Archive for 2010Page 6
Fact Check This (Part 1 of 2)
Recently, I realized that though I have given much commentary on Tanzania’s culture and landscape, I have supplied very few real facts. This series will come in two parts, the first concerning social facts and the second, economics. So here is a little commentary, and a lot of facts. On the 9th of December, 1961, […]
Tanzania Wears Prada
Brand names. Americans love them. Abercrombie and Fitch, Banana Republic, Columbia, GAP, Nike, Talbot, Birkenstock. Fashion is important in America, especially to younger people. Social status is defined by the names on the tags of your clothing. Consumers faithfully return to their favorite stores, spending a fortune on a pair of blue jeans. Many even […]
Adventures in the 4th dimension.
“The perception of existence by human beings is entirely different from existence itself.” This is how Paul Humke, St. Olaf math professor and the American liaison for BSM, concluded his amazing colloquium lecture on the 4th-dimension today. Chalk in hand, he asked us to investigate the numbers behind higher dimension. We counted vertices, edges, faces, […]
Sit! Stay! Roll Over!
Puppy chow, catnip and hamster wheels. Americans are obsessed with their pets. They feed them gourmet food, buy them little outfits for cold days, and leave them messages on the answering machine when they are away. Coming from a culture like that, it can be hard to understand African’s adversity to dogs and other animals. […]
Ready, Set, Remember!
Of all the subjects offered in school, physical education is the one students take least seriously. Gym is the ‘fun’ class where you receive little or no homework, play games most days and are guaranteed high marks if you just come to class. Most days, at the beginning of class we would do some exercises […]
On finite automaton and apple pancakes.
It has now been almost a month since I first arrived in Budapest and I was beginning to wonder if BSM actually stood for Budapest Semesters in Munching rather than Mathematics. Until this week, the most math that Melissa, Rachel, and I had done since getting here was converting Forint to dollars and trying to figure out how to cook using […]
Mangalitsa Festival
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than wandering around the historical Hősök tere [Heroes’ Square] amongst slabs of meat, pots of forralt bor [Hungarian hot wine], and huge curly-haired Hungapigs. It’s called the Mangalitsa Festival, and it is more or less like a Budapest country fair. Scores of stands were selling everything from […]
Esztergom, Hungary
So if I say the words “Esztergom, Hungary,” what’s the first thing that pops into your head? . . . Nothing? Not surprising. But when a Google search of “best towns in Hungary to visit in the winter” sends back a big, fat “0 results found”, it begs the question – why not go to […]
Five Stars
Some of the most surprising differences in life here versus in the States are from the more common things that you normally don’t think about. One example would be movies. Acquiring and watching movies in Tanzania is quite different than in the States. Movies can be bought in small electronic shops or just off the […]
Culture Shock: The Battle for Antibiotics
I have been in Budapest for just over two weeks and there are so many things that I love about this city. I love the yellow tram, I love chicken paprikas and goulash, I love the crazy boots everyone wears, I love the unique character of all the buildings, I love that everything feels drenched […]