Happy Turkey Day from Magyarorszag! There is snow on the ground and mulled wine in the air. The Christmas market on Vorosmarty ter is also opened... I think I'll have to wander over some evening and check it out. Maybe eat some kurtoskalacs... mmmm.

As per usual, I am strangely unmotivated to do work. Hrm. I have to refresh my memory about trigonometry in higher dimensions. Although that assumes I knew something about it in the first place... Why do some days feel like everything falls into the category of "things I should know about but don't"?

It is wickedly cold here in Hungary. We were lucky insofar as our Indian summer lasted well into November, but (to mangle some idioms) the cows have come home to roost and finally I have to reconcile myself to the fact that it is actually winter and will be for the next few months. We even have a bit of snow, although not more than enough to merely dust the ground. It makes me want to drink spiced hot chocolate or some tasy forralt bor.

It's really shocking to remember every once in a while that the semester is ending in three weeks (!!!). I have a lot to take care of before that -- tying up loose ends with coursework, buying a plane ticket home, taking the GRE, figuring out exams... As to be expected, I vascillate between mortified-anxious-productive and calm-unmotivated. It's currently unclear to me what sort of exam schedule I'll have. I have seven courses, so I could theoretically have anywhere from one to seven exams; I'm hoping more for one than for seven.

Otherwise life is pretty good. Two weeks ago a couple of us went to Eger, a small town two or three hours away from Budapest by train. Although I know it mostly for the wine (which is plentiful, cheap, and delicious), the city is also famous for having turned back a Turkish invasion in the early 16th century. Unfortunately the Turks eventually won out, so Eger is also home to a lonely minaret, the northernmost standing example of Turkish architecture in Europe. Foolishly, I thought it would be a great idea to climb said minaret... I forgot that I am afraid of both small, enclosed spaces and heights. Great view of the city, though! You couldn't pay me to do it again.

Additionally, we ate enough game to last me until this time next year, so all in all I would consider the trip a sucess.

Up and coming plans: Friday I met a Hungarian who plays the bass in multiple folk bands. He suggested a place we should go Tuesday evening to hear some sweet tunes. I will fill you in on how that goes.

Budapest is changing faster than I like.

On the one hand, it's exciting. Despite the rapidly tanking economy, the abysmal political situation, the rampant (and growing?) nationalist extremism, and the apathy affecting the Hungarian youth, I do think in the next ten or fifteen years Hungary will be able to get on the euro and things will improve. Or, I have my fingers crossed.

Of course the downside to this is that Budapest will soon, I fear, lose much of the charm that draws me (I realize that this is bourgeois/politically incorrect/condescending/orientalizing or something else equally objectionable -- "charm" should in no way be linked to "economic stagnation.").

Case in point: in September, a new bar opened up on Nagymezo utca called Instant. Built on the Szimpla, dilapidated-house-qua-bar model, it is maybe two or three times the size. Somehow it managed to be instantaneously popular, and every time I've been it's been packed to the gills (no small feat considering it is two or three times Szimpla's size). It's cool, but in a... shiny way? As if the people who designed it knew it was cool and didn't need anyone else to tell them.

Anyway, a place I used to like called Sark has been closed since I've been here. Wandering around Klauzal ter last night, I noticed it was open. Exact same decor, exact same atmosphere, but when I asked the bartender (in Hungarian, no less) whether the bar was still called Sark he told me no -- it's now "Kis Instant."

Creepy! Creepy that two months ago a bar opened and became so MASSIVELY popular that it's now a brand taking over other, smaller bars. Shit.

This is easily the strangest thing I've read about in a long time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarab

But it's on Wikipedia so it must be true, right?

CREEPY

While desperately trying to find someone who might pay for my education (I'm a woman! Studying math! In Eastern Europe! Come on, guys!) I came upon this:

http://www.swarthmore.edu/x19105.xml

That photo of me was definitely taken off facebook without my knowledge. Just a reminder that the internet isn't as private as you think it is!

As always, my big plans for updating this blog have fallen flat upon reaching the keyboard. So, some bullet points:

- Last week Meredith visited (!!!!)Great to see her and great to see a couple of the "sights" around these parts that I would never actually make time for myself, i.e. the Synagogue (the biggest in Europe and, I would bet, maybe one of the top two or three in the world) and Statue Park, where somebody (the post-91 government?) thought to put all the creepy Communist statues which used to decorate the capital. I think the thought of preserving the statues rather than smashing them a good one, although I'm sure most of Budapest's current residents have a much more complicated relationship to them than I do not having grown up with them as features in my day-to-day landscape.

- While trying to read plaques Meredith and I figured out the word "munkássáag": it means "proletariet"!

- Saturday I gave a talk at ELTE on the American Liberal Arts Education based, as you might imagine, almost entirely on my personal experiences. It seemed well-recieved by the eight members of the office who were still around at 5:00 p.m. on the last day of the conference. The guy in charge of the preceedings had earned his PhD in the States, so he was pretty happy to hear someone else talk about the US educational system. I got asked which I though was harder, the Hungarian or the American system. The smart and elloquent answer which I give in retrospect is that both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, and the hardest thing is switching from one system to the other. I am much more aware of being a minority in math here, though.

- Exciting plans for this weekend include, but are not necessarily limited to, a trip to Eger! Pictures and post to follow.

If you want to see some pictures, check out the Hungarian Fulbright website here: http://www.fulbright.hu/photo/index.html

There are at least two pictures of me making stupid faces! Can you find them?

Small German history student at dinner tonight:

"I know I'm being polemical, and I know I can't really understand, etc. etc., but in this day and age I don't understand the Hungarian fixation with Trianon! I mean, especially now that we're in the EU age... If you want to see the Hungarian community in Slovakia you just hop a bus over and say hi. No one even checks your passport."

Procrastination is a long, slippery slope

I'm back in my office after our ten-day fall break. Unlike my last time in Budapest, October 23rd came and went generally without incident, or at least none that I came across. Oktogon was flooded with fleets of police officers in riot gear and most of Andrássy was closed off. There were almost a dozen planned demonstrations (kindly emailed to us by the embassy), at least half of which were within twenty minutes of my flat, so I was grateful for the quiet.

Break was great! I didn't catch up on nearly as much work as planned (of course), but I did do some programming, some graph theory, a bit of algebra, some travelling, and some beer drinking, so I feel as though the time was well-spent.

Sorry-- I write so infrequently that sometimes it's hard for me to think of interesting ways of summing up my time.

Meredith is visiting! It's great to see her and hard to believe it's been five months. Among so many other things I'm glad also to have the chance to really show off my city to a friend, as well as to do some of those touristy things I've been postponing. Maybe I'll write about those.

Election tomorrow!!! I can't think about it too much. The embassy is throwing some hoo-hah party in a fancy hotel (like the riots, it is also conveniently located close to my flat) from seven until three. In my mind, though, the best part is the advertised "American-style buffet." Responses I get from foreign friends: "What is that going to be? Hamburgers? Maccaroni and cheese?" Hopefully also some over-cooked green beans with bacon or something. I couldn't be more excited!