"And they all lived happily ever after...."

"...until they died."

This is how our Hungarian teacher told us the staying goes in Hungarian. Two days into the language crash course now, and man, it is a crash course. About six-eight hours each day, language language language - you barely have time to review in your head what exercises you were just working on before it's time for a new one, and as someone who has learned foreign languages to the point of near-fluency, I can just how far I am even from understanding people on the street.

That being said, it's kind of fun. It's a new language! And it is so very different from anything I know or have heard before that even counting to ten is impressive to myself, and (Thank goodness!!) being able to read street signs and signs in grocery stores makes worlds of a difference.

And other than that, things are pretty good. I had a few new acquaintances/potential friends from the program over last night for wine and talking, where it turns out most of us had similar fears - how on earth do you compare math programs from different universities. Technically, we should all be one similar levels given what courses we've had, but if some schools are much harder, etc, or worse - what if there are some geniuses here? Ugh, that would be awful! But it seems like the kind of program some of those people would come to... Bottom line, none of us think that we will seem good in comparison to others. But I know that train of thought. That's what all the students at Carleton had before we started there as well. And there it turned out that we all had strengths and weaknesses in various areas and it basically balanced out, and the main reason we got into that program was that we were good at learning, so we could engage there easily. And, well, there was one genius. I guess you can't always avoid them. And I beat her at pool anyway, so there. :)

Okay. I'm going to finish my breakfast and head to my Friday classes. I am really excited for the weekend - I have some GRE studying to do as well as some pictures to upload here. In the mean time, I hope you find a hot beverage of your choice and enjoy this Friday.