Two dippers

...the Big one, and me. That's right ladies and gentlemens, this weekend I went skinny dipping in Lake Balaton. The Big Dipper was watching over me. I confess, I did this as much for bragging rights as for the fun of skinny dipping. I've now been naked in the largest lake in Central Europe! It was great.

Lake Balaton is "shaped like a 50-mile-long paprika, of the pointed piquant variety,"(according to a New York Times travel article), and is a very lovely vacation spot. The lake itself is very shallow so the water is usually pretty warm. Since we went at the end of the season, the water wasn't quite as comfortable as I imagine it can be, but we had a great time any way. Fai, Elara, Arolyn, and I took the train from Budapest to Balatonfüred on Saturday morning, enjoyed a lovely second breakfast of palacsinta (Hungarian crepes) and espresso, then took the ferry to Tìhany, on an island in the middle of the lake. In Tìhany we strolled about looking at ceramics and beautiful tablecloths, and toured around the Bence's apa'tsa'g (Benedictine abbey) on the island. The abbey was pretty cool - it was established in 1055 by King Andrew I (Andra's kiraly I.), and his remains are buried in the crypt there. I found myself moved by the sheer history of the place.
And as an added bonus, I got a picture of a contemporary statue of Andras and his wife Anastasia of Kiev that's a tad reminiscent of American Gothic. Heehee.


After wearing out our footsies in Tihany, we took a swim in the (now freezing) waters of Balaton, then caught the ferry to the southern shore and the town of Siofok. Siofok is widely recognized as a good place for "party time" in the summer, but it was pretty low key this weekend because school is starting for Hungarian students everywhere and they can't have any more fun.


Living in Budapest is great so far, and I am enjoying being in an apartment again with my own kitchen, however small and oddly equipped. I cooked eggplant/mushroom/tomato sauce bake stuff! Be proud of me Mom, I don't hate eggplant anymore! On another note: I have just been informed by my roommate that I will soon be eating the best soup ever made by an Asian person who is 21 years old. Yesss!

The Awkward Begins... or, The Porn Phone

Don't worry, this post is not explicit.

Today was an hilarious day. I stuck my foot in my mouth a lot (blech), and said weird things in Hungarian, and there was much cause for laughter. Wish you could have been there.

On our way to the Castle District for some sightseeing this afternoon, Elara and I serendipitously met fellow BSMers Edward and Joe on the same metro car. So, we changed our plans a bit – to go to IKEA! While technically IKEA is entirely less exciting than a castle, I needed to get a few things and we thought IKEA was just at the end of the red metro line on the Buda side of the Danube, so not too far from the Castle District. After wandering around looking like lost foreigners and consulting our telltale tourist maps, we screwed up the courage to ask for help. First, there's the obstacle of pronouncing IKEA in Hungarian. Spelling helps. The second obstacle was the blank looks we received - a sign that IKEA was nowhere nearby. Eventually we discovered IKEA is actually outside of Pest, so we made our way back to the metro. After all the built-up anticipation, shopping was rather anti-climactic. While at the plaza, we also took advantage of a T-Mobile store to purchase SIM cards for our Hungarian cell phones. Here is where my awkward day really began...

My apartment came equipped with one cell phone and SIM card left over from the previous semester's residents. When Fai and I originally tried using this phone, it didn't seem to work. So we transplanted the SIM card to her cell phone. However, I need a phone here as well, and I decided I could figure out how the cell phone worked well enough so I wouldn't have to buy a new one. The thing is, this phone is a little “sketch.” It's very beat-up, and whoever used it previously set the start-up screen as a set of pornographic photos of some lady stripping - completely. Seriously? Who puts porn on a phone??? No one I want to know very well. At any rate, I couldn't figure out how to fix this issue.

So I'm in the T-mobile store, having purchased a new SIM card, and the saleslady is helping me check to make sure it works with the phone. The phone starts up...

And the lady says... “Oh.”

I didn't say anything. I'd forgotten until that very moment about the porn.

And all of this was AFTER she had asked us if we were Italian and I replied, in Hungarian, “I don't know.” Oh, I represented my country well today.

When I returned home, I figured out how to change the start-up screen. Now my phone is happily adorned with butterflies and ladybugs. Edward and Elara have promised me that every time they see me using my phone, they will think I'm looking at porn. Thanks, guys. Really.

Nerds of a feather...

One of the greatest things about BSM so far is that we are all nerds. I have found a flock with which I can really fly. ;) My conversations today have included (but were not limited to) Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem, supposedly the most difficult logic puzzle ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Horrible, xkcd, graph theory, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, crazy stormy camping stories, the trouble with tribbles, Midwest earthquakes and tornadoes, the Hungarian national psyche, the merits of gyros (are there any demerits?), and signal transduction pathways associated with sight...talk about a great day. When I break out the math/bio/sci-fi Suzanne here, I do not get “the look,” I get positive responses. That's not to say I don't have great friends back home with whom I share a love for nerdy things. It's just that usually the nerdiness is not quite so high-density. Oh hurrah.

This morning I went running with Arolyn around Margitsziget, or Margaret Island, which is one of the islands in the Danube named for Saint Margaret (yeah, I wouldn't have guessed either). Margitsziget has many exciting features: a nice 5 km perimeter track, a set of enormous outdoor swimming pools, the ruins of an old convent, a hotel, an athletic club with football field (soccer) and oval track, and clay tennis courts. You can bet I'll be trying my tennis skills on clay before winter sets in. That is, if I can find a place to rent/borrow a racquet.

I continue to LOVE Budapest's public transit system. It is SO easy to get around – metro, trolleybus, bus, train, and of course the good ol' body and sole. The trip to Margitsziget was just a hop on the 4-and-6 train and a 10 minute ride away from our apartment. Thinking ahead, I know I am going to miss this when I return to the States.

Jo' napot!

Hello World!

So I've been here in Budapest (pronounced "Budapesht") for 4 days now. And what fun it has been! I arrived Friday noon-ish to a very hot city, met our student coordinator who is so nice and oddly reminds me of my Canadian cousins (that's a great thing - they are awesome people), and moved into my apartment on Vig utca ("Happy street"!). I'm living with F from Thailand, who unfortunately is rather sick right now, and we are just across the hall from A and E.
Saturday we went downtown to Vaci utca, which is sort of a tourist-centered area, and crossed the Danube (or Duna) on one of the older bridges (the Chain Bridge?).
Yesterday was the most fun though, because F and I went to the Sziget Music Festival with some other students in our program to see The Killers. I guess that was actually my first real-live music festival. While I didn't stay there for longer than 3 hours, it was a sweet concert and people were so friendly - I had a great time.

Today was our opening day of Babilon language school. So now I can say "Suzie vagyok. 21 e'ves vagyok. Coloradoi vagyok. Colorado az USA-ban van. Besze'lek spanyolul e's angolul e's egy kicsit magyarul." 100 Bonus Hug points for whoever can guess what I said. :) Interactive blog! Oh man.

I'll post some pictures when I remember to bring my camera-cable to the McDonald's McCafe we're using for free wifi right now. Until then,

Viszontlatasra!

That packing thing...

Recently I've had some interesting travel advice, gleaned from personal experience, from some good friends.

My favorite gems:
"Make sure to take more than two bras. Bra shopping in the Middle East is really awkward."
"Take more than one pair of pants - then if you get a hole in the butt of one pair, you don't have to keep wearing the Holy Butt Pants the whole trip."
"Don't take a skirt that is dry-clean only. Also, you don't need to take a box of dryer sheets. You really won't have access to dryers probably. Or dry cleaning."
"Don't wear ugly clothes."

I thought I was doing pretty well on all counts here...but lo and behold, my shiny new formal pants are indeed dry-clean only. Can you say 'wear sparingly and do not eat anything fun while wearing these pants'? I can. In fact, I just did.

Packing is my favorite of all the frantic-last-minute activies. :)

Packing...

Yeah, well. So I'm not actually packing yet.

I'm cleaning my room! I think the last time I genuinely cleaned my room was...over 3 years ago. Embarrassing. But kinda fun too. So far I've found a bunch of bobby pins, some poems I wrote years ago, and a dead caterpillar, among other things.

TBTG, part II

What a week! Woohoo!

1. This Wednesday was our poster session at CU-Boulder in the Discovery Learning Center. My parents came up for the fun times, and while I probably totally confused them, they enjoyed it. I did too! While I didn't get to see very many posters besides my own, I had some great opportunities to chat with people who knew what I was talking about and offered some interesting thoughts that will impact my project down the road. AND...great news - my poster won first place! Woot. Along with a little chest-swelling pride, I also receive an expenses-paid trip to an as yet unchosen national conference to present my work. Sweet. Double sweet. A big thank you to Pat, Subbaiah, Paul, Ashley, Naglee, Ken, Frannie, heck everybody. This summer was a great research experience, and I couldn't ask for a better.

2. Calvary is a great church. In the words of a good friend, "it has its shit together." Being able to spend Sundays there this summer has been a great and unexpected pleasure for me. Sometimes when I come home from school, for whatever reason, church upsets me. But ultimately, Calvary is a community filled with people I love, as well as people I'd love to know better. And almost unfailingly, every time I enter those doors, God gives me something to think about, and much to give thanks for.

3. I had the great pleasure of cooking some good ol' Costa Rican food for good friends this week. As I've said before, spending time with friends has been far and away a highlight of my summer. Hooray! I will miss you all while I'm away, but Lord knows I'm excited to get to know Hungarians and other BSMers - woohoo! Mostly, people are just great. Yeah, we have problems. Tons. But I love people. And that's pretty important.


On a side note, NBC commentators for the Olympics seem to be complete morons. Specifically, those commentating on women's gymnastics. Complaining that it's "sad" that the Romanian team is now not as focused and perfect as they were in the 70s? That back in "those days" (um, communism, anyone?) the girls were intensely focused during competition, but nowadays they have been seen "chatting" with each other? Oh, my goodness. Yes, that is sad. It is so sad to see people enjoying themselves. O Communism, you may have caused some pain and suffering, but damn you produced great gymnasts. How we pine for your return.
Come to think of it, NBC commentators tend to be negative and terribly inane across the board.
Best electronic design feature ever? Mute button.