Alright. Long time no post. I was going to start with Vienna last weekend, where I left off, but then I decided that there would be a good deal of information to pack into that post. So I'm going to instead go through this week, which was much less exciting.
We returned from Vienna around 7pm on Sunday and then some of us returned to my apartment where we made dinner with what I had lying around from last week, which ended up being pasta with bacon, onions, garlic, tomatoes and a fried egg on top. We then, instead of doing homework, played cards. Hearts was played, with rules being explained as we went. 'Tis a good game, Hearts.
Monday I decided to take advantage of having a late class and slept in, simply reading until my class at 2, which was classical algebra, the non-credit class designed to catch us up on everything. I was a little lost on Monday, as the class goes fast, assuming you've seen everything before. As I'm not sure I've seen all of this before, it can be a little much sometimes. I'm glad there won't be any grade for the class, though it is definitely entertaining and useful. After class, I just returned to my apartment and did homework, so it was not a very exciting day. I don't even remember what I had for dinner, though I assume I threw something together.
Tuesday was pretty similar, though I had class from 8 to 12 in the morning, followed by another class at 2. In the middle, however, I went and got lunch at a nearby langos stand. I believe I've mentioned langos before, but I'm not sure. It's pretty great. It's basically fried dough topped with things. The stand near the university fries the dough up fresh in front of you and it costs (at most) 2 dollars. I had mine topped with bacon, cheese, sour cream, garlic and purple onion. It was delicious, though not quite filling, so I stopped on the way back to pick up some fruit at a little fruit/vegetable store on the way. After my last class, I simply returned to my apartment and did homework. I made myself a nice dinner of leeks, tofu and noodles, which was very tasty. I also roasted some peanuts, tossed them with a small amount of oil and pepper, which was very good. Unfortunately, it's rather greasy. I was using the oil as a way to get the dry pepper to stick, but I'm not sure if it's necessary or if there's a better way. The oil itself was delicious though, as it was chili oil and sesame oil, so I rather like the flavor. Besides homework and dinner, I celebrated Valentine's Day by talking to my girlfriend, Anna, via phone. This was really nice, but unfortunately expensive; it ate up all my minutes. I have yet to refill my phone, which I should probably do soon.
Wednesday things start to get a little more exciting. I meant to wake up early and do homework before my first class, at 2, but I ended up just sleeping in. I got a bit of work done, making a grammar reference sheet for Hungarian, but it was not nearly as much as I would've liked. I then had Hungarian, which was great. It's a very enjoyable class, and will only get to be more so after it splits into two sections, but I kind of wish it met more often, and I don't think I'll have as much time to put into it as I'd like...the language is really cool. I've said it before and I'm sure it'll keep coming up, but Hungarian's a neat language. It doesn't seem particularly difficult, despite its reputation, but it's just very different from anything else, which would make it difficult, I suppose. Anyways, after class, several of my classmates came back with me to my apartment, where we made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, accompanied by roast peanuts (prepared as the day before) and tomato soup. This was delicious, and followed by homework for a little bit, before devolving into cards. Hearts was played for a bit, but we also played a game I had never played before, 13, which was an interesting game. It was good, but needs to be played with exactly four players and involves getting rid of all your cards, in a manner similar, but not identical, to the game Presidents. After 13, a full game of Spades was played that lasted for an unexpectedly long time and so was the last event of the evening.

Class is as class is, and was still good. Thursday afternoon, I, along with many other BSM students, watched a documentary on Paul Erdős, a very strange Hungarian mathematician, who was one of the founders of the program. He was also the most prolific mathematician ever, publishing over 1500 different papers with around 500 different collaborators. Once he became an adult, he never had a home, simply traveling from conference to conference, staying at the homes of colleagues along the way, and he continued doing math up until he died in his early 80s. All of his belongings could fit into two half-empty suitcases, and he was eccentric to say the least. I'd recommend reading up on him, because he's an amusing fellow. He's also an incredibly important mathematician, not only for his work, but also for fostering work in others: he would call people up whenever he had a problem he thought they were specifically suited for and provided a link between Communist Hungary and the West during the Cold War. So the movie was definitely interesting, to say the least.
Afterwards, I went with a large number of people to go get dinner and make cookies. Dinner was from the hummus bar (we did take out), which is a wonderful place, even though it took a very long time for the one guy working there to prepare all of our orders. I ordered the falafel plate again, accompanied with a simple salad of cabbage and cucumber and some mint tea (while we waited). As the hummus bar is right next to the good beer store, I also headed across the street and picked up some interesting-looking brews. After we picked up our food, we all went to somebody's apartment and ate. It was delicious, as expected. Afterwards, I baked cookies. That was the whole reason for this adventure. As my oven doesn't work, I asked one of my friends if I could use hers. She said yes, and then proceeded to invite many many people to come watch me bake, essentially, so this entire event came out of that. It was great.
Their oven doesn't have a degree markings, so we kind of picked a pot on the dial where the flames (it was an actual gas oven) looked good and put the cookies in, deciding to check up on them regularly. The cookies came out a little too done for my taste, as I like them to stay a little raw, but they were still good. Different from at home though, because we couldn't find baking soda or brown sugar. Or chocolate chips for that matter. For the chips, we just chopped up some chocolate and threw it in, but for the baking soda we used something that translates as "volatile salt." It worked well, and according to the internet volatile salt was a precursor to baking soda, so that's probably what I will keep using to bake. For brown sugar, we used aranybarna cukor, or golden-brown sugar, which wasn't actually brown sugar but looked more like raw sugar. It had much less moisture and much larger, most distinct crystals than brown sugar. This changed the taste somewhat, but they still turned out well. After the cookies came out, we all just kind of hung around and talked for a while before leaving and making it back at a decent hour.

And that's all the blogging I think I'll do for now. I made a dent, but there's still much more catching up to do.