The Long Journey Home

Hello everyone,

First, I really hope you enjoyed reading this blog.  Please check back, as the students may continue to add more as they go through their pictures.

The bus picked up all of us except Kate A (who gets a little extra Budapest time) this morning at 3:30 AM local time,  so wake-up was quite soon after bedtime.  Many students assure me they never bothered sleeping.

After we got to the airport and got through the hiccups of checking in, we said goodbye to Zareef and Aaron who were on different flights, continuing their journeys elsewhere in Europe.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, Catherine, Pove, Chris, and Sarah left the group to further their adventure, while Justin and Eric S. had a flight direct to Seattle they had to "move quite quickly" to catch.

The remaining 11 students and myself boarded the plane to MSP and made it back without a hitch;  although customs at MSP was quite busy, we all made it through.  Most of us are done traveling for the day, although Nick continues on with one more flight home.  We are all very happy to be back!

The students on this trip were fabulous.   They got along well, made class time a lot of fun, and truly embraced all of the planned activities.  I hope this experience was highly impactful for them, both in ways they can articulate and in ways they cannot.  Parents and families - thank you for giving your student a chance to have such a great experience.

The students are ready to enjoy a week off from class and homework.  I, however, have final exams to grade.  The students will say I did it to myself, I guess.  I look forward to seeing them all back on campus in a week.

Best wishes from a very tired, yet happy professor

Final Day in Budapest

Today, is the day of our final exam, and we all survived it.

After the long final exam, it was time for the closing banquet. Everyone came together one last time before we leave, to eat really good Hungarian food and have a good time. The name of the restaurant we went to was Trofea, an all you can eat buffet of great Hungarian food. 

After, the buffet, a group of us wanted to go get one of our favorite desserts in Budapest, Chimney cakes. Some of us spent the last of our Hungarian money here.

 

For the last time, we explored the city of Budapest.

We walked across the Margaret Bridge and went to the Fisherman Bastion and Mathias Church.

 
 

 This study abroad trip, was a wonderful experience and we will never forget it. From studying math to learning the Hungarian culture and way of life, was a great way to spend a month. 

Thank you so much for reading our blog,

Best Wishes,

Charles Bell

Chris Lee

Cheavpove Pen

Nick Holt

Eye of the Storm

With class behind us, and the final before us, today was a moment of peace—a proverbial eye of the storm. We spent the majority of it studying, but found time for a few final fun activities before tomorrow's test. 

Today is the Chinese New Year's Eve (Happy New Year!!!), so for lunch a few of us went to an excellent Chinese restaurant full of good food that left us full of great experiences.

This evening, amidst the chaos and clamor of studying numbers, Sam and Fei found time to attend a unmissable opportunity: an opera in two acts called "Love and Other Demons". They enjoyed the beautiful voices of performers, the dramatic plots, and the wonderful music.

As our time in Budapest reaches an end, we spend our penultimate day pondering the joys we have found here, but of course also looking forward to coming home to friends and family. Tomorrow, we will have the final exam and the closing dinner which Professor Berliner said would be a surprise. We will also pack things and try to have as much fun as we can. And we will be ready to go back home. We will miss this beautiful and lively city with marvelous number theory.

Wish us luck!

Best wishes and good night,

Eric Een, Eric Spear, Will and Zhifei

One Minute Stories

Three days until we land in the U.S., and we’re feeling the pressure! We’re excited to reunite with our friends and family, but as we won’t be back to Budapest again in the foreseeable future, we’ve been absorbing as much as we possibly can this week. This month been just enough time to grow accustomed to living here, and we want to hold on to as many details as we can. Every day, we notice new stores on the bus ride to school. By the stop at Blaha Lujza Ter, a stand sells chimney cakes for half as much as the store near the hotel. We’ve named three pigeons- Rudolph, Jerry, and Francine- and we find them every couple of days near the school. The young people here have hipster backpacks, the old women wear berets, all the dogs wear sweaters, and the tiny kids wear marshmallow-esque snowsuits. So much happens every single day, it’s all we can do to take it in.

Today was our last day traveling to school. We’ve gotten so accustomed to the routine of getting up, getting our breakfast, and then taking our preferred type of transportation to the classroom that it will be weird tomorrow to have a break in our schedule (and on a weekday too!). Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to use lots of that time studying for our final!

For our last day of class, we learned about Pythagorean Triples. For those of us that remember back to the days of right triangles, Pythagorean Triples can help us to find integers that work as side lengths for right triangles.

Then in the afternoon we were treated to a final guest lecture on Hungarian literature. Having been in Hungary for almost a full month now, we’ve gotten to learn and experience much about the Hungarian culture: from music to history and from art to politics. So today we got a glimpse into how it’s all tied together in the poems and stories of Hungary. Our guest lecturer was Arato Laszlo, an expert on Hungarian literature. Also, he had seemingly magical glasses that always fell back down to the bridge of his nose right when he needed to read us a passage. He read us poems and one minute stories in Hungarian and convinced us all that they sound much better untranslated, due to Hungarian’s distinct long and short vowels and how they work to create a unique stress pattern that is unlike anything you will find in English literature. As he quoted, “Hungarian is a soft cradle and a hard coffin.” He explained this meant that the language is so beautiful that it is easy to fall in love with and begin writing for it, and yet it is so beautiful that it cannot be faithfully translated, dooming any spread to other nations and languages.

Mattie and Kate H are clearly upset that this was our last day of number theory :(

With time running out, Jess’s quest for the best espresso in Budapest has intensified! Today, the next cafe on the docket was Kontakt Cafe, which is as yet the definite winner. The placard on the table read, “NO SUGAR/YES GOOD COFFEE.” Rich, intense espresso, clean modern decor, and a small, busy, yet quiet environment made for a lovely start to the morning. Tomorrow’s cafe will have a high bar to jump. No sugar. Yes good coffee!

For our lunch break, Mattie, Eva, Zareef, and Justin took one last trip to Bors GastroBár for baguette sandwiches. As always, the food was delicious and the employees were hilarious...especially the cup-flipping soup guy who photobombed our picture. Sam, Tess, Eric E, Eric S, Sarah, Kate A, Kate H, and Jess all decided to go back to The Box for donuts and bagel sandwiches since yesterday’s lunch was such a success. The favorite donut amongst the group has to be the caramel donut, although the apple cinnamon, oreo, and strawberry basil are tied for close second! (Sidenote: Professor Berliner and Eva both agree that nothing can ever compare to old-fashioned sour cream donuts from Greenbush Bakery in Madison)

Kate H, Eva and Mattie ventured back to the market in hopes of picking up some souvenirs (it’s okay, we don’t have pictures of those so the surprise is still present). The market is a huge building filled with all the essentials including paprika and presidential Russian nesting dolls.

For dinner, Jess, Will, Charles, Justin, Catherine, Aaron, and Eric S. went to dinner at Iguana, a Mexican restaurant! After feasting on chips, salsa, quesadillas and more while the Beastie Boys (yes, the Beastie Boys) played in the background, Catherine headed back to the hotel while the rest of us caught a trolley to the Budapest City Ice Arena. It was the perfect night for it- our last bit of unfettered fun before we begin serious study for the final on Saturday morning. We finished it off with a quick tour around the peaceful, picturesque Heroes’ Square.

Another group of us, including Adam, Nick, Eva, Mattie and Kate H, went to For Sale Pub for dinner. The walls were filled with notes written on the back of the placemats, which may or may not have been a slight fire hazard. This pub also had a giant basket of peanuts that counted for half of our dinner, and the shells could be tossed right on the ground (how nuts!).

Következő megálló? Spending the entire day tomorrow cramming for our final exam! Wish us luck. Jó éjszakát!

Mattie, Eva, Jess, and Kate H.

FDQW ZDLW WR EH KRPH

Today in class we received a brief introduction to cryptography, an important application of the concepts we've learned so far. In particular, we studied a few different strategies for encrypting a message. One of these was strategies was the "Caesar cipher," used by Julius Caesar himself. It's relatively straightforward - to encrypt a message, simply replace each letter in the message with the letter that is 3 letters down the alphabet, so A becomes D, D becomes G, and so on. In fact, the title of this blog was encrypted using the Caeser cipher! Test your hacking skills and see if you can decrypt our title. We also studied RSA encryption, a strategy that is still used by modern software, and is extremely complicated to explain!

After class we had an extended lunch period, where we ate various meals (like another round of Langos!) as well as spent some time on homework. When we reconvened as a group once again, the circumstances were more solemn as we watched the award-winning Hungarian film, "Son of Saul." The film followed a Jewish man, Saul, who was captured and forced to work at a concentration camp. Many tears were shed as we watched Saul persevere through his horrifying labor. The camera stayed focused on Saul for the duration of the film, though in the background of every shot we witnessed the graphic scenes of the camp. With no music being played for the entire film, we felt the tragedy of the holocaust at deeply visceral level. We discussed the film afterwards, before splitting off to different dinner locations. Overall, the evening was spent studying and unwinding.

As our time in Budapest nears closer to its end, we cherish every moment that much more. Today was a particularly productive and thought-provoking day.

Aaron Telander

Justin Pacholec

Zareef Kamal

Embrace the mod-ness

Despite the fact that Hungary starts its week on Monday, and the U.S. starts its week on Sunday, Tuesday is always prime.  And today, life is only happy if you're prime (unless you are Leonhard [Euler (pronounced: oiler, not Bueller without the "B")]).  

We are nearing the end of our trip, so everyone is attempting to balance studying for the final with exploring the sights that remain unseen.  The mornings have been starting earlier for some, as we are trying to maximize our time here.  A few of us spent the morning studying at local cafes, others explored the city, and still others chose to sleep for as long as possible.  

We had our third to last math class today.  This morning's lecture included what was called the "Big Mama or Big Daddy" theorem, otherwise known as the quadratic reciprocity law. After class, we had a break for lunch.  Three students went to The Box, a donut shop that specializes in square donuts.  They insisted on trying 12 different flavors, note that 12 is congruent to 0 modulo 3.  Other students returned to what have become favorite lunch stops: The Cat Cafe and Bors Gasztrobár. 

 

After lunch, we enjoyed an exciting math lecture by Csaba Szabo, who is an algebraist at a nearby university.  His talk corresponded well with the material we have been learning, and his passionate teaching style left its mark on the chalkboard.  Once the lecture was finished, some students searched the market for souvenirs, while others chose to do laundry, take naps, or start (or finish) their homework. Dinner plans included Szátyor Bar, Nemo Fish & Chips & Salad, Vapiano, and Aroy Thai & Sushi, amongst many others.  A few students also went ice skating at the beautiful rink in city park.  Now, we are working on homework, with the help of a few European chocolate bars within arms' reach.

Just remember, life is just a matter of what modulo you choose to live in.  

Tired, slap happy, and still working, but love from Budapest,

Kate A., Sarah, Sam, & Tess