Saturday in Szentendre

Szia!

Today was the start of our first weekend in Budapest. However, we still had to get up at our normal time to be at the classroom by 10am because we had a guest speaker. Mark is a Hungarian journalist who lives in Serbia. He gave a presentation about the political history that has left many Hungarians outside the official borders of the country. After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled according to the Treaty of Versailles. Once again, following World War II, Hungary was further divided with land being reassigned to Austria, Yugoslavia and Serbia. These divisions left many Hungarians outside the legal borders of their countries, and those people and their descendants make up Hungarian communities in the countries surrounding Hungary itself. Mark lives in one of those communities in Serbia and spoke about political and cultural divides that make it difficult for Ethnic Hungarians who feel out of place in the countries that they have been artificially assigned to.

After Mark's Presentation, we went to our usual Tram Stop at Szent Gellert Ter to go to the train station where we caught a train to a small town called Szentendre about 40 minutes from the center of Budapest. Szentendre seems to be more of a provincial, artsy, touristy town where we got to test out the few Hungarian phrases we learned this week such as "Még öt perc"(five more minutes) and "csapvíz kérem" (tap water, please).

The streets of Szentendre

We went to a couple of small museums which featured Hungarian artists. One had the works of Margit Kovacs on display. Her ceramic artwork was influenced by folk art and she gained notoriety outside of Hungary when wealthy Americans started commissioning her for unique household items.

Mese ("Tale"), 1950

Next we went to a tinier gallery with absolutely incredible pieces that can only be viewed by microscope. The following one, for instance, is inside the eye of a needle. 

After that, we were free to wander around Szentendre. We saw some ducks swimming in the Danube and walked past a lot of shops with beautiful clothes and leather goods. Finally we caught the train back to Budapest and watched the sun setting over the Hungarian countryside.

- Iris & Lily

First Friday in Budapest and last Hungarian class

The Hungarian Parliament building over the Danube

Sziastok!,

Day 6 started like every other day: a typical European breakfast, consisting of juice, coffee (nicest Nescafé machine ever), cold meat and bread, at the Professor's Guest House in Buda followed by an approximately 30 minutes commute to McDaniel College in Pest for our daily classes. However, today was going to be our last Hungarian lesson, unfortunately.

 

The hallway outside the classroom at McDaniel College

Overall, it seems like everyone enjoyed learning this new language. Hungarian, Magyarul as they call it here, is unlike any other language that people in the group have studied or know. But as difficult as it may have seemed at the beginning, everyone put great effort into learning it, which undoubtedly pleased our teacher Erika. As it is custom here in Hungary to thank people with flowers, we presented Erika with a bouquet of roses for everything she had taught us. It was probably a day of surprises because after class was over, Professor Berliner generously provided the class with two delicious cakes as Amadou's birthday was approaching (January 12th).

So the group enjoyed a good piece of cake before heading out to lunch. After that, it was time for some Number Theory and the introduction of mathematical induction. The lesson went really well, it was very easy to understand induction. Induction is a fairly easy concept to grasp for most people with a decent mathematical background, and it turns out to be very useful in proving important statements or theorems. 

Tram 19 on the way back to the hotel

Later that afternoon, back at the Guest House, most of us spent their first Friday afternoon in Budapest doing the maths homework due the next Monday. This was a really good idea, given that this enables us to spend more time away from the books, wandering around the city over the weekend and most important: celebrating Amadou's birthday!

Ferenc Puskàs outside Burger's Bar

Like most nights, people go to different restaurants for dinner. A group of us headed North along the Danube to a gourmet burger restaurant called Burger's Bar: a must have in Budapest, although it is not Hungarian food. After a replenishing burger, we decided to wander around the area: restaurants, bars (billiard, poker, sports), clubs were everywhere around. Since we had to wake up early the next day, we decided not to stay out too late and so we retired for the night.

- Matt Van Koevering & Amadou Gueye

Day 5 (öt)

Sziastok! (Hello everybody!)

     After our commute, day 5 in Budapest began with another Hungarian lesson. However, today’s lesson was much more enthralling since we are all math-lovers here: we learned numbers and applied them by working on our adding and subtracting (what a feat)! A quick yet delicious midday meal was followed by further exploration into number theory. Today we focused on Diophantine Equations, which are equations that can be solved only using integers. When it came time to put our knowledge to use and complete the group worksheet, a man named Frank and his incorrectly cashed check—in a word problem designed by Professor Hanson—gave us a run for our money. After completing such a challenge, we left feeling accomplished.

     For a small group of us, the highlight of our day, by far, was our discovery of “the most beautiful coffee house in the world” (but actually though). The New York Café is located a few blocks down from the Rákóczi tér station of the number four metro. A bronze statue outside represents the ancient symbol of coffee and meditation. Upon walking through the doors a sense of grandeur is immediately evident as you are greeted by ridiculously high ceilings, gold plating around every corner, Venetian crystal chandeliers, and art worthy of a museum. The atmosphere is not that of a typical café but of a palace, embodying its past and embracing the present.

     The building was commissioned by the New York Insurance Company in the late 19^th century and opened in 1894, celebrating its one hundred twentieth anniversary in 2014. The architecture reflects that of the Renaissance era. Hungary’s foremost representatives of literature and art frequented the café in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Around one hundred years after its opening, the New York Palace Budapest, in which the New York Café can be found, was in ruins, devastated by two world wars and neglected by the communist regime. The Boscolo Hotels chain invested in it in 2001, and today it is a popular attraction for people around the world.

     Having just completed day 4 of our schoolwork, we were in search of a well-deserved treat. When it came time to order, the menu of delicacies made selecting only one dessert and beverage a challenge. That being said, we were more than happy with our choices of New York chocolate cake, cheesecake with homemade apricot jam (apricots are a big deal here), vanilla cream on chocolate sponge cake served with raspberry-blueberry and violet favored ice cream, cappuccino with French vanilla flavor, hot chocolate with caramel flavor and whipped cream, and hot chocolate with roasted hazelnut flavor and whipped cream.

Vaníliás Cappuccino—Cappuccino with French vanilla flavor

Sajttorta házi baracklekvárral—Cheesecake with homemade apricot jam

Forró csokoládé karamell ízvilággal és tejszínhabbal és vanílias krém csoládés piskótan, málna-áfonya-ibolya fagylalttal (that’s a mouthful)—Hot chocolate with caramel flavor and whipped cream, and vanilla cream on chocolate sponge cake served with raspberry-blueberry and violet flavored ice cream

     As the nicest restaurant we have visited in Budapest, the New York Café’s prices were high for Hungarian standards but comparable to Olive Garden in the States (at least for dessert).

     With many more adventures, stories and highlights to come, we leave you with a picture of the bridge near Gellert Station, shining brightly on a chilly Budapest night (the high today was 30).

Jó éjszakánok! (Goodnight!)

-Kali and Megan

Szia from Budapest!

It’s day 4 for us in Hungary, and life here is starting to (somewhat) settle into a comfortable routine.  We all eat together in our “penthouse” hotel from a selection of foods including toast and breakfast salami before taking to the streets, utilizing the tram or the Metro (or both) to get from our rooms in Buda to the classroom in Pest.

RENDŐRSÉGI FIGYELMEZTETÉS: három külföldi is észrevették a Metro station.

We started our second Hungarian lesson at 10 AM, with Prof. Erika teaching us about question words (who, what, where, etc.), verb conjugations, and some romantic phrases - the essentials, basically.  As always, Professor Erika is very enthusiastic and earnest in helping us to learn, making class an enjoyable experience on the whole.

Professor Erika, a roomful of students, and a chalkboard of Hungarian.

After about two hours of class, we took a break for lunch.  It’s unclear what the decision process was for choosing the location of our classroom, but in any case, Professor Hanson is to be congratulated - the building is situated just a short distance away from several cafes and restaurants all offering quality food at a reasonable price.

The McDaniel's College building, where we have class.

The afternoon continued with our third Number Theory lesson, in which we reviewed elements of good proof-writing before diving into the Euclidean Algorithm (a method for determining the greatest common divisor of two large numbers) and its various uses.  As always, the first half of the class was devoted to lecture and new material, while the second half consisted of small-group worksheets.

Pictured: corollaries and proofs.  Not pictured: mixing up our chalk colors for each type of statement.

Following class, we are free to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening without any scheduled plans. Some decided to head to local cafes and tea houses to get a head start on homework, while others went to explore the local markets and stores.

One thing everyone looks forward to is dinner. Budapest offers a variety of cultural cuisine, from Italian restaurants to rustic Hungarian dishes. While we can’t speak for everyone, of course, so far the two of us have not eaten at the same place twice. The efficient public transportation places the entire city’s dining scene at our fingertips. One thing has been consistent across all the restaurants: large portions that are just too good to not finish or box up for leftovers.

An afternoon view of the city from the top of Gellért Hill.

The difficulty in the classroom is beginning to pick up bit by bit, but so far we are all managing to keep up and still find time to enjoy this incredible experience.  At half a week in, we have only just scratched the surface.

Egészségedre!  (Cheers!)

-Colin and Ian

Day Three

Szia! 

Dawn over the Danube

Coming to you live from Day Three of our Budapest adventure! Yes, we are still alive and well. We remain well-fed, not Hungary, and we have yet to have been Budapestered by any hoodlums (not that we expect to be!). Instead, our days have been filled to the brim with beautiful architecture, meats and cheeses and breads, exploration, language barriers, and unending enchantment. It's hard to imagine that we've only experienced bits of Budapest--that the city holds even more amazement than we've already seen. 

We arose this morning to our first "normal" day. This includes, but is not limited to, munching breakfast salami with classmates, navigating Buda to the nearest Metro station, dissecting the Hungarian-voiced intercom to discern our stop, and strolling through beautiful Pest to our classroom. 

Holly riding the Metro

We kicked off the school day at 10:00 am with an introduction to Hungarian language, an adventure in itself! Our teacher is a native Hungarian, ever enthusiastic and encouraging--and believe us, we appreciate the encouragement. Although a few important cognates--i.e., pizza--make the language infinitesimally accessible, familiarities/comforts/any senses of understanding are few and far between in this Finn-Urdic language relative. One challenge is that vowel differences are harder to hear. For example, the difference between "to sit" and "to kill" is basically nonexistent. That said, we are all eager to learn, and it's a lot of fun to wrangle through this challenging language with our fellow classmates.

After about two hours of Hungarian class and an hour lunch break, we embarked on our second day of Number Theory. Although yesterday's thrills were hard to beat, today's focus on common divisors poses some stiff competition. As is typical, the "letter as number" to "actual number" ratio in class today was about 10:1, and we wrote more English sentences for our homework than are in this blog post, but this sort of math is what we consider really, really fun. 

Parliament building behind the Danube

Since math class lasts two hours, we have from about 3:00 pm-on to wander Budapest and do our homework. Depending on work preferences, coffee shops, cafes, and our hotel breakfast room each present great places to tackle our Number Theory problem sets with other classmates. Upon finishing homework, we have time to eat dinner, explore more of Budapest, spend time with classmates, and relax. Although famous for paprika and goulash, Budapest is filled with endless restaurants of all cuisines for each of our unique tastes and interests.

Homework in a Budapest coffee shop

After a long, exciting day, it's nice to come back to a reliable, if not lavishly comfortable, bed. Amidst classmates quickly becoming friends, our sweet hotel here in Budapest is starting to feel like a home away from home. We look forward to tomorrow to see what other Hungarian adventures we encounter!

Our class, photo cred Professor Berliner

Holly and Maria

Szia! (Hello!)

We began the day bright and early at about 8 A.M. with a breakfast not unlike many that we’ve had in the US: waffles, cereal, and jugs of orange juice lined the table as we all gathered in the breakfast room. However, two particular things stuck out: Open-faced sandwiches with meat and vegetables were available to us as well and there was no syrup for the waffles—just apricot and strawberry jam. After our meal, we walked about four blocks to the tram that we take across the Danube River to the subway. The subway is similar to American subways in how busy it is, but also contains much steeper and faster escalators than ones that we were used to. We then took a train to McDaniel College, or the College International. Here, we entered our classroom for the first time, which had three long brown tables and two green chalkboards stacked on top of each other. It looked rather grand, but before we began class, we had a walking tour of Budapest scheduled. However, the person originally supposed to conduct the tour was incapable of doing so, and because of this, we ended up taking an informal tour of parts of Budapest ourselves.

                On the tour, Professors Hanson and Berliner led us to a historic district of Buda that contained a castle and a statue of Charlemagne. We then wandered the city a bit, taking in some excellent views of Pest across the Danube River as well as the hills of Buda. We eventually ended up at the central market, a massive array of stores with tiny trinkets and antiques and various food shops and restaurants. Here, we were treated by Professor Hanson to a delectable Hungarian dish known as Langos, a type of deep-fried bread that can be served with sour cream, cheese, and a variety of meats and vegetables, the choice of which is yours. Directly following lunch, we made it back to the classroom where we had our first Number Theory class, learning about the Division Algorithm and its various applications in proofs. We then came back to the hotel and had the rest of the day to do what we wished, but it was a fantastic start to what promises to be an exciting journey through the world of Mathematics.

Szia (Goodbye),

Jonny, Colin D., and Aditya

Szia Budapestrol!   (Greetings from Budapest)

I'm happy to report that all 23 of us made it to Budapest safe and sound (and a bit tired) to Budapest today.   19 of us made it to the Professor's Guest House by 1 pm Hungarian time (6 am in Minnesota) and the remaining 4 rolled in a bit later.   It was a clear, windy 39 degree day here and a number of students took advantage of the free time in the afternoon to hike to the top of nearby Gellert Hill for a panoramic view of the city.   Expect to see some pictures from this excursion soon.   This evening we had an excellent group meal at Marcello's a nearby restaurant.   After a long day of travel it looks like many of us will be hitting the hay early tonight to get ready for a full day tomorrow: A walking tour of Budapest in the morning followed by our first taste of Number Theory in the afternoon.