Plannings

Last week and weekend were relatively quiet, as I stayed in Budapest and mainly just hung out with friends in my free time. A girl in BSM, Caroline, turned 21 and we threw a party for her at Lauren and Anna's house. It was fun, and Tom, Ivan, Jim, and I sang an a capella version of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" (sweet Caroline, bum bum bum, good times never felt so good...) for her, after which that song has been stuck in all of our heads permanently. Otherwise, we've been to a few museums: the Hungarian National (art) Museum, which was OK (visual art is not my thing, usually), and the House of Terror, which is quite an eye-opening experience: it's a look at the hardships and atrocities in Nazi-controlled and Soviet-controlled Hungary, housed in the very same building that used to be the secret police headquarters of both eras. The most chilling part was seeing the cellar where you encounter the cramped cells and rooms which only decades ago saw many political prisoners locked away, tortured, or hanged.

Along with Tom and Ivan, I've been spending a lot of time at Lauren and Anna's house, hanging out, doing homework, making and eating food, etc. It's pretty easily the nicest apartment of any of the BSM students' flats I've been in, with high ceilings, modern looks, a dishwasher (!), 5-burner stove, fruit squeezer, 2 bathrooms, heck even a midaeval axe, shield, and helmet set. But more than the apartment it's fun to hang out with the two girls and Ivan and Tom, since they're really fun people. Anna goes to Middlebury College and is a swimmer. Lauren is from Texas and goes to some obscure college in South Carolina, I think.

The main exciting activity of the past week has been planning trips. From the end of March to the middle of April, and then again from late May to the end of the semester, I'm going to have a lot of exciting things going on. Matt Sullivan, an old and good Grinnell friend, is visiting me in Budapest for a few days in late March, right before I meet Julia for a weekend in London from March 30-April 2. This weekend I've been spending some time looking at and reminiscing about London (I lived there only just over 4 years ago for a semester), and figuring out what we should do: my first thought was to go to a play, which from my recollection is the best London activity, so I've just ordered tickets for us to see Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at the Apollo Theatre in the West End. Other than that, I expect we'll do a lot of walking around, avoiding high-priced tourist destinations (I hope), and just spending time together. I'm very excited!

After returning from London, I'll have one more week of class before spring break, which is April 8-17. This weekend I finally figured out what I'm doing, and who with: my gang Ivan, Tom, Anna, Lauren, and Jim have all agreed to take a vacation to Italy! We just ordered plane tickets tonight, so as of now we're flying to Rome on the 8th and flying back on the 16th. I expect we will stay in Rome for a few days: I'm really looking forward to going back there (we took a week-long trip to Rome in the winter of 2001), seeing the sights, and eating pizza and San Crispino's ice cream. :-) After that, I think we'll head to the Naples/Vesuvius area, hike Vesuvius (?), and I'm going to push for staying on one of the islands in the Bay of Naples, Ischia or Capri. We might have time to head to a third area. I am pumped for this trip. Just think: I'll probably be spending my 21st birthday in Rome!

Finally, my whole family (Mom, Dad, Tim, and Claire) are all coming to visit me at the end of May, before I leave. They arrive while I'm taking finals, and will probably be out having fun in Budapest while I sit and study, locked in my room. Actually, it will be really great taking them out to dinner, maybe making dinners, going to see the city, etc. Once I'm done with exams and the program is over, we're all going to take off to some exotic Eastern European locations to be determined: possibly Prague, Slovenia, Croatia, ... wherever we go, it will be great.

These bigger trips will be rounded out by a few weekend trips to closer areas: at the top of my list are Prague and Vienna, and perhaps Krakow. There are also some interesting places to go in Hungary--this weekend we'll probably take a train to one of these, like Pécs (historic, picturesque city) and Villany (wine-growing region) in Southern Hungary, or Eger (historic, picturesque city) and Tokaj (wine-growing region) in Eastern Hungary, or Lake Balaton (the largest lake in Europe, and Hungary's only "coastline"). Should be fun.

This is the week to hear back from the summer REUs (nationally funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates, in math) that I've applied to...so far, I have only heard back from Iowa State, who accepted me into their project on Combinatorial Matrix Theory. So it's entirely possible that I may stay in my great home state this summer. I'd be happy with this, and it would be nice to be an hour away from home, although I am not entirely keen on training for my last CMS XC season in the heat and humidity of Iowa. I hope to hear from other programs soon so I can make a decision.

Classes are going great. I just hope I can contain my excitement for a few more weeks...