June 05, 2016
After four and a half months of traipsing around Europe (yet at the same time, saving thousands of dollars compared to paying a semester of Yale tuition), I'm back at the place I initially departed, in Stamford, Connecticut. The cliché things to say would be that "I can't believe it's over," and that "I had the time of my life," and who knows, I might even default to one of those responses when the 100th person asks me about Budapest and... continue reading
REFLECTION TRAVEL BUDAPEST ACADEMICS CLASSES AIT-BUDAPEST MOMENTS RANDOM YALE PHOTOSApril 27, 2016
About a month into my semester in Budapest, I felt that something was amiss. It'd been two weeks since I'd been immersed in Hungarian at the Babilon Language school, and my schedule had started to become… mundane. I'll write more in depth about the AIT-Budapest program in a future post, but my point is, I was taking computer science courses in English, attending classes with (almost all) Americans, and living with Americans. Moreover, I spent... continue reading
TRAVEL BUDAPEST SOCCER FUTBALL CONVERSATIONS LANGUAGEApril 11, 2016
While most of my Facebook and Instagram friends posted spring break pictures of scenes like this: My spring break looked more like this: Just kidding. Thanks to friends and family, not even occasional volley of hail could make a dent in what for me was the perfect spring break. My Wizz Air flight to London took off at 6 am on Saturday morning. Although the process was inconvenient and the service nonexistent, the roundtrip ticket only cost me... continue reading
LONDON BUDAPEST PHOTOS MOM FRIEND SPRING BREAK PLANES FLIGHT VISITING RECAPS TRAVEL EUROPEFebruary 29, 2016
My wonderful high school roommate Jen flew into Budapest last Monday and has been giving far higher quality and more consistent daily recaps on Instagram and Facebook than I could ever hope to provide. 1) She's a fantastic writer. 2) She takes incredibly artsy pictures. Thus, I've decided it'd simply be easiest to embed her posts here and update the links everyday! So far, we've spent a week journeying through Budapest and Krakow. Next... continue reading
JEN REN RECAPS BUDAPEST KRAKOW FRIEND VISITING TRAVELFebruary 28, 2016
From the outside, the building at 60 Andrássy Street doesn't appear too different from the rest of the elegant, stately houses along what's known as the "Champs-Élysées" of Budapest, with the exception of two massive metal stencils spelling out "TERROR" attached to the roof. Once past the ticket booth, however, I'm immediately greeted by the barrel of a Soviet tank, behind which are thousands of black and white portraits above a panel with... continue reading
HOUSE OF TERROR BUDAPEST APPLE SAN BERNARDINO POST-WWII HUNGARY OPINION TRAVELFebruary 08, 2016
Elnézest!Excuse me! Szia!Hello! Beszélsz angolul?Do you speak English? Nem.No. Umm… egy doboz és ket… postkarten?Umm… a box and two… postcards? (Not knowing how to say postcards in Hungarian, I gave German a shot) Ah, envelope elêg, nem dobozAh, an envelope is enough, no box (She was obviously trying to accommodate my English as well) To my relief, the elderly lady turned to the machine, tapped a few buttons, and handed me a small slip of... continue reading
BUDAPEST HUNGARIAN CHINESE GERMAN LANGUAGES INTERACTIONS CHINESE NEW YEAR TRAVELJanuary 29, 2016
I've never lived in a city with as much history manifested as in Budapest. In China, almost everything was destroyed during the cultural revolution. In America, tour guides point to buildings and say, "In the 1980s…" In Budapest, the tour guides point to buildings and say, "In the 14th century…" As someone who once considered picking up a second major in history, I can't help but shiver (it's cold, okay?) every time I lay eyes on some relic... continue reading
HISTORY HUNGARY BUDAPEST ST. STEPHEN'S BASILICA HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM COMMUNISM STATUES WALKING TOUR PHOTOS TRAVELJanuary 19, 2016
In the 1.5 days before the start of my two-week language bootcamp, Dad and I tried to squeeze in as much sightseeing as we could. I'll share some tales from the trail in a future post, but for now, here are some of my favorite pictures: Matthias church, named after Hungary's most popular monarch Matthias Corvinus. Between 2006 and 2013, Hungary spent $9.4B HUF (~33.5M USD) on renovations. Our tour guide said that if you rub the balls of this... continue reading
BUDAPEST DAD EXPLORING PHOTOS TRAVEL