maga sokkal jobban tud angolul, mint én magyarul.

maga sokkal jobban tud angolul, mint én magyarul. 16 sept 2002 sziasztok! can you believe i've been here a month already (for as much as i've typed you probably think longer!)... at any rate, classes have very much begun, with LOTS of work to follow, so sightseeing has slowed down some, but i've still managed to fit in plenty =P... there's too much to do here to NOT be constantly exploring! =P for those of you inquiring and totally confused about last week's subject, it loosely said "the other day i met a bear out in the woods, oh way out there", which is the lyrics to the first verse of a goofy camp song that roommate and i sing much at my persistence back at valpo =P -- (with my hungarian version, we can now sing it in four and a half languages -- five and a half if we count pig latin! =P)... *some* of you should have had it down for sure =P if you're wondering what this week's says, i'll make it easy: "your english is far better than my hungarian", the first sentence in the list of "12 commonplace sentences you can make us (hungarians) happy with" in a brilliant guidebook to budapest i bought this week -- more on that later =P at any rate, here's your outline, and onwards... *classes (*finally* in session!) *my weekend (a super spiffy coffee house, the holy right (at long last!!!), budapest wine festival, margaret island, and more =P) *things lara has learned this week (finally a hungarian 42! =P) *quotes of the week (Q: what do a coffee cup, a donut, apples, and hammers have in common? A: not much, but hopefully they'll make you laugh at some point... =P) *visontlátásra classes (*finally* in session!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ so classes have been off and running for a week. already i have study buddies for each one... everything looks exciting, although a couple classes are already moving at an extremely fast pace!... we have each math class 2 days a week in two hour blocks... or for non math classes, like my hungarian culture class it's just the one class in a big 3 hour block of time once a week... the two to three hours at a time thing isn't as bad as it sounds (it actually makes the day feel a little more compact i think! =P)... the other nice thing is that the classes that are on more than one day rotate so that they're not at the same time (so for example i may have a class 8-10 on monday, but 12-2 on thursday....)... it'll take a little longer to memorize where i'm supposed to be when this way, but i think i like the variety.... all our professors come from one of several hungarian universities around the area and almost all have been teaching in BSM for years now... the whole hungarian style of things is different from american university style though too... there's not so much focus on special projects etc, but lots on problem solving and encouraging everyone to participate and just jump up and explain problems on the board when appropriate... just different enough to make things interesting =P funniest class so far? opening day of topology -- the prof actually tied two students together with string to prove a point. =P i'm really excited about all the classes i'm currently in, but also counting it a blessing that i have two more weeks to finalize what i'm taking and make sure i can handle everything on top of lining up stuff for grad school AND working on my CC thesis! (aaahhh!!!) but yay for totally excellent classes to be excited about! =) my weekend (a super spiffy coffee house, the holy right (at long last!!!), budapest wine festival, margaret island, and more =P) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ non class stuff? friday night 3 other BSMers came with me to check out a coffee house the ICB (international church of budapest) crew (at least the 20 and 30 somethings) go to every friday night... the people who own it are christian and they do everything in both hungarian and english... they had most excellent hot drinks, etc. for free, and just work off of free will donation... this week, the entertainment was a local christian band,... they started off with an old dctalk song and then played some i recognized and some songs that were new, but it was a totally great atmosphere, and could become a regular thing for the group of us that were there =) highlight of the week is that i *finally* saw the holy right =P... this wouldn't be such a huge deal if i hadn't tried to see it about half a dozen times before and always ran into obstacles (such as the wedding we accidentally walked into 2 weeks ago =P!) i had heard rumors from some folks that you put money into the box the hand is preserved in so that it lights up but that sounded too goofy and i didn't believe, it but sure enough... you put 100 forints (40 cents) into a box near the hand and it lights up for 2 minutes for you to admire -- it was slightly bizarre (i just dare you to sit there and try to imagine a 1000 year old mummified hand (it's quite the interestingly disgustingly indescribable shade of gray) with a golden cuff around the wrist in a really fancy electronically lit up box -- it's nothing compared to gawking at the real thing =P)...but after soooo many times to try to see it, this was a major major accomplishment!...but sure enough, at long last i've finally seen it -- with eric and marianne as my witnesses! =P later, after the holy right, marianne and i played tourists for the rest of the day as well -- first, we visited the hungarian wine festival, which was at the same place as the folk art festival i went to my first weekend -- all around the outside of the national royal castle... for 600 forints (about $2.40), we each got a budapest wine festival glass to keep and a few tasting tickets to buy wine, cheese, etc. while we explored the area... i got some really happy rosé wine and a couple kinds of weird cheese... like at the folk art festival, they had stages all around of groups singing/dancing to traditional hungarian music, and it was just a nice atmosphere to spend half the afternoon in =) finally, after that, we visited margaret island, a big island in the middle of the danube -- this place was awesome -- lots of fields, etc. for sports, an olympic swimming pool, ruins of an old franciscan church and an old convent (back in the day (1241ad), king béla IV vowed that if he sucessfully repelled the impending mongol invasion, he'd devote his daughter margit, for whom the island is named, to God... the convent ruins are from the convent and church he built and sent 9-year-old margit to in 1251)... also, there's a huge fountain set to music (kinda like water show with the rings at centenial park in atlanta, only european style), a monument to commemorate 1973 (the 100th anniversary of when buda, óbuda, and pest became one city), a whole avenue of statues of famous hungarian writers, artists, and musicians over time, quite spiffy japanese gardens with a huge waterfall, and a musical well, built to be a copy of a famous one in transylvania from back in the day (every hour on the hour it plays music, and was pretty hugely impressive -- the original could be heard 10km awaay though and was even more impressive according to legend)... at any rate, it was quite the nice walk -- yay for the island =P besides all that, i learned to play bridge on saturday night, so now there's another card game to add to my reportoire =P (this does not imply that i have any skill at it whatsoever =P)... for the first week since i've been here, i had church buddies, as 3 other BSMers came with me to ICB! (yay for that =) ), and sunday night, amanda, eric, jenn, and i were brave, and actually tried to cook some recipes from the hungarian cookbook i bought this week -- adventure and a half for sure! in other exciting news, i also discovered that developing pictures here is comparable to, if not a little cheaper than at home, so instead of collecting disposable cameras (i know, i know, ... one of these days i'll get a real one... =P) to send home, i've started a scrapbook up already -- yay for that =P it's already quite the party in a box of a book =P (or as has been nominated for new phrase of the year: party in a parallelpiped =P) but yeah, that's the scoop... onward! things lara has learned this week (finally a hungarian 42! =P) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *traveling with me on the metro during rush hour almost guarantees you'll see a fight -- i don't know what it is... none of the other students here have this happen to them, but at least 3 times in the past 4 weeks i've been right next to two people who have a big spat on the public transportation-- last thursday in particular, on the metro a lady got really mad at a man and grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him into the wall, causing his briefcase latch to break open and spill papers all over the place, she ran off across the subway car, and he chased her back out at the next station... by and large, hungary is much less violent than the states, but apparently i just happen to be in weird places at weird times... go figure. *the floors in our apt. are very well waxed and should not be run on unless you intend to surf your way on the carpets clear from one end of the place to the other -- i've learned this the hard way -- enough said =P *if you want your own table at a busy restaurant, bring a lot of people!... last thursday, emily, eric, and i were on our way to go out to eat for dinner, when emily realized the time and rushed home... eric and i went on and when we told the restaurant that there were just 2 of us, and they saw they had no free tables, they asked a hungarian couple to share with us... i'd heard that *could* happen before, but in a month of having no problem (even when i am just eating with one other person!), i put it out of my mind... i think it helped that they spoke hungarian the whole time and we spoke english, so we didn't feel like we were invading each others conversations, but still -- can you imagine doing that in the states? people would rather wait 45 minutes for a personal table!... go figure.. just going through daily routine here is a learning experience! *on hungarian construction workers: much unlike at home, when we often wonder if they're doing anything at all, we have two other questions about the construction projects we've seen around here: (1) do they ever stop??! and (2) sure, they're productive, but what in the world *are* they doing???... one block down on my street there's a building being constructed and i've seen workers there 7 days a week as early as 7am and as late as 11pm... i'm beginning to think it's round the clock work!... on another street where there's about 4 apartments worth of BSMers, workers drill and jackhammer up whole sections of the street in the morning, just to repave and put them back together by night... what are they doing? not a clue! =P *42 of the week: the average budapest metro (subway) car has seats for 42 people -- now that i know where to look for the capacity signs, 9 times out of 10 there's a 42 on the commute each day! =) (how excellent is that? =P) quotes of the week (Q: what do a coffee cup, a donut, apples, and hammers have in common? A: not much, but hopefully they'll make you laugh at some point... =P) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ oded: so, patrick, tell me a story about yourself patrick: yesterday i jumped off a bridge and died, today i came back. oded: let's rephrase that, tell me a *true* story about yourself patrick: ok, i'm sitting in a restaurant with oded, ali, alex, andrew, and lara. the end. oded: ok, more specific, tell us a true story from 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade patrick: fine! in 3rd grade, i existed. in 4th grade, i knew i existed in 3rd grade. in 5th grade, i was reasonably sure i existed in 4th grade too. oded: ok, i give up, someone else talk to me *please*! (mom, brother, etc., my silly short stories aren't quite as bad now, are they?) =P eric: see, i buy apples here, but i never know when to eat them... me: when you're hungry... eric: in the shower.. me: in your sleep... eric: yeah, this is not what i meant at all!... i mean i can never tell when they're ripe!... now i'm going to think of eating in my sleep every time i buy apples ever again! it's a cheap trick, but cheap tricks always work the best! ~dr. fehér present somebody with a questionnarie clipboard, a they lie. a friend of mine once had a job preparing a questionnaire for people to fill in on the web. he said the information they got back was enormously heartening about the state of the world. for instance, did you know that almost 90 percent of the population are CEOs of their own companies and earn over a million dollars a year? ~douglas adams, in _the salmon of doubt_ topology is the study of elastic geometry -- this means a topologist is basically someone who can't tell the difference between a teacup and a donut. ~dr. fehér if you don't understand something in this class, blame it on my accent -- now, none of you can do poorly in here because i just gave you a valid excuse for everything! ~dr. antal the three men were between 21 and 30 years of age and their first names were zoltan. ~from a newspaper article about police catching a band of gas station robbers... (1) so criminals are protected by just using first names instead of full names? (weird...) =P (2) what are the odds tha every robber in the group had the same first name???... (3)... if you'd had to read the dialogues we've read in hungarian class this past month, you'd just be laughing really hard right now, regardless of points (1) and (2)... end of thought =P Hungary: a mania with a population of ten million. it is now generally regarded as curable, though this would take away much of its charm. ~istván örkény, hungarian author i'm beginning to think that hammering is a national pasttime here. ~mason you mean the hand's been dead for 1000 years? *that's* the hand to shake then, huh? ~andrew budapest is the overgrown capital of the republic of hungary, inhabited by about 1.850.000 restless inhabitants -- most of them readers, and not only of the telephone numbers in the television commercials... the following tries hard to list places where budapest eggheads go to, meet at, or point out to foreign egghead friends they desparately try to impress. ~introduction of _budpaest: a critical guide_ by andrás török, a book highly recommended by all our profs =P amusing categories to make török's list of the must sees of budapest: "most out of place work of art in an underground station"... "textile shop with the largest number of hungarian coat of arms communist style"... "most traditional surviving street toilet"... "most mysterious, oversize stone lady".... "most artistic burger king in all the world"... and, of course "best place to feel you are just a piece of dust, doomed to failure".... with must see lists like this, what more of a guide do you need? =P visontlátásra! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ and, finally, (no more yawning!), you've reached the end.... a most excellent week to all -- hope you all have a party-in-a-parallelpiped kind of monday! =) lara =)

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