a laugh?

the facts:
(1) the math server has been on the fritz for more than a week.
(2) eric is a co-organizer of a math program called the DRP.
(3) given the first two facts, eric wanted to test if the DRP online application form was working this afternoon. since he's the one who would read the test application, we thought it would be fun to make up answers. We got a really good laugh at the results, enjoy:

$25 later...

i just got my first good haircut in ages:









not the best picture of me (i'm tired today and the picture washed me out/was fuzzy), but she did an amazing job with layering my hair. i was super impressed.

it's been many months since i got my haircut and no wonder why...

last time, i went to a hair clips for you shop 2 towns away... they were nice, but shocked that i came "so far"... and shocked that i was white.

insert months of no hair cut before that on account of....
the time before that i went to the super cuts across the street from the hair clips... there had been an awesome lady in there for the previous 2 years, but she quit and the girls left seemed to like making fun of customers more than actually trying to do anything that resembles a good job. i never went to them again.

i think i'm regularly going to see kelly from now on.

the end.

california baby!

it's official. october 6-8, i'll be at the Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Conference on Enumerative Combinatorics. my advisor is a keynote speaker. Aek and me bought airplane tickets today.

the only other time i've been in cali is when i flew to vegas to help eric drive his new car back 2 summers ago... we were on our way to baker, CA to see the world's largest thermometer and then come back just to say i'd been there, but when we got stuck in mega traffic even before that, we turned around and headed back to NV. so basically my experience with california is 15 minutes of random cacti in a large dessert.

yay math conferences. :)

the end.

people are brilliant...

Woman embezzles $2.3 million to feed lottery habit?

Senior citizens find nurtured "weed" is pot

ziggy is my hero

super lazy sunday....

exceedingly random post

for years i have been unable to take naps when it's light outside no matter how hard i try. since noon today i've fallen asleep 3 times. i'm seriously not on american time zones yet. i really don't know where my head thinks it is.... i have such an easy time travelling east and coping with time changes splendidly, and such a hard time readjusting going west... why is that?

observation: more and more people seem to come in pairs lately... except me. this isn't a bad thing. i'm frankly more happy than i've been in awhile to have the house to myself and keep myself company with fiction books (i.e. not work) and hot tea while it rains for a week straight. but suddenly out of nowhere, loads of the people i regularly talk to are seriously dating someone or another, engaged, etc., etc., etc. in as far as i've met them scott, eric, ben, jessica, heather, other jessica are all seeing awesome people. there's just suddenly been a plethora of interacting with pairs to further reinforce the fact that i'm not part of a pair. apparently my usual rule of only wanting to deal with people one at a time needs to expand to two at a time.

yesterday was fun. i went to philly to hang with jessica for the first time in a couple months. after an afternoon of the usual: lunch, movie (invincible), bookstore browsing, mallwalking, we had dinner and played pool with alex. good relaxing day all around. hard time staying awake on the drive home, but i made it. darn jet lag.

...and now i'm off to inadvertently fall asleep awhile reading again. happy weekend to all y'all.

europe 2006 pictures

click here and enjoy!

well that's new...

Farmers believe cows "moo" with an accent

what time is it?

seriously, instead of being somewhere between here and europe time, i think my head has migrated to somewhere over the pacific ocean instead...

news headlines:

* pluto is no longer a planet

*new york's oldest bartender is now 90

*eric and me rented shopgirl last night. we both thought it was AMAZING. (1) we rarely like the same films so that really says something. (2) seriously, besides a good plot, the cast was all perfect for their parts, and the staging and use of music were incredible. see it.

*i haven't been motivated to post pictures yet (give me a few days, i took over 1000 in the past month)... in fact i haven't motivated myself to do much since i got back yet... hopefully that'll fix itself before the next semester starts in 1.5 weeks.

*i'm going to philly to see jessica on saturday. it shall be fun. :)

the end.

i'm not dead

seriously... i doubt eastern europe major news makes it across the pond, but just in case, i thought i'd address:

At least 3 dead, 250 injured in Budapest storm

(so far i've seen "major storm hits budapest during national holiday, 3 dead" go across the news ticker on CNN world and BBC world on TV this morning, but no printed stories online yet but the chinese site above)

my parents and i have had a nice time until last night... we went to szentendre on thursday, to esztergom on friday, and to parliament, the zoo, and the folk art festival at the castle on saturday.

yesterday was beautiful all day... perfectly clear and sunny for istvan day (the national holiday of hungary). we went to church, to lunch, and then hung out with my church friends for the airplane races all afternoon. we also got perfect seats for the fireworks with about 20 of my friends right beside the chain bridge on the buda side.

about 15 minutes into the performance, it started raining REALLY HARD... those of us under 30 laughed and headed for under the bridge. my parents were horrified to be soaked and packed like sardines with thousands of other people seeking cover. the fireworks just kept going through the storms so you could hear the booms and see flashes overhead, but not clearly see the fireworks themselves... we waited for a large part of the crowd to clear out until the show was done and then i started shepherding them home to their hotel.

first we walked 3/4 a mile to the nearest metro but there was a mob scene there of people trying to get out of the weather, so we walked another 3/4 mile or so to the next metro (my dad is nearly 60, was visibly shivering and hates crowds and was yelling at me the whole way for not being able to speak fluent hungarian to beg for a quicker way home, my mom was patient, but has bad feet so she was in pain, but not complaining, i felt bad for them, but was getting irritated with my dad)... when we got to the next metro station, we were supposed to catch a tram, but no sooner did we get to the tram stop, then there was an announcement that it wasn't working... we went to the next tram and saw it wasn't running the whole route so it wouldn't help either... with no taxis in sight, the only thing to do was walk more... we probably walked another mile when we saw what was wrong with our tram... a huge tree had fallen over several power lines, cutting power to the tram going to where we're staying, so more walking was in store.... about a third of the way there, we caught a bus that was running on the tram tracks to make up for the tram.

i got home via a maye through the neighborhood from so many downed trees and then spent the next 2 hours answering the phone from different friends checking everyone was ok... both who were at fireworks with me and who were just watching on TV. apparentlz several major transport hubs were majorly damanged, several boats capsized on the river, and trees killed fireworks watchers as they fell.

in the whole year of the hungarian calendar that was the worst possible 20 minutes for a big freak storm to appear, and yet, there you have it....

i will miss europe when i'm gone, but i'll be glad to give my parents a break and send them home. it's relaxing to visit friends here, but a little stressful to go my parents' speed and keep them happy. as for me, after being caught soaked in so many rainstorms and mud puddles this month, i'll be glad for a chance to do laundry tomorrow night. :P

last day in hungary, flying home tomorrow.

if you pray, keep the mess that budapest is in after the storm in your prayers.

more from stateside tomorrow (tuesday) night.

i'm sorry, but this just makes me laugh...

Will Hungarian bridge be named after US martial arts star?

go figure...

the last few days have been brilliant. i fit in my last "touristy thing i've not done yet" on monday: riding the children's railway... the western (i.e. buda) side of the city has these huge hills, and across the top of them is a fun tourist railway with beautiful views of the city to the east, and the hungarian countryside to the west... all the employees are kids (except the drivers). i got off halfway through the route to climb the erzsebet lookout tower at the top of janos hill and then to take the super long chairlift back down. it was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.

otherwise, i've been socializing with my hungarian friends. zsofi and peti had me and shalom over for dinner on monday night, and bernadett had me over for dinner last night... we chatted for 5 hours. i love my budapest friends. :)

parents get in to budapest in 2 hours... since they've never left the states before, it's going to be an entertaining week showing them around... wish me luck!

later dudes... happy wednesday? :)

nothing says happiness like...

... starting dinner off with a bowl of fresh sour cherry/raspberry soup. that's one hungarian summer dish i can't pull off in the states for the life of me, but it's soooooooo incredibly good while i'm here!

and there is no better way to spend a rainy saturday afternoon than chatting for hours with an old friend you haven't seen for 4 years (thanh was in boston when i was in budapest last year) in a random hungarian coffee house.

it's been a quality day... now, in the spirit of further laziness, post-internet cafe, i'm walking the two blocks home, and finishing How we survived communism, and even laughed (which i bought in prague), accompanied by pretzel crackers and nutella and czech beer.

i love my life this week. :)

happy saturday?

so maybe i'm just not good at being a normal human being...

here i am at the world's largest burgr king checking email...the keyboard is crap nd i have 10 min so forgive typos...

as if the mud incident wasnt a grand enough start to my trip.... yesterday i put a roll inthe microwave,then forgot about it when i went to answer the phone... 30 seconds later, the bread was on fire with 6 inch flames and the microwave was filling the apartment with smoke.... i turned it off, opened windos,tossed the bread and started up the fan.... then proceeded to cut one of my fingers with the fan... go lara?... im fine, just hoping that imdone with "incidents"

today, 2 more budapest attractions id never seen before -- toured the synagogue (europes largest, worlds 2nd largest), and visited the terror museum (google it, it's cool)... now im headed home to unsticky myself from a day out and about and clean up for an organ recital i want to hear in 3.5 hours.

hungary says hello!

adventures in budapest, day 1 and 2

as if yesterday wasn't long enough when i was last online, the 6pm and onward section was even more of an adventure:
*dinner with shalom and zsofi (yay!) followed by gelato, attacking a playground made for 3 year olds for an hour, and wandering around downtown
*turning myself into swampthing accidentally (more explanation below)
*awhile (an hour?) on the phone with roommate, who i hadn't talked to in ages

today so far:
*slept in til 10am
*watched an hour and a half of coverage of the crazy british airline goingsons (the only english TV i get here is VH1, CNN europe, and BBC world)
*wandered the castle district and finally went through the underground buda castle labyrinth (more below)
*wandered the mall and got cool earrings and lots of food. i love that i can get dried strawberries, dried kiwis, bread, cheese, lots of pudding, a large jar of nutella, and a liter of beer for under $10.

more on swamp thing:
last night, after shalom, zsofi and i parted ways around 10:30pm, i headed towards the nearest tram stop that would get me home. i saw the tram coming so i decided to run the 100 meters to it and not have to wait 20 minutes for the next one. the side of the road i was on was sidewalk, with tram tracks in the middle, and dirt on the other side. i dashed off the sidewalk, and as it's not smart to run on the tracks started running on the other side of the road (the side the tram was coming on)... not dirt though, it was really sticky gooey mud instead, and about 2 steps in i went flying and sliding through the mud and landed sitting in a bush, caked in the stuff. i wriggled my way out and ran on the tracks into the tram just as the door was closing, leafs stuck to me, and mud in clumps all over me. i got home and cleaned myself up, rinsing the bulk of the mud off my clothes in the tub... the irony is, the black capris i was wearing had JUST been washed tuesday night since i went sprawling in a mud puddle while wearing them on sunday's hike. at least the rest of my clothes are clean?... to add insult to injury?, halfway home, the tram stopped and the driver announced that several trams were stopped in the tracks ahead, and he was going to check out what was going on... i don't know what had it jammed but i just walked the 3 more stops home, taking care to take back streets so that only old ladies walking their dogs could laugh at the sorry state of my appearance, rather than tables full of restaurant/pub patrons. lara and mud... oi... go me...
thing is, for as ridiculous and annoying as it all sounds, i spent much more time laughing about it than being irritated... that's good, right?

more on the labyrinth:
under the Buda castle is a series of tunnels and caves that date WAY back in time... for about $5, you can go through a decent portion of them (takes 30 minutes to get through quickly, much longer if you take your time). they were mostly built for defence in times past and after communism fell, they nicened them up and opened them to tourists. it's one of 4 major tourist things i've never done in all the months i've been in budapest and hope to do this year. anyhow, they're fairly cool, but very dark and wet, and there are occasional statues, etchings etc, that appear out of nowhere and sometimes freaked me out. i spent a lot of time being scared because it's purposely not well lit and a statue would appear around a corner and make me jump! the coolest part though is halfway through there's a fountain that instead of water flows with wine (yes i drank some, and i knew it was down there... if i was smart i would have brought an empty water bottle with me ;P) anyhow, now i can say i've done the labyrinth, even if it freaked me out at points. yay lara?

btw, i probably lied about internet... last year i discovered that my old internet cafe hangouts from 4 years ago had basically all closed down, and the easy to find ones besides are touristy, expensive, and packed. however, the guy i'm renting from for the next two weeks showed me a small one that charges all of $1.20/hr and caters mostly to the local neighborhood people just 2 blocks from where i'm staying. the lady who runs it is super nice, so i might as well give her my business since the price and location are right. expect more hungarian adventures soon. :)

dinner time, followed by coffee house with several of my old budapest friends.

i love hungary :)

end of essay.

oh what fun, riding on a train...

today's already been a long day.

5:30am, wake up in prague... last freezing cold shower of the trip (yay)

6:30am, say goodbye to 4 of my 6 REUers in the hotel lobby, take a tayi with 2 of them to the train station

7:30am, board my train for budapest... my 2 REUers who were going to vienna take the same train... our compartment is just us and an older hungarian man who tried to spend a third of the time talking to me in hungarian... we covered that i'm good for greetings, numbers, and food words, but not complicated sentences

11:30am, my REUers get off to switch trains, the compartment fills up with older czech ladies

12:30pm, my old hungarian man and all the czechs get off in bratislava, slovakia... (no more hungarian language quiz for me...) instead i get 3 french students backpacking through eastern europe and a 30 something crazy american dude from florida

2pm, after an hour and a half of silence, florida dude starts chatting with me about budapest for 40 minutes

2:45pm, in budapest!... unfortunately the red metro is still under reconstruction, but at least it's a different part than last year?... i'm set up in my place (same apartment i rented last year), and the guy i'm renting it from introduced me to the lady who runs the internet cafe two blocks away that i didn't know about last year... equipped with some forints, a metro pass, and a phone card, i'm good to go and have some fun!

coming up? dinner with shalom at 6... i can't wait.

hungary says hello (actually it probably says jó napot instead). be parties one and all!

an aside

not travel related at all... quote from A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper:

"Many segments herein involve the notion of self. Perhaps our excessive concern with this problematic concept stems from the nagging suspicion that it is somewhat passe in this age of the planetary megalopolis. It's not the uncertainty that we will achieve personal fulfillment (whatever that might entail) or the belief that huge government and commercial databases imperil our privacy (as they do), but rather the frightening idea that we're easily replaceable and that the primary reality is the culture, the society, the weblike leviathan whose "mind" is reflected in the daily newspaper and in the electronic media."

Discuss.

Now, really, offline til Hungary.

later dudes.

farewell to the city of 1000 spires...

in 24 hours i'll be in hungary, less than an hour away from budapest. this is happy. i am tired.

prague has been amazing. for as much as i saw last year, i managed to see a LOT more completely new things than i expected to. that was fantastic. i've taken over 500 photos in the past 15 days. i've learned a lot chatting with my students, it's all been really good.

last night was the "farewell dinner" for the program, despite the fact that the final lecture is at 2pm today (in 45 minutes)... afterwards we went to a pub and drank a lot of beer too, and then slept quite well. today is a lazy day... reading outside, buying last minute touristy things, paying bills online while i still have free university internet, packing. 2.5 weeks goes by really fast.

while i'll miss people, i'm glad to move on too. my church in budapest is the place that resonates most in my mind with the word HOME, and i'm ecstatic for the chance to be there for the next two sundays. (i've been on beautiful hikes but really missed church the past two sundays).

i'm happy to get back to a city i know forwards and backwards, a language i know a bit more of than czech, the chance to visit with good old friends one on one (dinner with shalom tomorrow night!), and the opportunity to travel at my own pace instead of in a group of 10-15. the next week will definitely be therapeutic for me. i can't wait to get there. :)

updates less frequently from hungary, but i'll probably buy burger king internet time just for the chance to blab about what i'm up to, so stay loosely tuned for more stories. :P

summary: prague is beautiful, but farewell 1000 spires... hello to the pearl of the danube tomorrow. :)

later dudes.

it's raining, it's pouring...

indeed.

it's been an interesting day. lecture, dvorak museum, loreto (a famous shrine to the virgin mary near the dorm), and now internet... with the added bonus that just about any street newsstand sells tons of tons of good czech beer as well, so i'm enjoying a $1 can of pilsner urquell as i write... the czechs really have something here. :)

weekend should be entertaining. me, 3 of my students (the quieter half that like more similar things to me), and one of my favorite czechs are taking a two day trip tomorrow and sunday to Hluboká nad Vltavou, České Budějovice (home of the original budweiser beer... the american brand was originally an imitation of czech budweiser before they got more creative), and Třeboň. tomorrow consists of meandering through the towns, sunday of a several hour hike (hopefully not in pouring rain like last weekend). it'll be nice to get out of the city. prague is home to some amazing things, but i get bloody tired of large groups of tourists everywhere i look. this trip will be a fantastic 2 day break from them. :P

prague is really nice, and i enjoy it, but i get tired of it after a few consecutive weeks. budapest i can never get enough of... just 5 more days until i'm *there*. :)

happy weekend to all y'all!

europe is so much more....

reasonable? historic? efficient (with resources, not with legal red tape)?... all of the above?

last year, when i was out with my friend shalom in budapest, we were comparing and contrasting hungary and the US and what we each miss when we change regions. her first comment was
"i love how much more reasonable people are in europe... if someone trips and falls in a restaurant in the US, they sue the building management... if someone trips and falls here, they realize it was an accident and life goes on."

it was a funny example, and as of yesterday quite ironic. here's a story that would never happen in the US:

one of my REU students has had bad luck with bumping his head. there are very large windows in the hallways of our dorm that open out like doors and are about 6 feet off the ground. he has twice rammed his forehead into open windows without meaning to on the way to his room and is now sporting a fantastic bandaid right across the middle of his head. he's ok, just annoyed with hitting himself.

yesterday, as usual, we ate lunch in the restaurant in the bottom floor of the prague math building. the wait staff is patient since we come in a group of about 10 with only 2-3 czech speakers who must ask each of us what we want and then serve as go between... it takes a lot of time for us all to pay too... we've been wondering if we're tiring them out by eating there a lot.

as we left the cafeteria area yesterday we went up a large flight of stairs with lights attached to the wall at about head level all the way up. you can see what happened already: my same student accidentally hit his head on a light. he survived the encounter just fine, but the light cover (a large glass vase-ish type thing) went flying off the wall and shattered into a million pieces all over the stairwell.

one of the czechs went with my student to sort it out with the management. the conclusion?
"it's ok. just come here to eat every day for the rest of your time in prague so that we can get good tips from the big group."

reasonable. people are exceedingly reasonable and kind. i like that.

math lecture time... later!

last night...

2 half liters of beer, two glasses of moravian wine, and half an absinth cocktail, all for less than $5... i LOVE europe!

when i'm not filling my stomach with czech beer, i'm filling my head with other exciting things:
* lectures, and the Prague Post
* I finished About a Boy (by Nick Hornby) last week. I had liked the movie, but the book was 10 times better.
* Next, I started in on A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (by John Allen Paulos). It's quality. It's also written in short 2-3 page bursts, and is non fiction so it's easy to read in short bursts on the tram or metro... however,...
* Yesterday, I got distracted by The Czechs in a Nutshell: a user's manual for foreigners (by Terje B. Englund). I figure it's more appropriate to read it while still in Czech Republic than later, so it's become my new book of choice for the week... 39 pages down, 240 to go...

and for the ears...
* before i left, i was already completely hooked on We Don't Need to Whisper (Angels and Airwaves)... seriously there's not a bad track on the whole disc, it just ROCKS.
* i also bought Give Up (The Postal Service) from iTunes just before I left, and it's gotten substantial playtime from me as well.

math lectures, alcohol, reading, music, pubs, jazz clubs, gardens... that's my week in a nutshell. yay europe!

the end. :P