Researching the World

Thursday, the 27th…I wake up the most tired I have been so far on the trip. It was still easier than getting up the past quarter for work and cluster though, so nothing to complain about. The idea that I am here in Hungary and that an adventure is out there still gets me right up and out of bed every morning.

I head to work, and find out we still have not heard back from our client. We just research more about the biotech health industries in various countries. So pretty much, we were researching the world...lol. Although, every day I learn something new about an industry I never thought I would begin to understand. I never wanted to be involved in the health industry after having to deal with it my whole life, but this is actually interesting learning about all the new technologies that are coming out that inspire hope in my eyes for certain things. It is also interesting that the university's medical school is the top biotech institution int he world, but all the students leave to find better paying jobs abroad.

We all head out to lunch to Arkad (the mall) of course. I have already quickly become tired of being in the mall, since we normally stop in every day just to quickly browse since we pass by it on our way from work every day. I’m just not that mall type of person having watched Chapel Hill mall go down the tube (but it is back up now, thank god). I decide to get Chinese (go figure)…but everyone had been going on and on about it; so I decided to try it. I just have to say that Chinese food is Chinese food is Chinese food - wherever you go, it is always the same (except for Tong Tong). I get some dark meat chicken and fried rice with an interesting drink that I had seen at a few places since I came to Hungary – Aloe Vera.

And yes, it is actually drinkable aloe vera, with pulp. It is an iridescent green that looks like it could kill Superman. It smells like suntan lotion, but I decide to try it anyways, and it actually tastes like suntan lotion. I didn’t have anything else to drink, so I kept drinking it, and after the first taste that was kind of questionable, it quickly becomes sweet and addicting (which is probably not good). I am happy to finish it though and am just trying to decide whether I should bring a bottle back to have other people taste test. I ask a couple of the Hungarians if it was popular over here, to which they responded that they had heard of it and seen it, but have never tried it.

Even though everyone is still tired, we get back to reading more and more and more. My team meets with our advisors to discuss the project status, and they were extremely concerned that the client had still not gotten back to anyone (even though he was extremely busy at that time). We decide to meet with the other team that is working on a project linked to the same client as ours, and finally decide that we can continue with our projects and deliver quality work, while still waiting for critical information from the client. We have just been researching so many different things that we were just having a tough time trying to figure out what to research next. So after a demanding day (for other reasons concerning the project), all of our minds shut down and we decide to head home.

I instantly fall asleep at 4 and hardly wake back up at around 6:30 pm. I find out that a few of the girls decided to go up to the TV Tower after hearing about the views and restaurant…but they had actually planned out the route and took a taxi back (wimps). They had actually found some hidden spots that we will have to go back to sometime to take pictures of the city and other monuments. I just needed to get sleep though.

A few of us go to Krudy, right by our apartment, with a giant chef standing outside that kind of looked like Chef Boyardee. We wanted to try it since we got here, because it is a little alleyway that opens up to a restaurant in the back, but we would always catch it at weird hours. I get some amazing goulash with a ton of bread. I just can’t believe I forgot about now to look at the soup menu for it…I guess with the heat I just immediately skip over the soups.

We heard that it was the last night of the wine festival, so we decide to head up there to say goodbye. We had heard that the last night was the week before, that night, the next week, and that it ran for the whole summer. Well, it turned out that the wine festival was over that night, but another festival would pick up in its place the next day, so no need to worry! However, the festivals at that square would end around the beginning of July, so all goods things must come to an end.

We just relax, watch people, and listen to music. There was a violinist that I wanted to steal the violin from, but since he was playing traditional Hungarian tunes to a group of drunks who were singing away like the Irish, I decide it would probably not be wise to put myself in that position. Everyone else was tryignt og et me to play though.

We meet up with a couple of the Hungarian students. We also run into an American from California who came to Pécs (I just learned how to do the accent mark today!) about 5 years ago, fell in love with the city, and decided to stay. He creeped out a couple of us, so we decided to leave and play with some cute dogs we saw people walking around with. I get a European/Hungarian funnel cake covered in chocolate dust and head back to the apartment to relax. I end up just writing, uploading pictures, and going to sleep, since I was still tired from all the excitement still.