My less than 3 year old Fujitsu laptop died (well the screen did) and I switched to a Mac this week. Now I'm looking around for the best Lunix distro to try, seems like the next step.
I've passed the NYC road test and got a license last week. Now I'm car/insurance shopping and hoping to learn to drive stick.
I'm finally paying for my own rent/food this summer. Though not paying for my own tuition next year.
My brother is moving to Wisconsin to start a full time job on September 1st. My little (big) brother? Full time job? Wisconsin?? Bring home some cheese, brother.
Oh and Alana's in Australia. Alana... in... Australia? What? Don't forget the koalas, Alana.
And... I'm testing for my black belt in tkd on August 4th.
Then, I'll turn 21.
This summer's bringing lots of change and lots of growing up. I guess I'm not nearly as grown up as some... some of you are getting engaged. Some of you are getting married. Congratulations, friends.
I wish I was able to keep in touch, but seems that this is my only means right now. Updates and stories from friends make me smile, and I hope they always keep coming. I'll try to write more often here, just to let you know I care :)
Friday, July 14, 2006
Monday, December 19, 2005
Updates!!
Sooo I'm still alive. I don't have much time to write since I'm getting kicked out of school (at least for now) and don't have internet access at home, BUT here's a quick run down of what's been going on:
I saw Corey in Paris and it was wonferful! I miss you babe! (Pictures to come soon.)
I went to Rome for Thanksgiving and saw Pompei on a day trip from Rome. Got to see lots of interesting history and gorgeous stuff... I'd have to say Rome impressed me more than Paris, but maybe because I had such high hopes for Paris and it turned out to be much like NYC. Took tons of pictures in Rome, those are to come soon as well.
Finally, I'm going snowboarding in the Austrian Alps! Leaving tomorrow night, I'll be back in Budapest Dec 25th, just in time to catch my flight home on Dec 26th. I won't have internet access from tomorrow till the 26th, but when I get a chance to breathe a little I'll be updating with pictures and stories.
That's it for now, time to go study for my last final and PACK for my snowboarding trip.
Yikes.
Oh and Merry Christmas! And Happy Chanukah!
I saw Corey in Paris and it was wonferful! I miss you babe! (Pictures to come soon.)
I went to Rome for Thanksgiving and saw Pompei on a day trip from Rome. Got to see lots of interesting history and gorgeous stuff... I'd have to say Rome impressed me more than Paris, but maybe because I had such high hopes for Paris and it turned out to be much like NYC. Took tons of pictures in Rome, those are to come soon as well.
Finally, I'm going snowboarding in the Austrian Alps! Leaving tomorrow night, I'll be back in Budapest Dec 25th, just in time to catch my flight home on Dec 26th. I won't have internet access from tomorrow till the 26th, but when I get a chance to breathe a little I'll be updating with pictures and stories.
That's it for now, time to go study for my last final and PACK for my snowboarding trip.
Yikes.
Oh and Merry Christmas! And Happy Chanukah!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Parents Weekend!
Well, at least it felt like Parents weekend, like good old Dartmouth Days when parents get invited to come chill out on campus. Well this time they came to chill out in Budapest. Check out some pictures here.
I saw more of Budapest in that one weekend than I've seen so far the entire time I've been here (which is about to be 2 months! wow!)
We saw all the touristy attractions, went on a tour, had a good time in the thermal baths...
I could barely keep up.
In other news - I'm now done with 3 midterms! 1 more midterm and 1 paper to go, but that'll be AFTER Paris. That's right, I'm going to Paris - tomorrow! Wooohooo!
I'm excited. What's even more exciting is that Corey is coming to meet me there!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooo!
:)
Paris, here I come.
I saw more of Budapest in that one weekend than I've seen so far the entire time I've been here (which is about to be 2 months! wow!)
We saw all the touristy attractions, went on a tour, had a good time in the thermal baths...
I could barely keep up.
In other news - I'm now done with 3 midterms! 1 more midterm and 1 paper to go, but that'll be AFTER Paris. That's right, I'm going to Paris - tomorrow! Wooohooo!
I'm excited. What's even more exciting is that Corey is coming to meet me there!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooo!
:)
Paris, here I come.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Saturday Fun Times
[Written on Sunday 10/16/05 3PM (Bud time)]
See entry below for the "detailed" narration behind these pictures...
What we're holding here is the "cultured" version of a tea bag (a contraption that holds the tea)
View of Basilica and Chain Bridge from the path leading up to the Royal Palace.
Royal Palace, from the side facing the Buda hills (not the side facing Pest)
Row of Hungarian flags at dusk
Royal Palce, lit up, with row of Hungarian flags (as I walk away from the palace and into the Old Town)
A cat with two fuzzy kittens and a shy little girl whose mom is trying to take her pictures next to the cat. This was underneat the row of Hungarian flags, as I was walking away from the palace.
See entry below for the "detailed" narration behind these pictures...
What we're holding here is the "cultured" version of a tea bag (a contraption that holds the tea)
View of Basilica and Chain Bridge from the path leading up to the Royal Palace.
Royal Palace, from the side facing the Buda hills (not the side facing Pest)
Row of Hungarian flags at dusk
Royal Palce, lit up, with row of Hungarian flags (as I walk away from the palace and into the Old Town)
A cat with two fuzzy kittens and a shy little girl whose mom is trying to take her pictures next to the cat. This was underneat the row of Hungarian flags, as I was walking away from the palace.
No internet access, but I thought I’d write a little update anyway and post it up tomorrow (plus I don’t really feel like doing math right this second.)
Yesterday was pretty eventful for an average Saturday (an average Saturday in Hanover, middle of nowhere, New Hampshire anyway). It’s nice going to college in the city for once, especially a historical city with lots of touristy places to explore. If I had stayed in NY for college instead of going to Dartmouth I probably wouldn’t have taken advantage of it anyway (I didn’t take advantage of it while I was in high school that’s for sure).
So yesterday Kristen (my roomie) and I went to check out a cute café called Angelika at Batthyány tér. I read about it in one of the Budapest guides that was already in the apartment when we moved in. According to the description, it’s actually inside St. Anne’s Church, but sitting in it you wouldn’t really be able to tell except maybe for the stained glass windows - it looks like it’s just an attachment. What’s nice about Budapest (just like the rest of Europe I’m guessing) is that you can sit in a café for as long as you want even if you just bought a cup of tea and have finished it long ago. So I got a cup of green tea, a piece of cake, and we sat there doing homework for a while. I finished my Complex Analysis assignment, read over some of my notes… and then we asked for the check (they don’t bring it to you unless you ask, no matter how long you’ve been sitting there).
Then Kristen went back to the apartment to meet someone for a “Combo party” (i.e. to do Combinatorics 2 homework) and I decided to explore a little more of the Buda side. I’ve only been to the castle district/old city once up until yesterday and I haven’t gotten a chance to explore really.
I caught a tram two stops to Clark Ádám tér and climbed up a path to the Royal Palace (along the way stopping to take some pictures.) After wondering around the palace (where the Hungarian National Gallery also happens to be located) I made my way over to Disz tér over in the Castle Discrict. The guide book I used to find Angelika Café suggested a walk down Tóth Árpád Sétany, so that’s what I did. It was perfect timing too – the sun was just setting, so I could see pretty colors in the sky over the Buda Hills. Unfortunately my camera’s batteries died just as it started getting dark, but at least that gave me a chance to enjoy it through both my eyes (“no more 3 by 5…”).
I left the path for a little while to stop by and admire Matyas Church and the Fishermen’s Bastion on the other side of the old city, but then returned to my pretty route and finished it at the other end (where it met Anjou Bastya). (The castle district looks a little bit like a mini version of Manhattan island – it’s very thin across the middle, and elongated from tip to tip. So it was a very short walk to get from the far left of the district to the far right and a bit of a longer walk to get all the way from Disz tér to Anjou Bastya).
From there I walked down to Moszkva tér and caught the metro right back to the apartment. My whole escapade from the café all the way back to my cozy room took less than 2 hours.
Was going to write more, but gotta run.... The rest of the day saturday involved an outdoor concert with crazy lights, crazy hungarian rappers, and a crazy african band.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Budapest Quirks
Szia!
I'm finally updating, but not much has really been going on.
Since Vienna, classes have gotten into full swing - I'm taking 3 math classes, a comp sci class, and a philosophy class.. so the workload has me pretty busy.
In more exciting news though - I'm actually cooking shit. It's just a tad more difficult learning real cooking when you can't read the label and don't know wtf "shortening" is in English, nevermind Hungarian. Oh and Hungarians don't use baking soda. No really, it doesn't exist. No baking chocolate either. I discovered this only AFTER me and my roomate invited people from the program to a "brownies and cookies" night at our apartment. So now we gotta figure out real quick what we're going to make for this "brownies and cookies" night without baking soda or chocolate.
Budapest has plenty of little quirks like that - no rubbing alcohol or betadine at (what Americans would consider) drug stores. You have to go to a pharmacy, which isn't like a Rite Aid or Duane Reade or CVS in the states - it's a small little shop with a counter and you tell the pharmacist what you need and they get it for you. It's like the prescription pharmacy section of large drug stores except you have to go there for everyday things like rubbing alchohol.
My monthly transportation pass has officially expired yesterday without being checked even ONCE by the ticket control people. That's 6000 Ft (~ 30 bucks) down the drain. And they wonder why their public transportation system is going bankrupt? No one pays to use the damn thing. It might as well be free.
That's it for now...
what else do you want?
I'm finally updating, but not much has really been going on.
Since Vienna, classes have gotten into full swing - I'm taking 3 math classes, a comp sci class, and a philosophy class.. so the workload has me pretty busy.
In more exciting news though - I'm actually cooking shit. It's just a tad more difficult learning real cooking when you can't read the label and don't know wtf "shortening" is in English, nevermind Hungarian. Oh and Hungarians don't use baking soda. No really, it doesn't exist. No baking chocolate either. I discovered this only AFTER me and my roomate invited people from the program to a "brownies and cookies" night at our apartment. So now we gotta figure out real quick what we're going to make for this "brownies and cookies" night without baking soda or chocolate.
Budapest has plenty of little quirks like that - no rubbing alcohol or betadine at (what Americans would consider) drug stores. You have to go to a pharmacy, which isn't like a Rite Aid or Duane Reade or CVS in the states - it's a small little shop with a counter and you tell the pharmacist what you need and they get it for you. It's like the prescription pharmacy section of large drug stores except you have to go there for everyday things like rubbing alchohol.
My monthly transportation pass has officially expired yesterday without being checked even ONCE by the ticket control people. That's 6000 Ft (~ 30 bucks) down the drain. And they wonder why their public transportation system is going bankrupt? No one pays to use the damn thing. It might as well be free.
That's it for now...
what else do you want?
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Vienna
This past weekend I went to Vienna with my roomate Kristen an 8 other people from BSM. There are lots of interesting things to see in Vienna, even with the grey and rainy weather we had last weekend. It was convenient too - less than 3 hours by train from Budapest.
Some pictures:
Our train ride into Vienna was pretty uneventful - we split up into two cabins and mostly discussed math throughout the ride. Here are the other four occupants of the cabin I rode in (Destiny, Kristen, Crystal, Elizabeth):
We arrived at Westend City Hostel and were given keys to our rooms and lockers. Kristen and I were in a separate room from the other 8 BSM people. Each room had 8 beds and one shower. (Not a happy situation.) There's no age limit for this particular hostel so we were lucky enough to have a retired woman sleeping right next to us on both nights - she snored and got up to go to the bathroom every hour...plus there were people screaming in the stairwell at various times throughout the early AM hours. Needless to say the first night I got barely any sleep at all (by the second night I was either too worn out from all the walking to care or had just gotten used to the situation.) The picture is of Kate (a girl from the UK who was one of the only occupants of the room that we actually met) and my roomate Kristen.
Dinner on the first night - Kristen and Destiny at our table. The group decided to "split up" - which involved me, Kristen, and Destiny going to a different restaurant while the other 7 all ate together. We were already paying the bill by the time the 7 of them started getting their first dishes. We left them there and wondered around the city nearby, coming back 30 minutes later.
Me and Kristen at our table drinking carbonated water. (No such thing as tap water in Europe - not unless you ask them for it very specifically - they just love charging people for water.)
Oh and I almost forgot - the (clearly not enforced) rule of our hostel. It's not particularly good English, but I guess they get their point across.
Comments on the rest of these pictures possibly to come later, I have homework to do. Here's a short summary:
Shonbrunn Palace - residence of the Hapsburgs - amazingly beautiful and unbelievingly HUGE. Fun times at the labyrinth and maze and children's games. An interesting tour throughout the inside of the palace - tons of walking throughout the gardens and other little nooks. Could definitely spend days exploring this place, it's beautiful.
"Giant" Ferris Wheel - Vienna's real proud of its ferris wheel, which withstood some wars as far as I've heard. That's all nice and dandy but it's not actually all that huge. The only cool thing about it is that it's got covered cars, so rain and cold weather don't ruin the fun. Also while we were waiting to get on, some "private" cabins went by with pretty curtains, wine bottles, and tasty treats, so I guess this ferris wheel has some popularity with the rich folk who want to rent out a cabin for a while and spin round and round in their own private "room".
House of Music - a fun and interactive music museum filled with information about the physics of sound (and about musicians and music as well of course). You get to conduct the Philharmonic at the end (and you actually get booed by the video tape if you mess up completely). A really cool place overall - every room has something for you to do - bang on huge drums, pluck some strings, write your own waltz music, etc. Well worth the time and money.. and was our last stop on the way back to the train staion and home to Budapest.
I have literally over 100 other pictures from Vienna of the beatiful buildings, of the palace, of the house of music, the ferris wheel, random fountains, etc. It's a pain to post them all up, or even just the best half... But Vienna was a fun place to visit, even if the weather wasn't cooperating.
Some pictures:
Our train ride into Vienna was pretty uneventful - we split up into two cabins and mostly discussed math throughout the ride. Here are the other four occupants of the cabin I rode in (Destiny, Kristen, Crystal, Elizabeth):
We arrived at Westend City Hostel and were given keys to our rooms and lockers. Kristen and I were in a separate room from the other 8 BSM people. Each room had 8 beds and one shower. (Not a happy situation.) There's no age limit for this particular hostel so we were lucky enough to have a retired woman sleeping right next to us on both nights - she snored and got up to go to the bathroom every hour...plus there were people screaming in the stairwell at various times throughout the early AM hours. Needless to say the first night I got barely any sleep at all (by the second night I was either too worn out from all the walking to care or had just gotten used to the situation.) The picture is of Kate (a girl from the UK who was one of the only occupants of the room that we actually met) and my roomate Kristen.
Dinner on the first night - Kristen and Destiny at our table. The group decided to "split up" - which involved me, Kristen, and Destiny going to a different restaurant while the other 7 all ate together. We were already paying the bill by the time the 7 of them started getting their first dishes. We left them there and wondered around the city nearby, coming back 30 minutes later.
Me and Kristen at our table drinking carbonated water. (No such thing as tap water in Europe - not unless you ask them for it very specifically - they just love charging people for water.)
Oh and I almost forgot - the (clearly not enforced) rule of our hostel. It's not particularly good English, but I guess they get their point across.
Comments on the rest of these pictures possibly to come later, I have homework to do. Here's a short summary:
Shonbrunn Palace - residence of the Hapsburgs - amazingly beautiful and unbelievingly HUGE. Fun times at the labyrinth and maze and children's games. An interesting tour throughout the inside of the palace - tons of walking throughout the gardens and other little nooks. Could definitely spend days exploring this place, it's beautiful.
"Giant" Ferris Wheel - Vienna's real proud of its ferris wheel, which withstood some wars as far as I've heard. That's all nice and dandy but it's not actually all that huge. The only cool thing about it is that it's got covered cars, so rain and cold weather don't ruin the fun. Also while we were waiting to get on, some "private" cabins went by with pretty curtains, wine bottles, and tasty treats, so I guess this ferris wheel has some popularity with the rich folk who want to rent out a cabin for a while and spin round and round in their own private "room".
House of Music - a fun and interactive music museum filled with information about the physics of sound (and about musicians and music as well of course). You get to conduct the Philharmonic at the end (and you actually get booed by the video tape if you mess up completely). A really cool place overall - every room has something for you to do - bang on huge drums, pluck some strings, write your own waltz music, etc. Well worth the time and money.. and was our last stop on the way back to the train staion and home to Budapest.
I have literally over 100 other pictures from Vienna of the beatiful buildings, of the palace, of the house of music, the ferris wheel, random fountains, etc. It's a pain to post them all up, or even just the best half... But Vienna was a fun place to visit, even if the weather wasn't cooperating.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Yumm Yumm
No more pictures for today, but a quick update on how things are going:
Looks like I'll be taking 4 math classes and 1 philosophy class. Bought 3 textbooks today, made dinner for me and my roomie from ravioli and frozen veggies - yummm. (Don't worry, they weren't frozen when we ate them)
I feel a lot less foreign in this place now, I'm getting used to it. I found out that all I really need to get along in most stores and outdoors is "thank you" "excuse me" "please" you're welcome" "sorry" , a couple of greetings, and the numbers from 1 to 10. Also good to know "exit" and "entrance"... otherwise people will look at you weird. (Not that I would know that from experience).
Nothing much is new really - had my second day of classes today and that went pretty well. Went to a travel agent to find out how much it'll cost me to get back home in December (I only bought a one way ticket to Budapest.) Then I went grocery shopping, had dinner, and now I'm here chatting with Corey (Hi Corey! who said I don't write about you?)
Szia!
Looks like I'll be taking 4 math classes and 1 philosophy class. Bought 3 textbooks today, made dinner for me and my roomie from ravioli and frozen veggies - yummm. (Don't worry, they weren't frozen when we ate them)
I feel a lot less foreign in this place now, I'm getting used to it. I found out that all I really need to get along in most stores and outdoors is "thank you" "excuse me" "please" you're welcome" "sorry" , a couple of greetings, and the numbers from 1 to 10. Also good to know "exit" and "entrance"... otherwise people will look at you weird. (Not that I would know that from experience).
Nothing much is new really - had my second day of classes today and that went pretty well. Went to a travel agent to find out how much it'll cost me to get back home in December (I only bought a one way ticket to Budapest.) Then I went grocery shopping, had dinner, and now I'm here chatting with Corey (Hi Corey! who said I don't write about you?)
Szia!
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