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Hi, everyone!
Whew, it's been a busy week. I had homework due every day this week,
culminating in a final exam in Conjecture & Proof today. This was
the
last week of classes; next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday form the exam
period. It's hard to believe that I'll be home in 8 days; I still
have
so much work to do that I can't quite get my mind around the idea that
the work is about to end.
The Conjecture & Proof exam went pretty well. I studied for it
last
night in the study room at College International. Ben studied with
me,
a situation which came about because on Thursday afternoon he asked
me, "Hey, Abra, are you going to be using your Conjecture & Proof
notes
every day until the test?"
I said, "The Conjecture & Proof test is tomorrow. Did you
mean my
Analysis notes?"
He said, "What?! The test is tomorrow?"
It turned out that not only has Ben not been taking notes in C&P (which
is why he wanted to borrow mine), but he thought the test was going to
be next Wednesday! So, we studied together last night & shared
the
notes. Happily, my C&P notes from throughout the term fill two
notebooks, so Ben read my notes from the second half of the class while
I reviewed material from the first half. Studying with Ben works well
for me, actually: My studying is directed by what I've written in my
notes, while his is directed by clever insights and a desire to
understand questions that are tangential to what we covered in class,
so we each benefit from a taste of the other's style.
The actual C&P test this morning scared me a little when I first
started to work on it. Whereas on the midterm, every problem was of a
type that we had seen on previous homework sets, on the final, only 1
of the 4 problems even vaguely resembled a familiar problem! However,
once I got over the initial panic, I managed to solve 3 of the 4
problems.
C&P has been my favorite class this term. As to my
second-favorite, if
you had asked me 3 weeks ago, I would have said Combinatorics. Now
I'd
say Analysis. Unfortunately, Combo has gone down in quality over the
past few weeks. There are two sections, A and B, of Combo 1. At
the
beginning of the term, the prof said, "Combo 1A is for people who want
a faster pace, or who are also taking Graph Theory. We will spend
little or no time on the graph theory chapter of the Combinatorics
book." I wanted a fast pace, so I signed up for Combo 1A.
However,
despite the claim that we would spend "little or no time" on
graph
theory, ever since the midterm we've done nothing but graph theory and
Ramsey theory! I have nothing against graph theory, but the prof
hasn't emphasized the relationship between graph theory and the other
concepts in combinatorics, so to me, it feels like we quit studying
combinatorics and picked up graph theory. This Monday and Thursday
were the worse than usual, since we were reviewing in preparation for
the final, which consisted of the prof picking hard problems from the
homework sets, telling us in detail why the various solutions that we
had submitted were bad, and--only after 15 minutes or so--explaining
the optimal solution. Bleah.
However, I haven't only done math this week. Last Saturday, Natalie,
Jonah, Dave, and I went to the National Museum, a history museum near
Babilon language school. We all enjoyed the wing exploring Hungary's
history from the Stone Age up to the arrival of the Magyars (the
first "Hungarians"). The wing exploring Hungary's modern
history was
less interesting, and we had to rush through it to get to the Putnam in
time. However, the best part of the museum was a special exhibit of
photographs of the 1956 revolution. I had heard that the failed
revolution against Soviet rule was bloody, that nearly every family
lost someone, but seeing pictures really drove the point home: Tanks
in the streets, civilians armed with shotguns...It's the kind of thing
you want to believe only happens far away, or that it was a long time
ago, but this happened within living memory, right *here*.
After the museum, we went to the Putnam exam, the 6-hour, annual
problem-solving competition. Because we're required to take the exam
at the same time as students in the US (9-noon and 2-5pm CST), we had
to take it from 4-7pm and 9-midnight! I was disappointed in my
performance; I had been hoping, with my experience in C&P this term, to
do better than I did last year, but I only solved one problem. It
might've been a harder test than last year, and I also got sleepy
toward the end. Oh, well. By the time we finished the test, the
metros had stopped running, so Forrest, Melody, Jonah, and I walked
home together along the Duna River. It was a beautiful night, but
very
chilly.
On Sunday, Forrest, Mai Anh, and I went to Godello, which is just 45
minutes away from Budapest. We visited the palace that served as a
vacation home for Habsburg rulers Franz Josef and Sisi (Elizabeth).
It
was a pretty place, and we were treated to live music as we explored
it, since a series of concerts was being held in the palace's
Ornamental Hall, to celebrate Advent.
This week I had 2 fun Hungarian language-related experiences. The
first was "translating" a Christmas card for my host mom, Eva.
One of
the BSM students who lived with Eva and Pal last year sent them a card
written in English. Normally, Eva has her daughters translate things
for her (their English is much better than my Hungarian), but this time
she asked me. It was no big deal ("Dear Eva and Pal, Merry
Christmas!
I miss your Hungarian cooking..."), but I felt happy to be capable of
doing it. The other experience was last night at College
International, when Ben & I were studying C&P and Marta, Nisha,
Ross,
John, and Neil were studying graph theory. It was about 7pm, and we
wanted to leave to have dinner, but we didn't know if we would be
allowed back into the building when we came back. Neil and John went
downstairs to ask the night building supervisor, but the man on duty
last night didn't speak English, and they couldn't make themselves
understood in Hungarian. (I think they both took the 2-week intensive
language course, but haven't been studying Hungarian during the term.)
They came back upstairs and asked if anyone had a dictionary. We
didn't, so they asked, "Okay, who knows how to say, 'When do we have
to
leave the college?'" I volunteered, went downstairs, and
negotiated a
conversation with the building supervisor--when we came back, the gate
would be locked, but if we rang the bell, he would come out and unlock
it. Success! I felt useful.
I hope your December is going well. I'll see you soon!
Sziasztok,
Abra
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