Update: Doctor's appointment

So, this morning I wasn't feeling any better, so I messaged my prof, and we went to the doctor. The doctor said, I had a virus in my stomach, but it's moved to my intestines, and now it just needs to flushed out. So I'm not supposed to take medicine to stop myself up, I have a list of the only 5 foods I can eat until I get better, and I'm on bed rest until Thursday. Ugh. So I'll probably do a bunch of blogging until Thursday... and then you won't hear from me for quite a while (except maybe briefly)

Update: Sickness

Just time for a quick update. Sorry for the silence on the blog, I've been quite sick for a while. I normally would have posted on Friday, but got sick Thursday night. Stomach cramps, intestinal troubles (lots of bathroom breaks), nausea, and headaches. It was painful to be out of bed on Friday, and too frequently painful even in it. It was quite a rough day. The one time I forced myself to get up for a couple hours, it felt like someone was banging a basketball on the inside of my head, which was refreshing compared to the pain I had been in earlier in the day. Sleep has been difficult to come by in long chunks, so a lot of my time has been resting, lots of two hour naps, and lots more just trying to sleep. The remaining time was trying to distract myself from my body so I didn't go crazy. I felt a bit better on Saturday, still awful, but usually not too bad in bed, and I spent a bit more time up (which was still kind of painful). Today was quite a bit better, although frequent bathroom breaks were still required, and my head is still in a bit of a fog. I don't even know when I'll be tired enough to sleep tonight, my sleep schedule is so off, although I've been awake since noon here, possible my longest stretch all weekend, so hopefully sometime soon.

I'm now way behind on homework; the main reason I'm posting is that I don't foresee myself posting another blog post before Saturday, and perhaps not even then, while I try to catch up on everything.

On the plus side, I left the dorm exactly once, very briefly, (to get myself a large bottle of Sprite on Saturday to allow me to calm my stomach, which semi-worked), so my knees have gotten tons of rest.

Photo Albums

Since you can only see my photos when I put them in albums and make them shareable, here's a list of albums, which I'll keep updated.

Hungary 1
Ferry ride and island
Hungarian National Museum (contains a couple other students photos as well)
Aquincum
Sweeney Todd in Budapest
Király Thermal Bath
Szabadság tér
Hungary 2 (misc)
Pecs
Hero's Square and Buda Castle
Hungary 3 (misc)
Croatia and Italy trip
The Great Market Hall
Dohány Street Synagogue
Vienna Trip #1
Hungary 4 (misc)
Vienna Trip #2
Prague
A few misc pictures
Trip to Poland
Hungarian National Gallery
Hungary 5 (misc)
Trip to Germany
Memento Park
Tour of Parliament
Trip to Poland
End of Hungary Semester
Christmas Gifts

How my knees are doing: 9/19/16

Since I'm caught up on events, I thought I'd give some more general thoughts. My knees have been a pain (pun intended). Using the public transportation requires more walking than you might expect, and of course we've been exploring the city. I've been wearing my braces all the time, but even so, last week Wednesday, my busiest day, my knees hurt even while sitting in Art History. It was a bit of an issue. Ever since then, I've been resting my knees, although we did a ton of walking at Aquincum, and the baths, so limiting how frequently I go to non-required things is a must. I passed on both of the groups going to Slovakia, for although their itineraries are to different locations, they both involve quite a bit of hiking, and with my knees the way they are now, I can't commit to that. Hopefully, resting my knees now will help them in the coming weeks, when more hiking opportunities hopefully arise (I do love hiking). So this weekend I'll have plenty of time for talking and working on homework.

Events 9/16-9/19

Friday morning, we had an early Hungarian class. We focused more on full sentences, and just speaking and having conversations, than we had previously. I'm terrible at it.

In the afternoon, we visited Aquincum

https://goo.gl/photos/Qc5YqAt4sAho1gCq8

Aquincum is a Roman archaeological site. Anquincum used to be the capital of Lower Pannonia, a Roman province that lasted three centuries (1st-4th AD). The area was never significantly built over, so much of the ruins remain. I learned a ton of cool stuff about the site, as well as archaeology itself. One of the coolest things is that much of the site hasn't been excavated; it will allow future archaeologists to excavate. Archaeology is a fast moving field, and the prevailing thought is that future methods will be much better for excavation; the best way to preserve a site is to leave it buried. I took a ton of notes.

The reason I have so many pictures and took a bunch of notes is that this Thursday, we have a 1000 word paper due in Late Antiquity. Oof.

After Aquincum, I came back to the dorm, but then soon left. A Calvin student was singing in the background (in the choir parts) of a production of Sweeney Todd.

https://goo.gl/photos/6XcmJG58afiQCQmE9

In Budapest, there's a theatre production that focuses on producing English plays; the Calvin student was taking voice lessons from someone who was related to it, and was recommended for the part. I would characterize the play as dark, dark humor. The production was excellent. The play was extremely enjoyable. It was a good distance away, so it took up the entire evening; I got back to the dorm around midnight.

On Saturday, I got up, and got a bunch done. I blogged, cleaned up, checked emails. Then, I went to the Turkish baths, both for relaxation and for class.

https://goo.gl/photos/uMWBfKGaX8gff7u77

The baths were quite nice, although we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the baths, so I can't show them. The changing area was unisex, with changing rooms, and the showers before entering smelled of sulfur. The pools also did, although less so. There was one large pool in the center, with water about the same as a heated pool in the US. There was a "hot tub" area to one side, with 15 minute time limit. On another side, there was a cold water pool, like taking a cold shower, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The deepest parts of all of the pools were probably about four feet. The pools were not at all for swimming, just laying and relaxing. There was also a steam sauna and a dry sauna, as well as a Jacuzzi.

After the baths, we went nearby to look at a tomb for class, but it was under construction, and will continue to be until March. I had a gyro durum for lunch, which is a gyro sandwich, but a tortilla wrap.

Under construction

In the evening, I watched college football, while getting some long overdue work done on the mod. I feel like I'm behind on everything, including my hobbies. Michigan had a rough start, but came back quickly, and cruised to a win.

Sunday, I went to Erin Steven's church, St. Columba's, for the 175th anniversary of the establishment of the Scottish mission in Budapest. A bunch of people came, a bishop was there, the service focused on it, and a man played the bagpipes in full Scottish garb during lunch. Lunch was okay.

I slept all afternoon, about 3 hours. I didn't expect to sleep so long, so I was awoken by a classmate knocking; it was time to go to dinner with Professor Kim. Every Sunday night, four five students go to the Kims for dinner. The professor lives a ways away. It took about 45 minutes to get there. We chatted a bit, had a dinner of Korean food, and then played "The Great Dalmuti", a game similar to "Presidents", if you've played that, but with a deck 1-12, where there's one "1" card, two "2" cards, three "3" cards, etc, and the lower card is better. It was great fun.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/929/great-dalmuti

After the game, we went on a small tour of some nearby monuments in Szabadság tér. There's a monument of the Soviets freeing the Hungarians from the Nazis. There's another monument, put up in 2014, showing the Nazi eagle stealing the symbol of the Hungarian crown/liberty, from the Hungarians. Many people find it very offensive, because the Hungarians were complicit with Nazis, including actively sending away Jews to concentration camps, for much of WWII. There's a counter-monument that's been set up remembering the Hungarian Jews that were killed. It's a very contentious issue, and the monuments get vandalized from time to time. There's also a statue of the Hungarian governor during the 1956 uprising, and a statue of Ronald Reagan in Szabadság tér. The US embassy in Hungary is also next to it.

https://goo.gl/photos/h64tdLirfZosQ32v9

On the way into the dorm, I found a little hedgehog waddling around. I tried to take pictures, but they're super dark, and you can barely see the hedgehog. You'll have to turn your brightness way up. You can find this and a few other shots in the misc photos at the end of this post, where you'll be able to see it full screen and download it, to hopefully see it better.

After I got back, I watched the fourth quarter of the Lions game, and that's all I really want to say.

This morning, I slept in a bit, and then got down to reading. I still have a ton of reading to do, although I'm glad I got this blog in.

Miscellaneous photos not in any of the previous albums:
https://goo.gl/photos/my1XRR5wg4wRCErP6

Events 9/13-9/15

These few days were very busy.

Tuesday, I got up, and got to work. The morning was more working on the presentation with my group members. None of us were happy with our topic, but we managed to mold our ideas into some semblance of a presentation. The others had class in the afternoon, while I touched up my parts, and then studied Hungarian.

We had Hungarian in the late afternoon. I redid a quiz I had struggled on earlier, and did much better. Class focused on adjectives, which was interesting.

After a quick dinner, we had Central European History. As a three-hour class, it has a break in the middle. Before the break, we had some review of our readings, and some lecture. After the break we had the presentations. Ours went moderately well, although a few of our points were left out (one was my fault). That night I prepared for my Service Learning, and then went to sleep.



Wednesday morning, I got up, and went to Service Learning. It was quite nerve-wracking, going into classrooms, and just talking about stuff. I realized how little I know about the US, and that I need to learn the Hungarian names for things I like, like video games, movies, and books.

After I finished that, I got a kebab for lunch, went to Corvinus and signed something, then went to my late-afternoon Karoli course, Holocaust literature. This was the first class. It was a very interesting class, and we spent the second half reading a short story, which was quite moving. I'm excited to see where this class will go.

After that, I got back, ate dinner, and went art history. A decent class, focusing on different techniques, and how they changed over the years. My knees were hurting quite a bit during class, just sitting, and I realized that I need to rest them better.

Afterwards, I quick finished my homework for Late Antiquity class the next day (it was due at midnight) and went to bed.



Thursday, I rested my knees, so I could do a lot of walking on our excursion on Friday.

I had to go to Corvinus in the morning for economics. I'm absolutely loving that class, although the professor frequently speaks in absolutes; he's right about just about everything, and he can't fathom why the EU is making such (in his mind) poor decisions. The seminar after the lecture is great. If this is what grad school is going to be like (I believe there are grad students in this class), I'm going to love it.

On the way back, I got food. So after that, I didn't go anywhere all day.

Professor Kim had to deal with some stuff, so we started Late Antiquity an hour and a half late, halving the class time, so it was quite rushed. I got a bunch of Hungarian studying done. After class, I relaxed, got a little homework done, before going to bed a bit early; Hungarian the next day was at 9am.

Events 9/10-9/12

Saturday was a pretty boring day, studying, blogging, and relaxing. I'm not sure I even went out other than getting food.

For the Central European history class, we had to go to the Hungarian National Museum in groups, and then give a presentation. I thought my group was going on Saturday; they were not. Someone made pancakes for everyone for breakfast, which was great.  I watched part of the Michigan game; Michigan won by a lot. I watched Mamma Mia! with a few girls at night. It's quite a ridiculous movie/musical.


Sunday was quite a busy day.

In the morning I went to church, Danube International again.

Hard to tell it's a church from the outside.

We sat up front, but it's a decently sized auditorium, room for probably 300 people. About 150 were there.

Underneath the church, the cafe below has it's own service. It's an interesting setup.

The original plan had been to go to the Hungarian National Museum on Monday, but as all of us (including the professor!) found out, the museum is closed on Mondays. So after church, I finally went to the Hungarian National Museum, with a different group than I had previously been planning.

I took a ton of pictures; these are actually more than just mine; they're the group's pictures.
https://goo.gl/photos/QA1g2V6zsUyrNUed7

I managed to get some blogging, and some more studying in.

That night, I watched the Lions; starting at 10:30pm here. It was a nailbiter, but the Lions pulled it out.


Monday, after sleeping in, I just kind of sat around. I checked my emails, got a little bit done, but wasn't particularly motivated. I didn't even eat until 5. I did have art history in the evening, which was more interesting than last time, likely because I was more awake. After class, my group got together and started getting down to business on the presentation. I went to bed while they were still working on it.

Events 9/6-9/9: Classes

First, a couple things I left off yesterday; during the orientation, we were split into groups and given a topic, to give a presentation on, on that Friday.

Right after the orientation, I got food with some other students. We went to a more US-style burger place. It was delicious.

On Tuesday, I started working on homework for my Thursday class. I was also studying my Hungarian, since we had class in the afternoon, and blogging. In Hungarian, we had a bunch of verbs, including some grammar, which I enjoy.

In the evening we had our central european history course. Professor Kim is great, he's very enthusiastic, and I'm excited to learn the subject. It'll be a great class. One of the other calvin students made cookies for all of us. Yum.

On Wednesday, I finished my Thursday homework, and did more blogging. At night I had my renaissance art history class. It was interesting, but I was tired. Art isn't really my thing, but it should be an interesting class.

On Thursday, I had a bunch of classes. I had my class in the morning (which I accidentally missed half of, through some mistakes of my own, and having trouble figuring out where class was). The first half of class is lecture, and the second half is a seminar, where we're split into groups, get a question, research it, and a member of the group present's the group's answer. The question Thursday was about the potential maximum size of the EU, specifically looking at Turkey and the Balkans. I presented our group's answer, which was that the northern balkans, with their stable economies, could join quickly, while the southern balkans needed to work on their economies first, before they could join. We decided Turkey would not join any time soon, with their poor treatment of the Kurds, they're poor history and acknowledgement of ethnic minority treatment, and the recent restriction of democracy implemented by the ruler, Erdogan.

Soon after economics, I had my late antiquity course, following the Roman Empire from about the 4th century to the 8th. This is Professor Kim's specialty. It was great on Thursday, and I'm excited for where class will go. I had Chinese for dinner.

On Friday, we had Hungarian in the morning, lots of going over our favorites, which was fun.

In the afternoon, the other calvin student in my presentation group met early with the other two Karoli students in our presentation group who could actually attend the presenting. We accidentally told them the wrong time, oops. But we met up, went over our presentation, which was terrible. All 10 groups presented, ours was near the bottom. I presented on the wine festival, but didn't have much to present. They were all a bit ridiculous. The winning one was on food with a weird video showing (badly) the group trying some Hungarian food. (I found out later, they won by stuffing the ballot box; they voted for themselves (which they weren't supposed to do), and ripped their voting paper in half (they were already just ripped pieces of paper) to double their votes.

I made it through the first week of classes, to the weekend. Phew!

Events 9/3-9/5

Saturday morning, I went looking for a bathing suit. A bunch of people were going to Lake Balaton, a nearby lake great for swimming. Well, five hours later, I got back with a bathing suit, well after everyone else had left. I looked in two different malls; checked a bunch of stores. I had to learn how the sizing system worked, figure out where was cheap. The second-hand store had nothing labeled, which was infuriating, so I quickly left. Many of the clothing stores sell women's clothes only, so it was rough looking up stores online. Finally, in a sports store, I found a large bathing suit. They had only one pattern, which was a bluey-green, which was fine by me. But I got it. (I also picked up some underwear). For shirts and shorts, I plan on going back to C&A. But I've figured out the washing machines, and they only take very small loads, so I'm adjusting. The rest of the day was studying and relaxing; I had assignments due before classes started.


Sunday, I went to St. Columba's Church of Scotland, which is the church of pastor Aaron Stevens, who is working with our program, mainly in setting up the service-learning. It was a good service, quite small. Afterwards they provided lunch.

The church from the front.

The streets were very narrow; this was with my back near the wall on the other side of the street.

After lunch, I think I grabbed some groceries and went back. In the process of figuring out to meet with my service learning host, we figured out Monday morning would work best, and they're an hour from the dorm. So an early night for me. I also talked with my sis, and got the first blog post in.

I dragged myself out of bed Monday morning and went to UMSZKI, a bilingual school north of the city center. I discovered that I will be dealing with students who are learning English. Basically, my job is just to get them to talk in English. I've a big list of things I can do, (I'll have to do things for 3 hours a week) but I've been told they have a lot of questions, and I'll probably do a lot of explaining how things work in the US. Lots of questions on politics, I'm told.

In the afternoon, I did a bunch more blogging. That evening was a Karoli orientation, which was at the university. It was mainly for Erasmus students, who make up 80% of the international students, and had orientation stuff all week (and had all of their classes at Karoli), but there was some stuff for the other international students which were more than just us Calvin students. I was going to have my first class that night, but due to a scheduling mixup, it was set to start immediately after the orientation, which was half an hour a day, so it had been cancelled. So my classes started on Tuesday.

Events 8/31-9/2

Wednesday was a fun day. Language class in the morning, which was a review of the foods and numbers, in preparation for going to the market the next day.

In the afternoon, I went on a river ferry, to an island on the Danube River. Lots of great pictures. I made an album just for them:
https://goo.gl/photos/KXFShTyPMCrUdgHN7

It was a cool ride, taking about an hour. We got on at the first stop, so we got to sit up front. We got to see the great architecture on the river side. Lots of unobstructed views.

The island was also cool. There's a bridge to it, and there's even a bus that stops on the island. The island is very large, over a mile and a half long, and about a third of a mile wide. We probably walked about two-thirds of the length. Early on, there's a huge fountain, with speakers, and the fountain dances to the music playing. You can see a video in the above album. The island itself is full of green space, and has a central park type feel. We went back to the dorm after that. It was a great day.


Thursday day morning, we went to the market to test our Hungarian. There were a bunch of stalls set up, selling all the fruits and vegetables that are in season in Hungary. I struggled with my Hungarian, tho, and one of the shopkeepers even only spoke to me in English, since he couldn't understand my Hungarian. I got some raspberries, pears, and a head of cauliflower. We then got langos or palacsinta. Our teacher called ahead to let them know, since they had to make way more than usual to feed our large group. Palacsinta is a kind of pancake/crepe type of thing, sweet, with lots of different toppings. I got langos, which was kind of like a salty elephant ear, with garlic, cheese, and sour cream. I would have gotten the other topping, ham, but they were out by the time I ordered. We went back afterwards, to meet with Aaron Stevens.

Aaron Stevens is a pastor at a nearby church, and the man setting up our service-learning. We got a basic orientation from him. There was even a part where he clearly pretended to drop a bunch of papers, and had us pick them up to distribute them. I'm not sure he knows we're adults.

Afterwards, I chilled out, studied, and actually watched some of the tigers while studying, through an online stream. (They won in nailbiter fashion, their last run scored was a bases-loaded walk).


Friday morning, I had my Corvinus orientation, which was shorter and to the point. It was nice, and I'm looking forward to my class there. In the afternoon, language class was slightly shorter than normal. It was a lot of review, going over what people had been struggling with, especially their double consonants (like "ch" in English).

I went shopping after, going to the mall. They had some cool chairs, and a Lego store!

Really comfortable chairs; you can sit on the lower part and either rest your back or your arms, depending on which way you sat.

This was even better in person. All made of Legos.

I did more studying, and took an early night in, as I was still tired.

Events 8/27-8/30

On Saturday, we had our first Hungarian language lesson, just going over words that were very similar to English, either modern words or words borrowed from another European language that also influenced English.

In the afternoon, we took naps, and went shopping for food. A bunch of guys and I all got spaghetti ingredients which we are still eating. It was too much spaghetti. A facebook messenger group was made for the whole calvin group communicate when we had wifi, but I stayed in that night. The night life of the students who go out late is not my style.


On Sunday, I went Danube International church with some other students at the recommendation of someone, I don't remember who. It was a relatively contemporary church, probably about 150 people at the service. They have a dedicated part of the service to welcoming newcomers and saying farewell to people leaving, they passed the mic around (one person spoke for our group). It seems a church full of people coming and going.

The afternoon was more naps, I checked some emails, read some news, and studied the quizlet flashcards another student made. I had to get to bed early, as I was in the first immigration group the next morning.


Monday morning, I got up early, and left for immigration around 6:45. We met up with our immigration guide at 7:30, traveled a while to get there, waited in line, and eventually got to our appointment, in which they checked the paperwork we had previously filled in. It took a few hours in total.

Afterwards was another language lesson, some useful common phrases, and the basic numbers. I really struggled with the phrases; even a week later I'm still learning them. I stayed in that night, studying and relaxing.

The next morning was another language lesson. The second group went to immigration; I went out somewhere that afternoon, and probably did some shopping. That night the whole group went to the Hummus Bar. Lots of food centered around hummus. It was okay, but when I tried to give a 10,000 forint bill, my change came back 5,000 forints short. There was some discussion, but they claimed they gave it to me, so I couldn't get it back. That's about $18.50. So that kind of sucked. I did get a few nice pictures of a square, before we got gelato.

The gelato was really pretty. The shop-minders scooped it so that each scooped looked like a petal, so it was like an ice cream flower. I forgot to take a picture of it. :( I got a medium, which was three flavors/rows of petals. I got oreo/chocolate/oreo. I didn't like the chocolate, but the oreo was pretty good. That was it for me for the evening, I went back to the dorm to sleep.

Events 8/24-8/26

So, it's been a busy week and a half, settling in. I'll try to go through it as best I can. My pictures are inconsistent, I'll try to intersperse them when I can.

The flight (8/24-8/25):
Grand Rapids -> Detroit -> Paris -> Budapest
The flights were fine. The threatening thunderstorms didn't end up impacting our flights, so we made everything on time, even with only an hour layover in France.

I watched Zootopia on the inflight entertainment while crossing the Atlantic; surprisingly good. I watched a few other shows on my laptop, but had to conserve battery power on my laptop, as there were no charging places (not even for my phone!), annoyingly. I got maybe an hour or two of sleep.

We landed in the afternoon in Hungary on Thursday.

Thursday 8/25:
After we got in, we got travel passes (public transportation), and then took something like taxi vans back to the dorm. Edit: We went out for dinner with Professor Kim, on Calvin.
Most people stayed in that night, but I went out with the few people who did, for just an exploration trip. At the time I was exhausted, but wanted to get out and start exploring. It was great.

We went to the parliament building by bus. It was beautiful, all lit up.

Even cooler, you may notice white specks in the background. They're bats! There were hundreds, probably eating the bugs attracted to the lights. Giant picture incoming.

After that, we watched the river for a while, and then walked to and crossed a bridge. We passed a bar, built into one side of the underside of the bridge. Some of the other students noted it to come back. On the other side we got on a tram and headed back.

Friday 8/26:

Friday morning we got an orientation by Judit Nagy, of Karoli, who gave us an introduction to our living quarters and our arrangements here. I'll make another blog post to detail those.

After the orientation, we went out, to do a couple different things, like exchange money, have lunch and things. I forgot my travel pass, and got separated from the group, but I bought an individual ticket, went to our destination, and was able to find everyone again. After lunch, while getting more tickets, everyone else left, and I wandered alone. It was okay, but it would've been nice to not get separated. I went back, and ended up walking a couple km just for fun.

Then, Professor Kim, the Calvin professor leading the trip gave us his own orientation, laying down ground rules for the trip. One that might surprise you is that intragroup dating is not allowed; breakups would be rough with everyone still doing things together, and Professor Kim doesn't want to deal with the drama.

We were then thrown a welcoming pizza party by some students from Karoli, it had some interesting pizza toppings, and a lot of awkward talking. I slept long and deep that night.

Introduction

So, I'm spending this semester, Fall of 2016, in Budapest, Hungary. I'm studying here as part of Calvin's abroad program.

A bunch of people want to know how I'm doing, and instead of answering the same question multiple times, I hope to keep everyone informed of what's going on through this blog. I don't know how often I'll update, but it'll be at least once a week. Feel free to comment, I'll try to address questions as they come up.

In this introductory post, I'll give some helpful basic information.

I'm living in a dorm with the other calvin students, with four roommates to a room.

In my room, I have two calvin students, and will eventually get a Japanese international student.

I'm taking four classes with Calvin (one that finishes quickly), one at Karoli Gaspar University, and one at Corvinus University. The Calvin classes are taken in the dorm, the other classes are at the respective university. Everything other than the language classes goes the duration of the semester.

• (Calvin) Hungarian language (last class 9/22)
• (Calvin) Central European Culture
• (Calvin) Late Antiquity at the frontier
• (Calvin) Italian Renaissance Art
• (Karoli) Holocaust Literature
• (Corvinus) Economics and the European Union

I look forward to posting more.

Viszontlatasra!