Paris!

Paris is such an incredible city! Todd and I have been walking around most of the city, and just taking in a lot of the sites. No matter where in Paris, there is always amazing buildings and beautiful scenery. We went to the Louvre and the Orsay museums, which were really cool. Although we didn't get too close to the Mona Lisa because it was so crowded, we got to see a lot of very famous artworks. The Orsay Museum was definitely my favorite, though. We also saw the eiffel tower and spent a lot of time underneath it. Its actually a lot bigger than I imagined, and every half hour they have a light show on the tower. I got a video of it, which I'll upload as soon as I can. Everyone in France has been really nice to us so far, also, despite the rumors that they're snobby and what-not. They are by far more helpful and courteous that the Italians I met in Rome.

I wish I could write more, but I'm almost out of time, and internet here is twice as expensive as in Rome. Leave it to the French to find a way to package the internet and make it more expensive. I'm going to spend new years under the eiffel tower, so expect some fun pictures. All for now, ciao!

Roma

Hey I've been in Rome for a couple days now. We saw a lot of the Roman ruins like the Forum and the Colloseum, and walked around much of the city. We're staying at a really cheap hostel by a fish market so it smells like old fish all the time. Im having a lot of fun, but this city is really expensive. Its almost impossible to find lunch for under 10 euros (which is like 15 USD), and dinner is much, much worse. Also, restaurants here charge for ridiculous things like bread, water, and sometimes even sitting down to eat. The food isn't as incredible as people make it to be, though. Definitely not 40 euros incredible, which is how much I spent on a pasta and a piece of chicken for dinner last night.

Im going to try to get on skype on christmas day, even though I dont know if any shops will be open, so leave your skypes on and Ill try to swing by to say "hi". Im using internet cafes right now, so internet time is pretty pricey.

I dont know if Ill be able to last through paris right now, which is going to be even more expensive. Hopefully Todd's friend comes through, and we can crash on his floor and save hostel fees. Otherwise, its going to be about 30 euros a night to stay in a cheap hostel on top of food and other touristy costs.

My favorite thing so far is the Italian people. They are absolutely hilarious--yelling out of cars, arguing in the streets and using very animated hand gestures. A lot of people here speak english, which is nice. Im going to check out the vatican today, probably since its almost xmas.

All for now, ciao

Leaving Tomorrow for Rome

I have my last final tomorrow morning. I think I've done pretty well so far, we'll see how the grades turn out. I know I got an A in algebra, which was my hardest class by far. But, I may have spent too much time on it, which could have caused my other grades to suffer. Anyway, this is my itinerary for the trip:

Rome, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt

After my final tomorrow, I'm packing up my computer. I don't know how much internet access I'll have while I'm traveling, but if I find some place, I'll drop a line to let you know I'm still alive.

Thanks for reading, I've had a fun semester!

Last Week

I haven't posted in a long time, sorry about that. It's dead week, which means that the semester is officially over one week from today. I'm excited for my trip, but I'm also going to miss my friends who are leaving for the states.

Europe is funny, because everything is so close. My friend Todd lives in Denmark right now, and even though he's countries away he doesn't feel distant at all. If I wanted to, I could buy a plane ticket for less than 100 dollars, and in a couple hours I could see him. On the other hand, the US is so big, that unless someone lives in a neighboring state, they might as well be on another planet. And I don't have a rocket ship. Not that I would know how to fly a rocket ship if I had one anyway. The point is, that I may never see a lot of these people again.

I haven't updated since before the putnam exam, so I haven't told anyone how I think I did. I'm pretty sure I got two problems correct, and part of another one. I'm pretty content with my performance for now, but I have big expectations for next year.

Also, my camera is broken. The flash stopped working, and it won't take pictures without the flash. So, I'm sorry for not uploading pictures.

I'm going to get back to preparing for finals, but I'll leave you with a little thing to think about. We proved this in Conjecture and Proof, and it's called the Banach-Tarski Paradox. It uses something called the "axiom of choice", and because its such a strange result, some people believe that the axiom of choice must not be assumed. Most mathematicians accept the axiom, though, but just think that this result just shows how funny math can be.

If you have a sphere, then it IS possible to turn it into two equal copies of itself (which doubles the volume).

Almost Done!

The semester is almost over! After this week, there are just two more weeks of school, and then 3 days of finals. It's sad that it's almost over, but I'm excited to Todd and my winter break plans. Here's what we have so far. I'm going to Rome with Julio for a week, and then leaving for Paris for new years. After that we're going Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. I've bought most of the tickets so far, but I still need to buy the others before the price goes up. I'll post pictures and update this during my traveling.

Today was really exciting (math-wise). My algebra buddy and I spent all day working, and we were able to solve two problems! This may seem silly, but you have to understand that it usually takes me a couple days to solve one, so two in one day cuts the amount of work I have to do significantly. Also, it could be that I'm getting better at algebra, which is another reason to cheer. The Putnam competition is this Saturday, too. For those who have never heard of it, it's a problem solving competition given once a year to college undergrads, and the median score is normally a zero of out 120. My goal is to get an 11 this year. The test is 6 hours long, with a two hour break in the middle, and basically absorbs my whole Saturday, but it should be fun.

Wish me luck on the Putnam! Ciao.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We have today off, even though thanksgiving is not a recognized holiday here. A lot of us students are getting together for a big dinner today at someone's apartment. I'm going to try to make stuffed mushrooms. That's all I wanted to say, have a happy thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Friday!

So, up until today, this week has been pretty much a disaster. I did nothing but study the whole weekend and still felt horrible about my midterm performances. I almost missed my number theory midterm because I slept through my alarm and woke up with less than 10 minutes to get to class. It was my first time this semester that I failed to wake up--and of course it happens on midterm day--so I run to class just in time to take the test. But I wasn't quite all-together, being that I've been awake for 10 minutes, and the test ends up annihilating me. This was my second midterm of the week, the first being my algebra midterm, which I also wasn't happy about. All the midterm studying I had been doing, though, took away time for me to solve my conjecture and proof problems, so trying to fit all my C&P problems into the night before they are due, I can end up only solving 3 of 6. I was also completely lost in geometry, now that we've begun talking about projective geometry, which put me at 0 for four classes in which I know what's going on.

Today we got our algebra midterms back, and I got a 27/30! It turns out that a bunch of ridiculous claims I made on the exam which some sketchy proofs all turned out to be true, so I only got points taken off for minor things. So, this whole week I had been in a really bad mood since I don't feel like I know what's going on anymore in any of my classes, but now I got a little bit back, so my mood is better and I can go back to studying without a feeling of hopelessness constantly lingering.

Why Can't the Dollar be Worth More?

I decided to take a break from math for a bit and compute some of the expected costs of traveling Europe over the break. I've since come to the conclusion that I need more money and that I need to spend less. I've been cutting my spending by eating out less and cooking in more, which is hard since we don't have a firm foundation of cooking supplies to work with (all I have is mustard and worchestershire sauce). Basically, for the last couple days my dinner has been composed of four eggs and a banana. My roommate is also fond of the eggs, and we have weighed the pros and cons of buying a chicken to subvert rising egg costs. Plus, then we would have a chicken, which we could train to play tic-tac-toe and make some money to buy eggs with.

On a different note, who else is following Scrubs? Can you believe this is going to be the last season? I'm still in shock. I just know that some multimillionaire fan of the show is going to buy the sacred heart building once they vacate and turn it into a Scrubs shrine. My favorite quote from last episode, courtesy of J.D..

Kim: I hate your hair!
J.D.: Impossible, no one does.

I should really be studying

We have another long break this weekend, and I wanted to go to Vienna of Milan, but the tickets are really expensive right now. So, I guess I'll just spend the weekend exploring Budapest, which I have not done much of so far. I did manage to get out last weekend and see some of the more prominent tourist attractions, like parliament and St. Istvan's cathedral. I took some nice pictures too, even though the flash on my camera doesn't work anymore and the weather wasn't ideal.

It's the time of the semester when we get to prove ourselves through midterms, and I have had two out of four so far. I did well on my geometry midterm, but messed up my conjecture and proof exam pretty badly. I'm not looking forward to my algebra midterm, either. I attribute a lot of it due to not knowing how to study for that class, but also that I've been sick since I got back from Prague and have barely been able to concentrate. The symptoms are finally starting to ebb and I feel much better. Before I forget, here are some pictures:

This is a bridge

This is the inside of St. Istvan's Cathedral. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the whole place is covered in gold. Also, the mummified hand of St. Istvan is on display, but wasn't available when I was there.

The castle has these watchtowers around it, which are fun to stand in, and look out of. Also, they remind of LoTR.If you climb to the top of St. Istvan's, you can get a good view of the city. The day I went was pretty cloudy and foggy (you can kind of tell from the picture), but the building in the back is the Parliament.

I think this weekend I'll try to visit the medicinal baths, and maybe statue park too.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about math, and I think I'm going to start changing my focus from pure math to applied stuff, so that I can have some tools to study economics. Also, I want to take a semester off of school and just travel...I wonder what my parents will think of that?

Back from Prague!

I just got back from Prague by train, which is about a six and a half hour ride, and I've got some great pictures. Prague is such an amazing city, and one of the best places I've ever visited. I arrived on Friday the 19th and met my friend Todd at the train station. From there, we went to the hostel we stayed at called the Czech Inn. The hostel was nothing like we expected, and was comparable to a nice hotel. We had a lot of fun there, and met some really interesting people, whom we ended up hanging out with quite a bit. We decided to see a lot of the tourist attractions the next morning, like Prague Caste, Charles Bridge, an Andy Warhol exhibit, and we even got to see a classical music concert inside the castle! Here are some pictures:

That's Prague Castle in the background.
Standing before some cool willow trees.
Stained glass windows inside the cathedral.Todd and I one our way to the castleThis is Charles Bridge from the top of the castle

Prague is so easy to get around, the people are all very nice and they speak english, the food is cheap (and delicious) and the views are amazing. I want to go back to Prague sometime soon, but I also want to visit some of the other countries and see what they have to offer. I don't know where I want to go next, and I hope I can get some more time to travel before winter break, but we've been coming up with some great adventures for the winter break also.

Budapest Isn't (that) Different

I'm going to Prague in one week, which I'm really excited about. I just felt like posting some observations I've made about the major cultural differences between the US and Hungary. Besides the time difference and the language, these I have found to be the hardest to adjust to, and continue to boggle my mind whenever I think of them.

Main cultural differences:

(1) McDonald's is a 5-star restaurant, and KFC sells beer. Also, the Burger King is America themed.
(2) There is no such thing as a "regulation" sized basketball hoop. They all differ in height and rim size.
(3) The graffiti looks professionally done, and probably belongs in a contemporary art museum.
(4) Dogs urinate on BMWs... and nobody cares.
(5) The computer paper is both longer and thinner, and therefore does not fit on my clipboard.
(6) The Hungarians would starve, if it were not for gyro stands on every corner.
(7) Reracking weights at the gym is a sign of weakness. Also a sign of weakness is wearing a shirt and shoes while exercising.
(8) There are washing machines, but no driers. The first person to bring a drier into Hungary will become very wealthy.
(9) In the US, the slogan for Coca-Cola is "Always Coca-Cola". In Hungary, it is "Make it a Large".
(10) Couples will make out anywhere and everywhere. Some of the more popular make-out spots are on a moving bus and in the middle of a walkway.
(11) Don't make enemies on the subway--at the next stop, someone may push you out right as the doors are closing.

I probably won't post again until after my Prague trip unless something spectacular happens.

Slowly Becoming Less Awkward

There's a bakery right next to where I live, which is really good for breakfast. I've been going there pretty consistently since I got here, and since the beginning I knew that there was always some frustration between me and the workers. If I had to guess, I'd say it started on the first day when they realized that I didn't speak a word of Hungarian, and then when I tried to pay for a 200 forint pastry with a 10,000 forint bill. But, the tension has finally subsided--I had my first english-free encounter today. I started off by saying "see yah", which oddly enough is "hello", and then pointed at what I wanted and held up my index finger to indicate 'one'. Since I had gotten the same thing a many times before, when she told me the price in Hungarian I had exact change ready, and then said "thank you" in Hungarian. All in all, I think she was pretty impressed at how well I've adjusted. She'll tell her coworkers, and word will spread.

Also, I went to a small town just north of Budapest called Entendre or something like that, which is a little touristy city on the Danube, with some really great views. I went with a group of 7, and we tried to have a picnic, but got attacked by mosquitoes. I took some pictures, and as promised, here they are---

I think this is called the Plague Cross, and on the right is some cool building in Budapest.








This is me with the Danube in the
back. The views from Entendre were amazing.







So, I think that's enough for now. Hope everyone is doing great. Let me know of any new developments.

No Power

The last couple days have been exciting. Well, more than usual at least. The person we're renting from accidentally forgot to pay the electricity bill last month, so the electricians from the power company stopped by and turned off our power. Since we don't speak hungarian, we didn't really know what was going on, so my roommate went down to the power company to just pay the bill so that we could sort this out later. However, the power company doesn't let you pay unless you fill out some forms which we didn't have and probably wouldn't be able to read anyway. So, after much deliberation, we decided to call the owner of the apartment and have them deal with it, but we don't have a phone in the apartment. So, I went out to buy a SIM card for my phone, and after doing that, I realized I didn't have a charger for my phone and my phone had been idle for about 3 weeks. Luckily, there was enough battery left to call the owner and have him come over. However, they couldn't fix it that day, so we've been without power probably a day and a half now. They're supposed to fix it today at some point. It is just very frustrating trying to communicate an electrical problem when the only words you know are large, coffee, thank you, and closed.

On a better note, I've been in contact with some friends in Europe, and we're going to meet in Prague on October 19th for the weekend. It should be fun, and I'll be glad to get a break from math for a little. I'll tell more about that after it happens. Since some person(s) has expressed interest, my roommate's name is Mark, he's a cool guy and we get along. He's here for the year as well, and he's focusing more on physics and applied math than on pure math. I'm almost out of batteries and I have to go buy a phone charger.

I'm getting used to Hungary time--finally-- which is good because school is starting to get really tough, and a steady sleep schedule will be good for me. So far, I've been averaging about 9 hours of studying a day. Most of this time is consumed by only one of my four classes, Conjecture and Proof, but the problems are interesting and so I don't feel like I'm doing anything tedious. I have a feeling this class is going to maintain this level of difficulty, and as long as my other teachers don't get too overzealous, I should be OK this semester. I have managed to find a little time to do un-math stuff, like go to the gym and get lost on the way to a jazz festival. I'm still not fluent at finding my way around the city or knowing which buses to jump on.

So far I haven't found much to do in this city, and I haven't really met any people to hang out with in the BSM program. On the one hand, this leaves me more time to study, and on the other, I have less stuff to write about in my blog. Sorry, mom, can't win them all.

First Day of Class

Today was my first day of class. It was pretty uneventful, but so far I like my classes. I've been sleeping an absurd amount since I got here (probably 14 hours a day) , but yesterday I managed to wake myself up and head to the center of the city. I managed to make it all the way to the danube and get some cool pictures before I got lost. I still don't have internet at my place, so pictures will have to wait. I should have internet in a week or so, though. Stuff here is generally more expensive that in the US (about 20% more) except for food, which is significantly cheaper. However, this has not saved me any money since I have adapted by eating more. I've learned a couple important words in Hungarian, such as Köszönöm which is thank you, and Kávé which is coffee. I've discovered that it is easier to speak hungarian than it is to read it. For example, consider the word Gyógyszertár (chemist). Since I haven't really done anything since I got here, and I can't upload pictures I don't think there is much more I can do with this. I'll update again soon.

Jetlagged in Budapest

I had a pretty nice flight. The only problem was that everytime we dropped altitude, my right ear felt like it was going to bleed out of my head. To say the least, it was excruciatingly painful. But now that I'm in Budapest and have had a couple hours to sleep it off, I have regained hearing in my right ear, and have spent the morning exploring this city. I'm at a McDonald's right now taking full advantage of the free WiFi, and I can't help but notice how much nicer the McDonalds' here are, than in the states. For example, this particular one is three stories tall, and has a small cafe area (aptly named McCafe) which serves espressos, cappucinos, et cetera et cetera. My roommate has not arrived yet (I only have one assigned to me), and so I did the honorable thing and took the biggest room in the apartment. The people here are very nice, and have not tried to kill me yet (mom, you can rest easily now). It is very cold here right now (somewhere around 40 degrees) and so I need to find my way to the nearest clothing retailer. I don't have internet in my apartment yet, but as soon as I do, I will upload some pictures of London/Budapest.

Dad, The removal of the SIM card turns my phone into an excellent paperweight, so I will have to find a replacement while I'm over here.

First Post

Just want to see what this looks like