Really mad!

So a public blog may or may not be the right place to vent my frustration, but here goes:

There is a math competition starting in Hungary on Wednesday and running through November 3rd. I didn't know about it until the other master's student mentioned it to me last Tuesday. Apparently when the professor in charge of us both had come by our office several times the previous week to see if Baldur was in, it was to tell him about the competition. Both of us agreed that it was strange for him not to have mentioned it to me as well, but I tried not to think about it too hard. I'm busy, the Putnam was a disaster, I've never liked math competitions, yadda yadda yadda.

Then this morning the German foreign exchange student asked me if I was participating and I got mad about it all over again, so I cornered the professor and asked him to fill me in. He did, though reluctantly. "The problems are very tough." "Yes, obviously, or it wouldn't be a very good math competition." Or, "You have to know a lot of math -- (rattling off a list of things he knows I don't know anything about) and be quite clever."

So he made a judgement call about my background and my intelligence! Great.

The most irritating thing about this is that I really do hate math competitions and that he is right insofar as I'm not familiar with a lot of stuff that would be necessary to do well. Nonetheless, I don't appreciate getting the edited version of events, you know? I really, really hate this aspect of math.

AHHHH!

The internet saga continues -- when I got home last night I was unable to check my email or load youtube. Apparently some guys caught on to our unprotected wireless internet and have started helping themselves. If anyone knows how to set up a secure network, please help! We could probably go back on the wired internet, but it would be a hassle.

Other than that... Things are really good! Since my hump maybe three weeks ago I've been enjoying myself quite a lot. As usual, there never seems to be enough time to get all my work done, and graph theory problem session continues to be more painful than not, but that's more or routine by now. I enjoy the work I'm doing, and (this is exciting) I think I have accidentally landed myself some discrete math/experimental computer science research. Sweet!

Here is a poll: is being angry at the extent to which math is still a boys club in and of itself a good reason to get a PhD and teach? I am thinking yes.

Hike in the Borzsony

Me and my absentee ballot. Here's to not not having your vote matter!


Saturday I went on a hike through the Borzsony mountains with maybe thirteen other math students. It looked suspiciously like the Crum, although maybe we took the wrong path because we never made it to Lang.



A group photo. Fortunately things went smoothly and we left with as many people as we started with.



The view along the way was pretty great.









Tamas and Marci (?), two of the trip's organizers.


Some ruins, presumably from a castle. It's hard to see but there's grass on the top of the largest column. We played some frisbee here. I also heard one young boy say to his brother, "Nagyon csunya vagy!" which is more or less the equivalent of "you're a big dummy-head." I was pleased that my Hungarian proficiency approximated that of a three-year-old.



I thought the ruins would be the end of the trip -- little did I know this was still to come.

Wine festival musicians and Pecs

Now that I'm no longer hob-nobbing with the late-night, coffee-chugging McCabe die-hards and instead studying in a comfortable couch in my living room, I find myself reverting to my early to bed, early to rise high school habits of yore. Today I was up at six thirty for a full two and a half hours of productivity before showering and leaving for class!

The weather here in magyarorszag has swung back to sunny and pleasant after two weeks of unbearable cold (I had to use the heat at night!). Unsurprisingly it makes and enormous difference in my mood. If we're lucky this might last through the end of the month, although I'm not getting my hopes up.

Classes are going well. I'm taking seven, which together makes for twelve hours of class, give or take. Hungarian class and my now-standard weekly meeting with my graph theory profesor make for four more -- it almost feels like Swarthmore! It's hard for me to guage how standard a load like this would be. Initially my official advisor (as opposed to my de facto advisor) thought that six would be fine, but I've talked to Hungarian students who say they have closer to thirty hours a week (!). One friend said she had class five days a week but skipped several of her larger lectures. All in all, though, I think people are pretty busy.

Tuesday in class I was passed a note about a hiking trip this Saturday being organised by some Hungarian students, so after six weeks I might finally get to know some of my classmates! It means I'll have to pass on an opera that some Fulbrighters are going to in the morning (with a real live opera singer, no less!) and potentially the subsquent Palinka and Kielbasa festival, but I think it's probably worth it. Also my mom tells me that physical activity is good for me.

I should write at some point about my trip last week to Pécs. Maybe after I upload my photos onto my computer.

I think I've been adopted by my graph theory professor. He's really interested in speaking English. I had to move a meeting with him back from eleven to twelve and I got this response:

"Twelve is fine.

But postponing a meeting from eleven to twelve is pushing BACK?

A.F."

Nothing terribly interesting to say at the moment, but I'm getting really frustrated by a problem (like so much of graph theory it seems very intuitive but I can't prove it. Then again, I think most problems that seem intuitively true really aren't at all.)

I think Baldur and I need to do something about this office. It's okay when we're both here, and even when we're just working I can pretend that I'm having a human interaction and am therefore not completely cut off from the rest of the world, but when I'm here alone and work is frustrating me the high, white walls seem very oppressive. I'm also achy after avoiding yoga for almost a week.

The weather finally came around on Sunday and I've been feeling a lot better, almost entirely as a result. Tomorrow Fulbright is whisking us away to Pécs for the evening -- apparently there's a wine festival? I'm missing two classes, which makes the good American student in me cringe, but I think a change of scenery will do me well.

I don't remember if I've said this yet, but whenever I look around I remember how happy I am to be here.