May 2012
18 posts
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Holy shit.
I am not in Budapest anymore.
But I am at WILLIAMS. As far as re-introductions to the US go, that’s pretty good.
I am also ridiculously tired.
Good night.
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What I wasn’t expecting was that performing would be so damn FUN. Performing! The most stressful thing in the world, when you get one shot to show people what you can do, and if (when) you screw up, you can’t just tell them, “Oh, but I did it so well yesterday!” because it doesn’t matter how well you did it yesterday.
Maybe because it wasn’t in front of...
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A brief summary of afore-mentioned finals (now with less FEELINGS).
Dynamics & bifurcations: the only final I really had to study for, as it turns out
Number theory: essentially a spelling test, where “spelling” is mapped to “solving Diophantine equations over the positive integers”
Combinatorics: borderline impossible, at least in the time allotted, and I think the...
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DONE WITH FINALS
LEAVING BUDAPEST IN LESS THAN A WEEK
CAN I JUST SAY, HAVING SOME FEELINGS RIGHT NOW
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“And in New York, you walk. Your rapport with the terrain is like nowhere else;...”
– Emmanuel Schalit (CEO, Dashlane) in his article “Why We Chose Silicon Alley Over the Valley”
I don’t care that much about the article (though it’s interesting), or about New York in particular, but strangely this quote has become like a mantra for me when I walk places.
Some people say...
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Last night I had a dream that there were really good oranges at Spar. This was because they were in like the bakery instead of the produce section, so nobody knew they were there and hence nobody could take all the good ones.
This post is brought to you by ORANGES: the fruit April is pretty into these days, apparently.
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10am class is the new 8am class
(8am class is the new fuck you)
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Unnecessary fact of the day: the 4-6 is the busiest tram line in Europe and has the longest tramcars in the world. I know because Wikipedia told me.
Related but equally unnecessary fact: Budapest also has the second oldest underground line in the world (after London, obvi). Apparently this city takes its public transportation kinda seriously.
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It’s kind of funny that there are things labeled “fact” in math papers and such. As opposed to that other term math people often use for statements that are true, i.e. “theorem”. I mean, I guess in some sense facts are just “trivial” theorems, but what constitutes “trivial” slides a lot as you progress further in math.
The psychology of math...
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The best way to break a ten thousand forint bill: buy a bag of oranges.
Grocery stores are everywhere and virtually guaranteed to have lots of change, oranges are cheap (but not too cheap!) and healthy and delicious and easy to share. And they make everything smell really nice. You can never have too many oranges.
This post is brought to you by ORANGES: the official fruit of April’s...
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Things I dreamt about last night:
comp sci snacks
wool socks
In other news, I’m doing that thing where I nap for four hours after dinner and then wake up around 11pm and start getting shit done. Don’t worry, I’ll be asleep in a little bit, probably, maybe, actually who knows.
Sleep! It’s a bitch!
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You guys
I have no idea what I’m doing with my life
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April 2012
6 posts
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Our apartment bought a pack of whole black peppercorns before realizing our pepper mill is not, in fact, refillable. So I’ve started crushing peppercorns with the bottom of a glass jar and sprinkling that in my food instead of using ground black pepper. It’s more effort and time, but the result has so much more kick. I’m a fan.
In related news, there are a lot of mushrooms in...
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Budapest puppy moments from the past week.
Sitting in a coffeeshop, trying really hard to prove something about asymptotically stable orbits, and a lady walks in with AN ARMFUL OF PUPPIES. And suddenly we’re not trying to prove anything at all.
Sitting in City Park, having one of those conversations that happen when you mix sunshine and Friday afternoon and alcohol, and a ridiculously...
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If you ever find yourself kayaking through the canals of Utrecht in the early spring (and I seriously hope you do), there’s this moment when you round a bend, arms a bit sore, clothes a bit wet, body a bit chilly — and that’s when you see the bridges.
There are also those beautiful old Dutch houses and those wonderful old brick wharves buckling over the roots of those awesome...
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And then there was Amsterdam, and more Amsterdam, and Utrecht, and Ghent, and Brussels, and Budapest. And there were Dutch sandwiches and English breakfasts and Belgian waffles. So yeah, a good spring break.
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Currently visiting my sister in the Hague. Today I saw all kinds of Dutch things, like canals and windmills and fields of tulips and stroopwafels and SO MANY BICYCLES. I also went to the Escher museum and saw a Bach concert and thought about Gödel a lot. So yeah, a good day.
March 2012
14 posts
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Spring break! Finished a shitty midterm, drank wine while watching the Daily Show, ordered a lot of pizza, ate a lot of pizza (with BEANS (and CAPERS (and NESTED PARENTHESES))). It came with free soda and tiramisu (?!).
Fell asleep at 10 or something. Woke up at 2 or something and just NEEDED to make an indie rock mix RIGHT NOW. So here I am.
On a related note, midterms? Spring break? Does...
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According to the pictures tagged of me on Facebook, I am the coolest person I know.
Seriously, looking at some of those photos makes me miss high school. HIGH SCHOOL, PEOPLE, also known as WAY LESS COOL THAN COLLEGE. Also my hair has changed lengths a lot. Also I wear the same clothes as I did five years ago (not the same style but literally the same items of clothing). Also hey I used to...
april tuesday: Sometimes, Budapest feels almost as... →
statequalifier:
apriltuesday:
Sometimes, Budapest feels almost as small as Williams. You can get on the metro and have someone to say hi to. The Starbucks at Oktogon is essentially the BSM library, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find someone you know doing work there. And you can be in a group of a dozen or so BSMers walking…
Woah woah woah, there’s a Starbucks at Oktogon now. Progress!...
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Sometimes, Budapest feels almost as small as Williams. You can get on the metro and have someone to say hi to. The Starbucks at Oktogon is essentially the BSM library, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find someone you know doing work there. And you can be in a group of a dozen or so BSMers walking down Erzsebet when completely by chance, you run into ANOTHER group of a dozen or so BSMers...
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A brief but rambly summary of a portion of my yesterday! Because it was fun!
We took a Friday afternoon and walked to Deak Ferenc, drinking and talking and laughing at the tourists who are suddenly apparating from the sunshine.
There was a huge crowd of people at Deak who’d had a similar idea. The park was full of young hip people hanging out on a warm afternoon in the heart of the city....
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thelostgeneration asked: Hi! I hope this doesn't sound creepy, but I'm so excited to read about your European travels and adventures <3
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GOING CRAZY FROM EXCESSIVE TRAVEL PLANNING. SO MANY THINGS TO BE PLANNED.
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Reasons the bottom of a jar of Nutella is the best part.
it is the point at which it becomes socially acceptable to eat Nutella directly from the jar (hey, don’t wanna waste all that deliciousness stuck to the sides!)
it is the point at which you are able to purchase a new jar of Nutella
Related: things I’ve been eating way more than normal since coming to Budapest.
salami
langos
...
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Last night: drank champagne and ate shark, danced the YMCA while wearing a rage face mask, laughed till I couldn’t breathe.
This morning: woke up on someone else’s couch, made a perfect cup of coffee, wondered what is happening to my life.
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Just had one of those moments when you’re in a shitty mood and struggling over a proof for a few hours (days), then you take a two-hour nap and wake up and FINISH THAT MOTHERFUCKER like it’s NOTHING.
And you’re like “Hell yeah subconscious, you’re like way better at math than me!” And the shitty mood is gone.
February 2012
10 posts
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I was kind of planning on going for a walk today (because it’s WARM! like super warm!), but instead I ended up doing number theory with some people in a McDonald’s for a couple hours. As one does.
Seriously though, it was a CLASSY McDonald’s. American fast food chains in Budapest all seem to be really nice for some reason. Maybe it’s a European thing. Anyway, just...
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It is a fine thing to want to live a life of constant excitement and adventure, but there is hidden glory in the times when the adventure becomes the mundane — when the once-interesting walk from train station to apartment is absolutely routine, when you get to see the postcard-perfect city skyline in all weathers, when you find yourself seeking not the things that make a place special but...
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Recently discovered: the essays of Paul Graham. They’re easy to read and insightful. Some quotes:
How to Do What You Love
Most good mathematicians would work on math even if there were no jobs as math professors, whereas in the departments at the other end of the spectrum, the availability of teaching jobs is the driver […]. Math would happen without math departments, but it is the...
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How to improve a sandwich, in two easy steps:
Toast the bread.
Congratulations! Your sandwich is now improved.
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And then there were four straight hours of math class.
Okay, actually there were some 15-min. breaks in there, and also the professor (I had the same professor for two classes) seems to be insanely cool (i.e. very cool, and cool in an insane manner).
But still, considering I’ve been in vacation mode since mid-December, it was kind of a temporal wall of mathematics. There will be an...
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OTHER THINGS THAT HAVE OCCURRED:
trying to learn Hungarian
weekend in Vienna
extremely grumpy museum curators
many bakery visits
a lot of drinking
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January 2012
16 posts
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Today we inadvertently hopped a fence at the British Embassy while looking for a place to eat. The guards started coming over but we ran away too quickly.
Then we ended up at a trendy Italian restaurant where they cook your pasta fresh as you watch, the kind of place that might cost $15+ a plate in the US but here cost <$6 for the best pesto I’ve ever eaten. Plus they had gummi bears...