It's been so LOOOONG! and I don't think anyone reads this anymore. I don't read this anymore.

Mulled wine is so DELICIOUSSSS! How did I not know this before???? Oh, Europe, I love what you've taught me.

In the vein of what I've been doing in the last few posts:
I WILL MISS: Forralt bor (hot wine). So scrumptious. I've been crazy shopping today and yesterday evening, at the Vorosmarty ter Christmas market full of beatiful handmade jewelry, ceramics, textiles, and other spendy items that bring out the best (worst) materialistic instincts in me. And the perfect compliment to Christmas shopping = mulled wine. It's a great amplifier to my already impulsive shopping tendencies. This is something capitalist America should already have figured out. But I've never had forralt bor at the Golden Candlelight Walk...what is up with that? ;)

I have gotten even lazier with my cooking, and my cravings for "American" food are getting worse. Last night I enjoyed a burrito - Chipotle style, or as close as it gets in Budapest - and since I'm in Europe, that meant I could also get a margarita. This is basically a fast-food joint. With margaritas. Nice.

Though the last two paragraphs have centered on alcohol, I don't want any of you blog-readers to worry. I'm not going crazy out here with the drinking. I'm saving that for Wednesday night, after I finish my Combinatorics final, and my Dynamical Systems & Bifurcations final - two big finals, one of which I will probably fail. Well, que sera sera mis amigos.

In the past two weeks I have:

• enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of lamb, pastry, and kaymak, a Bosnian cream-cheese sort of thing. Delicious.
• walked the wall around the old city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. Dubrovnik is positively gorgeous. It was a pleasure to spend my Thanksgiving break on the Adriatic, where short sleeves are still mostly comfortable and seafood is fresh.
  
• marvelled at the tolling of the bells of the 6 or 7 Catholic churches in Dubrovnik's old city while soaking up the beauty of the sun setting over the Adriatic sea.
• noted the benefits of travelling on the night bus - it's not a bad way to minimize daylight hours eaten up with travel, and you save on hostel $. Fortunately as a product of years of sleep deprivation, I have little problem sleeping on buses. Or anywhere.
• been homesick - I would love to stay here for more time, but I am SO excited to see all you peeps at home. I miss my buddies! While I have met some exceptional people here and made a few great new friends, I often think of those back home with whom I'd like to share these experiences.
  
• watched Star Trek. When I first got into Star Trek, it was a personal and solitary obsession. What a joy it is to enjoy the show(s) with people who also genuinely like it. Not like I didn't have this opportunity back at Olaf, but somehow here it has affected me more.
• finally written postcards. For those of you who will receive postcards probably right after I return to the States, I'm sorry you didn't get them sooner. For those of you who will wonder if I love you when you don't receive a postcard at all - rest assured, I DO love you. I am sorry I've been terrible about keeping in touch, and I hope you will forgive me. Again.
  
• loved math and hated math. Such is the topography of my academic life right now. I love it. I hate it. I am tired of it. :) Contradiction. QED. What-EVER.

I don't know what else to say. This post has been a little incoherent, but I wanted to say SOMETHING since I've been silent for a while, and now I really need to go study. (read "get motivated/disciplined to study"). Love you!
Viszontlatasra!