Recap

It turns out, I was right. This second week isn't nearly as stressful as last week was - or maybe it is just as stressful, but in a different way. Last week, the first week of classes, there was hardly time to sleep in between going to meetings, lectures, and other places - times for classes were changing right and left, about as quickly as my plan for what I wanted to take was changing.

Now, I feel like I can breathe, and the only real stressful thing on my plate is the actual math to be done - and to be honest, that was expected. I think that's kind of what I signed up for.

But a few things happened that I wanted to report on! For one, I spent all Saturday with some folks in the Computer Science program that is also hosted in Budapest. We took the train to a nearby village, rented bikes, and went on a three-and-a-half hour ride (punctuated by a coffee break and lunch) around a lovely lake and down some quietly pleasant country roads and paths. I went in some ways in order to spend time with some friends I have in that program, and on the other hand, it was important for me to do some active relaxing, I thought. I think I've written about this here before, but I'll restate my thoughts: the busier we are with our work, studies, whatever it may be, the more I think relaxing becomes something passive and more akin to 'zoning out'. I do this quite frequently. And I don't think that in itself, watching episodes of TNG on netflix or playing freecell while halfheartedly watching cooking videos on YouTube is all that bad or dangerous, but I think that a lot of the time, that's not actually what I want. I don't want to turn my brain off and shove thoughts of homework out of the way, cowering under the visual stimulation of a computer. Rather, I think I want to actively do something that is not homework - do a puzzle with friends, write a letter, go on a walk with someone - or go on a bike ride. And that's what I got to do on Sunday. That being said, the paths were rather narrow so for a lot of the time, I couldn't interact with my friends at all, but it turned out to be pleasantly meditative to roll along, aware of just the nature around us.

After the route around the lake (somewhere between 20 and 30 kilometers), we rode our bikes to a smallish bath house in the village we started in, and spent a few hours there. Then, we rode to a hole in the wall restaurant with people who clearly knew the two who had lead our group, and there was an enormous cauldron of goulash waiting for us, in addition to huge loaves of bread and - for those who dared - homemade palinka, the traditional schnapps from this region. And as I sat there with a small glass of that (the plum kind), plus the goulash, plus the bread - I realized that after a day working or riding around outside, there was nothing quite like that to end the day. It made perfect sense.

My trusty steed for the day.

When we arrived at the lake.

What awaited us after all the biking and bathing.

 And then, I came back home. Unfortunately, Monday my illness made a reappearance so I had to go back to the doctor and spend a great deal of time there getting a different kind of antibiotic to really drive out whatever it is that's in me. And luckily, I had had enough of my homework done before that being relatively inactive on Monday wasn't a bad thing - no classes, not too much work to be done.

And then Tuesday - yesterday - it was a good, if very full, day. Classes again, getting back on my feet and to make the day the epitome of awesome, at the end of it I went to a new café with a friend of mine - only to find out that 1. there are waitresses there with mostly shaved heads, which is one of the most daring things I've seen here and made me happy and 2. MOST IMPORTANTLY: this café is dog friendly and one of the aforementioned waitresses had a tiny little spaniel that was sitting on the couch next to me as I slogged through a bit of spectral theory homework, and at home point when I was getting frustrated, it stood up and walked a bit closer to me, then lay down again and pressed it's little back against my leg... I've never felt so inspired. :)