Discovery

For those of you still not fluent in Hungarian, the flavor (Bodza) is Elderberry.  I picked up this bottle at the 0-24 store down the street on a whim after trying Fanta Raspberry earlier this week.  Both are amazing; perhaps even better than Fanta Grape in the US, which is high praise coming from me.  Didn't have a clue what bodza was when I bought the drink, but it's delicious.  I may have to seek out some real-life elderberries now.

Fun fact:  look closely at the black object on the label to the right of "WORLD."  I believe this is the silhouette of the Hungarian Puli dog.  On that note, dogs are surprisingly common here in Budapest.  I see quite a few every day, including the enormous and somewhat worrisome Rottweiler guarding the construction site next to my flat.

To bring things full circle (fruity drinks back to fruit), kiwis are incredibly cheap here.  I picked up a kilo of them at Tesco for 260 Ft (less than a buck fifty).

The Squeaky Wheel

Sure enough, as soon as I start broadcasting my complaints about the weather, out comes the sun.  Blue skies and puffy white clouds in Budapest this afternoon.  It's amazing how weather colors a city's beauty.

Reporting from Budapest, Vol. 1

Time for some bookkeeping here.

Days in Budapest: 5
Snowfalls: 3
Week-long high:  1.6 C
Number of sun sightings: 0

Honestly, I'm more amazed that daylight trickles in every morning from the perpetually gray sky than I am convinced that the sun still exists.  No one else on the BSM program has seen the sun this week either.  I need to do some digging and find out if this is the usual for Budapest winters:  if so, I may be re-temporarily expatriating to southern Greece.

All kidding about the weather aside, my first, partial week in Budapest has been nice, even if shockingly cold for a South Carolina boy.  The biggest problem with BP so far is the annoying Hungarian habit of closing everything early (eg no metro after 11:15 PM and our school closes at 6 PM).  Obviously, this demands some fundamental American questions, such as "Where do we study math at 2 AM?"

To introduce my readers to Budapest, where to start?  According to T. S. Eliot,

What we call the beginning is often the end.  And to make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we start from.

(I'm sure several of my former English teachers are cursing me for the formatting of that block quote.  Blog-based text editors aren't all they're cracked up to be.)  This quote is significant for two reasons.  Probably more than two.  Primarily, it demonstrates that even Eliot ended sentences with prepositions.  As a secondary point, and perhaps more germane to our discussion, Eliot's quote is extremely meta and suggests that I should wait until June to write about this experience.  (Shout out to Dr. Mossinghoff for actually using "germane" in a math lecture last semester.  Must have been the only time I've heard it since SAT prep.)

Contrary to Eliot's advice, however, I will start at the beginning.  I think there is a good quote about starting at the beginning, too, but I will spare you the excess digression.  This brings us back in time to Tuesday at Ferihegy International (Budapest's main airport.  Wikipedia suggests pronouncing it "ferry hedge."  This is wrong but not far off.  More on the "gy" later.).

As I mentioned, my arrival in Hungary was totally free of customs officials and passport checks.  I now suspect this was because Hungary is a Schengen country, as is Germany, and everyone on the plane either was German or had gone through German customs.  It still strikes me as strange.

My flat-mate ("flat" seems to be the chic Euro word for "apartment") is a guy named Lucas from St. Olaf.  He's also in the BSM program.  Our first apartment was not quite to our liking, so Anna, the extremely helpful Student Coordinator, arranged for us to switch into our present apartment.  Our flat is a little bare, but BSM has some sort of relationship with the landlords for them to provide basic things for the apartment -- beds, kitchen utilities, blankets (albeit miniature versions of their American cousins), linens, desks, chairs, etc.  So essentially, as a BSM student, you receive a minimally-but-functionally furnished apartment.  In my opinion, some things could be a little more adequate (eg our lavish collection of three dinner plates) but I'm picking other battles.  For now, a tour of our flat.

The facade

Mosaics on the walk up

The courtyard

The digs

The view from my bedroom

The view, accompanied by a Túrórudi, a Hungarian treat:  basically a roll of sweet ricotta cheese covered in chocolate

The bathroom.  Note the sit-down shower and radiator drying rack (right wall).

The kitchen

Magnets on the fridge.  No idea what this says, save "Coca-Cola" and "Coke."

My Hungarian might be rusty, but I get the gist of this one.  (Presumably an ironic souvenir left behind by last semester's residents.)

I'll leave you with that rather flamboyant portrait of Hungarian cigar salesmen.  I've got some Saturday shopping and housekeeping to catch up with.  I'm planning to write a little about language school and the city itself soon, check back again tomorrow.

NB.  To clarify some Hungarian rules of pronunciation, their "s" is roughly like an English "sh."  Their "sz" is just like an English "s."  And their "gy" is impossible to pronounce.  Hence, Budapest is pronounced Budapesht; Erdos, Erdush; and sajtburger, shyteburger.  Sajt is Hungarian for cheese.  This pronunciation probably accounts for the historically poor performance of the sajtburger among Brits at Hungarian Micky D's.

Contacts

For those interested, my skype name and mailing addresses are all on my facebook.  If you are of the pre-Facebook generation, please just email me and I'll be happy to communicate these addresses to you.

Flight to Budapest

 I'm in Budapest now (my second day in the city, actually), but here are the slightly-modified contents of a post which I wrote offline during a layover in Munich.

Just rolled in to Munich International at the chipper hour of 1:30 AM EST, 7:30 AM local.  I'm sure it's just the giddiness of being in Europe for the first time, but I'm big on Deutschland already.  The customs guy was young, friendly, and talkative.  I wasn't really sure if he was quizzing me on my destination (student, Budapest, usually study in the US, "semester abroad?"... "you study in a different country for a semester"  "ah") for the sake his duty or his desire to break the early-morning monotony with some conversation.

I'm most immediately surprised by the prevalence of English in the airport.  I suppose its use is unusually heavy here given the international airport, but surprising regardless.

Within about five minutes of touching down in Germany, I found my way to their "WC" and admired the dry humor of their urinals -- a painted fly resting just above the drain (flies of two different sorts, depending on your urinal.  Presumably a collectors series for frequent visitors.).

Fresh out of the customs line and amused by this detail, I cluched my passport and boarding pass between pursed lips, soon to discover you should use this technique with the fold facing outward.  Down fell the ticket, but without gratuitous detail, the boarding pass emerged unscathed, caught by a quick hand, the passport remained safely between my teeth, and I began my 3.5 hour stay in Germany with the most ancient of male rituals -- spraying new territory.

I had to pass through security again and made a few observations.  First, everything sets off the German metal detectors.  I was in a line of about 10 people, and maybe two got through without setting it off.  If you have anything more than the iron in your hemoglobin (I suspect the button and zipper on my Levis were to blame), get ready for the wand.  Second, the Germans are okay with you keeping your shoes on.  They'll get the metal detector wand anyway.

After wandering through the duty-free shopping trap, soaking in the foreign details, and generally feeling like an idiot for speaking nothing but English for about 10 minutes, I found my concourse and, with it, the detail that really sold me on Europe (or just Germany and Lufthansa):  the free miniature espresso/hot chocolate/hot water/tea machine.

Liquid joy

Equally fascinating for the miniature scale, myriad of drinks, and it's free-ness.  I scoured the area for a price tag and observed several people serve themselves and walk off before I was convinced this amenity was actually free.  More surprising still (okay, not really more surprising -- nothing is more surprising to an American than free stuff at an airport), my cappuccino was good.

Delicious cappucino, enjoyed in...

this awesome lounge.

The Germans have also tackled the greatest humanitarian challenge of our generation; that is, indoor smoking.  The airport provided "smoking lounges" inside the concourse, which were basically big glass rooms.

 

The ventilation was well-designed, and I hardly noticed any smell from the lounges.  After several cups of free coffee (a cappuccino, a mocha, and an herbal tea) and a nap on top of my luggage, my 3.5 hours of Munich bliss were up.  We had a smooth takeoff, and 1 hour, several NYT articles, and a bizarre bologna/cream cheese baguette later, I arrived in Budapest at Ferihegy Airport.  Anna, the student coordinator, was in the lobby to greet me after I passed through the desolate customs line (no one in the airport looked at my luggage, my passport, anything.  I seriously got off the plane, picked up my checked baggage from the carousel, and walked out the doors along with everyone else).

To quickly summarize Budapest thus far, the taxi ride from the airport was crazy (snowy, narrow roads, lots of merging and tailgating), our first apartment was a little dumpy, and we swapped apartments for another, which we actually like much better.  Dinner for the past two nights has been from a Greek (I think?) restaurant, which sells gyros for 500 HUF (1 USD = 190 HUF right now, so about $2.50).

Delicious gyro 

Tomorrow we start the two-week language course, and I think the first day starts with a tour of the city.  A more complete "Budapest initial impressions" post to come.  I'll leave you with an amusing trash can sign from Munich and a view from our first apartment.

Glad to know Munich International has my paper coffee cup taken care of.

 

Snowy Budapest

Just another Manic Monday...

My Monday began somewhere over the Atlantic, kicked off on land in Munich (home of the world's coolest free hot drink machines.  More on that later.), and continued with a 12:30 PM local time arrival in Budapest.  In short, I have an apartment, forints, some food sources, and very little sleep.  A more complete travel post to come tomorrow.

Packing

Without getting totally mundane here, I'm packing for Budapest.  Stuff, meet suitcases; suitcases, meet stuff.  I'll be spending the spring semester studying math with Budapest Semesters in Mathematics.  Perhaps a more interesting link.

My flight leaves this Sunday, and the language program begins on Wednesday.  The language program, run by another school local to Budapest, lasts two weeks before the math courses begin.  The math courses run for a two-week "shopping" period, and only then do we register for courses.  Naturally with this system, I can't say for sure what I'll be taking, but my inclinations follow:

• Topology (this, not this)
  
• Advanced Abstract Algebra
• Mathematical Problem Solving (or Proof & Conjecture, both of which I've heard are good courses unique to this program)
• Theory of Computing
• Hungarian Art & Culture (or perhaps Film Analysis)

I'm only obligated to take four courses, so I may pare down to that number, depending on how interesting and how intense the courses seem during shopping.

That's a rough preview for now.  To honor my pledge of limited mundane details, I'll spare you the pictorial look at my packing essentials.