that I was going to get a B in D&B, my first college B, so when that A- popped up I was shocked but so incredibly happy.

Now these last few days in Budapest are getting spent doing all of the things in Budapest that one is supposed to do: the baths, wine tasting, visiting Gellert Hill. Need to keep busy to distract myself from being sad that I'm leaving friends very soon.

126 days down 9 to go

My final BSM final is happening in 2 days. While I will be very excited to finally finish up my classes, I will also be very sad that this experience is almost over. Sure, there have been intense periods of time where I have thought that this was the worse decision of my life, I suck at math, why did I leave my friends, etc. But, there have also been times where I've been so happy to be abroad, living on my own, experiencing new foods and cultures, getting to travel around Europe, making friends that I'll get to visit around the States. For as much as I've hated myself academically this semester, I certainly don't regret this experience. I know I am better for coming here... maybe not mathematically like I had intended but as a person. That's what I'm taking away from this experience. I'm going to go home and things are going to be different. I've got some tough choices ahead of me, but I'm happy and I'm going to make the most of these final days.

Let's hope this Combinatorics final doesn't eat me alive.

Too brain dead to come up with a spiffy title

I have started to write this blog about 4 times now. It’s been a busy few weeks and weekends and I just never got around to finishing it. The reason I get to do this today is because 1) I’m taking a study break and 2) I had a dream last night that my friend Misty yelled at me for not having written anything in such a long time. So, today I write.

Things are wrapping up here. I’ve got my Dynamics and Bifurcations final exam tomorrow at 8 a.m., my final paper for film is due on Tuesday when I take my final exam for that class as well. Wednesday my philosophy final exam/essays are due in addition to the usual homework assignment. Thankfully, I’ll be able to breathe a little after Wednesday since my Combinatorics final isn’t until the following Tuesday.

For nonschool stuffs, it seems that most of my friends here all have birthdays in May. So, there have been a number of nights out celebrating with them. There have also been a number of days where groups of us have gotten together and gone out to eat. Thai, Chinese, Italian, oh yeah, and Hungarian. When you spend about $6-7 on a nice, sit down meal, you can afford to do it often. I don’t know how we’re going to survive when we get back to the States. We’ll probably all be broke within a week.

So yeah. It’s exam time. Wake up, study, eat lunch, study, take a break on facebook for an hour so you don’t go insane, study, eat dinner, study, sleep if you’re that confident in your abilities. Wake up, take the final, accept your first college B and finally move on with your life.

It's the Final Countdown

Today is May 1^st. May freaking 1^st and my time in Budapest is nearing an end. Information about final projects and papers is being distributed. Dates are being set for exams. Emails are being sent about final colloquiums and transcripts. Everywhere I look, I am being told that the end of this study abroad experience is near.

As a result, we are all trying to cram in as much time and fun with each other as possible. This past week, we went out dancing; there was a birthday party; we met for hot chocolate; we marathon-ed the last four episodes of Dexter Season 2; we went out to dinner; we went to someone’s apartment and just hung out. There’s been so much people time (and so little mathematics time :D) because there’s so little time left. Sure, we all know that some of us will keep in touch (Ah, the wonders of facebook) but we’re also very aware that most of us will drift apart and never see each other again. To be together in this way, that’s never going to happen again, so we’re trying to make the most of it.

Various Hang out Pics:

<-- This one was while we were supposed to be working on our Combinatorics Extra Credit...

^     These were at Luis Diego's Birthday Party    ^

Mid Spring Break

I like to write a blog once every 7-8 days. This time I’m a little late, I know, but it’s been a very busy week and a half. Last Tuesday, Angie, Clara, Ethan, and I went to see La Bohème at the Hungarian State Opera House. The opera is, of course, in Italian and the subtitles were in Hungarian. So, we all did a little research beforehand so that we could figure out what was going on during the performance. I had never been to an opera before. My favorite part was listening to the orchestra. It was definitely an experience that I am happy to have had.

My Spring Break technically started on Thursday after my combinatorics class let out, since I have no classes on Fridays. So Thursday night, my roommates, a few others, and I went to see “Kings on Ice” in Budapest. We got to see a variety of ice skaters including Evgeni Plushenko! It was fantastic! I must admit that watching some of the performances made me nervous. There’s no way I’d be brave enough to do a back hand spring on ice.

Yeah… this either. ^^ I mean come on… that takes serious skill. It was an amazing night and a ton of fun.

Then, as if my week wasn't awesome enough already, Friday and Saturday, Keith, Francisco, and I went to Lake Balaton in Hungary. We biked about 30 miles on Saturday around a part of the lake. And let me tell you, it was worth the pain I was in after it was all said and done. The lake was so beautiful!

Now, it’s Wednesday of my Spring Break and I’ve been doing little things around Budapest: taking the metro to new parts of the city, going out a couple of nights with different friends, etc. I went to this amazing hot chocolate place with Michael last night and tried a mint hot chocolate. It was real mint and it was delicious. Plus, this hot chocolate isn’t like hot chocolate that you normally think of. It’s literally liquefied chocolate. I’m pretty certain that having this molten chocolate drink has ruined all hot chocolates for me after this.

So that’s how I’ve spent the last week and a half and a good chunk of my Spring Break. I still have another 5 days too and I’m definitely looking forward to them.

Live and Let Live

You would think that having only 4 classes and school Tuesday-Thursday would be a blast. Let me tell you... it gets old. When everyone else is still in class AND you've already gotten caught up on all of your regular tv shows [and started a few new ones], you can get a little bored. Thankfully, however, I found many things to take up that free time and keep this week from being a total drag.

Angie, Clara, Melinda, and I had coffee with our topology/knot theory teacher from the summer math program that we did last year. She was visiting her daughter who is also in this program and took the time to hang out with us for a while before she went back to France. I restarted a sudoku puzzle 4 times. Normally, I would have moved on to something else by now, but I don't exactly have that option this time. Michael and I went to the only Starbucks in Budapest that we've been able to find and I had a most delicious raspberry mocha frap. Francisco, Nikole, Keith, Angie and I went exploring a park near our apartments. We found 2 playgrounds and had fun acting like little kids again. Clara took me and Angie (and a few others) to a Thai place. Thai was a new experience for me and I absolutely loved it! Finally, a huge group of us climbed up to Gellert hill at night. It overlooks the Danube and the city. We had a blast just forgetting about math for a while and enjoying the view and each others company.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty fantastic and unboring week. Hopefully, next week will be as good.

Life is no Nintendo Game

Midterms are officially over! Well, for me they are. Some of my friends still have a few to freak out over. What can I say about these past two weeks of stress and sleepless nights? They were terrible. Studying is not only boring, but when you finally do see something that you have no clue how to even start, you panic, at least temporarily. But it’s a necessary evil if you want to do well, I suppose.

Which I did, or so I think. My film midterm was amazingly easy. It was like “Do you listen to what I say in class? Prove it and you’ll get an A.” My philosophy midterm was two short essays, one on Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty and the other on Plato’s Gorgias, so that wasn’t particularly stressful. Also, I think I rocked my dynamics and bifurcations midterm. I definitely had the major concepts right, but I probably messed up little details. Finally, my combinatorics midterm killed me, but I suppose you can’t win everything. Good news is extra credit is being offered.

But now that period of stress is over and I can move on to goofing off and being unproductive again. Last night, to distract Angie from studying for her midterm, (I know. I’m a horrible person.) she and I did a little karaoke and then decided to make our own music video. Oh yeah. This is what we nerds do when we get bored. We rap/sing to Eminem and Rihanna’s Love the Way you Lie.

Guess who was Eminem...

The glass is definitely half empty

This week is the halfway point of BSM and my European travels so I thought I'd take a break from studying for midterms and make lists of things that I miss from home, things I don't miss from home, and things I'm going to miss when I leave here.

Missed from the States:            Not missed:                                 Going to miss:
Mexican food                            expensive gluten free food              tehéntúrós
my Stephen King novels            elevators                                       túró rudi
a dryer                                     the stress of having to get all As     new friends
Java City                                  my cellphone                                traveling to a different
Jubilee (my puppy)                                                                       country for the weekend
tutoring Calc 2
Longwood
a library with DVDs
my people

These days have definitely gone by really fast. Now it's midterms, but soon it will be spring break, and then finals, and then time to leave. Jeez. Life happens so quickly.

What's in Iowa?

So, I applied to 9 REUs/summer programs for this summer. I got a "yes" from 4 of them before I decided on Iowa. So, I'm going to be spending 8 weeks this summer at Iowa State in Ames doing math research on "Matrices on Banach Spaces." I'm really excited! The only bummer is that I'm not really going to get a break this year. I get back to the States on May 31st and I have to be in Ames on June 4th. It's like I'm going to get home, get rid of my winter clothes, pack my summer clothes, and then leave again. I think I will soon discover if there is such a thing as "too much math."

Prague 02/25-02/28

I went to Prague last weekend. A bunch of friends from BSM and I got on a bus at 4 on Friday afternoon, had a pit stop in Bratislava, and arrived in Prague around 11:30 Friday night. Since it was so late, we just went out to eat and then went to our hostel. I've never stayed in a hostel before, so I don't really know what's good and what's not, but I enjoyed ours. After all, I wasn't sold to some rich psycho for them to torture and murder like in those movies. So, I'd say things went pretty well. Plus, I got free breakfast.

On Saturday, we went on a free tour of Prague. We got to see a ton of really gorgeous architecture and we heard some of the history of Prague too. It was amazing. Some of the highlights included: Prague Astronomical Clock, Prague Metronome, Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle (largest castle in the world).

On Sunday, for the first part of the day, we went to the Jewish quarter and explored a bunch of their museums, cemeteries, and synagogues. The second half of the day was spent exploring a new part of Prague on our own. We found a really beautiful area that overlooks the city. We also found a playground and spent a good chunk of time there.

Our bus left at 11:30 on Sunday night and we got back to Budapest around 6 in the morning. Some people had class at 8 and were a little rushed. Luckily for me, I had no classes so I got to come home and sleep. Prague was a ton of fun.

To fight the horde, sing and cry: Prague, I am coming!

I went to Immigration today and got my residence permit. It took 1.5 hours to get to and from the office. It took 15 minutes actually in the office to get the permit. It’s nice to finally have something on one of those pages that comes in the passport.

And now that I have my residence permit, I will be traveling out of Budapest. I'm going to Prague this weekend! I don’t really know what I’m doing there yet, but, um, it’s Prague – I’m going to have fun.

Also, unrelated to anything else but still exciting, I found out that I got into one of the (9) REUs that I applied to for this summer. Texas A&M – doing math research in Matrix Theory and Wavelet Analysis for 8 weeks. I’m pretty excited. They are giving me 2 weeks to decide, so I am hoping to hear from other REUs too. But it is SO nice to know that I’m definitely going to get to do some math research somewhere this summer!

I also watched my first episode of Glee. Peer pressure. I didn’t want to like it… but I did and I can already tell that Sue is going to be my favorite.

Because I like Ben Roethlisberger

The Top Seven Things I've Done/Learned/Started This Week:

1) I found a used English bookstore that also sells organic teas. This is love.

2) I figured out how to make phone calls to the States from my laptop for free.

3) I found the courage to buy ground beef at the store and have, therefore, had some pretty awesome dinners.

4) My schedule has been finalized and I do, in fact, have no classes on Fridays or Mondays.

            Combinatorics 1B                                 (Proof by "thinking" is a new technique)

Real Functions and Measures                (This class is going to kill me)

Dynamical Systems                              (Favorite math class. No contest)

Great Masters of European Films           (I can now identify non-diegetic inserts)

Old & New World Philosophy                 (We talked Marx last class → Happiness)

5) I changed the set up of my room. It is much easier on my neck to watch movies from my laptop now.

This is how I spend my free Fridays and Mondays →

6) [Clara and] I have started a collection of yogurt buckets. We each [pretty much] go through one a week. Anxious to see how many we will have by the end of the semester?

One bucket = 467 HUF ≈ $2.30

7) I found and tried new Túró Rudi. I think I've pretty much had them all by now.

For the non-football fans, Roethlisberger, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is #7. Hence, 7 things. Also, almost every list you see is Top 10 this, Top 10 that. I'm just switching it up.

Language Ends When Math Begins

This week has been extremely hectic but also really awesome and for the following reasons:

No more Hungarian language classes!

This past weekend, a bunch of us from BSM went to the Mangalitsa pig festival, where I got in a fight with some of the local cuisine. Mild food poisoning. Not really such a big deal. I'm going to continue to try different Hungarian dishes. It was bad luck last time, really.

Also, this week was the first week of math classes! Because of my food poisoning, I missed Day 1, but it turned out to not be a big deal because I won't be taking any of those classes anyway. With BSM, we get 3 weeks to go to as many classes as we want. At the end of that time, we have to sign up for classes and finalize our schedules. I've enjoyed most of the classes I've gone to. There are some that have been so over my head that there's no way I'm going back and then there are others where I'm being challenged but I can follow most of the time. I've pretty much got my schedule picked out as long as everything works out.

 Where Math Happens

I say "as long as everything works out" because I'm not certain that one of my classes is going to make it yet. Dynamical Systems is being offered as a reading course for now. It will stay a course as long as we keep 5 people for the class. I'll get credit for it on my transcript, but we will only meet once a week with the professor. Most of the work will be done outside of class individually. I'm assuming this is kinda similar to independent study at Longwood.

So assuming this class makes, I'll be taking: Combinatorics 1B, Real Functions and Measures, Dynamical Systems, Great Masters of European Films, and Old and New World Philosophy. I'm pretty happy with how all of this seems to be working out. This schedule also means that I will have no classes on Mondays or Fridays. Hello 4 day weekend!

Randomness in a Week

So it’s been a solid week and some change since my last blog and a lot has happened:

REUs/Math programs: I finished all 9 of my REU and various other math program applications this past Sunday. Hopefully by March I will know where I’ll be spending my summer and my fall semester.

Immigration office: Went to the immigration office yesterday with everybody in the program. Hectic. Fortunately, my officer didn’t talk to me at all. She took my paperwork stamped everything with 3 different purple stamps, gave me 2 forms to sign, and then gave me a piece of paper that says to come back in 2 weeks for my residence page to put in my passport. J

Clara and Aloni’s Birthday: Also yesterday. I baked Clara a cake and Angie and I sang to her. She was totally surprised and couldn’t figure out when I had been home long enough to bake and cover it all up before she came home. I’ve got mad skills. We also went out with a bunch of people last night to celebrate Clara’s and another friend, Aloni’s birthday. Much fun was had.

Today: BSM finally posted what classes are being offered this semester and the times. For someone who already has the spring semester of her senior year planned out, this waiting until 4 days before the semester actually starts to pick her classes was rough. Although, now I am having scheduling conflicts and am very torn between two schedules:

Advanced Abstract Algebra                                                         Advanced Abstract Algebra

Real Functions and Measures                                                    Real Functions and Measures

Combinatorics 1A                                                                         Combinatorics 1A

Number Theory 1A                                                                        Great Masters of European Films

Holocaust and Memory                                                               Old and New World Philosophy

It’s quite unfortunate that I can’t take both Film and Number Theory. Those were 2 classes that I was definitely planning on. Ah decisions, decisions.

Also, tomorrow is the last day of language class. There are no words to express my joy.

Math on Monday!!!

Túró Rudi

Can we talk about desserts for a minute? Well, 1 dessert for a minute...? Túró Rudi. It is a traditional Hungarian sweet and is also one of the most delicious desserts I have ever had. So, what is it?

Túró Rudi is a cylindrical, cottage cheese filled, chocolate shell.

It's not the cottage cheese that we are used to in the States, however. It is flavored with different citruses (?) and is grainier than our cottage cheese. Clara and I were trying to describe the filling to one another and we agreed that it would be like taking our cottage cheese, adding some butter/cream/citrus, and running it through a blender. That's the sort of texture you have.

There are many flavors of Túró Rudi. Every time Clara and I go to a store, we buy a new one and split it. I'd say we've had about 7 or 8 flavors so far and have only come across 1 that we didn't like.

Only recently did we realize that we needed to start saving the wrappers so that we could remember which flavors we have tried already. Guru is by far my favorite. It's Túró Rudi with hazelnuts in the chocolate coating and caramel in the middle with the cottage cheese.

I'm already dreading leaving these delicious things behind.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

When you're a shy, socially awkward math nerd around outgoing people, making friends is extremely difficult. When you're a shy, socially awkward math nerd amongst other equally shy, socially awkward math nerds, it's still extremely difficult. However, this weekend my roommates, Angie and Clara, and I met a lot of really cool people and had a fun time exploring different parts of Budapest.

On Friday after Hungarian class, which is getting better; still bad but better, a bunch of us went out to eat at an Italian place. I met some new people and had a really good time. I also had a really delicious dinner, chicken pesto.

Today, we went out with a new group of people and explored the Buda side of Budapest. We saw Buda Castle and I tried a Hungarian baked potato, which is apparently a baked potato with pork stew on top.



So, the weekend has been pretty awesome thus far, not only in exploring new parts of this really cool city I'm in, but also in getting to know other people from all over the States and making some friends.

Crystal vagyok. Én magyarul tanulok.

Today was the first day of the language course. They really aren't kidding when they say "intensive." I can safely say that I have never felt so dumb in my life. I seem to have this problem where teachers like to call on me repeatedly and have me speak up.Today was no different.

Dear Teacher:
It is quite obvious that I don't know what you're saying to me and that my pronunciations are terrible. Please call on the smart dude to my left as he is so obviously ready to answer anything you desire.
<3 Crystal

There was literally a point in class today where I almost cried. I thought to myself, "If this were a class at Longwood and I didn't need it, I would walk out right now, drop the class, and move on with my life." (I have NEVER thought this before and, believe me, I've had some awful classes.)

And I'm not so completely bad with languages either. Spanish and I are bff. I guess that makes Hungarian the snobby, country-music loving cheerleader that I had to be friends with, for a time, in high school for the good of the squad.

Plastic Grocery Bags are NOT Free

After two days of exploring the city, there are a great number of things that I have learned:
1) Plastic grocery bags are not free. You need to either have your own bag or be prepared to carry whatever you buy in your arms.
2) Milk = tej. It's much sweeter than milk in the States and is quite good.
3) It is acceptable in a traffic jam to honk your horn at people who are just as stuck as you are.

4) American architecture sucks. Take the time to build a decent looking building, like this one:

5) The metro is a great time saver when you have read your map incorrectly and walked to the wrong side of town.

6) It is dark outside by 5:00 p.m. and thus quite difficult to read a map.

7) It is fun to stand on a bridge as a 15 ton bus passes by causing the ground you are standing on to violently vibrate.
8) Tequila is cheaper than orange juice. And also much more delicious.

9) Taking the last two places off the cost of an item in forints and dividing by two is an excellent way to estimate how much money you are spending in US dollars. It is also an overestimate which tricks you into thinking you have spent more money than you actually have. 

10) Rock music is universal.

First Day in Budapest

Welcome. Something came over me and I decided to write a blog. Hopefully it won't be so dull that you drop me before the real fun actually starts.

I left the States, with my friends Nikole and Angie, around 6:00 p.m. on Saturday (East coast's time) and arrived in Budapest around 10:30 a.m. Sunday (local time). But before I talk about Budapest, let me quickly mention my longhaul flight. Who said that airplane food was always nasty? I had a special meal, of course, because of my gluten allergy, but it was one of the best gf dishes I've had in a long time. Also, the flight was a pleasant experience. Sleeping was a little rough because of the people in front of and behind me but, overall, the 8 hours went by rather quickly. I originally typed "the 8 hours flew by" but decided to deleted my lame or, I guess, just shift it to a new location.

Arriving in Budapest was fun. We were on a prop-plane which was an interesting experience. The landing was certainly more rough than I was expecting. So Angie, Nikole, and I get off the plane and walk into the Budapest airport where we took turns taking pictures underneath the airport's Budapest sign. Then we went to pick up our luggage only to discover that mine didn't make it. At this point in time, the airline still doesn't know where it is, but I'll go into town today to pick up some things to make up for some of it. When the BSM people picked us up, Angie and I took one car and Nikole another. She asked to live with a Hungarian family so I can only assume that is where they took her.

After we got settled into our apartment, Angie and I took a walk around Budapest. Unfortunately, most everything is closed on Sunday so we didn't get to do as much exploring as we hoped. We settled for finding some dinner to cook in our apartment and then going to bed. My first dinner was a chicken rice noodle soup. Since the language course doesn't start until Wednesday and I don't know what allergy words to look for yet, my options are a little limited. I also bought a bottle of merlot to go with my dinner. My total in US dollars was just under $4. Wine here is very cheap, and, let me tell you, I could get used to that. Angie spent more money and got less soda. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find that extremely amusing.

Now, I don't know how often I'll post one of these. I also don't know how long they're going to be. Honestly, I'm not a talker and would probably find reading most of this extremely boring. I like to be short and to the point. Hopefully, future blogs will show that.

Props to:                                               Drops to:
Good airplane food                                 Lost luggage
Being in Budapest                                 Shops closed on Sundays