z=y?

I promise the title of this post isn't a math equation. Actually, it's in regards to Hungarian computers. The school in which I study has a computer lab for student use. It's a very nice lab with printing facilities and fast computers. I bring my computer to school with me, so I don't have much occasion to use this amenity, however, I decided I should set up an account with the school so that I can use the computers should necessity arise. I went to the tech services room and asked if I could set up an account and he replied with the cursory "of course" (side note: in Hungary, in a service-type setting, if you ask for something, they never say "yes," rather they say, "of course." This phrase doesn't have the high-and-mighty connotation that it has in the USA, rather, it's a cordial statement implying servitude.) He asked me to type my last name in a field box (actually he asked for my family name... I love Europe) which I accomplished no problem. Predictably, he asked for my first name, which I was surprised to see came out at Eliyabeth. In Hungary the z and the y keys' places are switched on the keyboard!?! I didn't forsee that! Taking a closer look at the keyboard, the "@" sign is not on the "2" key. Instead there's the pounds sign, as in the currency of England. The @ sign take the place of the quotation marks. In Hungary they don't use quotes. If I were to write dialogue, it would look like this:
,How are you?'
,I'm fine, thanks.'
Europe is just so efficient: they never have superflous stuff like we do in America.

In terms of math, I had my first combinatorics class. It's great! When I asked someone what combinatorics is, they replied, "say you have 6 blue turtles, and 11 red turtles, how many ways can you stack them?" I'm not sure how turtles were picked to be the subject of the example, nevertheless, that's combinatorics in a nutshell. My favorite thing about it is that it has NUMBERS! Math doesn't have numbers anymore, only letters. While keeping math restricted to variables forces generality (which is fascinating!) it's really nice to have such concrete problems! My Abstract Algebra teacher suggested that I take it, knowing that I miss numbers, and I am so grateful that she recommended it! I actually see a lot of computer science in Combinatorics. I am NOT a computer scientist; it's too frusterating and picky for me. However, the ideas behind it are amazing, and so using the techniques of recursion to solve a math problem is really cool.

It was one of my best friend and roommate's 21st birthday last night. A couple of us made her a cake! In terms of culinary techniques, I have no talent. I have been known to ruin "just-add-water brownies" and Macoroni and Cheese made from a box with a cheese powder. Thus, under the best circumstances, baking a cake is a nerve-racking endeavor. Therefore, when my friend Sarah brought the cake mix to my apartment, imagine my bewilderment when I saw that the very long, complicated directions were in Hungarian! There were four packages of different mixes, and we also had to add other ingredients. One of the mixes didn't congeal into frosting like (we think) it was supposed to, and another one turned into a concrete-esque substance. The picture showed that there were cherries in the cake, but the word our dictionary gave for cherries never appeared in the directions. So we guessed an got a bunch of cherries. We poured a package marked "gelezin" into them, hoping that maybe it would turn into a jello-like mix. It didn't. We put the cherries into the soupy frosting thinking that it might help it congeal. It didn't. So we picked the cherries out and put them into the concrete substance, thinking that perhaps they would dilute the concoction. It sort of worked, and so we spooned some of the soupy (now pink) frosting into the concrete and came up with a happy medium that was pink and tasted like.... nothing. As soon as I put my pictures on my computer, I'll upload one of what the cake was SUPPOSED to look like, and what it ended up looking like. They are two very different pictures. Surprisingly, it was edible! But only barely. Maybe I need to continue with my Hungarian lessons.

Happy Friday!