As an Exchange Student in Budapest

I spent my 1999 fall semester at Technical University of Budapest (TUB). All the exchange students from my school must write a report about their staying abroad. You are reading mine. Since I had to write this anyway, I decided to put it on the web. I also wrote a diary while in Budapest. A slightly censored version can be found below.

Some useful stuff

This part of these pages actually contains some information. It was up to date in 1999. Some of the stuff is Finland-specific. Move to Finland if it doesn't apply to you.

• Before leaving: applying, getting visa, accommodation, plane tickets etc.
• Luggage vs. Finnair
• Telephone: how to keep it cheap
• As a vegetarian in Budapest. it works out.
• My studies at TUB: less is more
• Was it expensive?
• Using computers?
• Accidental similarities between Hungarian and Finnish
• Annotated links to some possibly related pages.

Some Not so Useful Stuff

Trips abroad

I had time to visit those places listed below. One should see and I should have seen also Romania, Bulgaria, Prague, Bratislava, etc. and what-not.

• Weekend in Croatia, Istria peninsula
• Poland, Cracow, Auswitz
• A cold Saturday in Vienna
• Snow-boarding in Italy

Misc

All the anecdotes happened to someone else. Nothing ever happens to me.

• Beaten up at Közgáz
• Nightly adventures of a certain Finn
• Stomach ache
• Shop lifting

Welcome to the bananality zone

Here is my diary. Any sane human being shouldn't be interested. It's really quite boring. I don't actually expect anyone to read it through. Writing it was just some sort of therapy or something. Before reading, there're three things you should know. FOUR things you should know. FIVE things:

1. I knew I was going to publish this almost from the very beginning. So the text is not 100% subjective. I just can't write without thinking what someone else might say about it.
2. Some of the entries probably give the impression that Budapest sucks and I had lousy time there. It's not so. I loved it. I just was so depressed and fed up with everything and -one including myself before leaving that even Martos couldn't heal me. Had I known that year before (when I decided to leave), I wouldn't have left at all. But Hey, it's none of your business.
3. You might also get the impression I did nothing but ate and slept. The impression is quite correct.
4. I was too lazy to write out all the names of people all the time. Sorry.
5. There's no sex in the story, so you may as well stop reading here :).

Week by week

• First week, September 6th - 12th.
  Arrival - Martos - Selecting courses - Boozing - Citadella - Gödöllő - Wine Fest
• Second week, September 13th - 19th.
  First lectures - Invisible swimming pool - Statue Park - Residence permit - Something about Croatia
• Third week, September 20th - 26th.
  Rage against the washing machine - Vasarely museum - Feeling blue (whining alert!) - Getting ill - Finnish movies
• Fourth week, September 27th - October 3rd.
  Sleeping - Movies - Fumigation - Martos activities - Opera - Museum of Fine Arts
• Fifth week, October 4th - 10th.
  Cold and raining - Stupid OS-Lab. - Sleeping - Too drunk - Hangover
• Sixth week, October 11th - 17th.
  Depressed - Darsha - Cockroaches - Rotten washing machines - National Museum - Royal Castle
• Seventh week, October 18th - 24th.
  Mikko's party - Caving! - Laundry - Parents came - Bahnhof - Sissi's castle - '56 revolution
• Eighth week, October 25th - 31st.
  Jungle Book - Simon Mágus - Cracow - Auswitz - Thieves
• Ninth week, November 1st - 7th.
  Return from Poland - Boring - Close to Love - Cauliflower - Boozing - Hangover - World's Strongest Bear
• Tenth week, November 8th - 14th.
  Disguised Cheese - Modern Art - Coffee - Book stores - Laundry - For-Sale pub
• Eleventh week, November 15th - 21st.
  Internet Cafe - Snowing and jogging - Expensive cognac - Hungarian Christmas
• Twelfth week, November 22nd - 28th.
  Books and videos - Pick-pocketing - Indoor football - Violence in a disco - Day in Vienna
• Thirteenth week, November 29th - December 5th.
  Coffee - Studying - Mistaken for a Hungarian - Leisure time injuries - At Piia's place
• Fourteenth week, December 6th - 12th.
  Independence Day party - Flight tickets - Car rental - Fumigation - Ráday
• Fifteenth week, December 13th - 19th.
  Renting a car - Credit limit exceeds - Exams - Cheating - Leaving for Italy
• Sixteenth week, December 20th - 26th.
  Learning to snowboard - Radius fracture - Skiing and drinking - Back to Budapest via Slovenia and Croatia
• Seventeenth week, December 27th - January 2nd.
  Nothing happened. New Year or something.
• Eigthteenth week, January 3rd - 6th.
  Writing my essay - Posting books to Finland - Return to Finland

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