advenures with hungarian health care, and other fun things =P

advenures with hungarian health care, and other fun things =P 13 dec 2002 sziasztok! well, although i didn't travel any more, i've been up to lots... down to my last DAY of classes (duuuuuude!) and then finals week (monday through wednesday next week) and then my time here in hungary is up to an end waaaaaaaay too quickly... what's been going on since last email? the week brother left had to have been one of the busiest weeks in my life -- ever!... for example, we got up at 3:30 to be out the door by 4 to get him to the airport in time for his flight (clear across town from me)... i got home for an hour of "free time" to write up homework i hadn't written the night before, and then had class straight from 10am til 7pm-- although the class hours weren't that bad the rest of the week, that busy of a day was... never want to have *that* busy of a week *ever* again! =P however, as i have no friday classes this semester, last weekend began on thursday afternoon, and it got off with a huge bang! thursday night (dec 5), we had a huge christmas party at our apt. i had originally been planning this with rebekkah, a girl who goes to school with several of the guys i know from church... eventually, amanda joined in on planning with us and we went nuts shopping for the party on wednesday -- complete with lots of cookies, chips, cake, popcorn, cocoa, sparkling juice, etc., plus the closest we could find to gingerbread house material (giant wheat crackers and nutella (chocolate and hazelnut version of peanut butter) with coconut shavings for snow =P we even had gummi bears to live in the houses =)... very cute)... we rented all of the 2 christmas movies the english video place here owns ("a christmas carol" and "how the grinch stole christmas"), had lots of paper to make snowflakes for our windows (as i'm still waiting to see sticking snow!), and had a mini tree we decorated with tinsel, red yarn, and sparkly wrappers from the party candy (it's actually extremely cute and has an aluminum foil star on top!) =)... we also had a 1.5 foot tall chocolate santa, which is a really big thing here... so lots of fun stuff, and we were hoping for maybe a dozen people if we were lucky and going til 11:30-ish, (when public transportation stops -- just b/c i don't have friday class doesn't mean no one else does! =P), but the people surely came... i counted around 30 that made it at some point or another, well over 20 at one time, and we had people around til after 3am!... not just from bsm, but also from church, and people who go to school with people from church, etc etc ... people just brought lots of friends and it was most excellent! yay for good eats, good company, and fun times =) on a tangent from a moment ago, why are the chocolate santas popular here? unlike in the states, santa doesn't come on christmas to hungary, he comes on szent mikulas day, dec 6... (for all of you who wondered how he gets around the world, there you go =) he visits different countries on different days =) )... then christmas is reserved for Christ coming, and the two concepts don't get confused (how cool is that?!) =)... anyhow, everywhere you went here last week, there were chocolate santas of all shapes and sizes, as kids leave out their shoes and if they're good they get candy including a chocolate santa... very fun =) we knew about this holiday already, but forgot about it when we went shopping on dec 4... after waiting over an hour in line to pay for our party stuffs, and making several comments on how the amount of people was insane like christmas eve or something, it finally dawned on us we were in a major store (tesco, the walmart of europe =P, only better) only 2 days before a major holiday! oops! so yeah that's the scoop on that... saturday was putnam day -- putnam is an evil mathcompetition where you spend 6 hours working on 12 math problems... national median and average score is always 0 out of 120 points... last year i got a 12 though, so i'm hoping for just as well this time -- back at valpo, we take it from 9am til noon and 2pm til 5pm, but since we're in hungary and they don't want us to be able to talk to people from our schools when we're done and before they take it, we were required to take it simultaneously to the states -- that's 4pm til 7pm and 9pm til midnight our time -- math party in the school! =P (whatever) whereas maybe a dozen people take the test each year at valpo, here we were some 30+ math students strong taking the test at the most peculiar time ever... the general consensus was that we all felt pretty good about the 4pm til 7pm session, but even with excess of caffeine, the later session was really really hard to focus for just because of the timing... yuck, but so it goes =P since the weekend, this week has been a little goofy -- hence the subject line... i've been rather congested and fighting a head cold since brother left, and over the weekend i finally ran out of the dayquil i brought with me in august... time to find hungarian medicine, eh? the thing is, you can't just go into a 'walgreens' or grocery store and pick up something that looks like cold medicine off the shelf here, even for non-prescription stuff.... to get medicine here, even just basic cold/flu stuff, you go to the gyogyszertar (pharmacist), and walk up to their counter, explain your symptoms and they pick something out for you-- makes the selection much easier than reading technical-ese on medicine boxes, but first you have to be able to convey your symptoms... i figured there was no possible way i could convey "my sinuses hurt" when i couldn't find 'sinus' in my dictionary, so earlier in the week, i spent a full 20 minutes explaining the concept of sinus infection to our student program directors, and they pulled in two other people fluent in both hungarian and english to try to figure out what on earth i was talking about -- after some major internet help they finally delightedly gave me hungarian words that translate as "my forehead-cavity is inflamed"... go figure... (three cheers for anyone and everyone who happily deals with international students every day!) =) so off i went to the gyogyszertar, with my bizarre new phrase and of all things, they gave me an inhaler than can also be used as a nose spray... i've never seen anything like it, but it seems to clear me up, so yay for that! i said adventure-S (plural) with the hungarian health system though, and that's just one.... part two can basically be summed up as: there's a first time for everything... up until this week, i could proudly say i've never broken a bone, never been treated in a hospital since the day i was born, and never had stitches... monday, points two and three went down... =P (at least i've *still* never broken a bone =) ) -- nothing big, just 2 stitches and they come out saturday -- if you want to know more, email me and i'll tell, but it really is all ok -- figuring out a hospital where about half a person besides you speaks english though is slightly confusing... major yay for friends who come with =)... word of advice if you plan on getting stitches anytime soon -- don't make it so you need them in the side of your face where they pull every time you laugh! -- it's a really big challenge when you're laughing all the time in general! basically, as a result of that though, i've been making an easy time of things this week, taking my time at getting my work done, and getting plenty plenty of sleep... good thing i've stayed on top of classes all semester so i could actually handle treating the last week of actual class like this and still be on the ball!... but finally, moving right along.... things lara has learned this week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *'the tuxedo' is a funny movie, the end =P *how to inadvertantly make the biggest flames possible in your microwave in less than 2 seconds flat =P (i'm beginning to think that although shrink far far away from matches and open flame in general, i must subconsciously be a pyromaniac and it's taken going to europe to bring it out! =P) *spray cans of whipped cream have the same stuff in them as laughing gas =P *be a substitute sunday school teacher for a week, make new friends =) *for hours of endless fun, you *must* check out the 'i can't believe it's not advertising slogan generator'... it's the most brilliant thing i've ever seen and it's quite addictive... you give it a word and it creates a slogan by taking well known ones and putting your word in place of something... recently generated slogans? Let The Finals Begin! I'd Walk A Mile For A Topology. All Stress, All The Time. http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan quotes of the week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ we four kings of orient are: three bearing gifts and one is after the child ~daniel, one of the kids in the sunday school class i helped with this week (long pause, then singing) sunny days.... did you know there's no sesame street in france? i find this very sad indeed! ~ben but me good doctor.... if the blow of flood to your hair (to be translated as the flow of blood to your head)... (intense look of confusion).... what am i saying??? ~nathanael thanh: you don't have to go to the doctor to get your stitches out, i'll do it! me: thanks but no thanks! thanh: but please! i can use iodine, it'll be ok, it'll be fun! me: um, nope, the doctor will do it for free thanh: i'll do it for free to!... hey, i'll even pay you to let me take your stitches out, how much do you want? (um no!) how much will that thanh guy pay you to let him take out your stitches? i'll pay more! ~mason mason: so evan, your shirt says "sleep is for the weak"... do you not sleep much? evan: no, but i'm weak =P dear patrick b., will you join me for integrals and coffee sometime? check one: yes, no, maybe... love, neil ~note mason wrote and passed around one of my classes last week (can you tell finals stress is close?) you're not actually going to eat that are you??? (person being addressed goes on finishing the end of a spray can of whipped cream into their mouth at our party).... oh heavens ~ben me: but didn't you see evan's shirt? "sleep is forthe weak"... i strongly advocate that philosophy nathanael: maybe, but i think this one's even better: "sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine" i have one word for this week: duuuuuuuuude! ~me that about sums it up =) count on one more of these novels before i'm outta here... hope all y'all have an excellent week =) la(ra) =)