Thursday, January 31, 2013

Day 1: Residence

The first half of my day largely consisted of waiting around while attempting to get my visa. We went as a group and on our way found that the Budapest Semesters in Math students (basically our arch-rivals) were getting their visas at the same time. But we joined different queues so I guess it turned out all right. I'm not sure what most countries need to grant a visa, but I ended up giving Hungary a stack of documents proving that I had insurance and a place to live and enough money to survive, and so on. The sheer number of documents would have been overwhelming without the help of Dorka who compiled folders of documents for everybody.

Most of us went for lunch together at a place recommended by Dorka. I can't remember the name. Apparently lunch is a big deal here and requires several courses.The food was set at a fixed price and one chose a dish from each section- an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. I had a pistachio hash brown thing which was rather like falafel, the pasta of the day which was mostly normal pasta with garlicky stuff and other seasoning type things, and a banana crepe with chocolate sorbet. It was all quite good and a good price. I would have taken a picture or something, but I'm not that guy. Not yet, at least.

Afterwards, a smaller group of us went to City Park and saw Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) and some buildings and things--see images at the end.

For dinner, I went to a Chinese Buffet. Because my companions at the time were Chinese, I was once again left not understanding what was being said but in Chinese instead of Hungarian. Anyway, the buffet was pretty different from the standard Chinese buffet you would see in the States. For one thing, you can load up your plate as much as you want, but you don't get to go back for more. Drinks cost extra and you pay before eating. Additionally, the food isn't kept hot while it waits. You pile the food on your plate and then microwave it to warm it up again. The food itself was pretty similar to American Chinese food but there might have been more corn and fried potatoes. The sushi was minimalist. The rolls were mostly rice wrapped in seaweed with a single chunk of cucumber or whatever filling in the center.

Here are some pictures:
Heroes' Square


A building
Another building

An ice skating rink. It's kind of massive. And a little melty.





Trees. A lot of the trees had a bunch of clumps in them which I was told is mistletoe, but it's hard to see them here.

This is apparently a famous bathhouse


This is a dried-up fountain. It kind of makes me uncomfortable.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Day 0: Szia Budapest!


I have an apartment! It looks like this!
Eating Place!

Chillin' Place!

Sleeping Place!
It's all very nice and spacious except for your head in the sleeping place. You must be even shorter than I to stand up straight there. My roommate won't arrive for a few days so I have first dibs on everything and have time to get my shit together before she arrives. The apartment has internet but no wifi, which is a bit unfortunate, but apparently there are lots of places in Budapest with free wifi.

It turns out that my landlord is a cool guy. He showed me around the area and told me where I can go buy food and things. My apartment is near Nyugati Square in Pest, which is the location of a metro station, shopping mall, and supermarket. So for the first time in my life, I can conveniently walk to places to find the things I need. 

Anyway, this is the day I arrived and did lots of paperwork and got insurance and a sim card with the help of Dorka, one of the coordinators.