A Bicikli

So, I'm done with the travel memoirs for now.  On to the fantastic, adventurous day I had yesterday.

After a lazy morning, I decide it's high time to take a shower.  My bathroom is quite spacious, and the shower is nice and roomy.

(Aside - Some interesting things about European bathrooms in general: The shower has a temperature knob with actual numbers (in Celsius of course), which is great, because I now know that I like 39 degrees.  The toilets are very strangely built so that there is a small hole in near the front of the bowl, the rest being more of a shelf - perhaps to avoid unwanted splash landings - and have 2 flushers.  Bathrooms often have towel warmers and washing machines (though dryers are completely unknown here).)

Anyway, the shower head is on a hose that you have to hold as it lacks a wall fixture, which gets annoying.  Feeling innovative, I grabbed an Ethernet cable, tied some knots, and we now have a working shower head holder.  This is my second successful shower head hanging in the past year, but I won't let it go to my head.

Shower completed, I get the sudden urge to go out and be active (weird, I know).  We have had a bike sitting in the closet all semester, and I decide it's high time to go for a ride.  Oh...flat tires.

Then I remember that Alex wanted to play some ping pong.  So I go to Tesco, buy a paddle, some balls, and a bike pump, and head to the park.

Alex: [Pointing] I think those are the tables over there.
We approach the tables.  They don't have nets.
Us: ....?
Me: If only we had some rocks and a long stick, we could set the rocks on either side of the table and lay the stick on top.  Let's look around for some.
Alex: Like these? [Holds up 2 bricks and a very straight stick that are sitting under the table.  Apparently I'm not the first person to have that idea.]
We play ping pong and philosophize for 2 hours.


Arriving home, it's bike time:

1. Pump tires:
1. Figure out how the darned nozzle connection works (10 minutes)
2. Pump (15 minutes)
2. Fix broken saddle mount
1. Locate effective building materials (ie: string, pliers, paper clips, zip ties etc.)
2. Settle for cardboard and twist tie.
3. Tinker (10 min)
3. Mount panniers (20 minutes)

By the time I leave for a ride, it's about midnight.  After about 3 minutes of trying to word a joke, I'll give up and just say that I went 3 km in the completely wrong direction, ending up surrounded by Chinese billboards and what looked like a cross between circus grounds and an internment camp (also in Chinese).  After a lot of wrong turns, I make it home by following the signs to the Tesco Hipermarket (it's better than a supermarket).

At least I get to ride to school now, saving me some time in the morning.  The downside is that I live on the 4th floor.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS393US393&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=define%3A+panniers

Bratislava and Szeged

These trips were on different weekends, but both single day excursions.  Hopefully I won't make this too long.

Bratislava:
We arrive, meet a hostel owner that rivals The Four Seasons in hospitality, and make our way out, intending to do the "3 Hour Tour of Bratislava" which can be found in the official tourism pamphlet.  The weather was beautiful and we were in only our t-shirts (causing me to momentarily wonder where I had forgotten my jacket as we left a restaurant).  Needless to say, the tour took us to all the most important sites in the capital of Slovakia, including:

this statue of a photographer,

this statue of the town dandy,

and "the only statue in Europe coming out of a hole in the ground."

Conclusion: there's not much in Bratislava.  Much more exciting were:

these 2 pigeons mating,

this fantastic graffiti,

and ordering the "Lunch of student who want to disport himself to his girl-friend."

Szeged:

There are exactly three highlights of this trip:

1. The trip was organized by BSM (that's my program) and included a colloquium lecture on "Volume in Higher Dimensions."  As I've never been to a colloquium, I didn't know what to expect, but was very pleased.  Turns out that the volume of a "sphere" of radius 1 in n dimensions approaches zero as n approaches infinity.  There were some other interesting results as well. 
2. We toured the big church in town (the name escapes me at the moment).  What was nice about it is that, unlike most of the notable churches around here, it is only about 100 years old.  Not only was the outside constructed from brick,
3. 
4. but the interior had arches and geometric decorations very reminiscent of a mosque.
5. 
   
   
   
   
   It was also decorated with murals of figures from the Old Testament, which made for some good guessing games.
6. Breakfast at the Cow Restaurant (actual name unknown) included half-liter mugs of chocolate milk.  It was so good.  Also, when 20+ people walked in at the same time, the person at the counter just laughed.

Oh, and also the most wonderful playground this side of Vienna:

Conclusion: Blogger's formatting tools are not up to scratch.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• Prague Pictures
• Szeged and Bratislava Pictures
• Billy Jean

Prague

In the past few weeks, I've traveled to Prague, Bratislava, and Szeged (a city in Hungary).  I didn't bother writing about them as I've already done some travel summaries.  I'll try to post some of the more amusing highlights from each of these.

Prague:
Our hostel in Prague was fantastically close to the Old Town Square, the center of tourism in the city.  This afforded me a great opportunity to look at the local, 600+ year old astronomical clock:

Legend has it that the maker was blinded for his efforts - but only to ensure that its equal could never be constructed in another city.  The blind clockmaker (something Mother Nature can't even achieve) had his revenge; he removed a single, small gear from the inner workings, vexing everyone who tried to fix it for decades after.

Later, we saw an amazing Cathedral.  The purple light that shined through the stained glass was beautiful:

Next, we made our way to the Lennon (not, as we had previously thought, the Lenin wall):

Incidentally, I'm currently wearing that exact outfit.

The next day was a pretty somber day.  We toured the one-of-a-kind Museum of Torture.  I was a lot more disturbed than I expected to be.  It was very fascinating, but also very upsetting that these gruesome (you don't want to know) tortures were inflicted joyfully and by law on fellow human beings.  This prompted much discussion about witchcraft, the Holocaust, and current affairs.

We made our way to the Jewish Quarter, where we walked through a number of synagogues, one of which (Pinchas Synagogue) is a Holocaust Memorial.  Filling every available inch of wall space are the names of 78,000+ Czech Jews killed during the Holocaust.  The number doesn't feel real until you are surrounded by rooms and rooms of the names, no more than half an inch tall, all around you.

A better part of the group I was travelling with were not only non-Jews, they had (a) zero Jewish friends at home and (b) never been in a synagogue.  I spent the day as a cultural, historical, and religious tour guide, which was a lot of fun.

Well, it seems like I've rambled on much longer than I intended, so read the next post (which, annoyingly enough, appears above this one) for Bratislava and Szeged (much shorter, I promise).

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://utf.mff.cuni.cz/Relativity/orloj.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley_shirt

a785236's Youtube Channel

I'll post videos from my travels.  Right now, these consist of street performers.

Also, I've read about 400 pages of Sherlock Holmes in the last week.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.youtube.com/user/a785236

Carnival in Venice

This past weekend, 11 of us went to Venice.

Friday, at 20:00, we all board an overnight bus to Venice.  As we begin the journey, the on-board movie begins; fittingly enough, it was The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock.  It was very good.  The movie ends, it's 22:30, the seats are uncomfortable, none of us are tired, and we are scheduled to arrive in Venice at 6:00 to begin our weekend.  It looked bleak.

7.5 hours later, it still looked bleak.  In fact, it looked like this:

Turns out, arriving at 6:00 was the best possible scenario.  As we would soon find out, Venice was overrun by tourists from about 9:00 to 3:00 (the next morning).  This wholly unpleasant hour of arrival meant that for about 3 hours, we had the whole of Venice to ourselves.  With no map, all we knew was that the bus station is on the west side of the island.  Conveniently enough, the sun rises in the east, guiding us to San Marcos Square.  The sunrise was beautiful:

Walking around the city while it was empty, dead ends around every corner, and pedestrian paths and winding canals between strange looking buildings, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in some new sequel to Myst.  It's a very unique city and roaming aimlessly doesn't get boring.

Anyway, I won't give you a play-by-play of the whole weekend - just a synopsis:

Saturday was reserved for walking around, people watching, eating street food, and generally enjoying the city and the atmosphere.  San Marcos Square was a treat; it's filled with strange architecture,

 a view of the Grand Canal,

and - most notably - very wealthy Carnival-goers who spend hundreds of dollars on their costumes.

(don't let the fact that you can see the ground mislead you - this picture was taken before 10:00)

Saturday night, we go to an Italian restaurant (they just call them "restaurants" in Venice...weird) where we get pizza and gnocchi (we weren't blown away) and chianti (we were very pleased), before joining the island-wide late-night party that is Saturday night during Carnival.  During the course of the hazy night, our large group gets separated into 4.  Astoundingly, we all meet up on the boat to our hostel.  Did I mention that public transportation is by boat?

Sunday, we tour the Correr Museum (a general purpose museum), the Doge's Palace, and a church or 2.  I highly recommend the Doge's Palace.  It includes an prison, armory, the government complex, and the Doge's living quarters (in reverse order).  Given the very unique governmental structure of Venice (read about it below), the complex felt like a combination of the White House and Parliament (except more Italian).  It was very big, very interesting, and very much worth the 4 euros to get in (not to mention escaping the crowds).

By the time Sunday night rolls around, we are dead.  A quick accounting showed that by the time we boarded the bus, we had been in Venice for 50 hours, 5 of which involved sleeping, after a sleepless 10 hour drive from Budapest.

Tuesday morning, we compared the sleep we got on Monday. Salem won with 17 hours.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice
• http://www.tickitaly.com/tickets/venice-clock-tower.php
• http://danehjoon.tumblr.com/post/3552383521/its-very-venezia

Agame: A Game

If it wasn't 3:00 am, I would try to make this post more clever.

While in Venice, a lethargic game of Contact morphed into a competition to see who could name the best 'A' words with quality determined by general consensus (ex: assuage, azalea).  Then we struck upon something interesting: some 'A' words can be separated into "A" and "the-rest-of-the-word" where the latter is still a word. (ex: aspire = a + spire).  This started a new game - find as many such words as possible.

Notes:

• Phonetic answers are okay.  For example, "abalone" is not quite "a" + "bologna," but still notable.
• A word of the form "A" + "double consonant" + "stuff" is completely acceptable.  For example, "acclimate."
• Extra points for words that are:
• more than 2 syllables
• pronounced very differently when concatenated than when separated
• Other letters are possible (ex: bemused, beaches (that's be + aches))

Have fun!  Leave answers in the comments.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://readdancebliss.blogspot.com/2007/09/egg-salad-game_15.html

Weird Stuff About Hungary

I'm stealing this post verbatim from a friend's Facebook note.

- The hungarian word for hello / goodbye is pronounced "see ya" ... this was confusing the first day

- Hungarians still use "hello" but to them it also means "goodbye" ... this is still  confusing

- Sugar here is less sweet (it's not from sugar cane) 

- Vectors are underlined

- The contradiction symbol they use is a lightning bolt.  this is awesome.  

- Exclamation points do not mean the same thing here as they do elsewhere ... none of us have figured out what they <span> </span>mean here

- The word for 'kitty' is still one sound away from a slang word for breast (cica and cici) vs (kitty and titty)

- They have super markets.  was not expecting that.  

- "I'm Hot" means "i'm Gay"

- The dogs here are all very well trained.  Srsly.  Probably because the others get run over.

- The leading quotation mark is a subscript

- Games are not "strategic" they are "tactical"

- They don't have "tounge twisters" they have "tounge breakers"

- english "Cookie"  is hungarian for "weiner" or "pee pee" (childish word for penis)

- I get a cheese pastry every day for $0.50  It's a sizable pastry

- Coffee stores sell women's lingerie

- I'm a millionair here   

- Old men do play chess in the hot baths.  

- I don't get their humor: Why do elephants have white feet? It's camoflauge for when they swim upside down in milk.

- You aren't "done" with a question, you are 'ready' ... no idea what we are ready for.  

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_contradiction#Notation 

Wednesday Afternoons

There's a group of us who meet up after class on Wednesdays.  Here's what we do.

Step 1 - Snack

Gyros, langos, palancsinta, or a pastry

Step 2 - Just the Good Beers

Some of the others visit a tiny store called Just the Good Beers - a beertique if you will - where they buy expensive beers.

Step 3 - Cards

Spades, Bridge, Cribbage, BS, or Rummy

Step 4 - Dinner

On the way to the dinner-host's apartment, we stop at the market and split the cost of groceries.  Then we cook and eat a good dinner.  There's always leftovers.

Step 5 - Schmooze

What's a good game to play after dinner?....Contact!  As a side note, it's nice to play with math majors because things like Peano Arithmetic and the Penrose Triangle come up.

UPDATE:
We've since started watching Lord of the Rings and playing Settlers of Catan.  Best day of the week.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(word_game)
• http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PenroseTriangle.html

How to Double Your Hostel's Capacity

Who wants a mask?

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.classicreader.com/book/216/36/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

A Paradigm Shift

This semester, I have picked up a habit that for years I believed disgusting, vile, and absurd - I do math in pen.

Math from grade 1 to about freshman year of college is all about calculating.  It's pretty boring and you tend to make a lot of silly mistakes, requiring lots of erasing.  It's also not particularly difficult (at least conceptually).  Because of my experience erasing lines and lines of work when forgetting to carry an exponent around, and because I have never had to go back and refer to previous work, I had done all math in pencil.

"Real" math is different.  Homework problems are sentences; solutions are paragraphs.  Instead of having to crunch numbers, you have to grapple with an idea.  This semester, Csaba (the animated Number Theory professor) said something the first day that really struck me:

Never use pencil when you're doing math, only pen.  If you make a mistake, don't scribble it out so you can never read it again.  Just cross it out with a single line.  That way, if you try a new method and realize that your first approach was right, it is still there on the page to remind you.  If the idea was sound, but it didn't work for that problem, it might work for another problem.  If it turns out that it was nonsense, you just won't look at it ever again.

It struck me as an interesting philosophy, so I tried it out the first day.  I haven't looked back.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=708515

When in Wien, do as the Wieners do.

Yesterday, I got back from a 3 day trip to Vienna.

Thursday - 2000
I decide I'm dropping Conjecture and Proof (leaving me with 5 math classes) despite it being very interesting. Being (essentially) my only Monday class, I decide to extend my stay in Vienna to Monday afternoon.

Friday - 1700
I meet up with 4 of my friends on the train in Budapest, ready for the 3 hour ride.  It's amazing how short of a ride it is to the cities surrounding Budapest, especially when the train is very comfortable and you are learning to play Bridge.  Despite being a game for the grandmothers, it is a complex, mentally demanding card game that I very much enjoyed.

We arrive at our hostel at around 21:00 and go to a pub in the center of town to get some good Austrian beer  (though I think I like the Hungarian stuff better).

Saturday - 830
The first of three mornings fighting against sleep to get to breakfast before it disappears at 900.  This involved getting out of bed, putting on sweatpants and going to 9 other beds and waking everybody up.  I learn what Brioche is.

We decide to spend the day walking around the Ring, the center of Vienna, which includes St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg Palace complex among other things.  The cathedral was much more Gothic than other cathedral's I've visited in the past.  The South Tower (343 stairs in a spiral staircase) provided the highest viewpoint in all of Vienna.  It also provided a view of the roof of the cathedral below:

We then traveled to the Hofburg Palace.  Standing in the middle of the complex, you are surrounded by breathtaking buildings, from cathedrals to City Hall.  Oh yeah, a castle too.

As we head to dinner, we split into 2 groups (did I mention there were 10 of us?).  I made the mistake of choosing the group with Daniel, the food snob.  After hunting for a restaurant, I decide to walk into the nearest one and ask for a table.  As the menu was in German, Daniel has the waiter translate every dish for him into English (not just the entrees, but the sauces, sides, and garnish on every plate).

Daniel: I'll have the steak with some white wine. Medium-rare.

The steak arrives.

Daniel: [Cutting into the steak] This is medium well.  I'm sending it back.
Me: No your not. [Takes steak and devours it].

This whole story is only significant because the reason I was so eager to get out of the restaurant was that our next destination was ice skating:

This rink was in front of City Hall, lit up with beautiful lights, and had music playing (including such classics as "Funky Town").  There are paths that branch off of the main rink and weave through the park.  It started snowing about 10 minutes in.  It was amazing.

Sunday
I left with a few others at about 1000 and headed to Schoenbrunn Palace - the summer palace of the seat of the Habsburgs.  I've never been inside of a palace before.  I'm having a very hard time expressing my thoughts about it and the surrounding gardens (and zoo, hedge maze, columbary, view of Vienna, and artwork), but I'll describe 2 cool things I saw while touring:

There was a table clock, covered with gold, that had two clock faces - one in front and one in back.  The clock was situated on a table, in front of a mirror.  The face (and mechanism) on the back was designed to be read in the mirror!

There was also two bronze Hercules statues (they had a thing for Hercules), one of him killing the Nemean Lion, the other...I can't remember.  In both, our boy Herc was pulling the upper and lower jaws of the beast apart, leaving a gaping hole.  These hollow statues used to house furnaces, with heat radiating from the jaws of the beast.

Back at the hostel, I learned to play Spades, which is like a casual version of Bridge.

Monday
We head to the Museum of Natural History where, besides an impressive collection of everything related to natural history (not to mention some beautiful art and architecture), they were featuring a Body Worlds-like exhibit.  Did you know that the digestive tract of a blue whale is about 0.4 miles?  What about the fact that the blood vessels of an ostrich could circle the world twice?

On the way home, I learn to play Cribbage.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1048050257&aid=2086272
• http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/lion.html
• http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html

That's Some Pig

Sorry for the relative lack of updates. There is much to write about, and I will try to catch up before heading to Vienna on Friday. In the mean time, click "fullscreen" to see some T double-E double-R double-R double-I double-F double-I double-C-C-C pigs in their full glory.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalitsa
• http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/2007/04/picasa-slideshow.html

First Class First Class Moments

I'm not going to go into depth about everything.  I'll just mention that there are a whole lot of good classes here and I can't take them all.  I will share two moments from this first week that really struck me.

1. Number Theory is taught by a short man named Csaba.  He's rude, makes off-color jokes, loud, throws chalk at people and at the board, and waves his hands a lot.  Essentially, he's Mr. Kinberg but for math.  Anyway, we were talking about the idea of primes and thinking about primes existing if we restrict our world to just the even numbers.  I don't want to get technical, but the short of it is that we concluded, after a very detailed explanation, that 6 is prime in the evens.  Then, he turns around and says, "So where's my mistake?"  We stare blankly.  "Any proof I give may very well be wrong on purpose," he goes on to explain.

Now, for years I've been tutoring math.  I do this all the time - I make a big fuss about it.  Never has it happened to me.  It was awesome and humbling - it didn't help that none of us could find his mistake.


2. Classical Algebra is a 3-week refresher on things like complex numbers, polynomials, etc - stuff that Hungarian students learn when their in womb.  A strong tradition in math competitions and education, along with a rigorous curriculum and some number theory means that Hungarian high schoolers can whoop American math majors on the Putnam.  This is something that every one of my teachers likes to point out.  Back to the story.  We're talking about sums of binomial coefficients:

The first expression sums to 2.
Then 5.
11
22

"Can anybody guess the next one?"
"45?"
"Almost, 43.  How about the next one?  I'll give you three guesses."

Before you peek, take a guess.  Actually, take three.

 Have you guessed? It's 85.

Now, I don't know about you, but when the professor said three guesses, about 30 students all guessed 85, 86, and 87 in unison.  Do you see it now?

If the 5th term is x, then the 6th term will be 2x-1, 2x, or 2x+1.  This is true for any kth and (k+1)th terms.

Now, this in itself isn't that interesting.  What is (I think) amazing is that we (EDIT: by "we" I mean humans, not that particular group of math students) are so good at finding patterns that, seeing 2, 5 (2x2 + 1), 11 (2x5 +1), 22 (2x11), and 43 (2x22 - 1), we were all able to guess the pattern.  It's hardly a pattern at all!

Okay, maybe it's not that exciting.  Maybe the pattern is pretty straight forward.  Granted, we're math kids - our brain our trained to look for fun patterns.  Even so, this got me thinking about how awesome our (EDIT: again, the collective "we" of the species) minds are.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk
• http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/BuffaloBuffalo/buffalobuffalo.html
• http://oeis.org/
• http://similarminds.com/intdoor.html

Táncház - Hungarian Folk Dancing

Instead of going Israeli dancing tonight, Ben proposed that we go Hungarian dancing.  We got about 8 people together and went to Godor (no, not Gondor) at 8:00pm.  This is an underground establishment, but, unlike any other nightlife hub in Budapest, this one was really nice: no smoke, nice decor, and dressed-up folks.  It had some seating area, a bar, a main dance floor, and an empty room in the back.

We spot a band tuning on the main floor and head over, expecting to start the festivities.  The music begins, and it's a slow, plaintive Hungarian ballad.  As I've alluded to earlier, these Hungarian folk songs go on and on.  

"They're probably just starting slow because once the dancing starts, it'll be very upbeat."

Another song - beautiful, but slow.

"So where's the dancing? Ooh look - that 2 year old is dancing!"

...

"I think I hear something over there"

*Walk to not-so-empty room in the back*

There's another band, wailing away at their instruments (upright bass, a drum, violins, recorders, and ud, along with 60 or so people in a circle doing an absurdly simple circle dance (3 steps in, 3 steps out, all the time moving counter-clockwise).

When that song ends (I would estimate that every song was 7-10 min), this guy with a fedora gets in the middle, starts jabbering in Hungarian, and begins to slowly demonstrate some steps.  As the whole crowd joins in, the band begins to play - slowly at first, but always accelerating.  2 minutes later, with a loud whistle and some hooting, the fedora'd man is running around in the center of 3 concentric circles totaling over 100 people.

As the night progressed, more and more people began to join.  The room began to fill up, and a classic instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma (rather, the Tragedy of the Commons) unfolded.  Everybody wanted to be in the center circle.  Going into the center gives one a nice benefit of more fun dancing, costing everybody else very little (the center circle is just that much bigger).  As people enter the center, the inner circle pushes outwards, limiting the space of those on the outside and making the inner circle not so inner any longer.  Those on the outside begin to suffer and move in more rapidly.  Now, the majority is in 1 big inner circle (when we started with 2 circles of maybe 3:1, and everybody suffers from having no room.  This reminded me of 'Yalla' on a Friday night at camp.  People eventually figured it out.  

Also there was a girl there whose outfit reminded me of Chun-Li from Street Fighter.

The dancing was very fast paced, almost exclusively circle dancing.  Most of the dances consisted of 2 phrases of ~8 counts that were repeated ad infinitum.  There were 2 partner dances: one involved facing your partner and spinning for about 10 minutes; the other was about half running around in a big circle with everybody and half spinning with your partner.

One of the dances was particularly difficult.  I think the sequence of steps was 10 beats, meaning that it was realigning itself with respect to the 4/4 music.

The room was underground, poorly ventilated, and filled with 100+ people running around.  My undershirt (I had by now taken off my real shirt) was see through mid-way through the dancing.  During the one dance I sat out for, I went outside (it's about 0 Celsius at this point), took off my shirt, and sat down for about 5 minutes. When I put my shirt back on, the sweat on it hadn't dried, just cooled down to near freezing.  I promptly ran back inside (where the same song hadn't yet finished).

I think this was the most fun I've had in Budapest so far.  I will be going back.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTNLJ9q70KQ&feature=related
• http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS393US393&q=ud&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1366&bih=643
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1nch%C3%A1z
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqplKtzWpI&feature=related

Falafel for Five Hundred Forints: A Feature on Fast Food

The fast majority of local eateries fall into one of three species: Gyros, Bakeries, and Pubs

Gyros:

Of the three predominant species in Budapest, this invasive species, originally from the region around the Eastern Mediterranean Sea has established itself in the local fast food niche.  On my way to the subway station, I can turn left or right:  if I turn left, I pass "Pizza Non-Stop," a 24-hr pizza and gyros place; if I turn right, I pass 2 more 24-hr gyros places.

Bakeries:

This city is filled with bakeries.  From the language school, I can get to 3 bakeries without crossing a street (this is not due to the presence of some fiendishly clever system of sidewalks).  These bakeries have kilogram loaves of bread for 200 HUF, about $1.  Even better than the bread is the unbelievable abundance of pastries: burekas, strudel, rugalach, chocolate snails, cream-filled croissants, and many more that I couldn't name in English or Hungarian.  My particular favorite bakery also has a microwave too heat up your pastry - chocolaty-goo heaven.

Pubs:

On the same walk to the subway (see "Gyros"), I pass 1 pub before reaching the fork, 2 more when I go left, and at least 4 more when I go right.  Keep in mind the walk is less than four blocks.  Everybody has the Hungarian Dreher on tap (I've discovered I like dark beer) and hot mulled wine - perfect for when you've been walking all day in -2 °C.  It also turns out that it's very difficult to find gulyas (that's how they spell it) in restaurants; on the other hand, every pub has a huge pot brewing in the back.

On a related not, I went out to dinner with some friends for my birthday.  We went to a restaurant (that was also a pub).  I couldn't decide between french onion soup (which apparently means something different here) and gulyas as a starter, so I got both and passed on the entree.  It was the tastiest decision all week.

Webpages that may or may not be related:

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS393US393&q=csoki+csiga&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1366&bih=600&uss=1

Some Light Math with Tom and Hans

Today we had the BSM orientation where we listened to the director of the program talk about BSM, the facility, Budapest, and the courses.  We had a reception with some of the professors and all of the students on the program, allowing us to meet new students and talk to the professors.


I spoke with the Combinatorics 2A professor who was handing out problems for the first extra credit assignment:

1. In a group of 70 students, for every choice of distinct students A, B, student A knows a language which student B does not know.  At least how many languages do they know together.

2. I am in a 36-story building. I have with me two glass balls. I know that if I throw the ball out of the window, it won't ever break if the floor number is less than X, and it will always break if the floor number is equal to or greater than X. Assuming that I can reuse the balls which don't break, find X in the minimum number of throws.  (Copied without permission from http://www.tanyakhovanova.com/Puzzles/).

Looking at these, I wondered if he had heard the one with the chessboard and the mathematicians (if you haven't heard this story, suffice it to say that it was one of my triumphs of fall semester).  He hadn't:

3. The Devil kidnaps 2 mathematicians: A and B.  He tells them both that he has a chessboard in another room; on each square is a coin that is either heads or tails independently of all the other coins.  He will take A into the room and designate a specific square on the board.  Mathematician A will then have to flip exactly 1 coin on the board (it can be any coin on any square) and then leave the room.  Mathematician B must then enter the room and indicate which square the Devil originally designated, knowing nothing except the configuration of the board after A flipped one coin (which one is a mystery).  The two have time to discuss a strategy beforehand.  How do they succeed?

When I got home, my roommates and I discussed the classes we're thinking about taking.  I'm considering Conjecture & Proof, Topics in Geometry, Combinatorics 2A, Theory of Computing, and Topics in Analysis (the full list of classes can be found here).  We then decided to solve problems 1 and 2, which we did, at which point Tom related another problem he had heard from a professor:

4. You're on a boat 1 mile from a perfectly straight shoreline.  It's too cold for you too go above deck, so you cant actually see anything, and you don't know which way land is.  What is the best path to take to minimize the upper-bound on the time it takes you to find the shore.

We think we have the answer to this too.  Feel free to comment your thoughts on the puzzles.  If these have been too easy, I'm still stuck on one Erez gave me.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Szentendre
http://www.wimp.com/glasstransparent/
http://www.wimp.com/hawaiianukulele/

Google

I thought about naming this "Goodle," but it looked too stupid.

Anyway, everybody always jokes about how Google could (a) destroy or (b) take over the world in about a second.  But they also have the power to do some pretty great things.


Webpages that are most certainly relevant:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20030144-265.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/01/egypt.protests/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254304576116110110596324.html

EDIT:  Here's some more up to date news:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960804576119451124847090.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/middleeast/02jordan.html?_r=1&ref=abdullahii

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/world/middleeast/03yemen.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Israeli Dancing

Obviously I went Israeli Dancing.  It was nice.  If you're interested in a (slightly) more detailed account, continue reading.

I sent an open invitation to other BSM (that's Berkeley Semesters in Mathematics) students over our Facebook group for Israeli Dancing tonight.  Ben (who dances in Iowa) decided to come with.  I arrived a few minutes before the Beginner's Class and was introduced to the building and to the markid, George (actually Yuri), a local dancer who happens to be the palest Hungarian in the world (alright, maybe just in Hungary).  We started with "Anshei Hageshem" then continued to two dances that were new for me (one of which was something about a telephone which heavily featured a ringing phone and the one lyric "Hello?").  

Now learning a dance in a different language is not actually so bad.  I'm pretty used to following, so I was able to learn just by watching.  In the mean time, I learned words like "right" and "left."  The first word I recognized was "fly," which was used to describe the first step in "Anshei Hageshem."

At this point Ben left and I was left alone for the next 2.5 hours.  Line dances for 30 minutes and then open dancing until 10:15 or so.  The repertoire included a lot of dances that I know from Alonim ((J)CIT dances from the last 5 years or so) and some that I had never seen before (like the telephone one).  The crowd maxed out at less about 30 and coasted at 10-15 most of the evening.  There were some high school aged kids and one college student (thankfully they all speak English, along with the markid and an Israeli guy named Peter), but almost no men.  Turns out that they do almost no partner dances here: there aren't enough men and the women/girls aren't accustomed to all that touching.  As a result, they only played 3 partner dances.

Funny story:  I didn't know partner dances 1 and 2, and was sitting talking to a girl when "Bosem Tzarfati" came on.  My potential partner was already taken, but one of the high schoolers shoved her friend to me pretty forcefully:

Aloni: (extends hand) "Aloni"

Viki: (takes hand) "Viki"

Now she didn't know the dance, but she tried.  After, one of her friends either said "Jaj de cuki" ("How cute")or "Jaj de ciki" ("How embarrassing"), but I'm not sure which.

I also forgot to take a change of shoes - dancing in boots is not very pleasant.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun and (as it's even easier to get to than at home) I think I'll be going fairly often.  Finally I'm interacting with Hungarians, not just Americans on my program.  

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://www.israelidance.com/session/sessions/display.cfm?dbkey=16

http://readdancebliss.blogspot.com/

Splish Slash - I Was Taking a Bath

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://frozenbrody.blogspot.com/2010/08/budapest.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9chenyi_thermal_bath

Is that Laundry on the Ceiling of the Bathroom?

Yes, it certainly is.

Én a Magyarul Tanulok, Beszél Angolul?

When I ask Hungarians for things (restaurants, directions, etc.), conversations generally go one of the following ways:

1. Elnezest, beszél angolul (Excuse me, do you speak English):
1. Yes - conversation continues in English
2. Nem - They usually walk away
2. Elnezest, hol a Vásár utca (Excuse me, where is Vásár St.)
1. Answer in Hungarian and I struggle to understand
2. Answer in English and, though I'm happy to get worthwhile help, I'm a little let down
3. Nem beselek angolul - They definitely walk away

As I mentioned before, the first two and a half weeks of my stay in Budapest involve a 9-to-4 Hungarian language course.  Though it is still a struggle, my difficulty has evolved:

1. Is she asking me a question?  Am I supposed to answer?  "20 éves vagyok."... I guess not.
2. Do I really know this many words in English?  What are the chances I will need to say "refrigerator" in Hungarian?  Well, "mushroom" is "gomba" which is kind of like "goomba" which is like Mario who likes mushrooms - I can remember that.
3. If I'm going "to" school, is it "iskolaba" or "iskolabal?" Maybe it's "iskolaról?" (this word came to mind because it's one of about six cognates).  What if I'm going "towards" school?  Is being "near" school different that being "at" school?  Are you "in" the school or "on" the school?  How is eating "an" apple different than eating "the" apple?

I've somewhat overcome Stage 1 and have come to terms with only picking up a fraction of the vocabulary thrown at me, but this grammar business is difficult.  Generally word roots are modified by a never-ending series of prefixes and suffixes that alter the meaning in increasingly subtle ways.  Whereas, when speaking in Spanish or in Hebrew, I can borrow the structure of the desired sentence from English, translating almost word-for-word (though I do not have to translate in this manner when speaking Hebrew), Hungarian's grammar makes this approach impossible, making even the simplest sentences a challenge to construct.  That was an awesome sentence, was it not?

For instance:

son = fiú

Her son = fia

With her son = fiával

She lives with her husband and her son in New York. = Él férjé|vel és fi|á|val New York|ban. ('|' denotes an affix)

Words like "with," "for," "from," "to," "until," "toward," "away," "up," "down," "across," are all replaced by prefixes and suffixes.

One thing that makes this language nice is that written Hungarian is that the language is 100% phonetic.  If you can say it (say it properly, that is), you can write it, and vice-versa.  The only problem with this is fighting my instincts when it comes to pronouncing some of the letters:

s = "sh"

sz = "s"

c = "ts"

cs = "ch"

j = ly = "y"

gy = I'm still trying to figure this one out

"n" < ny < "ñ"

The vowels are also difficult: there are two versions of each vowel (except for 'o' and 'u', of which there are four).  There is also a concept of "vowel harmony;" the 2nd person plural possessive ending for a noun might be '-tok,' '-tek,' '-tök,' '-otok,' '-atok,' '-etek,' or '-ötök' depending on not only the last syllable of the word, but also the combination of vowels withing the word.  Because only the last word in a compound word needs to be taken into account for vowel harmony, you also need to know the etymology of words like "számítógép."

Despite all this, I'm enjoying the course very much, especially because it is a great venue to meet other students on the program.  I imagine that as the semester begins, we will stop travelling in packs wherever we go.  Also, we get to ask our teachers some pretty random questions about living in Hungary that would otherwise go unanswered.

Added bonus: CD of 23 of the choicest Hungarian children's songs.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_language#Noteworthy_lexical_items

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_term

http://www.amazon.com/Pygmalion-Thrift-Editions-George-Bernard/dp/0486282228

http://translate.google.com/#en|hu|She%20lives%20with%20her%20husband%20and%20her%20son%20in%20New%20York%0A

In Other Countries, Folk Music is Actually Folk Music

Right now I am taking the optional 2.5 week Hungarian language course, which I have yet to write about (but I will), leaving evenings free to pretty much do as I please.  The problem is that it gets dark 1 hour after classes end.

On Tuesday evening, some of my classmates and I decided to go to a local pub to see a Roma (Gypsy) folk band.  We entered the pub and were the only non-Hungarians in the place, probably because the pub can't be seen from the street.  It was snowing outside and I hadn't had dinner, so I ordered gulyas and hot wine.  You can't really get gulyas in restaurants, only pubs; this was to be my first bowl.  It was a soup (not as stew-y as I had imagined) packed with vegetables, potatoes, meat, and paprika.  Combined with the hot wine, I was very full and very warm.

The pub had a bar as you walked in, a sitting area to your right and a door to your left.  Through the door was another seating area in a long, dimly lit, room with couches and chairs galore.  At the front was the stage where the band was setting up.

The band: 2 violins, 2 violas, an accordion, an upright bass, and a singer.  The music was usually very fast and festive with a very involved bass line.  The band would back the singer up for a few minutes and then start playing faster and faster, with the violins with a unison melody line that was so fast it was hard to see their fingers moving.  The violas played with the instrument held against their sternum vertically (okay, "vertically" is ambiguous, but if you try to imagine it, only one orientation will really make sense).  The music made you want to dance, but (a) there was no room and (b) I don't yet know how to dance to Roma folk music.

The closest thing I could find is linked below, but our band was bigger, faster, and our bassist wasn't using a bow.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPZ06fX5rw&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulash

It's Cold

Long-Johns ... Check

Saturday Night - A Study in Surprises

Some of friends and I decided Saturday night was going to be an evening of culture.  We found a listing for a folk music show and decided we were going.  Saturday afternoon, I try to find out more about the show before we go and, wouldn't you know it, it's benefit concert for a children's hospital being put on by the local JCC.  Apparently I just can't escape the Jewish world.  Deciding that we didn't want to go (don't worry, folk music is hopefully happening tomorrow).  This leaves us without a plan, but an urge to go out.

We meet some other kids on the program at an amazing ruinpub called Szimpla.  This bar is a 2 story building with a courtyard and something like six separate bars for drinks.  The atmosphere is pretty relaxed and is definitely a place we will return to.

After a beer, we head out to a night club Corvin.  We don't exactly know where it is, but we haven't stopped hearing about it since we arrived.  Walking around at 11:00 at night when it's something like 1 °C can be fun, especially when trying to get directions from locals who don't speak English.  Turns out that last week there was a Panic! At The Disco (at a different disco that is) and, as everybody rushed to the exit, 3 women were trampled.  As a result, Corvin was closed (same management?).

This leaves us aimless again.  We head back into Szimpla hoping to find a helpful local, but almost ready to call it a night.  We decide to ask just one person before heading home.  I choose an Arab looking guy assuming that he'll speak English:

Aloni: "Excuse me.  Do you know where we can find a good club?"
Ahmed: "Sure.  You should head to Morrison's 1.  You can get there by...(directions)..."
Chris (one of our party): "Where are you from anyway?"
Ahmed: "Riyadh"
Chris: "No way!  I spent a few years there in high school"

Ahmed get's very excited, hands his beer to his brother and - with only a hoodie (apparently that's correct spelling) for warmth - escorts us to Morrison's 1.  This walk, it turns out, should only have taken about 6 min. It took 20-25 at an impressive pace due to the fact that Ahmed only had a general idea of where the club was.

Finally we arrive at the club (about 1-1.5 hours after we left Szimpla the first time) and Ahmed (convinced at this point that I'm Persian because "you can always tell by the eyes") takes us inside.  It's a smoke-filled bar with karaoke and a dance floor and the following age distribution:

Songs we heard while dancing:

• Somewhere Over the Rainbow - IZ
• New York, New York - Frank Sinartra
• Hit the Road Jack - Ray Charles
• They Don't Care About Us - Michael Jackson

Songs we heard at karaoke:

• Zombie - The Cranberries
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - JET
• Rapper's Delight - Sugarhill Gang
• A selection of Hungarian favorites with which we eagerly sang along

Needless to say it was hilarious.

On our way out of the club, my clothes and my person reeking of cigarette smoke, we head to the trolley (which you might note is running at 4:15 am.  During our ride home, we had the pleasure of listening to a group of Hungarian metal-heads discussing their sexual liaisons in crude English.  Needless to say, it too was hilarious.

On a completely unrelated topic, I woke up today to find it snowing.  "Giddy" would best describe my morning commute.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://www.oldmansmusicpub.com/ (see "Languages")

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129167/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKMgleUxD9w

Contact

Europe is GMT +1.  The best way to reach me is email, Facebook, or chat (g & Facebook).  Skype by appointment only.


Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(word_game)

The First Day

Monday, January 17:

As I get off the plane, I find Gabriel, my guide, waiting with my name on a card.  We get into a taxi and soon pull up to an old building in an old street with an old stone road underfoot.  We step into an old elevator whose doors are unforgiving and arrive at the door of my apartment.  Ready to step into an cold, foreboding apartment,  I open the door and am met with a fully furnished apartment significantly nicer than the one I had in Berkeley (and at half the price).  My new roommate hands me a local phone and a letter from the previous students who lived in the same apartment - it was a great welcome.

After having slept 2 hours in 28, I went right to sleep.

Tuesday:

As soon as we're all awake, my roommates and I go for a 2 hour walk from Point A (apartment) to Point B.


View Larger Map

It was a beautiful day, about 40° F, and from the top of Point B (Gellert Hill), we had a beautiful view of the city.  Also, there are ravens.  They're intimidating.

At this point, Atilla, our landlord calls us and tells us we have to come back to let a worker into the apartment (he doesn't have a key).

<flashback time="1000">
While I breakfast, tasty snacking, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping the apartment's door.

It was a Hungarian with a wrench, demanding to be let into the apartment, gesturing and explaining in Hungarian (which is a crazy language).  We didn't let him in.
</flashback>

Apparently they were working on the gas line and needed to shut off our apartment's gas, requiring us to leave our hill and return to the apartment.

On the way, I split from my roommates to go get some groceries for myself from Tesco - the Walmart of Hungary.  It is located in Arena Plaza, the largest shopping mall in the country which happens to be across the street from me.  I walk into the mall and am met with Bruno Mars on the radio and familiar clothing brands in the stores; I guess malls are the same everywhere.  Then I enter Tesco and the most challenging grocery trip of my life began.

The shopping carts are chained together. Hmm... Maybe this *yank*.... or this *poke*... Maybe I'll just watch somebody else get a shopping cart. *Stand by shopping carts, looking stupid* ... *Watch closely as somebody inserts coin into lock mechanism, releasing cart* ... *Get weird look from the guy for being so interested in his hands*. 


Okay, to the produce - no problems here.  Cereal, check; yogurt, check; hummus, check.  I'll get some sliced meat for sandwiches. Salami, salami, salami,... I wonder how you say "turkey" in Hungarian. I've got an idea: go to the meat counter and find something that looks like poultry, memorize that word, and go back to the sliced meats (it works).


Okay, now I'll just go to the cashier, not say a word, and everything will be fine. *Beep*, *Beep*, should I start bagging?...*Beep*, I don't see any bags... *Beep*, maybe he'll do it at the end...*Pay*... Umm, can I have a bag? Bag...umm...*point!* (that '!' is because I'm excited to find a bag, not exasperated or being rude).  Oh, I guess you have to pay for these.


Now I'll relock the cart. Oh! I get my coin back! And I'll just walk to my apartment.  Oh yeah, there's a train station in the way and the walk is a kilometer.  This won't be so bad.  Sack of potatoes in left hand, sack of oranges in right hand, divide the rest of the bags in two and *walk*....


*Rest*, *massage hands*, *massage shoulders*, *walk*...


Pasta for dinner and bed at 8:00.  The next morning I couldn't move my shoulders. Off to ulpan!


We pages that may or may not be relevant:

http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2009/02/how-to-easily-add-interactive-google.html
http://translate.google.com/#en|hu|turkey%0A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell%C3%A9rt_Hill

First Class

As I walk into the plane, I am directed to the left where I would share a cabin with 6 others.  As I'm directed to my private pod, one of the fantastic flight attendants asks if I would like a "Sleeper Suit." Having changed into said suit, and preparing to unceremoniously stuff my jeans into my backpack:

"Would you like me to hang your trousers for you?" (Remember the British accent).

Though my jeans are certainly far from trousers, I take the offer.  As we take off, and I settle down with my book, I'm presented with a dinner menu, complete with appetizers, entrées, sides, desserts, and a wine list.  I start with a white bean, garlic and thyme soup, served with what is best described as garlic focaccia bread, and move onto a very sizable piece of seared halibut, with various vegetables (including something called a haricot vert) and chutney.

Now, I don't actually know what a chutney is, but when I saw it there on my plate, wondering what it was, I decided that that's what I would call it.

I decided to have a nice glass of 2008 white wine from Burgundy, France.  I chose the white wine for a number of reasons:

1. The guy across the way had ordered white wine.
2. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I seem to recall that white wine goes well with fish.

I chose this specific white wine because it came from Burgundy.

After dinner, I watched Buried with Ryan Reynolds which is about a guy buried alive.  Though the camera never leaves the coffin, and it used the same overly dramatic, classically-musicked, dimming-light, zooming-out fade three or four times, I enjoyed it.

On my way to the bathroom, the flight attendant asks, "Shall I prepare your bed for you?"  As I walk back, she is tucking tucking the sheet around my now horizontal seat/bed with blanket and pillow.  I lay down and realize the bed is exactly 5' 11" (I am 5' 10.5").  I always have trouble sleeping on planes and this was no exception.  After about 2 hours of decent rest, I wake up with a grumbling stomach (I did skip dessert mind you).  I am brought a plate of cheese and a basket of "biscuits" (which aren't actually biscuits - they're crackers).  On this plate is what looks like strawberry jam, but I am surprised when I taste it.  Not being able to name the mysterious sauce, I decide that it too is a chutney.

From there it's only three hours until landing, which is occupied by reading, another menu, mushroom crepes served with a croissant (this time pronounced with a French accent), and my own small kettle of English breakfast tea, and a view of London from above.

As I was departing from the plane, the man in front of me was on his BlackBerry.  On a piece of paper in front of him, titled Exit Festival July 7/8/9/10 was a numbered list of musical artists, including Wyclef Jean and Deadmau5.  Having since then looked at the lineup for this Serbian music festival neither artist is confirmed to appear.  Let the speculation begin!

Now I'm passing the time until the next flight.  By the way, Heathrow is an amazing airport.

Webpages that may or may not be relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutney

http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqharicotvert.htm