A week is so short

A week is always so short when you're on holidays. Except maybe when you are skiing all day and then after two days it feels as if you've been doing it for a week. But that's not the case now, and it's slowly time to say bye to Budapest again... I'll celebrate the moment of good-bye with going out partying with Irma and some of her friends. My flight is in the morning and Sali said he would bring me to the airport. He already picked up my luggage and so now I only have to crash at his place once I'm back from town and we'll be on our way to Ferihegy at 7 am tomorrow.

I managed to do almost everything I wanted to do. I didn't meet my sister so she'll have to figure out her life without me, and I didn't buy a red dress for graduation. Instead, I have a lovely lilac one.

I spent some very nice evenings with Sali. We went out to a Jamie Winchester concert to the Gödör. Gödör means something like a pit (or hole) and the reason why the place is so called is that it was in fact built into a pit. A couple of years ago they started to build the National Theater on the Deák Ferenc Square, but the project was moved to another site and so Budapest was stuck with a huge hole in the ground. Some creative people transformed that into an underground parking lot and an underground club. I've never been to the Gödör before, which is as if you've never been to Tivoli if you live in Utrecht, and so we decided to go this week and see Jamie's concert, which was just as in the good old days when I was 17... He did put on some weight though :) Anyway, it was a lovely evening, with a lot of good music and perfect company.

Yesterday we went to a Barabás Lőrinc Eklectric concert to the A38. These guys make really nice electro-jazz... I was blown away by the music. Amazing trumpet playing, good beats, lovely vocals/rap - yep, quite a mix of styles here, but it all builds up a coherent whole. You know that you're at a good concert when you feel the ship moving up and down on the water. Well, we did.

And that's them, on the A38.

Tonight Irma and I are supposed to make up for the evening that we missed out on because the guy she's been dating for four years showed up at her doorstep, while at the moment he's living in Germany. It was quite a surprise. I wonder how their evening ended. Tonight I should find out.

Post-midterm dip

After a week of real studying, assignment writing and exams, I feel completely exhausted. The usual 2-days-after-the-end-of-midterms sickness is approaching and I don't think my body will be up for fighting it.

I'm at home again. This time I was travelling with Dávid, which kept the weird old guys away and supplied me with a lovely companion for a couple of hours. We took him to the Keleti train station, so I think he actually made it to the train he wanted to catch. Happy time! It's really a shame that by the time there was a bit of sunshine in the Netherlands, we had to leave. Now I'm stuck in this cold place. It's even colder than in Utrecht. Today, when I woke up, the first thing I heard on the radio was that it will stop snowing by the afternoon. Huh? Snow? Well, it turned out that there was 20 cm of snow in a couple of mountains.

It's Easter and that means that this is the time of compulsory family visits. I spent the day with my mother, Béla bácsi, granny and my aunt's family in their house somewhere away from the city. Of course, I was stuffed, because family visits are not family visits if they don't make you eat as much as would make you burst out like a balloon. Hungarian food is not very light and the Easter menu is even heavier if possible. I passed out on a bed for two hours after lunch, something that might not be very polite in other cultures but is actually encouraged in ours.

I didn't manage to skip the tradition of "locsolás", or "watering", as a result of which I smell like three different perfumes at the same time. The original idea is that girls are flowers and flowers need water, so they need to be watered if they are to bloom. So, a long time ago, guys would go around with buckets of water (soda sifons would do the job too) and would get as many girls wet as possible. (Hm, this sounds bad... I meant that they splashed the water on them.) In return, the girls would give them painted eggs. Nowadays, the water is replaced by perfume - the cheaper and older the better, just to recall the old socialist times because that's retro now - and girls give them chocolate eggs. And boys also need to say a locsolóvers, a watering poem, and the more creative that is, the better. It's a cute idea and all, but you can never escape having to wash your hair, because that's where the perfume is sprayed. Yuck.

More compulsory family visits to come this week. I'll have to go and see my other prandparents and my sister also wants to see me for some unspecified reason. Probably a guy... It's very flattering that she thinks I can give the right advice for anything, and I wonder why she does not look at my life before she starts taking my advice. Anyway, seeing my little sis is always pleasant, and so is seeing Sali and Irma. Oh, and I want to get a haircut!

Birds above Utrecht

I captured this yesterday, after dinner, from my window.

@ midnight in Voltaire

Sometimes I don't understand why I don't get more nervous... I have to read 18 articles tomorrow, and even then, that would only be the first read of everything I'm supposed to have gone through for the first two exams. I've done 5 chapters and 9 articles already. I've just finished the structural equasion modeling analysis (hybrid model, how nice) of the first group assignment data set - we have to put together a poster tomorrow. I should also hand in a creative writing piece tomorrow if I am not mistaken. So, there are enough things to do.

At the same time, I did go to the Arthouse Movie Night on Friday and I did drop by Frerk's party for 2 hours last night. (Ok, I was studying before that.) I drank about half a liter of vanilla vla :) The Dutchies thought I was insane: a glass of vla in one hand, a glass of red wine in the other. "But you can pull it off, you're an Eastern European..." Today I made a short movie after dinner. I was listening to one of the tracks from American Beauty, I was staring out the window, and there was a huge group of birds flying around above the city, as if in a formation, following some unknown algorhythm. It reminded me of the plastic bag. So, I grabbed my camera and filmed it. I'll post it tomorrow, if I don't forget. I made a new playlist too. Old favorites out, new favorites in. So, somehow the stress of my last midterms just doesn't seem to get to me. Maybe I just don't care anymore.

The UCSA and ASIC screwed up today: they announced a study break for 20.30 in the weekend update. Then it turned out that they actually meant 21.00. 15 minutes later they found out that no one bought anything... So, there we were, hungry and thirsty college students, only wanting a bite of chocolate and a sip of Red Bull after a hard day of studying and they were not there. Argh.

Ah, Hungary made it to the news again. I can be ashamed of my country again. Is it really going to be a tradition that we "celebrate" the anniversaries of our (failed) revolutions by trying to start a new one? I could punch these people in the face. No wonder that those who have the opportunity are leaving. If I had any other resonable ideas, I would stay away from that place too.

That time of the year again...

I discovered Voltaire again. Cappuccino on the left, the photocopies of a textbook in front, notebook on the side, headphones on. I'm proud of myself - I finally started reading my books. It was time to get started... 3 assignments and 3 exams in 10 days.

This has been a productive day. I went to class, expressed my opinion (the presenter might not have liked it, but hey, according to a test this is me - I just scored 24 out of 100 on agreeableness on a NEO inventory today), figured out the best model for adolescent tobacco use, read 3 chapters of cross-cultural whatever (said to be psychology, but I'm not sure what I should call it because this is anything but psychology for me), I gave a workshop, discussed the BarCo finances in the context of the finances of the UCSA during a short, strategical BarCo meeting and I'm going to chief from 1 till 4-5-ish. I could sleep for an hour but I drank quite some coffee already... I'm still hyper, but by the time my shift will be done, I'll be exhausted.

People have been asking what I will do.
I don't know.
I'm trying to figure it out. I'll surely share it with everyone, once I do know. If you have suggestions, they are welcome.

For now, I only have short term plans. I'll refrain from further wild partying and drunkenness and put emphasis on the work part of "work hard, play hard" for a while. Do my midterms and contact some more labs. Go home for break for a week of I-already-know-that-I-won't-have-time-to-do-everything-that-I'd-like-to-do...

Have shower and go to the bar :)

New directions

I've been spending the past couple of days trying to figure out what to do next year. Two days ago I was just approaching the G entrance and I saw Sam in his room, so we had the usual 'we should have tea sometime' chat. I mentioned that I heard from Brown and said something about that this rejection may open new directions in my life. (Yep, let's be positive about things.) I guess I didn't really believe what I said at that moment, but now I start to believe it more and more.

I'm considering new options. Budapest, Nijmegen, Paris, Amsterdam or Geneva. In more or less this order.

I found a cog sci department in Budapest, which I have never previously heard of. It works within BME, the biggest technical/engineering university in the country - that's also where Sali is studying. So, I found their website and later Sali sent me a link too. I read the CV and the research description of a faculty whose interest is pretty close to mine and in the heat of the moment I decided to write him an e-mail and ask whether I could work with his research group. He answered very quickly and seemed very positive about it! He's going to show me their facilities during the spring break.

Yay to new directions!

Nice try but no cigar

So, it is a "no". I can't say it's entirely surprising. But I had to give it a try anyway.

Now I'll have to figure out what to do with my life. Find something for a year. Find a lab. As I understand from them, I was turned down because of my lack of experience with imaging technology. Try again next year.

I guess it's useful to get a slap in the face from life once in a while. It makes sure you don't get too comfortable in your position. It makes you fight harder. Is stuff for which you fight harder more satisfying in the end than something that you achieve easily? I should look up some research on this. My intuition suggests that it is.

I'd be lying if I said that I'm not disappointed at all. I really thought that Brown would be the perfect place to be.

Storm

I'm so glad I decided to go to town in the early afternoon instead of a bit later... I was buying our group present to Paul for his birthday and it only started to rain in the last 5 minutes of biking. By the time I went for dinner, it was hailing. I dropped by the ASIC office after dinner and when I looked outside the window, it was snowing. It still is. In the yellow sphere of the lamps outside, you can see the racing snowflakes. You can also hear the high pitched sound of the wind. Wind, snow... It's the 4th of March, it's supposed to be warm and instead there's a storm outside.