Another Night Train....

Tonight I'm taking a night train to Belgrade with a group of the international students for the weekend. The forecast predicts warming up, finally; all the snow is melting quickly. Walking down the street, you hear sounds of little waterfalls, as the water runs down the gutters to the street and below, eventually finding it's way to the Duna. Expect lots of pictures of Belgrade in a few days!

Melting Snow

Material Engineering: Bicycle Science

I met with the teacher for Materials Engineering today (a class I'm taking as independent study), and in looking around at the neat stuff they had around the laboratories, I found this little engineering specimen!

Another Snow Day

I walk by this statue almost everyday on the way to the 4/6 tram, and just today realized how awesome it is.

Tiny Snow Plow Tractor, as adorable as machines get.

It is no Time Market, but man, a 80 forint Holland Cappuccino sure is delicious!

Day Trip: Szentendre

You could call it country fever, but it was getting high time to get out of the city for a little change of scenery. For a whopping 125 forint ($.50) and 40 minutes time, Szentendre waits along the Danube north of Budapest. Cobblestone roads, ancient churches, waterfront promenades, quaint kavehaz, and smaller village charm, Szentendre has it all. Day Trippin'!
Even more photos at my flickr!

wait, how did we end up in china?

The Chinatown of Budapest

Hungarian Evening

This is stuff we looked at in class today:
Lathes, Milling Machines, Milling Centers, CNC Machines, and Production Lines. I want to get my hands greasy on them.

This is what we did with the international group in the evening:A traditional Hungarian dinner followed by folk dance and music. Of course Goulash was on the menu.

Yes, that is snow, and yes, that is a Nuclear Reactor Training Site behind me

Hey, being in real snow is such a cool experience for me. We received a fresh blanket overnight. Will keeps on making fun of how often I make little comments about it.
Thomas: "Check out the icicles on the parked cars"
Will: "Have you ever been north or east of Arizona?"

Nonetheless, I continue to enjoy it like a child. I feel like it's Christmas again. The air isn't chilly, it's brisk, enjoyably nippy. Well, at least during the day, once the sun sets it's downright chilly. What else is new? I'm 200 pages into Bonfire of the Vanities. I found it in the random's closet of the apartment. I bought a little Basil plant and a Rosemary plant for 200 forint each at the market. I missed having something growing around. Classes are going well, and I'm meeting with a professor tomorrow to learn about some robot research we'll be doing while we are here. Stay sharp dear readers.

for your eyes

Winter Wonderland and Scrumptious Sandwich!

REAL SNOW

Finally, it quits joking around with us and puts some real effort in. No more of this "dropping in to say hi, but i've got some other stuff to do, so I really have to run..." No. This time it's finally sticking around, on the cars, on the sidewalks (mushy!), on the roofs. The boulevards are picturesque, trees delicatly ornate in white, footstep trails left on the sidewalk. Hopefully it keeps it up! Snow is still a novelty to me...

What do you do when it is sooo cold outside?

Stay inside and read mostly. Read for school, read for fun, read the internet, read books. The forecast looks cold for at least the next week. I'm getting pent up in the apartment...

Vampire Weekend

All I did today was putz around and made a the internet my playmate. Happy Valentines Day from this side of the world!

Day Salad

I woke early, braved the cold, found the correct bus line, and mostly beat the crowd to the immigration office. I was pretty successful, I only had to wait about an hour in all. I almost have a residency permit, I just have to wait on a signature from my landlord on a form, and I should be good. No deportation for me!The rest of the day was much better. Rode the old Metro 1 back down to Hero's Square to check out the Műcsarnok for the Thomas Ruff photography retrospektív. Cool collection of photography exploring many less conventional nooks and crannies. There was lots of exploration into using pre-exisitng content and creating artwork from it. He used lots of images just found on the public domain of the internet, or old negatives from advertisments in the 20s or 30s, or random newspaper clippings. I'm into it.
Hmm, what else? I made tasty dinner with good salad. I've been playing with photoshop. Tonight there is another big international get together, which should be lots of fun. Hopefully it warms up sometime soon though...I'm jealous of Arizona weather.

Production Engineering

Can't wait to get my hands on this stuff! I'll have to sit through some boring lectures first though...

Tomorrow morning, I make a valiant effort to stand in more lines, be barely understood, fill in forms, give money, etc. but I'll hopefully end up with the holy residency permit. That means I won't be an illegal alien. Cool!

And Campus Below

Pay more attention to the weather forecast

It looked like it was going to be nicer today, so I just wore my hoodie and a scarf. During our three hour Vibrations lecture on the fourth floor, I watched as the sky turned darker and the snow began to fall. And then more snow. And then more. It was a cold, wet walk across campus to the metro stop.
Actually it wasn't that bad, and the novelty of the snow still hasn't worn off for this desert kid. It gives me a new appreciation for heating. I'm not excited about waking up early for class tomorrow though...

Freezing First Day

The weather must have known it was the first day of school. I woke to snow falling outside my window. I had a quick breakfast of nutella on rolls with orange juice, packed up my bag and bundled up to head over to campus. I first met with Professor Lovás for Material Science, which I'm taking as independent study. He gave me reading material, and then introduced me to the other professors who I will also learn from. Hopefully I'll also be able to practice welding as part of the class! I then met up with Will and many of the other English speaking students for our Measurement and Signal Processing Lab, only to find out (after some confusion) that it does not begin until next week. We decided to go visit our international advisor and then found a school supply store. Since the school has an Architecture College, there was a awesome little shop filled with drafting and assorted school supplies. Good to know for the future. We were felling hungry and cold, so we stopped by the cafeteria for some inexpensive Hungarian cooking. Can't beat lentil soup and potatoe salad and crepe for $5.With some more time to spare until our Math class, we took refuge from the cold outdoors by escaping to the Library. I'll have to go back to take more pictures inside the library, because it is a really impressive building, with wood furniture and bookshelves lending a traditional, classic library feel. We found the quite room, a large hall with rows and rows of desks with lamps at each seat. I looked over the material for my independent study class to get a head start on the reading.We braved the cold again to head to Math which we are also taking on an individual basis. After almost two hours of math lecture and practice (which went by suprisingly quick), we had one more task for the day on campus: to meet with our exchange professor and discuss our research for the semester. We took a little tour of the laboratory, and talked about the different projects which we can do. It was a busy day, but it looks like the semester is going to be really fun. Now I'm back at home, enjoying the warmth of being inside, and enjoying the warm food I cooked up inside me. Tomorrow is, thankfully, less busy, and hopefully the weather will be nicer. I hope it is for you too.

Finding Velodromes

Today's little adventure: Find the Velodrome. I took the metro to Keleti train station, and then began to wander through the large sports complex nearby. I had read online that the very old Budapest Velodrome, over a hundred years old, was somewhere in this area. Finding it was quite difficult. I met many rusted, locked gates, fences, and no help from signs indicating where I might look. Eventually, I happened to glance down a side road and saw this sign in the distance:Looked promising. I went through the open gate in the fence, and wandered through the wooded area behind. The large hill seemed to suggest I was on the right track (track, pun, ha ha), and a staircase leading up the hill confirmed my suspicisons. Topping the stairs, I found what I had been looking for.The track, despite its age, stood below. It was empty so I spent some time wandering around. Unfortunately there was no one around to ask about races, or if it is still even used. I'll have to do more research online. At least I know where it is now. On the way out, I spotted something else you may enjoy:Bike Tire Tree

International Kids

To finish up our orientation, the International Students Community planned fun activities, beginning in the afternoon and continuing into the night. We started out with a bus tour of Budapest, receiving some more history of the city, and ideas for more places to go explore. Hero's square was awesome, and there is a huge park and museum complex around it. I will definitely go back there. We also toured inside Mátyás (Mathias) Church inside the castle walls, which had amazing stained glass windows, gilded alter, and (in restoration) towering spires intricately decorated with color tile and stone sculpture.After the tour and returning to the University, we met our international mentors, local students who are here to help us adjust and show us the fun of the city. We broke up into little groups who went to various bars and restaurants for individual getting to know each other. The groups met up at a big international dorm where the mentors planned lots of fun activities and games.
It is fun meeting new people, and I'm looking forward to making some good international friends.

Getting There, Orientation Day 2

Day 2 of orientation (or should I say máodik nap?). Today we had a brief history of Hungary, some introduction to the culture of Budapest, and a three hour "Survival in Hungarian" language course. Now I at least know the way to properly pronounce words...kind of. I've almost finished up my registration, looks like some fun classes (Vibrations, Measurement and Signal Processing, Production Engineering, Engineering Mathematics, and Materials Engineering). A few lectures, a few labs, a few independent studies. Also picked up my student travel pass, unlimited public transportation! Tomorrow we have some more business during the day and in the evening is the getting to know each other international student party. Hope you are doing well and life is looking good for you too, dear readers!

Orientation: the long quest of filling in forms

Today began our orientation and official registration at BME. This meant lots of paperwork and waiting in lines. Our International adviser, Eszter Kiss, is really awesome and quite helpful. We got a glimpse of the University cafeteria food, and it was quite fulfilling. Now I have my student ID, my course registration form filled out, and I'll be meething with some of the professors tomorrow to work our classes and research. Exciting!!! The courses look like lots of fun, and the exchange program has some interesting trips planned throughout the semester, Krakow, Transylvania, and a few destinations inside Hungary. I'm also looking forward to meeting all the international students. Our group is pretty diverse, America, Germany, Spain, France, Brazil, Estonia, Turkey...Fun! Looks like it's going to be a good semester.