Mellow is fun too :-)

Last Tuesday and Wednesday were not that terribly exciting. I made dinner with Christina (and Kyle on Wed) and did math. It is important to just relax sometimes :-). One day, and I don't remember which so I am just going to talk about it here, I ended up in another conversation with an older Hungarian lady on the bus. This one used to be a translator, so she spoke English. It is really quite interesting - she asked if I was Canadian. I don't know if I really don't come across as American or if people are afraid they will offend me if they assume I am and I happen to not be. Either way, it must not be obvious. I wonder what I do or don't do that makes it less obvious that I am American (several of my classmates have had people frequently identify them as American, sometimes before they say a word).

Thursday

The BSM program set up a showing of the documentary about Erdős Pál, "N is a Number," at the Renyi Institute and were highly encouraging all of us to go, so I went. Erdős was a very interesting person. I have to admit that the idea of not having anywhere in particular that you are expected to be and being able to do math and travel around the world to do math with other people on a whim is somewhat appealing. I don't think I would actually do it though, having some amount of stability is nice. It was also very interesting to see the footage that was filmed in Budapest. War scenes are much more striking when you recognize the buildings and bridges and statues as things you see on the way to school everyday...

Friday
Christina and I threw another dinner party at her apartment. We made a broccoli and pepper stirfry, lots of rice and carrot sticks for dinner. After dinner I made another batch of approximation cookies - this time with a spice cookie variation - the box of random spices had nutmeg and cinnamon and we had obtained fresh ginger for the stirfry. I was very, very pleased with the result :-)




While I was making the cookies, people decided that we should make an Apples to Apples game. Several of us had been wanting to play, but no one brought a set. The homemade game is likely going to be a work in progress for the whole semester. It is rather interesting version of the game: a large set of the cards are in (frequently mispelled) Hungarian, another large set are math terms, and a non-trivial set are inside jokes that have spawned in the time we have been here. Eventually we decided we had enough cards to try playing. It was hilarious, as Apples to Apples should be. I think my favorite play was when the adjective was "countably infinite" and the winning noun card was "Hungarian vowels".

Saturday

Christina, Chelsey and I planned to go to the Hummus Bar for lunch, but it was closed for Yom Kippur so we found lunch at their place instead. After lunch Christina and I went to track down a thrift store she had heard about to find a "classy dress" for the "classy sandwich party" two of our friends were throwing on Sunday. Shopping is not usually my thing, but it was fun :-). You can find interesting clothing in Hungarian thrift stores...

In the evening I went back to my apartment for dinner as one of my host mother's real daughters was coming over. We had fried eggplant with yogurt (which was surprisingly tasty), fried mushrooms, fried turkey, boiled potatoes and corn. Despite being mostly fried, the food was quite good. She also served wine with dinner. About half way through dinner she started refilling the wine glasses...I tried to tell her no thank you but she insisted on refilling it fuller than it was to start with *sigh*. About half a glass of wine had me slightly light headed. I was very glad I was did not have anything that needed to get done that evening...

Sunday

I actually watched my host mother make the Hungarian version of French toast! (usually she has it made before I wake up...) . First beat the egg (not excessively, but like you would for scrambled eggs) - just egg, do not add milk (you only add milk if the bread is dried out and not fresh). Heat (sunflower) oil in a frying pan while you soak the bread in the egg. Fry the egg soaked bread in the hot oil until it is golden brown. She always serves it with a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon. I think the biggest difference is using the wonderful fresh Hungarian bread rather than the sandwich loaves we get in the US...

Christina and I met up for church, but when we got to the Lutheran church just before 9, we noticed that the 11:00 service included a Bach Kantata. We glanced at each other and without hardly having to say anything concluded that we should go be productive and come back at 11. It turned out to be really cool, although the sheet they gave us with the German lyrics and Hungarian translation was not that terribly useful...

After church we had lunch and then went to Margit Sziget (the park island) to meet up with a couple of friends and do math outside. By the time we left the island, I had all but one of the problems due Monday done and written up. Christina and I went back to her place and got ready for the Classy Sandwich party. The party was fun, the sandwiches were tasty, and it was nice seeing most people dressed up. :-)
Sandwich assembly line:


Yesterday and today are math days. Tomorrow I am making dinner with Christina and we will have a math party. The theory is that if we can get on top of the HW during the week, then we can actually do bigger exciting things on the weekends. Hopefully this will work out well!

Oh, as a side note, apparently the Duracell bunny is much more adventurous that the Energizer bunny...