My sandal got caught in the escalator.

To all of those dear fans out there who have desperately waited for a spirited return to the blogging world, you have probably found another source of entertainment. Alas, this will be my first blog post in about a month and my last as a resident of Budapest. In the last two weeks classes have finished, lifetime friends have moved away, and Budapest has changed from a place of comraderie to a place once again foreign to me. In the last few days here the boys at the flat made a spirited expedition to Lake Balaton to enjoy the sights and sounds with fellow erasmus students we did not know so well. What happens when Norway wins Eurovision in a bar in Siofok where the wine is flowing and the group of twenty stumbles towards the bass beating across the bridge is something of a surprise. The bartender seemed to be taking the night off to dance on the bar while her barmate lit booze on fire and twirled flaming bottles around while yet another barmate stood on the bar at the other end liberally pouring liquor into the mouths of exuberant dancers. The next morning (or afternoon) we went swimming and went home. I made some new Greek friends who, if I'm lucky I'll get to meet in their homeland in a few weeks. The next day Tristan and I ran 10km around Margaret Island. I died, due to overheating in the 30C weather, but Tristan marched on eventually taking a dip in the Danube; something he later regretted. Tuesday brought together an international consortium of avid floorball enthusiasts who took to the court inside Corvinus' gym for 2 hours to duke it out in the extreme spring humidity. The final match saw the North Americans take on the World. The North Americans won on a Golden Goal by Massachusetts' own Bill Nussdorfer. Afterwards, the men made it to the baths on Margaret Island for a much needed cool down. Despite continuous harrassment, the young lady selling the entrance tickets wouldn't let us take advantage of the afternoon pricing 40 minutes ahead of time. A day later found us on the long journey to Budapest's Aquaworld, a waterpark with a diving board, wave pool, saunas, hot tubs, a bar and over a kilometre of waterslides. It was a pretty awesome afternoon, especially the river tube slide and the dude who seemed to enjoy spending time with his girlfriend in the hot tub. Fortunately for us, we were in the other pool.

I love Budapest. And it will never be the same as I remember.

Everything. Everything. Everything. I want it back, but its gone.

My sandal got caught in the escalator. Budapest wants me to stay, but I know.... I'm done. It's time for a change. I'll always love Budapest, let's see if there's more to love.

Mikke

A brief commentary on the academics of exchange

5 Classes out of the way - five marks above 80. I almost feel bad about how little work was required to achieve this. Good thing I left my easy-button at home.


Here's a brief rundown:
Presentation skills - Gave a 10 minute presentation on Somolian pirates, which essentially paraphrased a wikipedia article. Half of the rest of the class gave a tourism slideshow of their home country in broken english.
Social Choice/Fair Division - Wrote two 45 minute midterms - the second of which was open book and consisted of mostly DEFINITION type questions.
Environmental Technology - got a 94.6% overall, despite being intentionally vague on half of the questions on the final (discussing made up examples of technologies I understood but didn't know the details about). I left that exam worried I wouldn't get the 70 required to skip the oral exam.
International Finance - Left the 20 question multiple choice exam on second year (1st semester) definitions after 15 of the alloted 90 minutes. That and we got 96% on a paper that was written shoddily in 3 seperate parts (to this date I have not read Tristan or Rock's contribution to this A+ paper).
Human and Political Geography - 5 minute oral exam discussing "why people write graffiti on walls"

Great news for me, huh?

Well now karma is kicking me in the ass. On Thursday I'm preparing to write a masters level game theory exam which I actually SHOULD struggle to pass ... I mean, can YOU make any sense out of this equation?

mρσ(vρ)ρσ(i) = vρ({ρσ(1), . . . , ρσ(i)} − vρ({ρσ(1), . . . , ρσ(i − 1)})
= v({σ(1), . . . , σ(i)}) − v({σ(1), . . . , σ(i − 1)})
= (mσ(v))σ(i) = (ρ∗(mσ(v)))ρσ(i) .


... and that's one without the ridiculous sum functions in it.

What we've really been doing this year

Friends and family, moms and dads, anonymous readers, I'd like to present you with what we've been listening to all semester long. This is one of his tamer songs - feel free to check out the rest.

In and out

Over the past (almost) 4 months, we've had quite a few people come in and out of our place. Some we'd never met before, some were good friends, and some were even closer than that. The current tally is at 12, but with Troy (friend from Queen's) arriving tomorrow for a couple of days, and then Khaled (friend since 8th grade) coming in on the 18th, it seems we'll be ending it 14.

Ads no more

Because we have made millions of dollars off of the advertisements on this blog, we feel that they are no longer necessary. They will return upon depletion of money supplies.

Swine flu

A constantly updated map showing confirmed cases and deaths resulting from swine flu: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8021547.stm - thankfully, nothing in Hungary yet.

Saw a bunch of people today at the airport in Amsterdam wearing face masks - it was strange and funny in a way.. won't hurt to be extra cautious, I suppose, although from what I've read they're not very effective.

This is post #100 btw. Sorry it couldn't be about something good!

Two weeks

Two weeks = 14 days
14 days = what's left of university this year
99 = the number of posts on this blog
50% = the chance Mike is reading. Reading what is a totally different question
1 = the years left of our university lives
5 = the number of exams I have
51% = what we need to pass each course
1 = the number of malls I've visited in Kuwait during this week
.4% = how much of our lives we will have spent in Budapest
100 = the number of days Obama has been in office
7 = The number of OS's Microsoft has released [two thumbs up to Windows 7]
100% = the certainty that Tristan will read that and think, "nothing replaces a Mac"
50% = the chance Trevor is either reading or watching South Park
100% = the certainty that I will never permanently live in Kuwait again

Story time

I have learnt two possibly life changing things this past week. 1) Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to f*%#@ 2) Words tell stories.

I would like to share a story, it's not my story:

Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, and he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the prince believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace and came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

"Are those real islands?" asked the young prince.
"Of course they are real islands," said the man in evening dress.
"And those strange and troubling creatures?"
"They are all genuine and authentic princesses."
"Then God must also exist!" cried the young prince.
"I am God," replied the man in evening dress, with a bow.

The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.

"So, you are back," said his father, the king.
"I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God," said the prince reproachfully.
The king was unmoved.
"Neither real islands, real princesses nor a real God exist."
"I saw them!"
"Tell me how God was dressed."
"God was in full evening dress."
"Were the sleves of his coat rolled back?"
The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled.
"That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived."

At this, the prince returned to the next land and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.

"My father, the king, has told me who you are," said the prince indignantly. "You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician."
The man on the shore smiled.
"It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom, there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them."

The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eye.
"Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?"
The king smiled and rolled back his sleeves.
"Yes, my son, I'm only a magician."
"Then the man on the other shore was God."
"The man on the other shore was another magician."
"I must know the truth, the truth beyond magic."
"There is no truth beyond magic," said the king.
The prince was full of sadness. He said "I will kill myself."
The king by magic caused Death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
"Very well," he said, "I can bear it".
"You see, my son," said the king, "you, too, now begin to be a magician."


If you are still confused, watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8EiScBEjA

Sickness, AC Milan, and Kuwait

I've been sick for the past few days .. sicker than I've been in a while. I had some severe throat pains that were bad enough to keep me up one night. Trevor's recovering from sickness and Tristan got sick around the same time I did. I'm better now, but still working at around 60%. Not the condition I wanted to be in when I went to watch my beloved AC Milan play a friendly here in Budapest. Regardless, it was fun watching them score 5 goals, and it was fun seeing Kaká play cause he was injured when we watched them play in Milan.

I travel to Kuwait tomorrow morning - my flight departs at 9:10 a.m. The excuse is to go for some paperwork, but I really just want to see the family. Some of mom's food will help me get over this sickness way faster than some meds! I'm gone for a week, and then I'll be back in Budapest for a week of classes followed by a week of exams.

The pic above is of Kuwait- the tall structure is the communications tower.

Why I think J. J. Abrams is a cool dude

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-05/mf_jjessay

He's got something figured out. And its something pretty fundamental. And I dig it.