After two days.

The last few days have been walking, walking, walking. Yesterday I met a bunch of the other BSM students (14-ish) and today I met the same amount, but with hardly any overlap, and there are still many to come. I think we number about 70 in total, which is quite large compared to some other math things I've done. But honestly, right now, I can hardly think about math. I keep forgetting that's what I came here to do.

The last few days have been for wandering, meeting people, and perhaps more than a little bit of introspection, which happens in foreign places, I believe. A lot of feeling separate from my own timeline, if that makes sense. Especially when you don't speak the language.

My knowledge is growing - I said 'thank you' convincingly enough at the supermarket today to get that response in return, in Hungarian instead of just a raised eyebrow. So far, my vocabulary consists of 'Yes', 'No', 'Thank You', 'Street', '(East) Train Station' [I'm most proud of this one for how fantastic is sounds - keleti pályaudvar], Where Is ___, and 'Paprika'. Which is just paprika. I kid you not. This stuff is hard. I know a lot more words by sight, but I don't know how to pronounce them yet. 'S' is pronounced like a 'sh', unless a 'z' follows it, in which case it is just an 's', an accent like this ´ does nothing but extend the length of the vowel, unless it is over an 'a', in which case it changes the sound entirely.... in addition to these phonetic rules and several others, if I am not wildly mistaken, there's a tonal aspect to this language as well. Not as complex as Thai or Chinese, but certain words are certainly always intoned the same way -- intoned? Is that a word? I'm a bit tired.

As I mentioned briefly in my first post, my landlady has been very, very welcoming. She made "lesco" (pronounced "le" as in 'let', "cho" - high tone on the 'le', low on the 'cho') for me - which is a dish with peppers, onions, sausage, and tomatoes, cooked kind of as a stew and served with special bread that is in stores now only because the day after tomorrow is St. Steven's Day (Szent István ünnepe). She showed me where the nearest grocery store was, walked me to the place where the math courses are held, and took me to the language school as well - on the way there by one mode of transit and on the way back by another, so I would be familiar with both. She walked me to the mall to find an adapter for my computer (all this traveling and I forgot mine this time. Ach, ja..) and in general just helped me a lot. And, I also got to hear her say a lot of words - mostly ones that there wasn't an English equivalent for (such as lecho and keleti pályaudvar, which is a metro stop name she wanted me to remember) and that's when I got the inkling about the tones.

So, the past two full days have just been composed of walking. Yesterday, the exploration with other students took about six hours all told, from Rottenbiller street (where many of us live, near the math school) to the river, and the area in between. Today, we explored a different side of the same area in the afternoon, another five-hour shindig, but in the morning - I got lost. Like, good and proper. I went on a run in the city park a few blocks away from my flat and, as this is an old city and not laid out quite in a grid, but rather with curvy, wibbly streets that turn different ways when they feel like it (and change names after intersections, and most streets are named after people, so everywhere you look there's an István or sometimes an István Street and an István Boulevard lead very different places) - so, all of a sudden, I didn't know where I was. But I navigated back easily enough, discovered that I did know some landmarks, and listened to quite a lot of my audiobook in the process. We may or may not have also gotten a bit lost in the afternoon, but I was in such a good mood, it didn't matter. Getting lost is a fabulous way to get to know a city if you are in good company, even if that company is just yourself.

The language school begins on Wednesday. 80 hours of Hungarian boot camp, and then I won't feel as much of an outsider. Many of the students here have never been abroad before. A few have - and one other student has already graduated, and thank goodness. I was feeling quite old yesterday. But actually, in a good way.

Here are a few pictures from my immediate vicinity:

The approximate location of my flat.

My breakfast, after the run-that-would-never-end. Or rather, walk-that-would-never-end by the second half of it.

Learning vocab with the help of vegetables. So, beet (cékla) and ginger (gyömbér). My kitchen is almost complete. I just need some kind of hot sauce and honey to feel totally at home.

I realize that I am not posting any pictures of landmarks or even of myself, or myself in front of landmarks. That's not quite the kind of pictures I tend to take, though I realize that might be what some people want to see.  Hopefully, there will be more people-pictures soon. I don't know these folks well enough yet. We'll figure it out.

Okay. After all the hours of walking and wandering today, it is time for me to rest.