Despite my original plan to have a quiet and homework filled weekend, I actually ended up doing quite a bit. Luckily I’m still doing pretty well on my homework, and I think I’m pretty much set until I get back from Egypt.

A bunch of us had opera tickets to see Otello on Thurday night. We all dressed up in whatever dress clothes we could cobble together, ate a quick bite at McDonalds (we were late and it was close), and then headed to the Opera House. The Opera House in Budapest is really gorgeous. It’s big and ornate and just seems like what an opera house should be. We were sitting way up in the top balcony on the side, so I had to crane my neck a bit to see the stage, but it was kind of fun to be able to watch the other operagoers in the seats below. The opera itself was well done, but the language thing made it a bit hard for me to appreciate it. We had a plot summary which covered the outline of the story (it’s just Othello), but the individual arias were still incomprensible. The music was nice though, and I had a nice view of the pit orchestra.

Friday was pretty quiet, but Adam and I did go to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Wabisabe for dinner. I was somewhat apprehensive about eating at a vegan restaurant, but it ended up being one of the best dining experiences I’ve had here. The fact that the restaurant was vegan actually ended up being very good for me, because it meant that nothing had milk in it. They had pizzas without cheese and cream soups made with rice milk, for instance. I ended up having a sort of pasta dish made with seitan, which is a wheat based meat substitute. It was really quite good. I’ve always said that I would never become a vegetarian because I would have to be a vegan, but that would be so bad if I could just eat at that restaurant all of the time :).

On Saturday I did some homework in the morning and then went wandering for a while. I ended up on Vaci utca, which is one of the more touristy shopping streets in Budapest. I’ve been told many times not to buy anything there (because it’s expensive), but it was fun to browse. There was a really big English language bookstore which I poked around for a while, and I also found an international newsstand which had some American newspapers and magazines. Saturday afternoon I played ultimate frisbee for a while, and then went over to Kelly and Rachel’s apartment for dinner, frequent games of boggle, and a bit of analysis homework.

People mentioned Saturday night that they were going to Estergom, a city about an hour-and-a-half north of Budapest, so I decided I’d check it out. We caught a train on Sunday morning made it to the town at about lunchtime. The main attraction in Estergom is the largest basilica in Hungary, which I think is also one of the largest in Europe. It’s right on the Danube at the top of a hill, and it really is pretty impressive looking. The interior is much more open than the Basilica in Budapest, though it is somewhat less ornate. We got to go down into the crypts and see the tombs of some of the Cardinals based there. We also climbed to the very top of the dome and got a great view of the city and the surrounding countryside. We had to navigate something like 300 steps in this tiny spiral staircase that looked like it had no support, but it was definitely worth it.

Before we left Estergom those of us who remembered our passports walked over the border to Slovakia just to say that we did (and to get passport stamps :). I felt a little bit ridiculous walking across the border in one direction and then turning right around and coming back, but I figure it’s okay to be a dumb American tourist once in a while. Anyhow, we caught the 4:50 train back to Budapest, after which I made mushroom barley soup and did some homework.

All-in-all it was a good weekend. I put a bunch of pictures up from Estergom and I began to create some categories for my photos. I still need to add names and descriptions to a lot of them, but it’s progress. This will probably be my last blog post before I go to Cairo, but hopefuly I’ll have some exciting stories after that.

BREAKING NEWS: I’m going to Cairo next week! I would not have predicted Egypt as a weekend destination, but we found a really cheap airfare, and the opportunity was just too good to pass up. I will have to miss one probability lecture and I’ll be gone from late next Thursday to late Sunday night, but I think the chance to see the pyramids is worth the hassle of having to work ahead in my classes.

I have also received some criticism for not replying to questions left in the comments. Here are the answers to all of the questions in the last few comments. Let me know if I missed any…

whoa sweet! how’s the living conditions?

Our apartment is pretty decent. It’s nicer than any of the dorms I’ve stayed in since it has a bathroom and kitchen, but it’s very small compared to some of the apartments that other people in the program are staying at. Theirs are just ridiculous though (13 ft ceilings, multiple bedrooms, one even had a piano), so I can’t really complain. My parents keep asking me for pictures, and I intend to post some soon, but I need to do some cleaning first :).

How‘s Adam learning the language if he got in after it finished/while it was finishing?

He’s picked up what he needs to know from living here. To be honest, most of the things we learned in the language program aren’t particularly useful on a day to day basis. Yes we learned how to conjugate verbs, but the odds of remebering all of the rules and knowing the appropriate verb in a conversation are slim to none. He’s learned the essentials, like how to buy fruit, and you can really get by with English for everyhthing else.

what were you in the language program?

I believe this was in reference to my statement that I am now a student again (after starting math), rather than being a general existential query. The language program really felt more like summer camp than school. We certainly had lots of class and even homework, but there were no tests or grades, so there wasn’t really much pressure to study a lot outside of class. Sure I probably would have learned Hungarian better if I had gone home and reviewed it for hours on end, but I think it was more important to get to know people and learn more about the city.

I know I owe several of you some emails. I have actually started them, but I ended up spending some of this morning on line buying a plane ticket instead of writing. I will finish writing the emails this evening and I will send them when I get back online tomorrow morning.

And now, off to class…

Well I made it through the first week of class. Things have started out pretty slowly, so it’s hard to get a sense of how much work things will be, but my schedule seems to work out decently at the moment. Graph theory has been mostly review of what I learned in Combinatorics, but we’re quickly approaching the boundaries of my knowledge, and I’m interested in seeing what we cover next.

I think that Analysis may actually my best class, despite the fact that I was least enthusiastic about it at the beginning. The professor is very organized and I know a lot of people in the class. I’m still a bit frightened at the prospect of having to remember calculus, but I’m cautiously optimistic that the class will be good.

My probability class only has three people in it, but the professor says he will teach it anyway. (Technically a class can be dropped if it has fewer than six). It seems like it will be fairly easy. I’m sure the math will get harder, but the professor seems inclined to go over lots of example problems, which is something of a rarity in upper level math.

Unfornately Bioinformatics was something of a disappointment. The subject seems really interesting, but the first lecture was just not very good. The professor started off by talking about methods for sequence alignment, but he failed to adequately define what sequence alignment is and the entire class was pretty lost. It wasn’t that the subject was too hard, the professor just didn’t present it very well. There was also talk of moving the class to Wednesday at 8:00 am, which would mean I would have 9 consecutive hours of class on Wednesdays. I’ll definitely go to a few more classes and see if I can follow them better once I’ve read more of the book, but if things don’t improve I’ll drop the class.

Anyway, that was pretty much my week. I’m kind of frustrated about the bio class, but other than that I think that things will turn out okay. I’ll post again regarding my non-math activities before too long, but they were pretty limited last week, so you didn’t miss too much.

Went to the National Museum yesterday (Sunday). It contains exhibits covering Hungary’s history from 1000 to the present day. Unfortunately, after the first room the individual objects were no longer labeled in English. The larger placards describing the period were still translated, but it was frustrating not knowing what things were. Oh well, it’s not like that’s a rare occurence around here.

Classes start today. Here’s my probable schedule:

Monday

10:00 – 12:00 Graph Theory

Tuesday

10:00 – 12:00 Topics in Analysis

Wednesday

10:00 – 12:00 Graph Theory
12:00 – 2:00 Probability Theory
2:00 – 5:00 Hungarian Culture

Thursday

10:00 – 12:00 Topics in Analysis

Friday

8:00 – 10:00 Probability Theory
2:00 – 4:00 Stochastic Models in Bioinformatics

I was originally planning on taking three math classes and the culture class, but bioinformatics class looks really cool, so I’m going to try four. I have three weeks before I have to officially register, so I can always change my mind.

We finished the language program this week. It was a good experience, but I’m glad it’s over. I was getting pretty burned out from so much class, and we were sort of reaching the point of diminishing returns anyway. To really learn more of the language I think I would have to go back and spend some more time with the fundamentals.

Adam (my roommate) got in on Monday. It’s been nice to have somebody around to talk to. We’ve done quite a bit of grocery shopping, and I think we now have a pretty well stocked kitchen. A lot of pasta, but I suppose that’s to be expected.

Over the last few days I’ve taken the opportunity to visit some places around the city. Yesterday I went with Adam and Saiying to one of the art museums. There was an exhibition on “Durer and his Contemporaries” that we wanted to see, and we took the opportunity to browse the rather extensive permanent collection. The Durer exhibition was really cool. It was a series of woodblock prints that were almost Dr. Suess like in their imaginativeness. There was one piece that consisted of over a hundred prints that depicted a fifty meter long parade. We spent quite some time examining it, but there were so many details I feel as though I could stare at it for hours.

Yesterday evening I was planning to stay around the appartment, but Adam suggested that we look for a cafe we could sit at and read. Partway through our search we ran into George and Jamie, who are here for a cognitive science program. We ended up hanging out with them for a while and discussing some of the differences between our respective programs. They are housed in a sort of dorm, which I suppose has advantages and disadvantages. They get internet access, but they don’t have a kitchen or washing machine. While I’d be willing to sacrifice quite a bit for internet access, I think I’m glad we are living in an appartment. It’s a little bit more independent, and I’ve learned a lot just by doing things like grocery shopping.

We have orientation this afternoon. We should finally get the official course schedule and get a chance to meet some of the professors. I’m actually really looking forward to starting classes on Monday. It will be really nice to have a regular routine and to be a student again.