A Couple of Anecdotes

I have been a neglectful blogger. The past few weeks have gone by and I haven't written a word. To be sure there have been some funny, interesting, or bizarre encounters that would make amuzing, light anecdotes, but I just haven't been motivated enough to write them down. This can be taken as an indication to the type of program I am participating. Currently, my mind is occupied by my impending Probability midterm that was supposed to be last Friday, but was moved to tomorrow. While I usually like to get things such as these over and done with instead of putting it off, this is an exception. While the increased length of time I have spent worrying about this test is a downside, I greatly needed the extra week to study. I was magnificently foolish when I first got to Budapest and signed up for Probability thinking it would be a breeze. Quite the contrary is true. I am struggling immensely. The computational aspect of the course is not all that difficult, in fact the hardest operation I've come across is integrating by parts, something I haven't done since high school. It's the interpretation and organization of the problem and information that has given, and is giving, me the most trouble. There are also so many different formulas and distributions that I get lost in the symbols and lose sight of their applications to real world scenarios. Ultimately, it has been my anxiety over this coming test for the past few weeks that has kept me from blabbering on about various happenings in my blog.

Although I should be in bed right now, I have gotten my second wind (which is often the case when one gets off task, in my case studying). Today was an unusual day. I had to use my most useful Hungarian phrase, "Nem beszélek magyarul," three different times. On a day to day basis, I usually can manage to go about my business without awkward encounters with natives with whom I can't communicate, however, today was not a normal day. My first encounter was with a woman who stopped me in the metro station who gave me a consoling rub on the arm once I communicated to her that I didn't understand her, which is far better than the usual scoffs. The second encounter was with one of the ticket checkers who stopped me because he couldn't see my picture that goes with my monthly metro pass. Once he had stopped another commuter and pointed to their picture, I quickly took my pass out of his confiscating hand and flipped it over to show him my picture, and was allowed to continue on my way. That entire episode would have been circumvented had I understood the general gist of what he was saying, though, frankly, so could practically all encounters here. The third encounter was when I was approached while waiting for the train by a beggar. I had actually been approached by this same beggar once before, and didn't appreciate the repeat of events.

Another interesting anecdote takes place in one of my favorite hang outs, Costa Coffee. My friend and I got met at Costa to work on out weekly problem sets in Combinatorics and Probability, not a week goes by when I don't need to get outside help on my homework. She got there first, and manged to score the premier seats upstairs. This table is highly coveted by all the patrons of Costa for its enormous brown leather, heavily cushioned, comfy armchairs and it's location next to a large window overlooking the intersection of Andrassy útca and Bajscy Zsilinszky útca. I often get distracted when sitting in these chairs, and instead of working diligently, I often gaze through the window and people watch from my high perch above the bustle of the street. That day, I determinedly sank into the armchair across from my friend, and opened my notebooks. We sat there for hours pondering mathematical proofs and working our way through exercises. After several hours we were both so saturated with math that we could barely stand to sit in the presence of our notebooks any longer, not to mention we were starving and our legs were quickly forgetting what it was like to walk around. I wanted to stay just a little longer to finish a download on my computer (one must use free wifi whenever one can). Suddenly, the loft was a bustle of activity. Several men with bag of equipment and came up the stairs and began setting up filming equipment. One of the men approached my friend and asked her something in Hungarian to which she told him she didn't understand, so he left us alone. It ended up to be some sort of interview. There is a possibility that if the camera was not zoomed in closely to the interviewee's face, I could be in the background of the shot. I could become an anonymous star of Hungarian television, playing a confused American student in a coffee shop in Budapest as my debut role. I have a strong feeling I shouldn't get my hopes up and should keep laboring through my mathematics school work.

Well, I hope this has made up somewhat for my sparse blog entries in recent weeks. It's no amazing adventure, but it's all I've got.