The past week has been awesome. The language class has gotten a little overwhelming, considering we have over five hours in class every day, including Saturday. Even so, it's great to be taking a class that I don't get grades or credit for, and I've found plenty of time for fun. During breaks between class sessions at the Babilon School, Ivan and Kira and I (also sometimes Jim, Dan, Caroline, or others) run down the 5 flights of stairs to the street level and either take the 10 minute walk to chill out at the Danube or head over to the pastry shop across the street. For lunches, we find restaurants in the downtown area (just yesterday, I had some real Hungarian goulash!) After classes end, we take the 20 minute walk back to my apartment (sometimes stopping to grocery shop), cook dinner, and hang out until people leave to catch the last metro of the night.
Most of our dinners have been simple pasta/sauce operations, but recently we cooked two more adventurous dishes, for multiple people: stir-fry vegetables for 6 people and fajitas for 8 people, both of which turned out DELICIOUS. The stir-fry was my first ever solo stir-fry and the fajitas were my first ever solo fajitas (my roommates and guests assisted me, but I was the head cook)…and I received compliments from everyone. I have to say that I went off the sound of the frying more than anything else--thanks, Mom and Dad, for ingraining the sound of sizzling onions and peppers into my head! The meals were accompanied by classy Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, and $2-a-bottle wine (I actually saw a few bottles at the store today that were about 80 cents).
On Sunday morning we took a 3-hour tour of Budapest by bus, something offered as part of the language program. I had been to most of the places on the tour already (mostly on my one-and-only run in Budapest, about a week ago, when I stayed out for 90 minutes marveling at the coolest landmarks in the city) but this time I was able to get some great pictures, and hang out with BSM students. See below…
Yesterday I went to a music concert--actually a radio broadcast for Magyar Radio, so it was free. The violin-piano duo played pieces by Mozart, Bartók, Kodály, and a few other composers I didn't recognize, and they were GOOD. Actually, about 15 BSM students showed up, and we all enjoyed it immensely…I'm definitely doing that again.
I'm going to try to make an effort to describe some of the people I hang out with here, because they're all so cool…so for those of you who don't know him, my "main man" here is Ivan Ventura, a fellow classmate and math major at Harvey Mudd, originally from Irvine, CA, ethnically Guatemalan, very outgoing and talkative, and possessing a distinctive loud voice/high tolerance for alcohol. I've been friends with Ivan since I met him at my prefrosh visit to HMC, and we were originally planning on rooming together here, but at the last minute we decided to split apart for the sake of meeting other people. However, Ivan's roommate doesn't get in until February, so he (as an very social guy who you're sure has ADD until he says he's been diagnosed otherwise) and I have been "purely inseparable" from when he comes over to walk to class at 8:15 AM until he takes off at 12 midnight. And when I say "purely insperable" I'm referencing the math-related song by the Klein Four Group (math.northwestern.edu/~matt/kleinfour/media/finite.wmv), which Ivan has been singing a lot, along with other (worse) songs. Ivan is a good compliment to me, because his friendliness makes up for my lack of verbosity, and my tendency to think methodically makes up for Ivan's schizophrenia. However, we're also very similar in that we're both nice guys who enjoy adventurous experiences and good laughs.
So, without further ado, some pictures…
Some of my class: Adam, Matt, Kira, Dan, me, Ivan, at Erzebet híd (Elizabeth Bridge), looking across to Gellert Hill. Ivan can't hold me.
Looking out the window of our classroom onto Kárloy korüt
I'm trying to look regal
Alex, Dan, and Ryan on Castle Hill
Caroline on Fisherman's Bastion
Cityscape
Dan and Castle Hill in Buda
Miss Hawaii
Mmmm…stir-fry!
We just found these sunglasses in our apartment…I swear…
4 comments:
it looks so cold!!!
-julia
What a life! Past tenses and pastries in the morning, friends and frolic throughout the day, dinner and wine in the evening---all to the strains of lively Hungarian music. Well, I guess someone's got to do it---might as well be you, Nate. It sounds fascinating and exciting and---pretty delicious! Hope you'll do some cooking for us if we manage to visit.
The only element missing from your life appears to be a the meaningful companionship of a well-endowed feline. But don't get any ideas about replacing me with some good-looking Hungarian. I'm keeping an eye on you...Maple
Hi, Nate: I sure enjoy reading your blog and picturing you doing all those great and exciting things. Don't forget to get in touch with my friend Janos Horvath.
Grandpa Chenette
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