I'm staring out at the almost sunset (it will be setting in maybe an hour - which is ridiculous, because it's 3 in the afternoon) over the wide tarmac field in front of the Vienna Airport. I came on a bus from Budapest and in about two hours, I'll be hopping on a plane to Frankfurt. Even though here, the German is accented in an unfamiliar way, I still can understand people and I can read the signs around me - it's amazing how much more connected that makes me feel. Still, even as I was on the bus, I noticed my progress in Hungarian that had been going on without my knowledge - the kind of progress that happens when you live in a language, you know? - for example, I got on the bus and the passport control folks came on. I saw their uniforms - "Rendőrség". And I thought, "That's funny. I wonder why the police uniforms are in German? We're still in Hungary." - the reason being, of course, that I understood 'Rendőrség' too quickly, I assumed it must have been German. So, that's only one word, and that is negligible progress, but I'll take what I can get. This is a strange language!
And so far, the Vienna airport is endearing itself to me. There are little pod-desk complexes set up every few gates. About four desks arranged in such a way that four are clumped together with a little screen in between each, two facing "north" if you will, a right handed one and a left handed one, and two facing "south" (also left handed and right handed) - but they're made out of couch-ish material. Not very squishy, but more comfortable than the hard plastic chairs. And each has some outlets, which is always nice for travelers, and the wifi is free. I have enough to work on that requires no internet that I would have been completely fine without it, but with the wifi, I can continue my tradition of checking in while traveling.
Even though the cup of tea and bottle of water I just bought definitely (I just checked on google) cost as much as my lunch out with a friend yesterday in Budapest, I'm excited to get out for the weekend. People have been going insane with stress about midterms. Students around me were dropping like flies - when asked how his weekend was, one of my friends replied, "I'm considering going into the countryside here and chopping wood for a living." Another replied in only sounds, not words. And all of us are wondering whether or not we are too young to have mid-life crises.
And I don't think the stress is worth it. Yesterday, my body made the shift from stress (which is a very active, tense feeling) to weariness. And I didn't like that one bit! Yeah, these classes are hard, but they aren't life. I have to remember to breathe. Hopefully, the other students will realize that, too - one of my friends said that he was going to take care of himself this weekend "no matter the cost". I think it's a shame that that has to be a big deal, that taking care of ourselves is something we do rarely. I think it's just because we're not the best with moderation - either in work or relaxation.
Speaking of work, though - I have to go and correct all of my previous homework assignments for Spectral Theory. That is our midterm - turning in everything again. It's a lot of work, but it's also rather neat to see how much we've learned in the semester so far. And I think that the things we're talking about in Spectral Theory and Algebraic Topology are about to meet in very unexpected way! If you are interested in some of the insane stuff we get up to in Algebraic Topology, check out this video. This is what's called the 'Alexander Horned Sphere' - you don't need to know anything about it. Just know that from a topological standpoint, what is interesting about this is that it is simply a very, very strange sphere. (By sphere, I mean something like a basketball - not solid in the middle. Just the outside. The surface ((the outside)) is only two dimensional, but because of how it is connected, it has to "live" in three dimensional space.) Anyways, it's kinda cool!! Check it out.
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