I have now been back in America for almost two months. While I don't have anything truly out of the ordinary to report (since I'm living a pretty typical college-age summer life) I thought it might be interesting to do one last update to this blog.
My flight back to the states was uneventful; I took some Tylenol PM and was able to sleep fairly peacefully on the Trans-Atlantic journey. There weren't any crying babies or obnoxious aisle partners to disturb me, so I was fairly alert for my first American experience in 5 months. I had a lay-over in O'Hare, and so as I entered the long hallway leading to all the gates, I can say with complete honesty that I was terrified. I felt like the walls were screaming "BUY SOMETHING! SPEND MONEY!" There were too many people all speaking too loudly, congregated near one of the 5 McDonalds within sight, or buying glossy magazines and large flavored coffees. However, I must admit that I went to an overpriced book and bagel shop and bought a huge Diet Coke, which I guzzled as I sat in a puddle of insecurity at gate 57.
I don't really remember entering the Minneapolis airport. It's like my senses were so overloaded that I didn't have any room to make new memories. I do remember seeing my parents. That was so cool. It was like nothing had changed, and they were just picking me up from college (only they were really excited). Riding home was an adventure. I was not used to riding in automobiles, and so the luxury of having my own space was really unsettling. I was very used to cramming in the Metro or in Trams and Trolleys, making sure that all my belongings were held in such a way as to make theft less of a possibility. The idea that I could place my purse on the seat next to me and look out the window was luxurious. I was also surprised at how HUGE the cars were! In Eastern Europe everyone drove tiny little manual cars and many people all sqeezed in cars together, which was a huge contrast to the gas-guzzling SUV's and pick-up trucks that seated one person. It was really sickening: testosterone-filled males feel that they can purchase giant trucks, not to be used to carry heavy objects in the cargo area, but for the sole purpose of fufilling a Freudian masculinity requirement.
The first thing I had to eat was a HUGE hamburger. I never had a love for ground beef until I couldn't find it. It was better than the gormet meals of Hungary. I used an inappropriate amount of ketchup, glorying in the fact that it wasn't the sweet and viscous European "ketchup."
I slept like the dead that night, although the silence of my rural home was, for a time, positively deafening. I was so used to sleeping through the drunken songs of young Hungarians that the normal chirping of birds and singing of frogs practically kept me awake.
Although I'm starting to get over it, I still have a bit of trouble with the constant consumerism of the United States. I never noticed how vibrant everything is, and by that I mean that every bit of, well, everything is pondered! I never knew I was capable of writing such an un-informative sentence as that previous one. It was like I was living in a world of commercials; everyone and everything was trying to penetrate me in an attempt to sell me something that I "needed."
When I think back to my experience abroad, there are some parts of it that are constantly prominant in my memory. Here's a list of them:
*Krakow: Oscar Schindler's factory, Auswitz, and Birkenau. I have never had such a life changing experience. I am a very changed person regarding my views of the Holocaust. I watched Schinder's List the other day, and it was a terrifically difficult experience for me.
*Statue Park: That eerie music playing in the lonely, expansive courtyard containing huge remants of such an oppresive era.
*Turkey: I took a day off and did my homework in a park situated directly in between the Haggia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and adjacent to the Topkapi Palace. I drank freshly squeezed orange juice and ate Turkish sweet bread and did math. It was wonderful.
*Meeting the Muslim people: I have never met such a friendly, genuine group before. It's hard for me to hear the government and the public critiscizing the Muslims in general, when it is such a tiny group of them committing evils to the United States. I want to scream to some people, "I spent afternoons sitting in the sun and drinking orange juice with these people, talking about the merits of being close to your family! One of the most wonderful people I met was named Ocean, the translation of the name Genghis. He would drop anything to make my day better, and he was always ready to laugh, a trait that is diminishing in Americans."
*Figuring out how to shop without a Target: To get soap you needed a drug store, to get towels you needed a linen store, for food you needed a grocery store, for paper you needed a stationary store. I feel that we're lazy and pampered having everything we need owned by the same corporation.
*The Croatian night-life: sitting in open bars and pubs located right next to the Aegean sea. Usually there were park swings instead of chairs. How wonderful.
*The stores were always organized by color. It was so easy for me... I just found the pink section and was happy.
*Meeting my mom and sister in Prague: I hated Prague, but I loved hanging out with my family.
*Public Transportation: I have sooo many memories of taking public transportation.
"Speaking Hungarian: I still can't toast drinks in English.
That's about all I have to say in my Epilogue. I'm happy to be back, but I'm terribly homesick for Budapest. I really came into myself in that city. I feel like I can do anything after my 5 months spent over there. Enjoy America, but travel a lot!!!!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
For Carl
Here I am, sitting in an internet cafe in the heart of Budapest for the last time. There is so much I didn't do and so many things I didn't say. For future Budapest Semesters in Mathematics students, here's my advice:
* Take the classes that work for you. The course work here is very difficult, and I saw many students become miserable as they tried to keep up with a schedule that was too demanding. Part of the learning is becoming acclimated to a completely different environment. If it means taking one less math course but spending more time seeing plays or dining out, so be it. You will have learned more in the end.
* Take the class called Elementary Problem Solving. The title of it scared a lot of people off because it seemed so trivial, but in reality, it was an opportunity for me to be exposed to so many interesting subjects. For example, before that class, I had it firmly fixed in my head that I hated game theory because it was only for computer scientists. Now, I realized I actually really enjoy it, thanks to Elementary Problem Solving.
* Take the intensive language course prior to the math classes. It does cost extra, but it gives you a chance to form immediate bonds with your fellow students, which will become increasingly important as the semester goes on. You also learn survival Hungarian: things like numbers, "hello", "goodbye", and "where is the bathroom."
* Take a lot of pictures right away. Things will have not lost their ambiance, and you will also be okay with appearing as a tourist. Right now I'd rather crawl into a hole than look like a tourist since I've been here for so long. I rarely take pictures of Budapest any more.
*Bring peanut butter with you. I know you can buy it at certain places, like Tesco or some organic markets, but it took me a long time to discover these places, and right at the beginning of your time here, you might need something familiar, and a peanut butter sandwich is one of the best remedies for this homesickness.
Hopefully that will help someone, someday. Rather than getting sentimental, I decided to end this blog with the paper I wrote for my History of Math class. I realized that Carl Sagan was the reason I got into math and communication, and so it's only fitting that his story closes my account of my semester of Hungarian mathematics. My information came entirely from www.carlsagan.com, and www.wikipedia.com. I realize wikipedia is not a valid source, but I took only information that was cited.
Carl Sagan was one of the most influential scientists of our time. He had the gift of communication; not only was he brilliant, making huge strides in many disciplines, he successfully communicated his ideals to the general public. Carl Sagan is possibly most widely known for two of his publications. One, Cosmos, published in 1980, was not only the best selling science book published in English, but was also made into a mini-series that aired in 60 countries. This piece of work encompassed much of the known history of the universe up until its publishing. It started with the smallest particles and explained their relationship to the physical world, working all the way up to the principles of supernovae and black holes. The film production embraced the important and most interesting parts of the book. Carl Sagan himself starred in and narrated all 13 episodes, coining a recognizable method of describing large quantities, that is, “billions and billions.”
While Cosmos was a brilliant display of Sagan’s knowledge and his ability to place it within the public realm, his true passion lay within astronomy, as is revealed in the second book formerly mentioned, Contact. This work delved into the unknown, hypothesizing the consequences of an alien message received by Americans. These ramifications included religious outcries, political and economic issues, and of course, the mathematics behind all astronomy and astrophysics. For me, it was reading this book at the age of 13 that made me want to study higher mathematics. One of the main principles included in Contact is that the message received came in the form of prime numbers, such numbers never occurring naturally by any phenomena. This idea struck my fancy and hooked me into mathematics. Like Cosmos, this book was also made into a major motion picture starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Although Sagan died during the production of this movie, his work was carried out by his longtime spouse and friend, Ann Druyan, to whom he credits much of his work. Once again, Dr. Sagan successfully made his ideals available to the general public.
I call him Dr. Sagan, because he indeed had a Ph.D. as well as having received 22 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the nation due to his contributions to many different fields of study. While Cosmos and Contact were often peoples’ first tastes of Sagan, he has worked on many more projects. Since the 1950’s, Dr. Sagan was a consultant to NASA, briefing the Apollo astronauts and experimenting on such space craft such as the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo. Indeed, many facts that almost everyone learns in early schooling regarding characteristics of planets were discovered by Carl Sagan. For example, it was he that recognized that the extremely high climate on Venus is in fact due to the acute greenhouse effect, very similar in principle to that on Earth. He also realized that the seasons on Mars were due to dust blowing, and that Titan (a moon of Saturn) houses organic molecules.
At the time of his death, Sagan was working at the Laboratory for Planetary Studies, based at Cornell University, as the David Duncan professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences. However, aside from this prestigious position, he twice earned Distinguished Public Services medal, the Apollo Achievement award, and the medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, all from NASA. The National Academy of Sciences awarded Sagan their highest honor: The Public Welfare Medal. According to this bureau, “Carl Sagan has been enormously successful in communicating the wonder and importance of science. His ability to capture the imagination of millions and to explain difficult concepts in understandable terms is a magnificent achievement.” Sagan was the President of the Planetary Society, which is the largest space-public-interest group. He has an Asteroid 2709 Sagan named after him as well as the landing site for the Pathfinder on Mars, he was awarded the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal from the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation and he received the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award from the American Astronautical Society. Sagan was the Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, and chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also was President of the Planetology section of the American Geophysical Union. While most of these awards and honors seem to center around astronomy, he was received awards and accreditation for his research on the consequences of nuclear war, and is given credit to helping reverse the nuclear arms race. He left the legacy of the Carl Sagan Foundation, which strives toward continuing public science-education on the entire planet. Not only does this foundation preach the merits of science, but it also reminds the people of the dangers of misuse of technologies. Sagan always had very extreme beliefs that science could not give all the answers. Indeed, he was quoted widely for saying, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Sagan was always very interested in the question of whether or not there is life in the Universe. In fact, he was such a public figure in this area, that on his birthday in 2001, NASA dedicated the Ames Research Center’s site for the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Cosmos. He studied the famous Drake Equation, which states that the number of advanced civilizations in the Universe with which communication is possible (N) is equal to the rate of star formation in the galaxy times the fraction of stars with planets times the average number of planets that can support life per star times the fraction of these planets that develop life at some point times the fraction of THOSE planets that develop intelligent life at some point times the fraction of civilizations that become technologically advanced enough to release detectable signs of their existence into space times the length of time these civilizations send signals into space. These values, while educated guesses, are merely guesses. The figures of each parameter have been changed and recalculated many times, and currently the value for N is .0000001. From a mathematical and hypothetical point of view, should any of these values be 0, N would be 0, proving there to be no life in the universe. However, that is assuming his equation to be accurate which no one can know. Regardless, Sagan was an advocate of it’s accuracy, but he recognized the Fermi Paradox, stating that while the Drake equation guarantees extraterrestrial life, there is an extreme lack of evidence for it. Using these facts and hypotheses, Sagan believed that all life forms have a tendency to destroy themselves. Thus originated his interest and research on the long-term consequences of a nuclear holocaust.
While Sagan popularized the ideas of alien intelligence, he didn’t, ironically, believe that “UFO’s” were signs of intelligence, or even real. However, he made popular the Bussard Ramjet as a way of showing the total uncertainty of the entire extraterrestrial life situation. The Bussard Ramjet is a hypothesized space craft of the 1960’s which worked upon the principle of compressing hydrogen from surrounding interstellar medium and fusing it, using the remains as the exhaust of a rocket and a means of acceleration. While this vehicle is far-fetched and highly advanced, Sagan used it to note that one could feasibly travel celestially without violating the physical constraints of the universe. Sagan quoted, “"I believe the numbers work out in such a way that UFO's as interstellar vehicles are extremely unlikely, but I think it is an equally bad mistake to say that interstellar space flight is impossible."
Carl Sagan died of pneumonia in 1996, after going through highly advanced medical procedures for months. He had a severe blood disease, often called pre-lukemia, that makes the body more susceptible to infections. He received such break-through health care only because he had made such a name for himself, and this troubled him. Thus, once of his legacies is The Carl Sagan Discovery Center, built with the cooperation of the Children’s Health Fund. It is dedicated to providing health care regardless of financial status. This center incorporates the most recent technology to make sure that children receive top notch health care.
Another one of his legacies, the one that supports the Discovery Center, is the Carl Sagan foundation, which strives to teach young people using the best science and technology. Sagan always wanted to make sure children had the opportunity to learn about the natural world, and this nonprofit organization in Sagan’s name assures that public science education continues.
Carl Sagan chose to preface a chapter in his book Contact with a quote by Vincent Van Gogh. I choose to end with it. “Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?” This was Carl Sagan’s driving question, and perhaps the question that makes his ideas so appealing to the rest of us.
Thank you for reading this account. Viszontlátásra!
* Take the classes that work for you. The course work here is very difficult, and I saw many students become miserable as they tried to keep up with a schedule that was too demanding. Part of the learning is becoming acclimated to a completely different environment. If it means taking one less math course but spending more time seeing plays or dining out, so be it. You will have learned more in the end.
* Take the class called Elementary Problem Solving. The title of it scared a lot of people off because it seemed so trivial, but in reality, it was an opportunity for me to be exposed to so many interesting subjects. For example, before that class, I had it firmly fixed in my head that I hated game theory because it was only for computer scientists. Now, I realized I actually really enjoy it, thanks to Elementary Problem Solving.
* Take the intensive language course prior to the math classes. It does cost extra, but it gives you a chance to form immediate bonds with your fellow students, which will become increasingly important as the semester goes on. You also learn survival Hungarian: things like numbers, "hello", "goodbye", and "where is the bathroom."
* Take a lot of pictures right away. Things will have not lost their ambiance, and you will also be okay with appearing as a tourist. Right now I'd rather crawl into a hole than look like a tourist since I've been here for so long. I rarely take pictures of Budapest any more.
*Bring peanut butter with you. I know you can buy it at certain places, like Tesco or some organic markets, but it took me a long time to discover these places, and right at the beginning of your time here, you might need something familiar, and a peanut butter sandwich is one of the best remedies for this homesickness.
Hopefully that will help someone, someday. Rather than getting sentimental, I decided to end this blog with the paper I wrote for my History of Math class. I realized that Carl Sagan was the reason I got into math and communication, and so it's only fitting that his story closes my account of my semester of Hungarian mathematics. My information came entirely from www.carlsagan.com, and www.wikipedia.com. I realize wikipedia is not a valid source, but I took only information that was cited.
Carl Sagan was one of the most influential scientists of our time. He had the gift of communication; not only was he brilliant, making huge strides in many disciplines, he successfully communicated his ideals to the general public. Carl Sagan is possibly most widely known for two of his publications. One, Cosmos, published in 1980, was not only the best selling science book published in English, but was also made into a mini-series that aired in 60 countries. This piece of work encompassed much of the known history of the universe up until its publishing. It started with the smallest particles and explained their relationship to the physical world, working all the way up to the principles of supernovae and black holes. The film production embraced the important and most interesting parts of the book. Carl Sagan himself starred in and narrated all 13 episodes, coining a recognizable method of describing large quantities, that is, “billions and billions.”
While Cosmos was a brilliant display of Sagan’s knowledge and his ability to place it within the public realm, his true passion lay within astronomy, as is revealed in the second book formerly mentioned, Contact. This work delved into the unknown, hypothesizing the consequences of an alien message received by Americans. These ramifications included religious outcries, political and economic issues, and of course, the mathematics behind all astronomy and astrophysics. For me, it was reading this book at the age of 13 that made me want to study higher mathematics. One of the main principles included in Contact is that the message received came in the form of prime numbers, such numbers never occurring naturally by any phenomena. This idea struck my fancy and hooked me into mathematics. Like Cosmos, this book was also made into a major motion picture starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Although Sagan died during the production of this movie, his work was carried out by his longtime spouse and friend, Ann Druyan, to whom he credits much of his work. Once again, Dr. Sagan successfully made his ideals available to the general public.
I call him Dr. Sagan, because he indeed had a Ph.D. as well as having received 22 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the nation due to his contributions to many different fields of study. While Cosmos and Contact were often peoples’ first tastes of Sagan, he has worked on many more projects. Since the 1950’s, Dr. Sagan was a consultant to NASA, briefing the Apollo astronauts and experimenting on such space craft such as the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo. Indeed, many facts that almost everyone learns in early schooling regarding characteristics of planets were discovered by Carl Sagan. For example, it was he that recognized that the extremely high climate on Venus is in fact due to the acute greenhouse effect, very similar in principle to that on Earth. He also realized that the seasons on Mars were due to dust blowing, and that Titan (a moon of Saturn) houses organic molecules.
At the time of his death, Sagan was working at the Laboratory for Planetary Studies, based at Cornell University, as the David Duncan professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences. However, aside from this prestigious position, he twice earned Distinguished Public Services medal, the Apollo Achievement award, and the medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, all from NASA. The National Academy of Sciences awarded Sagan their highest honor: The Public Welfare Medal. According to this bureau, “Carl Sagan has been enormously successful in communicating the wonder and importance of science. His ability to capture the imagination of millions and to explain difficult concepts in understandable terms is a magnificent achievement.” Sagan was the President of the Planetary Society, which is the largest space-public-interest group. He has an Asteroid 2709 Sagan named after him as well as the landing site for the Pathfinder on Mars, he was awarded the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal from the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation and he received the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award from the American Astronautical Society. Sagan was the Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, and chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also was President of the Planetology section of the American Geophysical Union. While most of these awards and honors seem to center around astronomy, he was received awards and accreditation for his research on the consequences of nuclear war, and is given credit to helping reverse the nuclear arms race. He left the legacy of the Carl Sagan Foundation, which strives toward continuing public science-education on the entire planet. Not only does this foundation preach the merits of science, but it also reminds the people of the dangers of misuse of technologies. Sagan always had very extreme beliefs that science could not give all the answers. Indeed, he was quoted widely for saying, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Sagan was always very interested in the question of whether or not there is life in the Universe. In fact, he was such a public figure in this area, that on his birthday in 2001, NASA dedicated the Ames Research Center’s site for the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Cosmos. He studied the famous Drake Equation, which states that the number of advanced civilizations in the Universe with which communication is possible (N) is equal to the rate of star formation in the galaxy times the fraction of stars with planets times the average number of planets that can support life per star times the fraction of these planets that develop life at some point times the fraction of THOSE planets that develop intelligent life at some point times the fraction of civilizations that become technologically advanced enough to release detectable signs of their existence into space times the length of time these civilizations send signals into space. These values, while educated guesses, are merely guesses. The figures of each parameter have been changed and recalculated many times, and currently the value for N is .0000001. From a mathematical and hypothetical point of view, should any of these values be 0, N would be 0, proving there to be no life in the universe. However, that is assuming his equation to be accurate which no one can know. Regardless, Sagan was an advocate of it’s accuracy, but he recognized the Fermi Paradox, stating that while the Drake equation guarantees extraterrestrial life, there is an extreme lack of evidence for it. Using these facts and hypotheses, Sagan believed that all life forms have a tendency to destroy themselves. Thus originated his interest and research on the long-term consequences of a nuclear holocaust.
While Sagan popularized the ideas of alien intelligence, he didn’t, ironically, believe that “UFO’s” were signs of intelligence, or even real. However, he made popular the Bussard Ramjet as a way of showing the total uncertainty of the entire extraterrestrial life situation. The Bussard Ramjet is a hypothesized space craft of the 1960’s which worked upon the principle of compressing hydrogen from surrounding interstellar medium and fusing it, using the remains as the exhaust of a rocket and a means of acceleration. While this vehicle is far-fetched and highly advanced, Sagan used it to note that one could feasibly travel celestially without violating the physical constraints of the universe. Sagan quoted, “"I believe the numbers work out in such a way that UFO's as interstellar vehicles are extremely unlikely, but I think it is an equally bad mistake to say that interstellar space flight is impossible."
Carl Sagan died of pneumonia in 1996, after going through highly advanced medical procedures for months. He had a severe blood disease, often called pre-lukemia, that makes the body more susceptible to infections. He received such break-through health care only because he had made such a name for himself, and this troubled him. Thus, once of his legacies is The Carl Sagan Discovery Center, built with the cooperation of the Children’s Health Fund. It is dedicated to providing health care regardless of financial status. This center incorporates the most recent technology to make sure that children receive top notch health care.
Another one of his legacies, the one that supports the Discovery Center, is the Carl Sagan foundation, which strives to teach young people using the best science and technology. Sagan always wanted to make sure children had the opportunity to learn about the natural world, and this nonprofit organization in Sagan’s name assures that public science education continues.
Carl Sagan chose to preface a chapter in his book Contact with a quote by Vincent Van Gogh. I choose to end with it. “Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?” This was Carl Sagan’s driving question, and perhaps the question that makes his ideas so appealing to the rest of us.
Thank you for reading this account. Viszontlátásra!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
I am now an alumnus of Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. I can't believe I made it! Today was the farewell party. It was a lot of fun, and it was really nice to have a chance to thank my teachers. We took a group picture, which appears above/over/under the text (I'm not really sure how it's going to be formatted). It's most of the students and some of the teachers. Tonight we're going out to dinner with one of our favorite teachers and one of the most charismatic people I have ever met. We received our transcripts, and I am very happy with the results. I worked hard, and there are lots of very smart kids with whom to compete. While I didn't take the hardest classes, or the most classes, I took what worked for me and it paid off hugely.
We are revisiting all of our favorite things and trying to relive the honeymoon period of the language school. It's really fun, but also bittersweet because so many people are leaving, one by one. I don't leave until early morning on the 29th, but it's hard to watch the people with whom I became so close so fast, disappear. Tomorrow I am going to revisit the baths for one last relaxing afternoon, and then my roommates and I are going to go to the first restaurant we ever visited in Budapest. It's only fitting that our first dining experience together should be our last since we bonded so much during that first hour.
In the past week I have been very cultured. I went to the Opera House to see The Marriage of Figaro. I paid a bit extra for better seats, so while I wasn't lucky enough to get a box seat this time, I did get a front row seat in the middle of the balcony, so I could lean forward on my elbows. This was merciful as the opera was almost four hours long. It was absolutely gorgeous, but it was entirely in Italian with Hungarian subtitles being broadcasted above the stage. Neither language is a strong point in my repertoir of skills. However, I was mostly able to figure out what was going on... like when a lady came out in a wedding dress, I perceived that perhaps someone must have gotten married. It was definitley too long, but very good. I'm astounded that humans can make such beautiful noises with their throats. Two days ago I revisted the Opera House for a Budapest Philharmonic Symphony Concert. It was very near to heaven for me, because they played three pieces: Scheherezade, Night on Bald Mountain, and the Firebird Suite. The accoustics are brilliant in the Opera House... a person could stand on stage and whisper, and it would be heard in the balconies. While I'm not too familier and fond of Scheherezade, it was stunning listening to Firebird and Night on Bald Mountain. When I was in orchestra, I played this latter piece, so I really enjoyed hearing it by a professional orchestra. The Firebird is probably my favorite classical piece of all time. As a former French Horn player, it only makes sense that I should like that orchestration, even if I never particularly enjoyed or excelled at instrument. The gentleman playing the solos, however, was just fantastic. The conducter, who was a tiny Asian man conducting without any music in front of him and leaping around when he got really into it, was given flowers at the conclusion of the concert. He plucked one out and gave it to the first violinist who played the really phenomenal solos in Scheherezade. The rest of the bouquet he hurled to the French Horn player. It was really quite sweet. But I tell you, there is nothing like hearing the finale of The Firebird live.
If any readers need anything from Budapest, let me know and I'll be happy to bring it home. Sziastok! (Hungarian was of saying a bit of a casual goodbye)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Rubik's Cube and Languages
I recently purchased a mini-rubik's cube for my key chain. Since Rubik himself was/is Hungarian, and he invented the "Magic Cube," as it was originally named, in Budapest, I felt that, Westernized or not, I couldn't leave Hungary without one. I've never been much good at solving them. I find myself happily spinning them, hoping that a solution will suddenly occur. This is ridiculous since there are over 43,000,000,000,000,000,000 total permutations of the cube. Now, I've had this cube for three days, two of them being class days. In these two days, I've had two different people say, "here, let me see that" and fiddle with it for a minute or so, and then hand it back completed. ..... I found myself wondering where in the world would this ever occur, having my cube solved by two different people in two days. But then I remembered I'm in a math program, so suddenly this all made sense. There are some very very very smart people with whom I'm rubbing shoulders.
I'm about to use the second Lord of the Rings reference in two consecutive posts... Perhaps I need to get a life? But anyway, I was happily reading The Two Towers the other night, and I noticed a reference to the appendices. Like a good Tolkien fan, I followed the asterisk and flipped back to Appendix F and found the section to which the author was alluding. It was in regards to the language of Entish. It was described as, "slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed long-winded; formed of a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinctions of tone and quantity which even the loremasters of the Eldar had not attempted to represent in writing." I THOUGHT OF HUNGARIAN! I think from now on, I'll just tell people that I'm learning Entish, rather than Hungarian. Actually I'm speaking in jest. I was writing an e-mail to a friend from Budapest, and I recounted my reaction to hearing English on the street. I wasn't expecting to hear any English in the part of town through which I was walking, and so when two Americans passed by me (talking loudly and gaudily, I might add) I was quite taken aback. What I noticed, however, was that all I could hear was the dramatic "eeeer's" and "orrrrr's." It sounded very ugly! Now, I wouldn't characterize Hungarian as a romantic, beautiful language, such as French or Italian, but it is definitely very fluid with a lot of soft sounds. It's very relaxing to listen to Hungarian, or really any foreign language, but for the first time, I realized perhaps not all nationalities feel the same about English. In any case, I thought the line describing Entish was a funny way to think of Hungarian.
Although, to set one fact straight, there is very little repetition in Hungarian, and in fact one of the techniques we were taught in my class was to reduce unnecessary repetition using all manners of suffixes and prefixes.
Today I had my last class with BSM. Now for finals! I'm concerned about my Combinatorics final, because it's cumulative, and while I really like graph theory, basic enumeration completely eludes me. I'm in for a fantastic weekend of trying to apply the binomial theorem to going to a flower shop and buying 4 roses, 5 tulips, and 6 daisies, all in a specific order.
My Number Theory final is all on Diophantine equations. Those are basically equations without solutions, and it's our job to prove that they indeed don't have solutions. Non-math people, I'm sorry, just bear with me. I think it's cool, but I suppose it sounds like a mildly rhetorical technique.
In Elementary Problem Solving, my final is cumulative, but it'll be fun! Strangely enough, I have found a sudden interest in Game Theory (or the Theory of Gaming... I'm not really sure of the difference). Before, I thought it was pretty pointless, but then I got introduced to a technique using the Grundy Numbers, which I have never studied before. It basically involves assigning a number to each possibility in a game (using a basic algorithm) and then converting these numbers to base 2 (binary) and working with them, yielding a winning strategy. I'd like to take Computer Science 1 again, and use this strategy in our lab on NIM. I expect this would have yielded a better grade than my guess-and-check strategy I hypothesized. However, I am sad to admit that I got a point off on my last test because I asserted that 3^2=6. My brilliance sometimes amazes me.
Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous weather, and good luck on any springtime finals or projects, or whatever grown-ups do in the real world!
I'm about to use the second Lord of the Rings reference in two consecutive posts... Perhaps I need to get a life? But anyway, I was happily reading The Two Towers the other night, and I noticed a reference to the appendices. Like a good Tolkien fan, I followed the asterisk and flipped back to Appendix F and found the section to which the author was alluding. It was in regards to the language of Entish. It was described as, "slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed long-winded; formed of a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinctions of tone and quantity which even the loremasters of the Eldar had not attempted to represent in writing." I THOUGHT OF HUNGARIAN! I think from now on, I'll just tell people that I'm learning Entish, rather than Hungarian. Actually I'm speaking in jest. I was writing an e-mail to a friend from Budapest, and I recounted my reaction to hearing English on the street. I wasn't expecting to hear any English in the part of town through which I was walking, and so when two Americans passed by me (talking loudly and gaudily, I might add) I was quite taken aback. What I noticed, however, was that all I could hear was the dramatic "eeeer's" and "orrrrr's." It sounded very ugly! Now, I wouldn't characterize Hungarian as a romantic, beautiful language, such as French or Italian, but it is definitely very fluid with a lot of soft sounds. It's very relaxing to listen to Hungarian, or really any foreign language, but for the first time, I realized perhaps not all nationalities feel the same about English. In any case, I thought the line describing Entish was a funny way to think of Hungarian.
Although, to set one fact straight, there is very little repetition in Hungarian, and in fact one of the techniques we were taught in my class was to reduce unnecessary repetition using all manners of suffixes and prefixes.
Today I had my last class with BSM. Now for finals! I'm concerned about my Combinatorics final, because it's cumulative, and while I really like graph theory, basic enumeration completely eludes me. I'm in for a fantastic weekend of trying to apply the binomial theorem to going to a flower shop and buying 4 roses, 5 tulips, and 6 daisies, all in a specific order.
My Number Theory final is all on Diophantine equations. Those are basically equations without solutions, and it's our job to prove that they indeed don't have solutions. Non-math people, I'm sorry, just bear with me. I think it's cool, but I suppose it sounds like a mildly rhetorical technique.
In Elementary Problem Solving, my final is cumulative, but it'll be fun! Strangely enough, I have found a sudden interest in Game Theory (or the Theory of Gaming... I'm not really sure of the difference). Before, I thought it was pretty pointless, but then I got introduced to a technique using the Grundy Numbers, which I have never studied before. It basically involves assigning a number to each possibility in a game (using a basic algorithm) and then converting these numbers to base 2 (binary) and working with them, yielding a winning strategy. I'd like to take Computer Science 1 again, and use this strategy in our lab on NIM. I expect this would have yielded a better grade than my guess-and-check strategy I hypothesized. However, I am sad to admit that I got a point off on my last test because I asserted that 3^2=6. My brilliance sometimes amazes me.
Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous weather, and good luck on any springtime finals or projects, or whatever grown-ups do in the real world!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Pálinka Festival
Yesterday was the annual Budapest Pálinka Festival. It's a common misapprehension that Unicum is the national drink of Hungary. In reality, it's the fruit brandy called Pálinka. This brandy is double distilled and made from a wide variety of fruits and berries, most typically Plums and Apricots. This festival was happening right next to another street festival which I was attending. This latter festival was very strange in that while it was called "Utcafesztival" which literally translates to "street festival", it was more like a rally for the European Union. Each booth was dedicated to some aspect of the E.U. I'm not entirely sure what it was all about... but it definitely had a different feel than any sort of festival in America. I got to listen to the Hungarian version of “American Idol” sing. Anyway, being that I was already in the area with a friend of mine, and most of our friends were out of town, we thought we'd dive into this Pálinka festival. There was an entry fee, but you got a tasting glass and voucher for 500 forints which could be used at any booth. Each mini-shop represented a different brand of brandy (alliteration totally intentional) and by exchanging the appropriate amount of money via coupons, you were given a sample of their stock. It was a really neat atmosphere. There was a gypsy band playing, and there were lots of lanterns and benches since it was entirely outdoors. Pálinka has been an important part of the Hungarian culture, so it had a really authentic feel to it. However, the liquor itself was not for the weak-hearted. Any readers of Lord of the Rings will recall a certain spirit given to Merry and Pippin by the Orcs to keep them, cruelly, on their feet. Such was the feeling I got from Pálinka. It was brutally strong; after the first couple of sips my gums were numb and my lips were tingly and felt swollen to the size of a small automobile. To make matters worse, the festival was held on an old cobblestone surface. I have trouble walking on such flooring under the best of circumstances, but in the dark with throngs of people milling around me, trying to balance a small glass goblet, and drink out of it without looking too disgusted by the whole ordeal, I was challenged to stay on my feet. After not too long, the worst happened. My flip-flop caught on the side of one of the protruding stones and I tripped a bit. In an effort to keep my balance, I took a lunging step forward. However, this proved problematic as my foot landed at a spot that was half stone, and half sand, with the two surfaces being dramatically uneven. Thus, before I knew what was happening, I found myself careening madly toward a large group of handsome, swarthy gentlemen, ending up in the arms of one of them, dripping with brandy. The people around me looked at me with an array of expressions. Most of them were obviously disgusted with the American girl who proved to be extremely inebriated at 8 pm. However, the man in whose arms I was tangled seemed impressed. I righted myself with as much dignity as possible, and smelling strongly like spirits, I left the area of my immediate circumstances, clutched onto my friend for moral support (much to his disdain), and, tripping once again, found my way to a stand to get a refill on my nearly untouched glass. Somehow I wasn't quite in the mood to continue into a long night of brandy, and thus after about half an hour, convinced my friend to leave, and we played chess. This was my eventful Saturday night.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Szeged and a homecoming
Last weekend my Historical Aspects of Mathematics class took a trip to Szeged, Hungary. It was a 3 hour train ride, and it was spent in good company so that part was fun. The town itself is beautiful. It is currently known for the huge and prestigious university at the core of the city. Earlier in history, however, it played a much more important role, being mentioned by Ptolemy in his writings, and perhaps even the home to Atilla the Hun's quarters. Little of these relics remain in memory or as artifacts due to a devastating flood in the 1800's. There are markings measuring the level of the water, and at the river, it was something like 11 meters in depth. The city was rebuilt and it’s very pretty.
My professor, Dr. Andras Ringler, is a man of some importance in the town, being the head of the University of Szeged's physics department. He's a brilliant man, and strangely enough, worked for the Mayo Clinic for two years. My hometown is very near Rochester, Minnesota, where this famous clinic was founded. My teacher was thrilled that I knew his former home-away-from-home. Anyway, we got a super tour of the city. We visited several churches, including one that was home to about 30 HUGE manuscripts filled with biblical texts handwritten in ancient Russian characters. We were allowed to flip through them to our heart's desire. My teacher also got us a tour in Europe's second-largest Synagogue. It was a Saturday, and Synagogues are never open to the public on Saturdays and so my teacher made a call to one of his colleagues who met us and opened up the gates for us and gave us a tour, translated by my teacher. It was really pretty. It was very interesting looking at stained-glass that wasn't Christian in nature. I live next to the biggest Synagogue in Europe, and I still haven't toured it, so it was a new experience for me.
Another thing that stood out to me is the fountain we visited. It was comprised of four taps, each constantly running thermal water. The water came directly from 150 feet below us, and smelled of sulfur, and was hot to the touch. Townsfolk lined up to fill their water bottles with this water to take home. We were encouraged to drink it because of its ancient healing properties, and also because drinking warm water is more hydrating.... or something. Physiology is not the high point of my studies. Anyway, it was really magical. And strangely enough, it tasted rather like Minnesota well-water.
In order to minimize reverse culture shock, we are encouraged to make a list of things that we miss from America, to make us forget what we're leaving, and look forward to what we've missed. My friends and I came up with a list, and this is part of it:
*Family and friends
*breakfast foods
*clothes dryers
*convenient internet access
*friendly people
*gyms and places to work out that are not sketchy or overly expensive
*laws maintaining quiet on the streets
*refrigerated milk (and, come to think of it, SKIM milk)
*coffee in larger sizes and alcohol in smaller sizes.
*American books and magazines
*driving
*beds with springs
*libraries for reading and studying that are open late enough to fit our sleepless schedules
*fire standards (fire alarms in our apartments and multiple entrances)
*cell phone plans (not prepaid)
*clean streets (as a side note, all the trash mentioned in my earlier blog was on the street for about 36 hours then just disappeared. But still, gross
*pedestrians getting the right-of-way in the streets
*movie theaters that are easily accessible and playing movies guaranteed to be in English
*Mexican food
*TARGET
*grocery stores that are open 7 days a week and until later than 7pm.
I'm sure there are more things America offers that I'm missing. However, it's good to keep these things in mind so that leaving won't be as hard.
Happy May 10th!
My professor, Dr. Andras Ringler, is a man of some importance in the town, being the head of the University of Szeged's physics department. He's a brilliant man, and strangely enough, worked for the Mayo Clinic for two years. My hometown is very near Rochester, Minnesota, where this famous clinic was founded. My teacher was thrilled that I knew his former home-away-from-home. Anyway, we got a super tour of the city. We visited several churches, including one that was home to about 30 HUGE manuscripts filled with biblical texts handwritten in ancient Russian characters. We were allowed to flip through them to our heart's desire. My teacher also got us a tour in Europe's second-largest Synagogue. It was a Saturday, and Synagogues are never open to the public on Saturdays and so my teacher made a call to one of his colleagues who met us and opened up the gates for us and gave us a tour, translated by my teacher. It was really pretty. It was very interesting looking at stained-glass that wasn't Christian in nature. I live next to the biggest Synagogue in Europe, and I still haven't toured it, so it was a new experience for me.
Another thing that stood out to me is the fountain we visited. It was comprised of four taps, each constantly running thermal water. The water came directly from 150 feet below us, and smelled of sulfur, and was hot to the touch. Townsfolk lined up to fill their water bottles with this water to take home. We were encouraged to drink it because of its ancient healing properties, and also because drinking warm water is more hydrating.... or something. Physiology is not the high point of my studies. Anyway, it was really magical. And strangely enough, it tasted rather like Minnesota well-water.
In order to minimize reverse culture shock, we are encouraged to make a list of things that we miss from America, to make us forget what we're leaving, and look forward to what we've missed. My friends and I came up with a list, and this is part of it:
*Family and friends
*breakfast foods
*clothes dryers
*convenient internet access
*friendly people
*gyms and places to work out that are not sketchy or overly expensive
*laws maintaining quiet on the streets
*refrigerated milk (and, come to think of it, SKIM milk)
*coffee in larger sizes and alcohol in smaller sizes.
*American books and magazines
*driving
*beds with springs
*libraries for reading and studying that are open late enough to fit our sleepless schedules
*fire standards (fire alarms in our apartments and multiple entrances)
*cell phone plans (not prepaid)
*clean streets (as a side note, all the trash mentioned in my earlier blog was on the street for about 36 hours then just disappeared. But still, gross
*pedestrians getting the right-of-way in the streets
*movie theaters that are easily accessible and playing movies guaranteed to be in English
*Mexican food
*TARGET
*grocery stores that are open 7 days a week and until later than 7pm.
I'm sure there are more things America offers that I'm missing. However, it's good to keep these things in mind so that leaving won't be as hard.
Happy May 10th!
Friday, May 04, 2007
Why Eastern Europe has a poor connotation
Of late, I have been feeling more and more at home with Eastern Europe. I have gotten used to the weird things, and now they seem normal to me. Eastern Europe is thought of as being dirty, uneducated, primitive, and Communist. However, even at the beginning of my stay here, I was never floored by these observations. Indeed, I found it highly superior to the United States in many ways. True, there are bullet holes on the facade of my building, and if a fire marshal exists, his rules are lax, but nonetheless, I enjoyed the truly different environment. However, beginning last night, I suddenly became revolted by a citywide tradition. Once a year, the city proclaims a day during which everyone can literally throw their trash and unwanted belongings onto the sidewalk. Apparently the city looks forward to this event because they don't have to pay for waste removal, and it's also an opportunity to pick up some free, second hand items, as it is perfectly acceptable, and indeed encouraged, to rummage through the piles in search of desired items. According to my Hungarian teacher, the city keeps this day secret so that people will not start putting their trash outside too early, and only on the eve of the event is the nature of the next day revealed. Well last night was this infamous "eve." Initially I thought some people in my building were moving out, but as the night arrived, I realized that all up and down our street, piles of things were beginning to accumulate. By this morning, directly outside our exterior door to the apartment, there was a pile at least 15 feet long, and waist high. It wasn't garage-sale-esque, rather, it was filth. There were some clothes, but mostly it was decrepit furniture, stained bedding, dirt, old sponges and rags, Communist-style shoes, and what appeared to be several broken mirrors. It was vile. It still is vile. In order to leave our apartment, we have to walk through the edges of this purgatory, stepping from pieces of dirty cardboard to cardboard, avoiding the shards of glass. I love Europe, I love Budapest, but this is a repulsive tradition that I feel is both unsafe, and does nothing to change the image of the countries formerly under the Communist regime. Suddenly homeless people and beggars have showed up in my neighborhood, looting through the junk, and while these are common people to see around Budapest, I am not okay with having them outside my door. If I spoke Hungarian I would write a very strongly-worded letter to some figure of authority. As I am leaving in less than a month, and my Hungarian is limited to the bare basics, I will content myself with ranting on this blog. In conclusion, I love Hungary, but I could do without these cave-man tendencies.
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