a napokban, találkoztam egy medve, az erdõben, a meszszeségben

a napokban, találkoztam egy medve, az erdõben, a meszszeségben 10 sept 2002 sziasztok! sooo, classes have finally started as of yesterday, which to the relief of many of you, means i can't just be a permanent tourist until christmas =)... at any rate, i did explore vienna this past week, met lots more new people, and just had a party in a box kind of week in general =P so here's your outline and onwards.... =P *vienna (palaces galore, a gigantic ferris wheel, *and* most excellent coffee =P) *another semi-touristy weekend in budapest =P (at long last the national lutheran museum!) =) *...and we're off! (101 classes to choose from and still 3 weeks to pick =P) *quotes of the week vienna (palaces galore, a gigantic ferris wheel, and most excellent coffee =P) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ soooo, my week -- last tuesday evening while most of you were watching the news, doing homework etc., i was up at 4am wednesday europe time to make it clear across town by 5:30am for our 6am train to vienna! emily, alina, and i traveled together, and two other BSMers -- jonah and jeremy -- took the same trains as us and met up with us from time to time, but were basically traveling separate from us... i had never riden on a train before, but it was beautiful to see the hungarian and austrian countrysides... the austrian passport police were pretty scary though! -- not unfriendly at all, but had rather intimidating uniforms with 2 huge guns a piece -- just to check passports!.... it was also a little weird to me -- since we were traveling with alina, who has a romanian passport -- that every time they checked passports (twice each way, once hungarian police, and once austrian police) they'd see emily and i had american passports, make sure we matched the picture in the passport, and that was it, but alina would get half a dozen questions and they'd have to type all this stuff about her in a computer-- it bothered me to be treated differently that way.... i don't know that it was nicer than the norm for us because we were american, or stricter than the norm since alina's romanian, but the difference still bothered me... (regardless, i'm beginning to notice ways i/we get treated differently when people notice i am/we are american(s) and it really kinda bothers me... i'm beginning to sense that in some ways we really are spoiled as a nation and don't necessarily have our eyes opened to it as much as we should...) on hostels, since that was new to me too... for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a hostel is a really cheap place to stay for the night when you're traveling -- generally sharing facilities with strangers so it caters more to people around my age on a tight budget -- but instead of a steep hotel price for the night in downtown whereever you happen to be, you can spend a night in a hostel for $10-$20 a person usually... we stayed in a 10-bed dorm and had to share a bathroom with everyone in our room, plus the 4 person room next door... for dad who asked me many times before i left how on earth you keep your stuff safe in that kind of setting, they give you the key to a locker in your room to keep your stuff in, so it's not really a concern =P... this may seem a bit invasive of privacy and not worth the cheap price to a lot of you, but they make up for that with extra fun stuff -- like our hostel had a garden out back with a 3 foot tall chess set in the middle, a self-service grill, internet lounge, and quasi-restaurant as well... it works quite well and is a fun way to meet other travelers... on switching cultures again -- vienna was fabulous, although it was kinda odd after just a 3 hour ride to switch currency (to euros), culture (so many things i've gotten used to in hungary, (e.g. you never hand money to a cashier, waiter, etc. -- it's rude... instead you put it down on the table/counter for them), are not how things work in austria), and language. (in hungary i know i shouldn't speak english but spanish comes to me much quicker than hungarian, which doesn't help much... in austria, they speak german, but sadly enough knowing german in my family stopped with my grandparents' generation, so i found myself accidentally slipping into hungarian to respond to people there!!!... also, alliswan, and tammy, it was really really funny to see 'uber' and 'der' in print all over the place =P)... you can tell just from the way things are set up and the bilingual abilities of most people there that austria has been open to tourism for longer than hungary, and we did get used to things and have a blast, but it was indeed a bit confusing to make the switch for a few days! random fact: vienna has a subway (u-bahn) stop called gasometer -- for some reason, i found that really funny =P on vienna food/drinks -- i did try some weiner schnitzel, amongst other things (random fact: did you know that wein is the actual austrian/german name for vienna?) -- one day for lunch emily and i went to cafe mozart,-- there are many, but we went to the original -- it's right behind the state opera hoouse and is traditionally a meeting place for all kinds of artists/musicians/etc. vienna pancakes, at least where i had them were quite different -- much thicker batter than what i've had before, and were pretty much shredded into bite size pieces already -- most excellent. i've also been on starbucks withdrawal for the past month (budapest doesn't have one that i've seen), but there was the hugest coolest starbucks i've ever been in in downtown vienna -- it's 2 stories tall and had such a different variety from american ones -- like my favorite hot drink in american starbucks is a caramel macchiato -- they make them iced cold in vienna and had all kinds of funny flavored muffins, etc. i wouldn't have thought of either -- 3 cheers for starbucks, it made my day! vienna also has the coolest ice cream parlor ever -- the people inside were great -- about the only english they'd speak was "i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" and for 1.90 (euro) you got a HUGE waffle cone with 2-3 flavors of ice cream inside, of the best ice cream ever. =P on the royal palaces -- one of the first places that emily, alina, and i made it to on wednesday was schönbrunn, the summer palace of the austrian habsburgs... we went on the longer 44 room tour, and that was just a fraction of the place! my favorite room was one that was decorated in blue and white so as to look like the walls were made out of porcelain... we also visited the room where mozart, at age 6, gave his first concert, and an INCREDIBLE gallery/ballroom where the entire ceiling was covered in incredibly ornate paintings recording the history of the habsburgs... outside, we wandered through their massive gardens, which were absolutely awesome -- you could get lost there for days i think!, and paid to go through the outside maze/labyrinth -- made totally of trees/bushes at least 7 feet tall (although if you wanted to cheat, they give you "secret instructions" at the start, including a map, so you can't get lost for too long =P)... they also have a zoo on the premises and many other things to visit, but we had already spent half the day there, and moved on to other things. after the palace, we checked out st. stephen's cathedral, which is the big church of vienna -- all subway lines lead to it (they have 6 subway lines by the way!... public transportation is even more organized than in budapest, but looking at the maps is a headache and a half!)... this place was totally impressive in its own right -- totally different from the budapest churches i've been to too -- there are big catacombs beneath that we didn't make it to,... there were also over a dozen altars just in the middle of the main chapel! -- just huge evenly spaced pillars all thoughout the church, and most of them had an altar at the base -- huge, Huge, HUGE organ as well, and impressed by that, emily and i went back that night to hear an organ recital... mom -- the final piece was absolutely spectacular (you should learn it =P), prélude et fugue g-moll op.7/3 by marcel dupré, whom the organist actually studied under for years... quite the enjoyable day... thursday, after quite the excellent 2nd visit to starbucks for breakfast, alina and i checked out the habsburg treasury -- this is where the habsburgs put all their national treasures for the whole time of their reign in austria -- of particular note, the largest carved emerald in existance, what's believed to be the actual holy grail, and what has been certified by the pope as the nail that held Christ's right hand to the cross, and many other relics, and other amazingly specatular jewels, crowns, robes, etc., etc., etc.... very impressive indeed, although i'm not always sure what to think of all the relics you find all over this part of the world -- one part of me says, "oh wow! cool!", and for some things another part asks "how on earth do they know that's really what that is, when they just started calling it that 100 years after the events actually happened".. but still, either way, the treasury was absolutely amazing. =) after the treasury, emily and i ate at the aforementioned cafe mozart and went on a tour of the state opera house -- random fact, the vienna opera house does a different opera every night to preserve the singers voices, so you could see 5 or 6 different operas in a week!... they also sell standing only tickets to all shows for a mere 2 euro to 3.50 euro (as compared to the standard 90 to 157 euro floor seats), but when emily wanted to go to the show that night, we quickly discovered they'd admit me in my jeans and t-shirt, but wearing shorts of any sort isn't allowed, so emily wasn't allowed in, and so i didn't go either... finally, jeremy, jonah, alina, and i went to check out prater, the amusement park featuring the huge famous vienna ferris wheel -- we forked over the steep prices to ride the ferris wheel, and the view from the top was worth it!.. we also rode a rollercoaster that starts at the top of a big hill, spins you upsidedown and sidewise through about half a dozen twists, makes it to the top of the hill again, and does the whole thing again backwards! that was a riot... then we went on the scariest ride i've ever been on! -- it was called superman, and if you're brave and ever happen to be in vienna, by all means try it!... there were two rows of seats on a platform that was held up by two giant metal arms... the arms lifted all the seats several dozen feet off the ground and then spun the platform of seats all around and around... at some points, we were just hanging over the crowd below, face down, and the bars that held us in place moved a few inches so that we felt like we were about to fall (yikes!),... then the metal arms move so that they're not level with each other any more, and you spin upside down and all around at all kinds of other weird angles -- worth the money to ride it, but after that, we were incredibly dizzy and definitely done with rides for the day! =P... yay for amusement parks -- it's been a bit since i'd been to one, and i was quite excited to ride a rollercoaster again =) after that, that's the end of my vienna story -- it was a very packed but most excellent 2 days, and hopefully my pictures will all turn out as spiffy as i hope they will so that i'll have lots of fun stuff to show when i get back again =) three cheers for traveling =) another semi-touristy weekend in budapest =P (at long last the national lutheran museum!) =) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ well, actually not a very touristy weekend -- after getting back to town from vienna, i spent a lot of time running errands and re-organizing stuff for getting ready for classes, but anywho.... back over the summer when i was listing all these things about hungary i had read about before i came here, i mentioned the hungarian national lutheran museum, which happens to be right outside one of the subway stops i use a LOT... saturday, i finally went over and checked it out -- there's a massive old church building that's locked unless it's time for a recital, service, etc. (the roof is currently under construction, so they obviously don't want people inside underneath right now!), but next door, in what used to be their school building, is the 4 room hungarian national museum... this illustration will only work for a few of you, but long time immanuel memphis people-- imagine coming into a small kiosk area guarded by vi stoakes, ruth israel, and edith baldwin when they were all still around =) -- only all speaking hungarian... (this should bring a smile to your face) =)... they showed me a sheet of flags to point to what language guide i wanted,... then, they gave me a small folder/binder with about a dozen pages of running dialogue about the place, and one (the mrs. israel-esqe lady) explained in very hungarian-english (you understand what i mean if you've talked to a native hungarian speaker who knows enough english to get by with english speakers, but isn't fluent) how the displays matched up with my written guide, with the conclusion of "if you have any question, do tell, i be right here" and proceeded to chat with the other two in hungarian and set me loose. after a small display about the life of the long time pastor of the deák tér church (whose building the museum is in), who the lady explained to me is kind of a hungarian lutheran martyr of sorts, the rest of the rooms moved chronologically starting with the time of luther up until the late 1990s... they have a copy of luther's last will and testament, along with translations into 5 languages, which was interesting... they had a lot of altar cloths, communion chalices, etc., books, and portraits from over time to follow... my favorites were the flood chalice: a communion chalice given to the budapest lutheran church by the local jewish community for harboring/saving the lives of hundreds of jews during one of the big floods of the 1800s -- it was quite ornate and beautiful (also, FYI, the 2nd largest synagogue in the world, in fact the biggest one in all of europe, is just down the street, right across the street from the language school i was at the last 2 weeks), and a silver palm leaf given to the first president/chancellor of one of the first hungarian lutheran schools on his retirement -- it was at least 3 or 4 feet long and each of the 160+ fronds had the signiature of a past student/coworker/admirer on it... random facts: the deák tér lutheran church was the first lutheran church in all of budapest... during the century just after luther, a full 90% of budapest was either lutheran or calvinist... the first book to be printed in the hungarian language in hungary was the new testament -- they have a copy there... most of the lutheran churches in hungary were built when one of the austria habsburg rulers declared that any city with at least 100 lutheran families should have a church built and pastor assigned to them... kossuth lajos, revolutionary leader of the 1848 uprising/rebellion against the austrian habsburgs was a lutheran leader as well.,.. as was sándor petõfi, a famous hungarian poet who wrote the hungarian national song that sparked the 1848 uprising... also, hungarian lutheran schools used to be a pretty big deal -- at one point (up until WWI), the deák tér church ran 28 of them! -- mom, pastor mike, clint... imagine having 28 schools instead of 1!!!!!! anyhow, all in all, it was really cool to see the history of the lutheran church in such a different context than what i've seen previously, and i was very glad to have gone =) now... one of these days, i'm gonna have to go to an organ recital there --the church itself is rumored to have incredible accoustics... i can vouch they have one extremely cool set of chimes from hearing it ring the hours from outside -- i've never heard anything quite like it =)... but anyhow, yay for that =) ...and we're off!(101 classes to choose from and still 3 weeks to pick =P) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ indeed, classes started yesterday, so pretty soon the homework will pick up -- the nice thing here is that we have a 3 week trial period, so while i'm currently taking 7 classes, i have 3 weeks to decide if i can handle that or if i want to take 6 or even just 5 instead -- all of us are having this tension between wanting to not have an insane stress level and still have traveling/sightseeing time, but having a million and one interesting classes we want to take -- but hey, we have 3 weeks to find the balance, no questions asked, before we officially register our class schedules, so major yay for that =) for sure i'm taking intro to hungarian art and culture (for my cc thesis), intermediate hungarian language (for my personal edification =P), combinatorics 2 (which will ultimately be a class in hypergraph theory, which just sounds absolutely fun), number theory, and conjecture and proof (a signiature class here going over famous math proofs over time, methods of proof, etc.)... i'm most likely also going to take topology, (even though i've seen some basics of it in analysis i've never had a class just in topology)... and i'm hoping i can also handle geometry (which is supposed to be incredibly intense, but the syllabus goes over a LOT of cool stuff and is all about showing links between other areas of math through geometry) as it stands i have a full day of classes (8-5) on wednesday, pretty average days on monday and thursday, and just one class a piece on tuesday and friday, however if i narrow it down to just 6 classes, i'll have 3 day weekend every week =)... we'll see what happens =P so far, i've only been to conjecture and proof (really excited about this one! -- party in a box class for sure! =P), language class (continuation of what i've been up to so far, only (thankfully) in much smaller chunks of time! =P), and geometry (which will be challenging, but the syllabus looks soooo spiffy, and i really enjoyed the prof, so yay for that =) ) at any rate, yay for finally having a schedule =P quotes of the week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (in vienna, random guy on street asks me a question in german) me: english? random guy: english? (laughs HYSTERICALLY! =P and keeps going) (AAAAAHHHH for language barriers!) so the fact that we can't get out of this apt. building without a key isn't a fire hazard?!?! i guess we're in europe, none of the rules apply anymore. ~eric erika (new hungarian teacher/prof... happens to be ádám's (old teacher) mom =P):...and that word means cheeky jason: cheeky? what on earth is that supposed to mean? erika: you mean english has more modern words than cheeky? ok, impudent, but i don't think that's much better so in italy, we found the perfect way to confuse the vendors -- they approached us in italian, we looked confused, they repeated stuff in english, and we started spouting off in hungarian... we may not be able to converse, but we can count really well! -- worked like a charm every time! ~amanda and for any and all who want to know what the subject line says -- clue 1: the other day... clue 2: something about a bear =) -- 3 guesses and the first two don't count -- roommate, how many languages can we sing this song in now? =P ...soooo, that's the update from here -- a most excellent week to all! visontlátásra! lara =)

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