Vienna waits

I'm going to miss Budapest. As I write this it's just after 7am here, and I've woken up early to finish my packing, so this will be a short post- in a few hours we leave for Vienna.

Everything here in Budapest has moved fast, especially these past two days. Thursday after classes we took a field trip to the Unicum factory where we learned the history of the drink and the Zwack company, and then were given three different samples- Unicum, Unicum next, and a traditional Hungarian drink called polinka. After that, and a lecture on the EU, we went to a lovely dinner on a boat at a restaurant called Spoon, and then to another boat for a night tour of the Danube.

The Danube is absolutely gorgeous at night.

It was also a bit interesting doing economics homework after going on the Unicum field trip....

oh, college.

After classes on Friday, we went to get hot chocolate despite the warm weather, and then (after a long attempt to return clothing to a store) we saw the shoes sculpture along the Danube- in memory of the Jews shot along the Danube during WWII.

After that cheery final sight-see we went out to a nice dinner to say good-bye to the city.

I'm excited to keep moving, but it's strange to think how much of the summer has already gone by. I'm already about half-way through this study abroad portion of my summer. Yikes.

The Opera

So we just got back from the Opera. Well, the first half of the Opera. and then gelato. Let's just say, the show was a testament to the fact that a good tech crew can make a show, while a bad crew can destroy a show.

We saw Handel's Xerxes, and we only paid 900 Forint, or about $4.00 for it. We wanted to go to the Opera because we live a block away, and sometimes at night I could here the singing, and the sining sounds amazing. The opera house is an absolutely gorgeous building- the exterior has amazing statues all around it, and the interior has frescoes on the ceiling, a gorgeous chandelier, and wonderfully old seats and balconies that you can tell have been there forever.

The pit was open, so you could actually see the orchestra, unlike in most shows I've seen in America. The orchestra was wonderful, too. The singing in the show was also amazing. These were definately professional opera singer on stage. What the opera singers were not, however, is professional break dancers, despite their apparent attempts to relive scenes from some kind of bad 90's musical.

That's right. The set design, costumes, and choreography to the opera appeared to be set in Egypt in 1992. The costumes were odd and brightly colored and consisted complete with baseball caps, hoodies, and harem pants. There were a few sequined hats and jackets as well. The set consisted of a purple overpass and a ghetto apartment complex with air conditioning units and arabic graffiti. The choreography was basically poor attempts at breakdancing.

Perhaps we would have understood the design choices if we spoke Hungarian, since the show was part Italian (with Hungarian subtitles), and part Hungarian. Still, I doubt the design choices were ever justified. I just don't personally think Handel goes with a bizarre 90's theme.... This is why good techies are important.

Anyway, we left at intermission. After and hour and a half. Still, for about $4.00, there's no real loss.

The rest of the day was great though! We had econ class at this Aztec chocolate shop and had hot cocoa while we talked about taxes. Then after classes we went back up to castle hill and Barbara John, Rachel, my roommate Dana, and I had a great lunch on the hill. Tomorrow we all go to the Unicum factory on a field trip, then to a dinner and a cruise on the Danube.

I'm 20, and I like rivers

I am 20. It doesn't really feel too different, but it is a bit strange to think about. It's just too bad I still have 364 days until I can enjoy certain legal rights in the US that I can exercise here in Europe... The weekend was so crazy, it was nice to have a bit of calm on my actual birthday yesterday. Late last night we all went out in the rain and got gelato- my professor bought it for me!

The trip yesterday was amazing- at Visegrad we went up to a castle (Visegrad castle) with the most amazing views of the Danube bend- the point at which the Danube river (In Hungarian, it's name is Duna) switches from flowing East to flowing South. At Visegrad, The Danube is the border between Hungary and Slovakia, so we crossed the bridge and I got to return to Slovakia on my birthday! (We stopped briefly in Slovakia for lunch when I came abroad after my freshman year of high school)

The River Steward in me is loving the Danube.

Today, after an Econ test and a slightly overwhelming French class, I took a long walk along the Danube, which in the city separates Buda from Pest. I was reminded of my time in Boston last summer- when things got overwhelming, all I needed to do was walk and sit along the Charles and everything would calm down. Rivers are so universal- cultures all over the world build along the river for a number of reasons. A river both divides cultures- dividing countries or cities, for instance- and brings them together- everything along a river is connected.

Well, that's enough rambling about rivers. Now look at these pretty pictures:

The view from Visegrad:

a quick little sketch I did of the Chain Bridge on my walk this afternoon

Weekend in Budapest

So much has happened since Friday afternoon, It's hard to remember it all!
After I finished my last post, I went up to Castle Hill in Buda (Budapest is divided into two parts by the Danube river. The side we live and go to school on is Pest. Across the river is the very hilly part, Buda). I went with Barbara John (our professor/ site coordinator) and Rachel, her daughter and the only other student in my classes. Everybody else was in class. The hill was beautiful. There were a lot of great views of Pest, and at one point I pulled out my sketchbook and did a really quick sketch of Parliament. BJ was actually really impressed, and says she might get me to do more sketches of sites so she can put them in the catalogue for next year! It started to rain, so we took refuge at this wine tasting place- we walked through old caverns and read all about the history of wine in Hungary. After that we saw the Hungarian Dance Company perform a ballet version of Carmen that was amazing. In Hungary, there is apparently a weird tradition about clapping at the end of a show... everyone claps in unison. The is no standing, and there weren't cheers either. Instead, the clapping just got faster for the bigger stars. Unlike the American slow-clap, though, it never built to regular applause, it stayed in unison the entire time. It was pretty interesting. That night we looked out from another apartment's balcony and relaxed.

Saturday morning we went to the zoo. The enclosures were depressingly small, unfortunately, so that part was sad. The animals didn't look very healthy, and many of them were pacing around or swaying strangely. We got to feed giraffes though, so that was really cool! We also took pictures right next to a gorilla that happened to be sitting right up against the glass posing for photos. Later we went shopping at a huge mall, and then Saturday night three of us went out to a club two blocks away called alter-ego. We had a ton of fun!

Unfortunately, we got very very little sleep last night, because we got up early to go to Skansen. It's an open air museum thing, sort of like Conneor Prairie in Indianapolis, but bigger. And Hungarian. It had a lot of booths and events for the holiday weekend. It was ok, but the time it took us to get there- on subway, train, and a bus with at least an hour wait- was more than the time we spent actually there. We were all also exhausted from going out last night.

On our way back we bought tickets to the Opera, since it's just around the corner from our apartments. We're going to see Xerxes Wednesday night, and the tickets were only 900 Forint, or about $4 US.
Well, I'm still exhausted, and I should be napping. Tomorrow we visit the Danube Bend.

It's Friday!

Yay! It's Friday, and the clouds in Budapest have parted! It's sunny! Even though I'm pretty burnt out from this week, today is a great day! For French class we (our professor Judith with all two students- Rachel and I) went to a restaurant. We read the english translation bits of the hungarian menu, told Judith what we wanted in French, and she ordered in Hungarian. So many languages! Of course, I only know about one word in Hungarian- köszönöm (thank you). It comes in handy, though. A lovely day and a lovely meal that was paid for by UD because it was technically a field trip. Bon.

The weather this weekend is also supposed to be nice, and I am very appreciative. On Monday, we're going to Esztergom & Visegrad (no class on my birthday!).

Once again I'm staying a bit after class to use the internet at school. I miss reliable wifi.... Back at the apartment, I keep wanting to look something up every time I have a question and I can't. The lack of internet, the fact that no one in the group other than myself has a cell phone, and the fact that Hungarian VH1 shows nothing but music videos- from the 80's and 90's- makes me feel a bit as if we travelled back in time a few years. There is something kind of nice about it.

Homework Homework Homework

I'm writing this from the lounge at the school- ESSCA. There is actually internet here! So far this week has been pretty intense, what with attempting to do classes and visit different places in Budapest. Luckily, Monday is a holiday in Budapest (and also my birthday!). After next week, we get a break from school to travel through Austria and Germany. I am seriously looking forward to a break. The classes are much faster than they would be in a normal semester, because we need to learn a semester's worth of coursework in four weeks of classes. The Economics isn't too bad, because it's a lot of recap from what I've already learned in high school. The french on the other hand..... I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. The pace is SO much faster than anything I experienced when learning Spanish... I wish there was another pure beginner in my class so I wouldn't feel so incompetent.

What is strangest for me isn't being in a foriegn country, it's learning subjects that I'm not used to. Neither of these subjects is even close to my real major, Visual Communications Design. I feel like when I go from one class to the other I switch areas of my brain, and neither area is one that I exercise regularly. What I really miss right now is my own major- things I understand, and in a language I understand. I've had a tendency all trip to examine the typography on signs. Here in Budapest, as well as in the airports, I absolutely love to look at the differences in the design of symbols- the walk symbol, the exit sign, etc. It's just too bad that Dayton doesn't offer any VCD study abroad courses. I suppose getting a piece finished overnight isn't as easy as filling out a worksheet overnight, but still, I think there is totally room for Art History or History of VCD over here in Europe.

I finally pulled out my sketchbook yesterday and did a quick sketch from the balcony of my apartment, and it was extremely relaxing, just to return to the area in which I've been training for two years now. I have yet to break out my nice new camera, but hopefully I'll have time to get around to it. I just don't want to find myself taking snapshots with it.

Budapest is lovely, though. We went out to eat last night and had absolutely wonderful chicken paprikash as well as a very strange apricot and honey drink. There was also an amazing violinist playing in the restaurant- the Hungarians are amazing at stringed instruments! In this leg of the trip I'm continuously reminded of my visit to Hungary after Freshman year of High School on the band trip. I remember being amazed at the violinists then to, at that horse ranch with wonderful homemade goulash. I also keep seeing souvenirs at the stand that I remember buying five years ago... and how I never used them. I'll probably buy souvenirs eventually, but I won't be tempted by the wooden animal on a spring or the lace bowl-thing I bought in high school.

Well, I have a decent bit of homework homework homework to do. Sigh. Luckily, the weather in Budapest is still pretty gross- so I don't feel bad that I'm not out and about right now. Of course, I do hope it clears up soon!

Budapest

I'm in Budapest! and have been since Sunday, but the internet connection here is precarious, so this is the first chance I've had to post. It's cold and rainy here, so we haven't done too many outdoor touring activities. We are also back to school, unfortunately. Yesterday I started French 101 and Microeconomics. The French is a bit intimidating, because I've never taken it before, and our professor speaks only Hungarian and French, with a few words of English. Other than that, everything is good. Today we went on a tour of Parliament and the House of Terror- a wonderfully done but depressing museum all about Budapest under both Nazi and Soviet occupation and all of the horrible atrocities committed.

On a more positive note, Budapest is home of the first underground (subway) in continental Europe (England was first, as our English tour guide of sorts bragged to our Hungarian school advisor on our bus tour in). It's easy to use, and we've been using our train passes everywhere. I found it interesting that there is no swipe card system of payment to get on a train or tram- you show your pass to a guard standing at the entrance, and if there's no guard you could technically get on free.

We're living in apartments, so we're going to the market around the corner to by groceries. When you don't have a recipe, and you can't really cook, it's hard enough to buy groceries. Then you put all of the labels in Hungarian.... shopping gets amusing. Butter is surprisingly hard to find, because some of the tubs look more like cream cheese. Laundry detergent was also impossible to distinguish from stain fighter and fabric softener (there is a tiny washing machine in every apartment).

It's very busy, with classes and settling in, and on top of that wanting to go out and see the city. Hopefully it will all be better in warmer weather, if it ever gets warm here.

Well, I've got things to do, and little internet (I'm in another apartment right now).

I'll post pictures if and when the connection gets better!

Asian Adventures

Istanbul is in both Europe and Asia, with the Bosphorus (straight) separating both the city and the two continents. Today, we took a ferry and officially went to Asia. We climbed up a very very big hill to the remains of the castle on top, and from there had a great view of the Black Sea. That's Europe on the left and Asia on the right and in the foreground.

When we came down the hill/ mountain, we had donut-hole-like things, and fried muscles. The Asian side is the same as the European side, but still very cool. The only not so nice part of visiting Asia was the WC (water closet (restroom)). Like in most of Europe, we had to pay to use the WC. That's fine. After we had paid, however, we found that it was only a squat toilet. Not an experience I would like to have again.

Once we got back to Europe we went to the Spice Market and then had Turkish delight in the park. Tonight we go out as a group.

Tomorrow we leave for Budapest. Monday we start classes. I'm really going to miss Istanbul! The call to prayer heard throughout the city from the mosques, the adorable school children on field trips: "Hello! What is your name?" the sweet typographic characters of Turkish and Arabic, the hookah at night, the wonderful tea throughout the day, and all with no classes. Oh so much to miss.

A few shots from Yesterday: the Harem in Topkapi Palace

The best part of Topkapi Palace was the Harem, as you can tell by the sweet pictures. It was where all of the Sultans hundreds of concubines lived. We also saw Muslim relics at the palace- including the old doors to the Kaaba, Moses's staff, and the footprint of the prophet Muhammad.

So apparently we saw Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia) yesterday- in fact it's right by our hotel! When I learned about it in Art History last year, I never would have thought I would see it in person! We went in today, and also into the Sultan Ahmed mosque (we only walked the courtyard of it when we wandered yesterday). We went the the Grand Bazaar and underground in the Basilica cistern. "Rick Steve's Istanbul" actually had some great information for the tours. His restaurant advice? Not so good. My luggage arrived when we came back this afternoon, though!

The view of the Asian side of Istanbul from breakfast (at our hotel's sister hotel across the street)- how often can you eat breakfast in one continent while looking at another?

Inside Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia)
Underground in the Basilica cistern

Wandering about our little part of Istanbul

So much has happened since we stepped off the plane! We Wandered the blocks near our hotel and saw a bit of this gorgeous city! Even in this small section of a city the size of New York, it really seems like Istanbul is truly the center of the world! It seems like every aspect of world history and culture is right here. It's where Europe meets Asia meets the Middle East, and it's obvious with every step! We heard the call to prayer, stood in a courtyard of a mosque and walked the ruins of a Roman wall, and this is all just aimlessly wandering!

I think we'll actually learn what everything we saw today is within the next few days, haha. We also had great Turkish food at a street cafe, went to an open air hookah cafe with a Whirling Dervish! I love Istanbul already! It's midnight here, and I'm about to go to bed, because I haven't slept since I left. Which was yesterday morning. Good Night! Or as they say in Turkish...... well never mind, none of us can pronounce Turkish anyway.

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

I am save in Istanbul! As of yet my luggage is not. But oh well. It should arrive tomorrow. That's what you get when your transfer time is cut to 30 minutes because you have to go North above the volcanic ash cloud... Eh, hopefully the luggage will get here in the morning. Not the end of the world.

So far we've arrived totally exhausted. The weather is perfect, though! The first thing we did after dropping our stuff was go a wandering, and found some sweet stuff! I'll add pictures later. Off again!

Off We Go (The people in the airport think that I'm crazy)

So I'm currently sitting in the airport. In a few hours I will be sitting on a plane. Eventually (after another plane) I will be in Istanbul, the start of my wild study-abroad experience. I'm decently nervous, but I think this summer will be very interesting. Hopefully. Probably. Right now, I'm just sitting. In the airport. Yup.

Ok so the plan for this summer is as follows:

1. School of Business Study Abroad: Istanbul, Budapest, Germany/Austria, Angers

2. Wandering off "alone": Florence, Munich

3. Center for International Programs: Dublin

So that's the plan. I will attempt to post my thoughts, photos, and other findings on this blog throughout the summer. Hopefully. Probably.

Oh, and for the "song" that's been stuck in my head for the whole time I've been in the airport go to 2:40 in this vlogbrothers clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHx5axpxPkg

I would do that "the people in the airport think that I'm crazy" dance myself, but I have no working webcam, despite buying one (and subsequently returning it because it didn't work) from an airport store. And if I'm not recording anything, I don't look crazy yet. So I will not, unfortunately, do the dance.

Well, almost out of battery power already. Off we go!