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!!!