Everyone discovered the kids' games on the back of their placements. There was a lot of whining until I found them some colored pencils to play with. I don't have a picture, but ask Lucas about his masterpiece.
Thanks for letting me hang out with you for a month!
--Jill
Friday, January 29, 2016
Jó éjszakát Budapestrol!
(Good night from Budapest!)
The students have all left the Marriott Executive Apartments, our home in Budapest for the past month. Most of them left at 4:30 this morning without a lot of sleep the night before! It was a great month that went by way too quickly. I hope you enjoyed following our activities!
Today was an absolute blast. Considering the fact that our final exam (worth 30% of our grade) is tomorrow, many students decided to take today to explore the numerous wonderful study spaces offered in our wonderful apartment building. From people's spacious rooms, to open conference rooms, to other people's equally spacious rooms, students were spread out making sure they knew how to solve equations, use theorems, and write proofs. Here is photographic evidence that our room was hard at work studying:
Because our room wanted to take advantage of all the short study time, we decided to have dinner at a delicious burger restaurant across the street. Besides the short breaks to get food and stretch our legs, most of the day has been consumed by studying.
Finally, we had to wrap our heads around the fact that we only have one more day in Budapest to cross any last minute things off of our bucket list. In honor of that, we have decided to conclude our final blog with a song.
Here are words sorted into hopefully coherent sentences,
Today was our last day of class?!?! Time has gone so quickly. We started our day off with a math presentation by Miklos Laczkovich about the recursive series Xn+1 = Xn + 1/Xn. After that we had a lunch break to get our brains ready for the proofs that were coming in the next section. In class we learned about Pythagorean triples and primitive Pythagorean triples (Pythagoras is the triangle guy). After class we did the homework and went to dinner. The blog would be incomplete without pictures of our food so here they are.
Peter's wiener schnitzel
Sam's pork
Lucas' turkey
After dinner at Lucas' favorite place (which also happens to be next door), we wrote this blog and then studied math because we have our final on Thursday :0. There's no good bridge to the next part, so here's our best try.
Bridge
We know our blog is pretty boring today so we decided to compile all Sam-with-horse pictures for your entertainment. We know they entertained us.
We have now finished our third weekend here in Budapest. Although we did not venture outside the city, it was still an intercultural experience for some. Over the weekend we ate at an outstandingRussian place, celebrated birthdays, wandered through a neighborhood, and toured one of Budapest’s iconic ruin pubs. Others toured the caves underneath Budapest, visited the famous Szechenyi baths and hiked 23 kilometers through the magnificent Budahills. Unfortunately, this was our final weekend in Hungary’s capital. It will be difficult for some of us to say goodbye to places and friends we met here.
Today in morning class we learned about cryptography.
. Unless you are a super computer you will never decode that message above. Sorry that was mean of us, so here is a joke about cryptography to lighten the mood: Two cryptographers walk into a bar…. Nobody else has a clue what they're talking about.
After we became NSA certified, our afternoon class offered us the great honor of meeting Fazekas Gergely, a professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. He gave us all insight into what Hungarian culture truly is, especially from a musical standpoint. We heard classical melodies from famous composers such as Franz Liszt himself. Hungary takes pride in being a 20th century classical music power house. In fact, they named their airport after Liszt himself. Outside of music history, Fazekas claimed “Hungary has had a rich history... but also a rich history of terrible things.” This was followed by his blunt animosity towards Hungary’s president, and a few snide remarks about a certain presidentialcandidate in the states. Math, music and politics, what an exciting day of learning!!
Afterwards the class visited the opera house upon request from Fazekas. Currently the house is showing Shrek: The Musical which appears more like recurringnightmares I’ve had than the 2001 film with Mike Myers. We wasted no time in between the opera house and grabbing dinner. After screwing up the metro, we finally ended up at an awesome Italian pizza restaurant. There we time trialed our meal since our group of nine sans reservations had only so much time before people who planned ahead came.
Subsequently, we headed back to the hotel which is where we leave you.
Today, after many recommendations, a group of us went to the National Gallery at Buda Castle. To get there, we crossed the Széchenyi chain bridge and rode the funicular up the hill. Not only did the lift save us a lot of stairs, it provided a wonderful view of Pest. At the top of the hill, a beautiful vista of Pest greeted us with parliament and the St. Stephen's Cathedral peering out of the fog.
Buda Castle
Once in the museum, we saw paintings describing the recapture of Buda Castle in the first hall. The rest of the Gallery features a wide range of works from medieval carvings to contemporary Hungarian artists. There is even a painting of St. George and a cherub smiting a dragon with lightning. Since the Fine Arts Museum is undergoing renovations, a selection of it's most impressive pieces is on display at the National Gallery, which was quite a treat. We were lucky enough to arrive at the Gallery just as a special concert was beginning, and were serenaded by a cello, a piano, and a soprano during our visit. The music echoing through the Gallery's great halls was positively spectacular.
The view of St. Stephen's from the funicular
Upon leaving the Gallery, we witnessed the changing of the guard at the presidential palace. Walking around the top of the hill with the guard's drum beating in the background, we looked out over Buda through the fog before heading back down the funicular.
Emma at Bruce's rec
After putting finishing touches on the homework, we headed out to a Pad Thai restaurant recommended by Spruce-y Bruce. The restaurant was structured like Subway, and we were able to mix noodles and add-ins to produce a wonderful, and very quick, meal.
While some of us were at the gallery, Matthew ventured over to Memento Park, the final resting place of roughly 30 communist era statues and busts. They were taken down from around Budapest and put in a park just out side of the city limits during the peaceful transition from under soviet rule. The whole park was desolate except freshly fallen snow and Matthew.... and dozens of grim faced communist statues (it was a little intimidating). After a close call on a bus transfer, he returned to the hotel nearly an hour later.
When life gives you Lenins...
A majestic view of parliament
I don't know what Sam was talking about. This is easy.
-Erik, Matthew, Jacob
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Last Weekend in Budapest - 23rd Jan 2016
Szia! Wow, we can't believe it's already our last weekend in Budapest. We started our day with fancy dessert from New York Cafe. (Yes, without breakfast). The New York Cafe had a great ambiance complete with a beautiful setting. Our favorite moment was when the pianist started to play variations of classical pieces which we recognized. Most of us in the group got a hot chocolate drink, but Michael got a caramel macchiato. The hot chocolate was fantastic - the flavor was so rich that Sam couldn't help but share with Michael.
Paintings in New York Cafe
Great atmosphere in Cafe
Yum Yum hot chocolate !
Yum Yum coffee!
As mentioned before, we did not have any breakfast. So, we headed to the sandwich place near the Blaha Lujza Ter bus station. Very unfortunately, we were so hungry that forgot to take the photos of the delicious sandwiches we got for lunch. We then came back to the hotel, and we were then ready to head out for the Szechenyi bath!
From our hotel, we took the metro line 1 to the station called szechenyi-furdo. Two minutes from the metro station, there was the famous Szechenyi bath. Fortunately, the day was chilly, so we really enjoyed the hot bath. We met other budabuddies in the bath too, leading to more fun!
Szechenyi Bath
After about 3 hours of bathing in hot water, we came out with our wrinkly fingers to find a place for dinner. Michael, Sam, Peter, Derek and Lucas decided to go to a place called Fat Mama. The restaurant's specialty was the pork rib BBQ, cooked with special procedures using a vacuum while cooking, thus making the meat very soft and tender.
Fat Mama's BBQ
Today was a fun yet very tiring day! Also, we would also like to share some yesterday's experience and photos. Yesterday, we only had the morning class, so we had the whole afternoon free. Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to walk about the river, including the Shoe Memorial, the chain bridge and the modern bridge. The scenery was exhilarating, so we thought it would be great sharing these photos.
The Chain Bridge connecting Buda and Pest
Scenery of both Buda (left) and Pest (right) from the middle of the Chain Bridge
Awesome Pawsome Erszebet Bridge
The Shoe Memorial
Ho! Ho! Ho! We can never forget our Sammy. (Dance party in the empty metro featuring Mikey's legs and shoes)
Well wishes from Budapest! See you all soon!
Michael, Derek, and Ryan
In class today, we primarily learned about Euler's Theorem. It was especially fun, because we abbreviate Euler's Theorem to E.T., so when we proved E.T. in class today, it was unclear whether we were in a math class or a Sci-Fi movie.
After class, Jocie and Anabel hit up Tesco for some mad súspálcika before heading back to the hotel for a nap.
Sam broke rank to go to the Cat Café to feed her unhealthy cat addiction (she really misses her cat back in Iowa). There, she worked on her homework and drank a few Cat-puccinos.
Catpuccino
Sam's cat in Iowa
Unfortunately, this is not a pun of her own creation -- the drink was called a catpucinno. She met several lovely cats during her time there, and was quite sad when it was time to leave.
After some down time in the room, it was time to go out for dinner. Sam, Anabel, and Jocie visited a small burger joint for some appetizer french fries and cheese dogs before heading to their favorite dining establishment, the Yellow Zebra. Note that this eatery was so small that there was not room for any tables inside; instead, the ladies enjoyed their snacks bundled up in coats and hats outside in the chilly evening air. After our weekend in Vienna, it was discovered that Jocie is a big fan of the miniature plastic forks that come with fries here in Europe and quite resembled the pelicans from finding nemo when competing with Anabel's fingers for the food.
Whilst standing in the cold, a small group of people passed, and we rejoiced together at our mutual mother tongue, English. HOWEVER, it was soon discovered that back in the good 'ole United States of America, Sam and one of the kind young gentlemen they had just made the acquaintance of, lived within one mile of each other and had an theoretically though yet unproven infinite number of mutual friends.
The Ladies at the Yellow Zebra
The ladies of 352 did have to call it an early night though, so that they would be good and ready for a 23 kilometer hike at 7:30 AM, as desired.
