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Hi, everyone!
This week's email is going out two days early because October 23 is a
holiday celebrating Hungary's 1956 revolution against the communist
regime. The revolution failed, but Hungarians celebrate it anyway,
and
as a result, we have a 4-day weekend. Forrest, Melody, Ben, Mike R.,
and I are using the time to visit Krakow, Poland! So, I won't be
around on Friday to send out my usual email.
I'm very excited about this trip. We're leaving tonight and taking an
overnight train, so we'll arrive in Poland tomorrow morning. On
Saturday, Melody and Mike are taking an overnight train back to
Budapest; Forrest, Ben and I will get on the same train, but we're
going to get off early, at Kosice, Slovakia, and spend Sunday there.
We'll come back to Budapest Sunday evening. It took us about an hour
at the travel agency to get all of the details of our trip worked out!
The English-speaking travel agent was very helpful, but I felt bad for
the people behind us in line.
Unfortunately, Pei Zhuan and Mai Anh can't come with us this weekend;
they would need visas to enter Poland, even for a few days. However,
they'll be in good company--quite a few BSM students are choosing not
to travel this weekend, in favor of staying home & studying for the
midterms that are coming up.
Last weekend was fun. On Friday, a big group of us went to a
performance by the Borodin String Quartet at the Liszt Academy. They
played pieces by Tchiakovsky, Shostakovich, and one other Russian
composer, whose name I can't remember. Their playing was very
impressive! After the concert, we went to a wine-and-cheese party
held
by Bela Bollobas, the graph theorist who gave this week's colloquium
talk! (In the middle of his talk, he stopped and said, "Oh,
yes...at
Cambridge, we have a tradition that every term, you hold a party with
your students, so you can get to know them, and maybe talk about math,
or maybe not math." Then he invited us to a party! I
thought it was a
very cool, generous gesture, especially since he had only just met
us.) I was apprehensive that conversation at the party would be
awkward, since Dr. Bollobas and his wife were outsiders to the social
groups that we students have formed, but it turned out to be relaxed
and comfortable. Dr. and Ms. Bollobas are great conversationalists!
We talked about grad schools, books, and learning Hungarian. I got
the
impression that if you had to work with Dr. Bollobas over a long period
of time, he might come across as overly opinionated or somewhat
arrogant, but for a 2-hour party, he was great at keeping the
conversation rolling. Pei Zhuan, Melody, Jonah, Kellen, and I tore
ourselves away at 11:00 (we were the first to leave), raced to the
yellow-line metro station, rode to Deak (the station where you can
transfer between metro lines), and caught what I think was the last red-
line metro that night. What an entertaining evening!
On Saturday, we had makeup classes for the classes we're going to miss
this Friday. The Hungarian system for this 4-day weekend is kind of
odd...Thursday is the official holiday, so no students or employees
have to make up that day. Friday is not an official holiday, but BSM
and a lot of workplaces are treating it as a holiday, with Friday's
work/classes made up last Saturday. You will notice that this meant
having a "fake" Friday the day after an actual Friday, which is
not
really the optimal spacing for math classes that normally take place
twice a week. Several professors decided not to hold class on
Saturday, or to hold an optional office hour. The Conjecture and
Proof
prof declared that Saturday would be an office hour, and what's more,
he wouldn't be there! Instead, he would send his son, who has TA'ed
for the class in the past. I didn't feel compelled to attend the son's
office hour, which meant that I got off scot-free--no Saturday classes
for me!
Forrest and Pei Zhuan did have class that day, however, so after their
classes were over, I met them at Batthyany Ter. We took the metro to
Moszkva Ter and then took a tram out to Buda Hills, the most scenic
part of Budapest. There, we rode the Children's Railway, a small
electric train staffed by kids age 10-14. (Only the engineer is an
adult.) The railway was disappointing, in my opinion. I had
expected
an all-wooden, open-air train, but it turned out to be metal and
enclosed--basically a narrow-gauge version of any regular train.
Also,
the kids who punched tickets and saluted the train as it went past the
stations didn't look like they were having fun. Oh, well--at least we
got to ride through the park and look at the beautiful fall foliage.
Now, I'm off to Hungarian class. Today's my day for Show and Tell.
I'm going to show some pictures of my family at Christmas and talk
about cutting a Christmas tree from a tree farm. Hope you're having a
great week!
Sziasztok,
Abra
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