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!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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.
- 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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
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."
"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."
Monday, November 3, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, October 20, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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.
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.
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