Interesting twists

Hi all!

So I passed the exam on the renaissance. Expected, even though I only passed with a margin of a few points. The on to the next exam, this time it was the enlightenment and romantic era. And I was convinced that I failed it, considering that didn't even answer one of the questions (who the heck is Condorcet?!) and made up an answer for another. But lo and behold, yesterday, Monday, one day before I was supposed to retake the exam, I actually looked at the results. I passed. With a higher margin than last time. Go figure. Sure, no points for the question left unanswered, but I maxed the one with the made-up answer. Once again, go figure. I hadn't read anything on John Stuart Mill's thoughts on freedom of expression and simply guessed. And it worked. Academics never cease to amaze me.

On May 3rd I attended and completed the various entrance exams for the journalism program here at the university. A current events test, a summarize-this-article-test, and a personal letter explaining why I want to be a journalist. The procedure is this: one does the entrance exam, and waits for an invitation to be interviewed by faculty members. Out of all the applicants only 60 people get interviewed, and only 30 or so actually get accepted. I felt I did pretty well, but considering that there were about 400 people there with me, I thought my chances for getting in were slim at best. But amazement struck again, and yesterday I got an email from the department saying that they wanted to interview me! So I'm not exactly in yet, but for some reason I feel pretty confident that I'll get in now. I have a pretty varied academic background by now, meaning that I'm somewhat educated in the ways of the world, and I have good language skills, so I think I'm pretty much exactly what they're looking for. Now to make sure they realize that.

Oh yeah, and I swung by Hungary last week as well. Four days in Budapest, the Paris of, well... Hungary. At the end of April, a friend of mine who's a member of RadioAF, the student radio station, called me one morning, said that a group from the radio were going and that they'd had a cancellation, in case I wanted to tag along. So I did. So yeah, four days in Budapest with 35 strangers, plus cheap alcohol, equals lots of new friends. I went to see the Raoul Wallenberg monument (didn't find it though, settled for king Charles XII's rest-stop on his way home from Turkey 300 years ago instead), toured the Buda Castle, and experienced one of the world's largest wine cellars, with over 30 kilometres of walkways and tunnels. Of course a tasting was included in the tour, which turned ridiculous after "tasting" five kinds of wine, which were pretty good. Don't really remember what the other 15 were like, other than that they were ok. The guide and the pouring lady got sloshed as well, so we wouldn't feel awkward getting liqeured up at 2PM. On a side not, I saw Europe's largest wine cask, which was like five metres high, and ten deep, and blessed by a pope. Hungarians apparently take their wine seriously. Kinda hard for us to do though, when a tour with "unlimited tasting" only cost €20.

Below are some photos that I took with my cellphone, as I forgot my camera at home.

Kobánya Kispest, our first impression of Hungary. Beautiful, just beautiful!

Buda Castle, seen from Pest, just outside the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

The Hungarian Parliament. Built from limestone, which is why it requires constant renovation. Good job, guys.

The Budapesterian suburb of Budafúk. And no, I'm not making that name up.

Pest, seen from atop Gellert Hill in Buda. The climb up there almost killed me. Later found out that there were buses which run every 5 minutes.

Oh well, that's me for now. Közönöm!