Yesterday, I got frustratingly lost. I thought I’d figured out the transit system, but I had’t. I gave myself 30 minutes to get somewhere that was 16 minutes away and showed up an hour later. Coming from Oklahoma I feel like medians are really only for big highways, but apparently they are for bus and train stops in Hungary too. It took missing the bus I intended to catch to realize this. But, I caught the next one and went on my way to the mall. I thought I should get off in 5 or 6 stops. After the 5th stop I realized we were passing the mall where I was supposed to meet up with the other people from my program to get a Hungarian phone. I thought no big deal the next stop will be in a block or two. The next stop was in approximately 4 or 5 blocks. I was already late when I got off the bus. I hoped someone was waiting on me. I briskly walked back towards the mall, but had to walk down the length of the mall to find a crosswalk across to the mall. I was furious that it was the first way across this busy road. At that point I was closer to the back of the mall than the front. Hoping for some air conditioning, I walked in the back of the mall and saw an information desk (well, I guessed that was what it was). I walked up to the guy and said “szia!” (which means hello in Hungarian). To which he responded with a string of Hungarian completely lost on me. I made my grimace/smile face again and said, “Do you speak English?” He said, “Yes.” So, I thanked God and asked him if he knew where the Vodafone store was. He gave me directions and off I went. I got lost looking for the store, asked someone else where it was, backtracked, and finally found it. I was so late. Luckily, I still got my phone (Hilarious sidetone: Now I have 3 phones. My new S5 for taking pictures, my useless iPhone I was hoping to put a Hungarian plan on (it’s locked), and a cheap Hungarian android with a 2MP camera, laughable.). Then I went to get a subway pass and off we went to AIT for orientation.
My favorite part of the first day of orientation was the pizza rolls they gave us during the breaks (seriously, up there with my favorite food in Hungary yet). Other than eating pizza rolls we sorted out paying for our insurance, explored the school building, talked about logistical aspects of our study in Budapest, briefly discussed culture shock, and ate a Hungarian dinner at the cafeteria (which reminds me of a cute mini Google Cafe). Then I went home and watched more Netflix before I went with my flatmate Mahima to meet up with some other students at an Irish pub to watch some soccer. I drank Strongbow because my sister Kire’ told me she really liked it when she visited London.
Today was the second part of orientation. I was exhausted, but enjoyed listening to the professors discuss their classes. We have to officially sign up for what we want to start taking on Monday tomorrow and I know it’s going to be hard for everyone to choose. Since I don’t really slow down I’m probably taking most/all of: graph theory, algorithms and data structures, networks, semantic and declarative technologies, quantum logic and computing, and Hungarian Music. We ate lunch in the cafeteria today and I ate this beef cooked with red wine that tasted like a heavenly version of beef stroganoff (I swear I didn’t realize there was something similar and better). Then we hopped on buses and went off to tour the Buda side of the city.
Our city tour was amazing, and I learned so much history about the city and saw some incredible sights (see pictures). Buda is the older part of the city dating back to ancient Romans. AIT stands for “Aquincum Institute of Technology.” Aquincum is the Roman ruins near the campus. Campus is really interesting since everything except the cafeteria is in one building, and there are other schools and industry offices all around us. We share the cafeteria with all of the campus. So, I’ll be eating lunch around many of the people who work for places like the Budapest Microsoft office. We heard the founder of AIT speak today and he was inspiring. He founded a software company (Graphisoft) in the 1980s before the Iron Curtain went down, and managed to have an IPO less than 10 years later. His software was the first 3D graphing software for personal computers. After he made his money he started to invest in education to prepare the world’s future software engineers for innovation. Needless to say, he’s made the list of many people passionate about CS education in my life that I admire (among those are my high school CS professors, college CS professors, and people doing CS education work at Google).
On the tour they showed us where we could go to visit the hospital if we got ourselves into medical trouble, and then took us off to explore the hills of Buda where we saw some of the most beautiful sights. We spent quite a bit of time around the Matthias church, saw the palace, a great view of the parliament building, and went to the statue of the lady on the hill (Hungary’s statue of liberty). My favorite part of the day was talking to our tour guide about the statue of liberty. It was built when Hungary was ruled by Communists by an artist who was supported by the regime to create propaganda. However, he managed to create small symbols of rebellion by including a palm leaf (for freedom), a man wrestling a dragon (to represent power and good luck), and a torch (for hope). There were also statues of Soviet soldiers flanking the lady of liberty; however, those were moved to Statue Park after the fall of the Communists in Hungary. When Hungary stripped away the symbols of Communism they were left with overt signs of liberty and freedom. I have no question as to why the city would be proud of themselves or these symbols.
The coolest thing I realized from the tour today was just how remarkable it is that Hungary has a distinct and intact culture despite all the imperialist regimes that have taken over throughout history. I am so fortunate to be here and to experience a culture so new to me and so incredibly strong. With all that Budapest has been through and had to rebuild it is like a Phoenix that constantly rises out of its own ashes. Always the same bird, but with new features every time it rises after a fall. From the delicious wine and cider to the ruin pubs and the beautiful Gothic buildings I know I’m falling fast and hard for this city.
After the tour I convinced my new friend Sam to come play foosball with me and Mahima at our apartment and to help me consume some of the bottle of sweet red wine I have. We played 2 (them) against 1(me), so I lost the foosball game (but I still scored 2 points when we played to 5 so I didn’t get creamed). After foosball we decided it was about time we tried that famous Budapest rose-shaped gelato. So, we set off to Deák Ferenc tér to find the Gelato place right next to St. Stephen’s Basilica. I got a rose made of chocolate, oreo, and tartuffo (hazelnut rum) gelato; it was probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Mahima got pistachio, and tartuffo gelato. I had to talk both of us out of getting a second one right then and there. On our way to the Basilica we walked passed the big ferris wheel in Pest, so we went on it before we walked back to our apartment. It was frighteningly high up, but an amazing view of the city. All my pictures are kind of lousy since it was at night, but if you’re ever in Budapest you must go. I owe a huge thanks to my friend Kim Asenbeck for telling me about both Gelato and the ferris wheel. I may have found it on my own, but since I knew to go so soon I have the entire semester to repeat these amazing experiences if I wish (the gelato will be weekly at minimum).
During our tour today we heard our guide talk about a traditional Hungarian alcohol Pálinka that was made from fruit. Mahima and I wanted to try some, so we bought a bottle on our way home. We “researched” how one drinks Pálinka only to find most people just drink a small glass at room temperature. That made sense to us (I mean it’s made of fruit, so likely sweet right?), so we poured two glasses, tried to say “cheers!” in Hungarian (I say “tried” because the word for cheers is: egészségére), and took a sip. I expected Pálinka to taste like port or wine (it’s made of fruit), but instead it tastes like the strongest vodka and gin and bourbon and rum mixed together (probably an exaggeration because I don’t really know my alcohol). Needless to say I didn’t really like it. Mahima didn’t like it either. I immediately searched the internet for “Pálinka cocktails” with the hope we could remedy our poor drinks. We added orange juice (sidenote: the orange juice here is the pulpiest stuff ever and I’m shocked I still like it) and lemon juice. Then it just tasted like an extremely strong screwdriver. Somehow I prefer Barcardi and orange juice. We should have listened to our tour guide’s warning that it was 40% alcohol. At least we got a cultural experience out of it all, right? Right…
I know there are many more cultural experiences to enjoy, and I am excited for them all. It’s still hard to communicate with people in grocery stores, but I understand the money, the public transit, and how to walk much of the area around my home in Astoria. It’s only been a couple days, so I’m fascinated to see how much I’ve experienced and learned by the time I’m headed home. More soon.
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