So here I am, at Feirhegyi Repülőtér, having 4 more hours to spare until my bus to Kolozsvár.
Last week I've been on a trip to Boston, with the purpose of visiting the city and it's universities, with special focus on the MIT. Though it was extremely costly, in the end I think it was worth it.
(I wont give numbers for the costs of the trip, but it was a damn expensive week, not even counting the airline ticket :) Just think about it that two pity sandwiches cost $14, that's 50RON! And yes, I've written heroic poems about the combarability of the prices - but that's just not the normal case. I mean you don't eat everyday at a restaurant here at home, not even at McDonald's. Mensas and cantines exist here too, but they were too expensive for me as a non-student. And there's the transport, waaay more expensive than at home, a bit cheaper than in large megalopolises like London or Paris, but the most expensive in America nonetheless)
I got the general picture of how a top notch university looks like, feels like, works like and even caught some ideas about the ongoing research projects. I caught the air of New England, Boston, Cambridge, which is very distinct compared to the other placed I've been, including the States. It is incomprehensively, intangibly, unimaginably different from the South, where I've lived for a couple of months two years ago. And I've visited a great many parts and cities of the United States, even more isolated ones, but nothing compares to this.
Cambridge grabs you from the coat. But is a mammoth in a gooseskin. It invites you back, but bombs you with an armada of questions: do you have the guts for me? do you have the talent for me? do you know something that I don't? who are you anyway? why did you came here in the first place? go home, there's nothing to do here for you! - and that point the decision becomes really hard. I mean, you have to carry on this fight in which both of the belligerents is yourself. By far one the hardest battles of your life.
Cambridge was worth it. And meeting with the other Hungarians living there. No questions. The rest...haven't decided yet. Because the rest is America, from the roots to the crown, no exceptions. The few Europeans vanish in the cloud or they have assimilated already. And the real America is VERY different from Europe. Not even the toilets are the same, they flush bacwards! And it is extremely hard to adapt, at least for me. Here at home, you might think that you're the sharpest tool in the shed or the biggest fish in the pond, but out there is the jungle. They are like sharks. But the good things is, it's not a pond. It's like the Pacific. "So you either learn to get along near the bigger fish or you became shark yourself and eat the smaller fish." (Prof. G)
All in all it was worth it. For one sentence that Prof. L. told me. He well might just have been polite, doesn't change my attitude. I tend to believe it was not :)
And maybe for a few more looks, expressions and gestures I could read from the porefessors', students', officials', and ordinary peoples' faces and bodies. And seeing them how polite, respectful, deferential, welcoming and educated they are, manifested in every action they perform, even walking. I think, actually just to see them walk or be so fortunate to hear them talk makes you forget that you just have crossed the Atlantic. And that's beautiful.
Science is really beatiful, we just don't understand it here yet. At all. And learning is cool, being polite is cool, being educated is cool, even beging nerdy could be cool, fashionable, swell and trendy. Sadly, I think we are unlikely to understand that at home in the near future. And, imagine, one can have fun in various other ways than drinking oneself down to the floor. Look at the MIT hacks or pranks. Aren't they cool? They are really funny and entertaining, but at the same time technologically extremely challenging. That's why those guys are capable of inventing something and we are not. And that's what is pushing the world forward, isn't it? Creative thinking and creative science. Truly beliving that science is cool indeed, and having the power, nobility and the heart of not hauling somebody over the coals for having spent the weekend with learning instead of partying. We have decades of lag on that. Even the professors..
So, I gues this was it. Thank you al for reading, I've been following curiously the numbers building up. Please feel free to comment or rate my work. Sorry for the grammar, I don't always have the time to reivse the psots, and soemtiems I sned them form a pohne. Frmo an aiprort loo. With no lights. Or from a plane using the public wi-fi and get my phone taken away...
Thanks for reading, see you on my upcoming trip, though I don't know where would that be. Yet. I also hope to catch up on the previous journeys and fill in the blank spots.
Dénes from Budapest, checking out!
Impressions
Monday, October 18, 2010
Budapest, Hungary
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Comments

2025-02-07
Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank
csildi
2010-10-19
Nekem nagyon tetszik,olyan sok apro reszletet eszreveszel szerintem jo ujsagiro lennel.Gondoltam irhatnal egy cikksorozatot v-melyik ujsagba.