Tour My Apartment

I share an apartment with two other Americans attending the same program (both are very kind). It's located in the center of the city on a nice street. It's very spacious, though somewhat lacking in conveniences.

My bedroom used to belong to a child, hence the free mural on my wall...

It's hard to get a feel from just the pictures, but the apartment has a lot of space. Here's my roommate's room, for example:

We have a humble sitting room, with a television so advanced it has color, and a large stuffed animal included. The old tenants even left behind a mini-trampoline, but I don't think the neighbors downstairs appreciate it.

There's even an entry hallway, as if there isn't enough space already.

Of course, the kitchen has lots of great cookbooks included - in Hungarian. The best part is the stove. You need to light it with a match, and you if you don't hold down the knob for at least 30 seconds the gas will go out once you let go. My roommate saw the same stove elsewhere, selling for 5000 Forints (about $22), so you know it's top notch.

In Hungary, drying machines aren't common, but we do have a nifty drying rack:

Many doorknobs are very wobbly because several screws are missing. Also, the windows have no screens, so when you open them to cool down the room, lots of bugs fly in. Sure, the apartment isn't anything fancy, but it's in a good location, has lots of space, and has some interesting quirks. I know I've poked fun at it, but it's afford-ably priced and comfortable enough for me. I enjoy looking out my window every morning to see Budapest. It's a great place to live!

Bike Tour

On Sunday, the school organized a biking tour. We took the train out to the countryside and rented some bikes. We biked approximately 35 km (about 22 miles). I had forgotten how much fun it can be to bike, and the villages and country we drove through were gorgeous. We had many interesting stops along the way.

We biked through a couple charming villages, but I only had time to take a couple hurried photos.

A Hungarian cottage

A bird-watching tower

When we stopped for some drinks, a really nice cat greeted us. He would come up to strangers asking to be pet, and he would just purr if you picked him up.

A war memorial of the failed Hungarian revolution against the Communists. 

After biking, we went to a Hungarian hot bath. It was very relaxing on our sore muscles after biking for so long. After an hour or so, we played some pool games.

At the very end of the tour, we had some goulash cooked over an open fire for dinner. We also ate bread with goose fat on top. It sounds gross, but it tastes similar to butter. 

So far, this has been my favorite day in Hungary. It felt so exhilarating to bike, and I loved the sense of exploration as we stopped in different places. The food was terrific, and there weren't tourists crowding everywhere when we went to all the sites. The views were fantastic, but unfortunately I couldn't take pictures most of the time as I was biking. Overall, it was a great day. 

Tour Bus

Last Friday was the beginning of a series of orientation events that lasted all weekend. On Friday night, all the students were assembled together for the first time for a social gathering. We went to a pub, and the school even bought some appetizers and a round of drinks for us. It's amazing how differently Hungarian and American schools view alcohol! We played an ice-breaker game and I struggled to remember all the new names.

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On Saturday, we went on a tour bus and explored Budapest. I took many pictures.

Our first stop was Hero Square. It was built roughly 1000 years after Hungarians settled in Hungary; they were originally from Asia, possibly explaining some of the parallels between Japanese and Hungarian grammar. It honors the most famous Hungarians in history.

The second stop was an old opera house. (I plan to go to one and will write a more detailed post then.) After the opera house we toured the gorgeous Basilica of St. Stephen. The Basilica actually houses the mummified hand of St. Stephen himself! The church is so beautiful I think I will have to attend the Mass before I leave Hungary. The inside had a titanic organ and a plethora of dazzling, golden decorations.

At the end of the bus tour, we stopped at the Fisherman's Bastion, so called because in the Middle Ages the area was defended by a fisherman's guild. It (and most of Budapest) was destroyed in World War II, but it has been restored.

A view of the castle

The castle has 7 towers like this one

On top of the hill of the Fisherman's Bastion lies another cathedral. We didn't go inside, but the architecture was beautiful.

I spotted a peculiar bird trainer, and couldn't resist taking a photo.

The infamous Trabant, one of the only cars allowed during Communism. Its anachronistic engine and flawed engineering were symbolic of the failures of government planning.

One of the best parts was the excellent view of Pest at the top.

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Sunday was academic orientation. Each professor did a short presentation on his or her class, and we made our final course selections at the end of the presentations. I'm going to be taking math (combinatorics), computational biology, algorithms for bioinformatics, data mining, and Hungarian cinema. The classes look interesting, and my schedule seems balanced. I will miss Japanese this semester, but I am doing some self-study to learn characters instead.

The Hungarian Language

The isolated Hungarian language is unique, but notoriously difficult. A study of British diplomats concluded that Hungarian was the hardest European language to learn. It is almost completely isolated from other languages, only distantly related to Finnish. The most daunting obstacle is the byzantine grammar. Words constantly need to be conjugated with certain suffixes that indicate grammatical information like plurality. As an example, my textbook gives the word "megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért", which is the word "szent" with several prefixes and suffixes tacked. Obviously this is an artificial example, not an everyday word, but Hungarian is still a tricky language. The pronunciation also has some tricky consonants that English speakers aren't used to. On the bright side, the spelling is very standardized and simple.

I'm taking a two-week intensive Hungarian course. Mercifully, I'm just learning survival phrases, so it's not too hard at such a low-level. We have class for 5 hours and fifteen minutes daily, with light homework. I'm actually having fun with it, as we embarrass ourselves practicing Hungarian with each other, sing songs, and play games. The school also organizes cultural activities, like hikes and day trips, and I've posted about some of them.

Most young people in Budapest know basic English, but few signs or public announcements have English. However, the locals aren't always good at the English they know. One time, I went to order lunch, and was so confused by the shopkeeper's questions that I just told him "yes", and ended up getting different food! I look foreign enough that most people address me in English, but I have had strangers talk to me in Hungarian. Middle-aged people generally don't speak English at all, so language can be a serious obstacle. Sadly, when they were growing up, the Communists forced them to learn only Russian, so they never had a good opportunity to learn anything besides Hungarian and Russian.

I'm enjoying language school, and with any luck I'll soon know enough basic phrases to be understood in practical situations. Already my pronunciation is much better.

Bogrács Party

On Saturday the 24th, the language school sponsored a Bogrács (kettle) cooking party. You all knew a food post was coming sooner or later! Well, for an appetizer we had langos (lawn-go-sh). It's basically fried bread, and as delicious as all the other fried foods you love. I put a stock photo below, although the langos today didn't have cheese on top.

The premier food was some famous Hungarian goulash. Forget everything you know about goulash in the States. Hungarian goulash is more like a beef stew with potatoes, special creams, and spices. Here's a recipe if you're curious. The photos really don't do it justice, but it tasted so flavorful I went up for a third helping.

The chef cooked it over a fire, and afterwards we had pancakes for dessert. They were tin pancakes, rolled up tightly and filled with either jam or something that tasted like hot cocoa mix.

Jó étvágyat! (Bon Appetit!)