Visiting Universities

Today was a big day, mainly for Lisa but for me too. We finally got to put faces to names and see the facilities. Lisa will be working at 2 Universities, ELTE, or Eotvos Lorand University and MOME which shortens Moholy-Nagy Muveszeti Egyetem or Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. We're having enough trouble with the ELTE and MOME.

The campus' are completely different, ELTE is new and modern with its buildings along the Danube. MOME is housed in a group of 125 year old buildings in a residential neighborhood. The main building looks like a plantation house, big white columns.

Lisa will have offices both places with keys and everything. Getting to ELTE is easy, it's just four stops on the tram and then a 3 minute walk down a tree lined path to the building. MOME is slightly more involved with a tram or subway ride and then a bus through the neighborhoods plus a 5 minute walk. Both are actually quite easy and fast. We had a nice lunch with Aniko Illes, Lisa's host at MOME in the campus Kantin.

This was sort of a meet and greet day, I took a few pictures but will post campus photos later as well as pics of the VIP's.

I met my student Viktoria. We had a 90 minute language class. Her oral exam covers 26 subjects ranging from traveling to pets. We started with pets, what breed is your dog? What does your dog eat? Each question started a discussion. This will be interesting. Her dog is mixed breed and eats chicken heads...really. We will work again tomorrow at her office.

A couple of observations...the time difference to the West coast made it possible to wake up here and see the computer play by play of the Cardinals game in San Diego. It has rained here every afternoon between 4 and 6 for the last 5 days. We take our umbrella everywhere. The national Hungarian alcoholic drinks, not drinks for alcoholics, are Palinka and Unicum. Palinka is a fruit brandy, strong but tasty. Unicum is distilled herbs and tastes bitter and nasty, must be an acquired taste. It is reputed to be an aid for digestion and promotes good health and alcoholism.

Todays pictures are of the flat, getting a lived in feel, nothing hanging on the walls...yet. We keep reminding ourselves that anything we acquire has to fit in a suitcase.

The tile heater reminds me of the Mercer House in Doylestown, PA.

More later