:D Correction: bad things happen when one mixes vodka with cheap energy drinks and... weed. Ahem! Ouzo tastes way too similar to some disgusting nasal spray from my childhood for my liking; plus parents.:P Also, don't worry about missing on things. A year is more than enough to explore the city, just make sure you don't drown yourself in school work, because I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I would love to recommend you places and activities there, but the truth is, as many times as I had been there, it was either at the airport or Keleti/Nepliget. I'm basically utterly clueless, but you'll have your Hungarian colleagues for that. ;)

Although I risk sounding like an ingrate, I'd gladly trade this for winter in the southern hemisphere. The 35+ degrees do not work well for my low blood pressure and the lack of body fat does not agree with turquoise water below 25C. :P Ahhhhh... I love the smell of first world problems under a lemon tree in the evening. :P Anyway, a little over a month! :O I miss having to look forward to something like this. Make the best of it because it all flies so fast. :( And be proud of being part of such a deluxe global warming generator. Best I got was SAS for a couple of hours. :P

Hah! I wish! :( Still in the applications stage. :( It takes a while before something happens, butt I shall persevere. Till then, vacation time. Leaving for Corfu in a few hours. And when will you be landing on the old continent?

Crikey, mate! But no worries, your Aussie cover is safe with me. And congrats! That's more Magyar than I had managed to learn being surrounded by Hungarians for more than 20 years. However, my advantage is in the pronunciation area. I assume a Kiwi trying to speak Magyar is way more entertaining than the Brits speaking Polish. ;) Fun, albeit extremely laudable.

I would love to whine about my half-failed thesis experience (although 90% means complete and utter failure in my book), but I'm not sure if going into detail about it on a public shoutbox is necessarily a good idea. Have fun learning that ghastly language though. :P Actually, all those finno-ugric languages sound horrendous.And I was complaining about Swedish... Come to think of it, It almost sounds sublime when put next to Magyar. Ewwww! ;P

You think Keleti is bad? Try Nepliget. Waited there for almost two hours and I though I'd get mugged, raped or beaten (or all three) every 10 seconds. Ugh! I shall blame most of this on my paranoia, though. However, you have been warned! :| Everything thesis related has been a roller coaster of emotions, from 'oh, this is decent!' to 'absolute utter rubbish' to 'it's decent after all' to 'not bad, not bad at all'. With the latter in mind I went to defend it; that is why I was a tad too relaxed, I suppose. After having listened to the feedback and criticism, I became furious. The whole evaluation process was a joke. But that's a long story. :P And what have you been up to lately?

I know where a Costa Coffee is (or at least was) in the vicinity of Keleti train station, but I'm sure that is not exactly what you had in mind. However, given my tight schedule, I don't think I'll have time to wander outside the airport. Maybe next time. And I'm planning on finding a full time job as soon as possible - preferably in a place with an average temperature below 20C during summer.

I think I'll be flatting on my own. You know, for the sake of my already questionable mental health. :P Thesis is all done and ready. Unfortunately it is mediocre at best, my supervisor does not have time to read it since it was handed in so late, and I'll be the only one there without any pro feedback ( and I had the nerve to think of sending it to Brendan O'Leary...) So woohoo! Kids, do not try this at home! Also, I'll be in Budapest for a while next week. I'll make sure to check if it is Kiwi friendly.

I'm actually starting to miss the ol' dorm. Although we were four in the flat, it seemed like I had more privacy there, than I do at home at the moment. Sad, really! I swear this thesis will land me in a psych ward. Nothing I write is on par with my standards and what I know I can do orrrr what I think I can do. I just want to drop everything and move up in the mountains and start herding sheep. Perhaps you know where I can get a good deal for some cheap and functional of the Kiwi kind. (I mean sheep :P)

That riposte was beautiful. So because I am feeling particularly generous today, I'll let you have that round. But the war is not over. :| Are you going to apply for a place in a dorm or looking for a flat/room to rent on your own? I have to say that my first experience in a dorm, which happened to be in Poland, was quite unnerving. I eventually got used to it, but it was a tad too late. Anyway, I think it's about time I started panicking about my thesis. It's an absolute pile of rubbish, but that is because I want it to be close to perfect, and I'm light years away from that. I need to find a way to strive for mediocrity. But I don't know how. ;__;

... and now I'm supposed to say: 'oh! don't be ridiculous! Of course you're not an ill-temperate eloquent bore!'; and then you'll insist that you are, but I'll reiterate my initial statement and so on until one of us (you) gives in, and the other (me) will have won the argument. Fun game to play! You should try it! ;) I'm also happy to announce that my thesis has an introduction. It isn't as fancy-shmancy as I had previously envisioned it, but it's fairly decent. So huzzah! How are your preparations for Yurp coming along? or is it too soon for that?

You won't stand out badly, unless you are an overall obnoxious individual, which I can safely say you are not. You might have some problems with people not understanding you 1) because you are very eloquent; 2) your accent, but that depends on how thick it actually is. But in the end this will all be part of your - like I said before - exotic charm. Also, I would gladly elaborate on the identity issue (and life in an international environment, if you have any questions), but the last.fm shoutbox doesn't seem like an appropriate place for such discussions.

In that case, thanks?:P Again, you'll soon discover, if you didn't know this by now, that in an international environment, remembering people's names is an even bigger pain in the hiney than usual, so the easiest thing to do, at least in the beginning, is to try to attach a country to one's face. Sometimes you automatically ask where that individual is from, but usually people like to play guessing games, based on the other's appearance or manner of speaking English. And here is where things get interesting as far as I'm concerned: although it's just a single ethnicity, which is not nearly as glorious as your mix ;), I am basically from everywhere. W00T! Don't ask why...

That 'typical' of yours is almost oozing disgust. Sorry to be a constant source of disappointment. :( Anyhow, you'll find that uni FB mingling is a common practice around these parts, and I'm sure we're not the only ones doing it. I suppose it's a nice way to start early friendships, but then again, what would a FB-less individual like yours truly know about that? I just show up and confuse people with my ambiguous origins for some reason.

Hah! One day I might tell you how I almost ended up paying back my Erasmus grant (which I obviously could not afford) and quite possibly being kicked out of the Master's programme because of my already familiar habits. So joke's on you, Mr. CEU! :P I also have no idea what you are going to study here. Hopefully something more interesting than what I had to deal with in the past few years.

Thanks! But it is actually master's thesis season! Woohoo! A little over a month left too! Woohoo! Haven't even started reading! Woohoo! I'm screwed as per usual! W00t! I really want this to be my magnum opus since I'm the only expert in consociationalism in that faculty, but my chronic procrastination still gets the best of me. Alas... Anyway, while a 30-40 hour flight does sound uncomfortable, think about how you'll have two (or is it one?) years of doing absolutely nothing but student-y stuff (which is completely non-related to studying)... unless you are one of those weird kids who enjoys it. Ewww! ;)

Not sure about the Tokaji. You do realise that they are white and sweet most of the time, with a few exceptions. Obviously, that does not mean they might not be appealing to you. And speaking of this, here's one shot of pálinka to your good health. Happy birthday and may you have some good times ahead of you on le vieux continent. Cheers, mate! :D

Kudos! :D So proud of you, although I never doubted your achievement for a moment. Also, make sure to pack some extra bottles of Kiwi Gewürz. I don't know where and how, but this is your chance to practice smuggling fancy alcohol to Yurp. Huzzah! :D

Any news yet? After that interview/test the Hungarians will probably want to cover your travel expenses to Budapest. ;) My stress levels have been alarmingly high these past few days, taking turns with panic and heart attacks. W00t! I'm in very deep... waste that is egested by most living organisms after a more or less nice meal, at the end of the extremely intricate process of digestion.

I wonder if that is their standard procedure or just for non-EU students. I expect you to have nailed that test. What was it anyway? And when will you get some feedback or results? I still am clueless about how this works. Also, stress is in my blood, so I'd need some sort of stress removing dialysis. Ain't happenin'.:D

Ooh la la! Congrats! To be honest, I had no idea this stage of the admission process even existed. I'd say just be your normal self, because your wording is quite beautiful, at least in written form. If your oral display is half as good, there should be no problems. Also, I would image one should be informed about the institution - uni and department (I know this is not Global 500, but just in case), plus have a clear set of objectives regarding your academic pursuits and how CEU fits into the scheme. Obviously this is all common sense piece of advice because, like I said, I didn't know this even existed. Anyway, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you. And I'll be expecting some good news. I could sure use that for a change. :)

Thanks for the heads-up! I most certainly would not mind having your verbosity, but I guess I'll have to make the most of my laconic manner of dealing with oral exams. I only wish succinctness would be more appreciated in the academic environment. :(

Nah, it's the 40 cvestions + answers we had to learn (more or less by heart). Yeah! they still do that here. You get three and the privilege of talking for 15+ minutes. Like I said, I cannot do that, unless I could somehow digress and start babbling about consociationalism in Cyprus. But yes, some kiwi wine would be right up my alley, although I'm afraid I may end up abusing it given my current state of mind. Hope yours is better.

Sounds like a plan. Well, more so than whatever i have come up with or will come up with in both the near and distant future. Hopefully it will turn out for the best. Wroclaw is good, under a thin and rather muddy layer of snow. Also, I just failed my first ever PolSci exam. Woohoo! It was a very charming mixture of lack of attendance, lack of reading (this has worked before, so I'm quite shocked, I must say :D), plus my physical inability to talk for 15 minutes straight about stuff I really don't care about. I am very sad. ;___;

Attaboy! CEU won't know what hit them. Also, is this your only option, or you have a back-up just in case?

Sorry, just showing off a bit with our mulled beverage. It's funny how the vapours from a small cup are more effective than a couple of glasses of rum or Scotch. Shame my parents were here to witness that. Woohoo! Also, I'll have you know that the essay written at the last minute got the highest score at that course. I can only imagine what rubbish the others have come up with, if that was the case. However, I have to admit that I am guilty of recycling my old topics at times. But that is not always easy, especially adapting them to a completely different field of study. :D Any news from your lecturers? I'm starting to think they might be dead.

Oi! No kitsch where I come from! I do agree about the contrived part though. Also, mulled wine! ;) No resolutions for me because I have a bad habit of not sticking to things that are planned. My procrastination cannot be healed. I mean, I've had two months to work on an essay (the deadline being the end of December). I may start it tomorrow... afternoon. :D Since you're going to be in 2013 before of me, have a happy new year, Ben! :D

... and a 'bah humbug' to you too! :D Actually, I have to shamefully admit that I am very much a slave to Christmas consumerism. Not to mention the colours, the tastes, the smells (the music :P), whatever can be captured on camera or evoked via more or less noisy photos. Anyway, enjoy the rest of our first post-apocalyptic Christmas and may 2013 find you in Yurp! :)

Ben, have you got admitted yet? The end is nigh, you know. Even I managed to get to Krakow after a month of postponing and rescheduling. And that says a lot!

Odd how sluggish your academic staff is. At least I'm content with my Swedes' promptness. It never takes them more than a day to reply, and if they happen to be away, one gets an auto-reply letting them know the person is away and they are directed to someone else who can help in case of urgent matters. From what I've seen it works the same with the Poles. And yes, relax! If you're in need of procrastination I've got enough for everyone to last them a lifetime... and beyond. I'm screwed, aren't I? ;__;

Now now, let's not generalise. My philistinism only applies to jazz (and maybe some other things that shan't be mentioned). So... are you saying that German tourists visiting NZ can't speak basic English? I bet they were Spaniards trying to practice their newly learnt second language, but didn't get the continent right. Hopefully that lecturer of yours will hurry up, because the clock is ticking. (says person who applied waaaaaay after the deadline and got in; but then again there probably is an obvious difference in the quality of teaching as well). Also, thanks for making me spill precious oolong all over me shirt with that last remark of yours. Of course I'm not doing anything. Procrastination, procrastination, procrastination. I don't know who said that, someone who's not Lenin, but by golly, that's so me!

Sorry I reply after 5 billion years. One can observe the formation and evolution of a new Earth in the mean time. Well, I didn't get John to sign any photo because that is such a 1993 thing to do. Also, I wouldn't have other items signed by him just because he's not sexy enough. :P But anyway, the gig was surprisingly enjoyable ('surprisingly' due to my now known history with jazz); it did feel like his band mates from the 4th Dimension have upstaged him quite a bit. :O Any luck tracking down your lecturers yet? It's actually fascinating to witness this journey of yours with the selection and application process, everything done thoroughly and on time - the complete opposite of yours truly. Oh and nice job find! How's your Gewürztraminer stock? I might pick up a bottle (or two) next time I'm in Kiwiland.

Trick or sheep! Sorry to be a disappointment! :( It is also one of my biggest regrets, but I'm only human :P Anyway, I will go see John Mclaughlin this Saturday, so hopefully this is going to help me redeem myself. ;) Jazz philistinism aside, has the application period started yet? Found anything new in the mean time?

Oh noooo! Not just some isolated acts of human trafficking; I'm talking about mass deportation here. :P (or we could just have them reported at the admin's office) Anyway, music: they do have a rather healthy metal scene (I'm only familiar with Indukti though), then for some very strange reason, quite a lot of neo-prog bands, and of course your usual jazz artists, but I don't care about those, since jazz and yours truly aren't exactly good buddies. So that leaves the avant guys from Gargantua for me. Good stuff! Also, sweet looking shoutbox! :P

Now see, summer in the southern hemisphere might lead to a slightly more humane approach to the issue. I assume my initial solution involving the long cold Polish winter wouldn't have been taken too kindly in Strasbourg or Hague. But hey, I heard one can get away with deportation. So, ready for a dozen ships with hot blooded Spanish cargo on board? :P

Noooo! My Frenchies are surprisingly nice! The other filthy little creatures are getting worse as the days go by. I think it is safe to generalise in this case: out of several hundred Spanish people, 2-3 are decent folk. Oh well, maybe the brutal winter will help with the cleansing. :P

Oi! I'd like to see you when you try to practise your written Magyar. :P But yes, I can relate to the quick transition from enthusiasm to apathy, except I often end up in a pool of bitter disappointment. My course is not huge; actually, I'll be expecting less than 20 people in my group. The hoards of foreign students are from all the uni's faculties and departments. Nice one about the Spaniards. I may have to use this in a near future (with your permission, of course). I just got to a point where I am speaking five languages in a day and I'm not sure how much longer my neuron can take it before imploding. :D

Cześć! (like some people say it here) I've been internetless for almost a week. Hooray for changing dorms! Anyway... the application periods for autumn 2013 usually begin in November-December, so no need for bashing our cultured and very strictly organised Yurp. :P I do like your enthusiasm though. I am tad overwhelmed by the huge number of students. 45 for the language course was okay, but 5 times more (and not Polish) is not easy to handle. (not to mention those darned Spanish people who speak no other language than their own) Roarrr!

Hah! Not quite, since vodka has pretty much become a second-rate thing to order here. We usually get a couple of shots prior to going to the pub. Pubs are mostly all about beer and I think I may be the only one around here who basically hates it. Oh well, I suppose I'm more of a rum/whisky type of person. But my Polish is fairly decent, dziękuję. ;) So how is the country/uni selection process going?

Just make the best use of this year as possible. Wherever you end up here, you'll be quite an exotic presence.:P Heck, even I feel somewhat exotic with my above average Engrish skills. That is disappointing though. I was expecting more from my colleagues. Oh well... :\

I don't 'have' to, I chose to. The courses at uni are in Engrish, but it seems like taking the language thing was a pretty inspired decision since almost no Poles here speak English. They're still nice though. ^_^ If you choose to go to Denmark or the Netherlands you'll have no such problems whatsoever. Even Budapest isn't that bad from this point of view. So, are you thinking of applying for the spring semester, or you'll wait a year to start in autumn?

Well hullo to you too! Haven't seen you in a while! I actually got to Poland two days ago and I already enjoy it suspiciously much. Today we start the intensive language courses; school only in a month. So what's up with you? Did you eventually apply to CEU or somewhere else?

Best of luck to you with that. You know, a year ago no student would have paid any sort of tuition fees here; not sure if that applied to all of Sweden, or just to this uni. Nowadays this only works for EU citizens. :( But hey! things may change and this could be your excuse if you cannot find a proper job. ;)

What kind of Masters do you have in mind and for when? The application period for universities in Yurp, for example, will soon end.

I suppose you're still alive somewhere, so have a great new year, Ben! :D

Hej! Great to hear from you! Good luck with those results, although in your case I don't see any potential problems. But then again that's what I thought (in my case) until I got the results for my first exam. Woohoo! That's what the change of system does to you, I suppose. But I am ready to fight it, just because I think this approach is extremely idiotic. Other than that (and the food which tastes like plastic), Sweden's great! If only there were more Swedes around. :D I'll just stop here because I kinda feel like the odd one out on your terribly bromantic shoutbox. ;)

Nah not yet. I barely have listened to them at all honestly, just one spin of "Two Hunters" which did sounds pretty delish. With cooler weather coming they will get some more listens