issue 20

September 12, 2012, Year 3, Issue 20

the CEU Weekly

An independent newspaper by CEU students and alumni

CEU WEEKLY INTERVIEW Would you cross all Iran and Central Asia by bike? We interviewed Orsi Réka Ács, the Hungarian girl who did it: this is her story.

“From Baku we crossed the Caspian Sea by cargo ferry and continued in Central Asia. We saw Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and then we returned to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Central Asia is something exceptional; there you really feel that you are on the border of Europe and Asia. The faces, the traditions, the clothes, and in general, their approach towards travellers make you feel like home, but also so different in several aspects that you know that you are experiencing something genuine.” Pages 2 and 3

HUNGARY

NEWS

As this

new situa-tion has emerged be tween

Hungary, Azerbai-jan and

Armenia, and con-

sidering that we have several students from the

aforementioned nationalities, we asked both an Armenian alumna and an Azeri alumnus to write

a piece to continue with this debate.

A Prologue to the Hun-

gary News Section

Page 6

Hunger Strike Against

Election System Reform Page 7 Local, fresh food options

galore in Budapest Page 8

CEU

Community Student Tip # 42

42. If you conclude you received an unfair

grade, keep in mind that professors are also

humans who commit mistakes, so go on

and appeal! :)

Hungarian Expression of the week

Phrase: Mi a neved csini?

Pronunciation: Mia-neved tʃini?

Translation: What's your name cutie?

CEU Alumni Debate The Tensions Between

Armenia and Azerbaijan In our request,

we specifi-cally asked the alumni to

focus their piece on three main issues. Firstly, the ori-

gins of the conflict be-tween Arme-

nia and Azer-baijan. Sec-ondly, the cur-

rent status quo in the region, and fi-nally the way forward:

how could these two countries solve their

differences?

In this issue, we publish both answers we got in

an unedited form...

Pages 5 and 6

YOUR CORNER Page 3 I CAN GET NO SATIS-FACTION (?)

Page 8

STUDENT TIP

Look right!

1. Rodrigo Ávila (The CEU Weekly): Dear Orsi, thank you so much for accepting this inter-view with The CEU Weekly, we find your story thrilling and ex-citing. Throughout last year you and your boyfriend spent a good amount of time crossing Asia –including Iran, by bicycle. Could you please tell us the general coordinates of this amazing journey: where and when did you start, where did you go, how long did it take, where was the final destination? Orsi Réka Ács (ORA): Thank you for inviting me and for your interest in our story. Initially my boyfriend, Bruno, left alone to fulfil his dream, to cycle round the world. He left France in June, 2010 and after crossing Western Europe he arrived to Budapest in September. That’s where we met. After some unex-pected events, falling in love, meeting a travelling circus, run-ning into the Hungarian winter with all its snow he stayed until January, 2011. Meanwhile he convinced me to join him on his journey; however I’d never been the “cyclist girl”. The longest distance I’d ever encountered was Blaha – Gödör, return. But there are stronger feelings than fear, so my curiosity and interest in the East won. Ok, I was still scared of cycling like hell. We started to cycle together at

the end of January in Turkey. Bruno cycle to Istanbul and I flew there with my bike. We spent 2 months in Turkey, mostly on the North coast, along the Black Sea. Everybody knows about the Turkish hospitality, but if you want to feel it for real, just cycle along tiny villages in the snow in the middle of Febru-ary. You will see what’s going to happen to you. The magic world is “chai”. Afterwards having

spent 3 months in Iran, we crossed the Caucasus; Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan in about 3 months. These countries are amazingly green (except for certain parts of Azerbaijan though), people are very friendly and open-minded, you can make good use of your Rus-sian knowledge, and they do like alcohol there.

From Baku we crossed the Cas-pian Sea by cargo ferry and continued in Central Asia. We saw Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and then we returned to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Central Asia is something exceptional; there you really feel that you are on the border of Europe and Asia. The faces, the traditions, the clothes, and in general, their approach towards travellers make you feel like home, but also so different in several as-pects that you know that you are experiencing something genuine. From Kazakhstan we couldn’t cross China and the legendary Karakorum highway due to some unfortunate diplomatic issues between China and France, so we had to take a plane to New Delhi. Arriving into the heart of India after the calmness and countryside ambi-ance of Central Asia was on one

hand a great shock but also a vibrating, excit-ing feeling. Eve-rything was so fast, so loud, so much. We spent alto-gether 3 months in India visiting mostly the North-West corner of the country: Uttar

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. 3 months are barely enough to see even a tiny bit of such a vast country with so many different ethnicities and regions, so we are still at the beginning of this discovery, but what I feel now is that whatever you are looking for you will find in some corners of India. From India we were heading back to Europe (by plane L), so the spring of 2012 found us in Spain already. From February

to May we crossed Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia and finally arrived in Hungary together with the daf-fodils. (Actually, Bruno cycled back to France this summer, hav-ing cycled over 20.000 km alto-gether, so that’s why I’m the only one answering your ques-tions.) 2. TCW: Really impressive Orsi! Sounds like a real chal-lenge. Now, we have another question. On August 14 you gave a little public talk in Bu-dapest about your experience in Iran. Nonetheless, your trip was through almost all Asia, so we would like to ask you why the emphasis in Iran? ORA: There were several rea-sons. Most of all we simply loved Iran. All the love, hospital-ity, friendliness, help, good in-tention and generally great ex-periences we had there made it clear that if I chose one country to share with other people that must be Iran. Also this was the country were we spent the longest time and where we managed to learn the language to a certain level so we were able to communicate with those locals who didn’t speak English. This was very important for us as we felt that you get a different picture if you can talk only to educated –English speaker– people from the one you get while talking to farmers in a one-hundred-inhabitant village in the middle of nowhere. Moreover, the picture the media present of Iran is far from being objective, and as usual, is based on the analysis of the leadership and its foreign affairs. And as we can see examples in Europe too, the intentions of the govern-ment or its leaders don’t resem-ble the intentions of people at all. It is sad to see that when-ever you meet an Iranian, right after asking about you, they enquire about the general opin-ion about Iran and its people. “Do they think we are terror-ists?” And it’s just difficult. You know these nice people, who invite you to their home, feed you, help you, and they feel judged and they feel the preju-dices the world has. And simply because I thought people might

be interested in Iran, and fortu-nately they were. 3. TCW: Precisely, for us Iran is also of great interest and relevance, and we try to give it as much coverage as possible, so thank you for sharing this appreciation of yours. Now, going more into the insider perspective you must have developed during this trip, please, describe us in your own words how Iran is: if you had to synthesize it in a few sentences, what would you say about this country? The question is important for us because many people talks about Iran but only few have actually been living there, with the Iranian people. ORA: Iran is a vast country with territory almost as big as India’s but with “only” 80 million in-habitants. That means a lot of desert that is inhabited and that only very big cities get crowded, however they do get crowded. People are very friendly; they are not distant and always keen to help you. Iran’s got a long history of in-ventions, poets and battles of great importance. Before going there I had had the fear that, I suppose, many girls planning to travel to a Muslim country have. Was I go-ing to spend 3 months in igno-rance when nobody talks to you, and your place is in a corner, wearing your hijab, looking as innocent and invisible as possi-ble? And the answer is a big NO. What some might misinter-pret as ignorance is actually respect. It’s respect for you, so they wouldn’t embarrass you by touching you; respect for your partner, so they wouldn’t talk to you directly. On the other hand they are eager to know your opinion, you are always asked if everything is alright, if you need anything, if they can serve you anyhow and generally how special and brave you are that you cycle, sleep in a tent and travelling the world. (And if you have hair colour different from black be prepared to become a doll of the local girls, they just love it J) And it obviously ap-plies to boys as well.

Would you cross all Iran and Central Asia by bike?

the CEU Weekly INTERVIEW


the CEU Weekly


INTERVIEW

Your “corner”

Have any comments, ideas, corrections? Would you like to advertise a project? Write us at

[email protected] and get yourself published!

Many Iranian have strong political identity and they don’t hide it too much when they are with you in their home. Though it is not something you can freely advertise out of your house for your own safety. Iran is an amazing country with amazing people. But

as a matter of fact we have friends who have lost people in the riots in 2009 that they still know nothing about. I can’t tell much about its touristic facilities as we slept in our tent, did our shopping at local mar-kets, drank tap-water most of the time, but I suppose they’ve got nice hostels and res-taurants as well. The good thing in Iran is that even without going to restaurants you certainly will try many local specialities simply because peo-ple invite you regularly so wherever you go you will taste their abghust, gharme-sabzi, douGh, cream and marmalades, all the sweets and nuts, not mentioning the several types of bread they have. But you shouldn’t think of the loaf shape we have. Most of their breads are flat and baked in differ-ent ways and they are just simply amazing. And their tea of course, but that’d be an-other long story. 4. TCW: Wow, very interesting to listen to the opinion of someone who has actually been there, spending some time close to the local reality and away from the cli-chés and narratives constructed from the outside. And, cold you tell us what you liked the most from your experience in Iran? What was the best part of the trip? ORA: The most amazing experience was the language itself I think. Farsi or Persian, the Iranian language, is written in Arabic script but is a very different language from Arabic. As I had studied some Arabic a few years ago I knew how to read the script but it didn’t mean anything to us. But in three

months in the continuous full contact with very helpful and talkative locals we man-aged to master our Farsi to Elementary level where we were able to talk about ourselves, our family, explain what we wanted, ask for directions, about other’s family, health etc. and to do the shopping and all bargaining included, of course. As a special event, I can say one of the most amazing things was our stay in Shiraz. A local Afghan refugee family “adopted” us for some 10 days absolutely by chance. We became a part of their family, their daily life; we accom-

panied them to a traditional Afghan-Iranian wedding and we got to know a bit more about the refugees’ life in Iran which is surely not the easiest life one can have. But I must say even having chosen this piece of memory I feel I’m being partial because we had so many beautiful moments, many dedicated friends we are still in contact. I can’t list all the people helped us or gave us an ice-cream as a gift, invited for a tea, for a meal, for a night, or for a week; or just asked how we were. To be honest, in Iran most of your moments are special.

5. TCW: Lovely. And what could you advise to the people out there flirting with the idea of doing a similar trip. Was there any dangerous situation? And if yes, how did you manage it? Any suggestion for other wild souls planning a journey like yours? ORA: I think the first and maybe most im-portant thing is that you need to be flexi-ble, ZEN if you like; not only in terms of planning, but also in your needs. You will wash in creeks, you will be cold sometimes, you will be hot sometimes, sometimes you can’t clean yourself for days, and some-times you eat only rice and lentil for a

while. BUT you can go wherever you want, there is nobody to tell you when to start, when to stop; you will meet wonderful peo-ple, you will see beautiful places, you will experience freedom, understanding and discovering on the core. You don’t need to be a cyclist (best exam-ple is me), don’t have to have the best bike on earth (we found mine in our garage where a tenant had left it because it was too old for him), you don’t need the best sleeping bag (I survived my first winter with two summer sleeping bags folded into each other), you don’t need fancy cycling gears (they will break in a few thousand kilome-tres anyway and then you will change them to cheap local products) and you don’t even have to know where you want to go (get a compass and decide upon a direc-tion, that’d do the job). But you do need to be open-minded; open to others, open to new people, open to people who want to help you, open to new cultures, open to different ways of life, open to different food, different clothes. And about dangerous situations? We are still here so if we had any they mustn’t have been dangerous enough to be mentioned. And they definitely were not dangerous enough to prevent me from going on an-other trip in the future. 6. TCW: Thank you so much Orsi, it has been a real pleasure to get to know more about you and your story: do you think that in the future we will be able to read your adventure in the form of a book? ORA: Thanks for the opportunity. Probably not from my side, but Bruno is planning to get all the impressions together and form something longer lasting out of them. So hopefully yes!

7. TCW: Ok, thanks you so much Orsi, if somebody from CEU would like to get in touch with you, how could they reach you? Any final you would like to share with them? ORA: If you feel like, you can contact me on [email protected] . And the only thing I can advise you is to GO! Don’t be afraid, it’s going to be great. No matter where, but go and experience something else! You will become a different person.

mailto:[email protected]

the the CEU Weekly DEBATE

It must be puzzling to observe the recent Armenian reac-tion in response to the extradition and pardoning of Ramil Safarov. Safarov, an Azerbaijani national, was sentenced

to life imprisonment for his 2004 murder of Gurgen Mar-garyan, an Armenian citizen, after the victim insulted Sa-farov, his ethnicity, his country, and his flag. Safarov, on mutual occasions, has acknowledged his wrongdoing and

accepted the punishment. Earlier this month, following an 8-year spell in jail, Sa-farov has been extradited by the Hungarian authorities and later pardoned by the President of Azerbaijan. The

acts of extradition and pardoning have later been proven to be fully legal, according to Article 12 of the 1983’ Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Per-sons. Armenia’s complete failure to accept the legality of

this event is really quite bizarre. In addition, the interna-tional hysteria that Erevan has artificially created is deeply disturbing: Armenia has suspended diplomatic re-lations with Hungary, spent considerable money on pro-ducing Hungarian flags only to distribute them domesti-

cally and allow its people to burn them, and encouraged other nations in an absurd fashion to follow suit and tighten relations with such a historically important Eurozone country as Hungary.

Armenia seems to have a remarkably short-term memory span, as there are numerous occasions on which murderers and terrorists of Armenian descent have been pardoned despite committing truly astonishing acts of terror. We all

remember the controversial pardoning of internationally recognized Armenian terrorists such as S. Teyleryan (Ethnic assault and murder. Berlin, Germany, 1921), M. Torlakyan (Ethnic terrorism. United Kingdom, 1921), G. Yanikyan

(Ethnic terrorism. Los Angeles, USA, 1984), M. Melkonyan (Terrorist act at the Turkish embassy in Paris. France, 1989), V. Garabedian (Bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter. France, 2001), S. Ohanyan (Khojaly Massacre coordinator. Khojaly, Azerbaijan, 1992). Moreover, not

only were all these terrorists pardoned, but historically Armenia has been greeting its terrorists as heroes, grant-ing them military ranks, and enriching with money and gifts. In particular, mass-terrorist Garabedian was

greeted by the Armenian president Serj Sargsyan as a “national hero” and was given a rank of Colonel. And the mastermind of the 1992 Khojaly Genocide, where 613 Azerbaijani civilians were massacred, - Seyran Ohanyan - is currently the Armenian Minister of Defense.

Armenia has always been known for its continuous illegal occupation of 20% of Azerbaijani territories, known for one of the worst acts against humanity in face of the Kho-

jaly Genocide, and for its reoccurring bursts of ethnic ter-rorist activities. But now, the long-term path that Armenia has chosen for its future policy has lowered it in the eyes of the international community to a whole new level. On

September 3, 2012, the ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia) terrorist organization has offi-cially promised that it will locate, target, and exterminate Azerbaijani diplomats in Hungary and elsewhere. In a horrifying email that they sent to the Azerbaijani consulate

in Budapest, they promised to “drown Azerbaijanis in blood” and to increase Azerbaijani corpses “just like the ones they left rotting in Khojaly”. To expect these horrify-ing words, which were said with such honor and pride, in

the age of supposedly civilized societies, leaves little hope that terrorism will ever be beaten.

The mere fact of existence of ASALA - an officially estab-

lished terrorist group whose sole purpose for existence is

organized murder and terror - is not as disturbing as the

fact that Armenia is, in fact, supporting it on financial, ad-

ministrative, and socio-political levels. The idea that Arme-

nia is governing a terrorist organization is a non-

repairable blow to

the status of Armenia

as a democratic,

peaceful, or civilized

society. Armenia has

always been viewed

as an antagonist, re-

gional de-stabilizer,

and expansionist ag-

gressor. But it has

never been officially

perceived as a terror-

ist-sponsoring state.

While Armenia is com-

fortably on its downward-sloped road to terrorism, our

hearts belong to Azerbaijani diplomats and their families.

Rustam Jamilov From Baku, Azerbaijan. CEU Business School Alumnus

A Dangerous Road


the the CEU Weekly DEBATE

The first thing I tweeted after hearing about the extradi-tion of convicted axe murderer Ramil Safarov from Hun-gary to Azerbaijan was, “When oil and money justify mur-

der”. What happened after the extradition? There has been so much blame, failure, discussion, demonstration, burnt flags and many opinions that it can be difficult to follow.

The only clear thing in this whole saga was the actions of the Azerbaijani government. The so-called “hero”, world famous ax-murderer, convicted and sentenced to life im-prisonment was freed: pardoned, promoted to the rank of

a Major, given an allowance and an apartment as com-pensation for 8 years imprisonment. Not bad pay for mur-dering somebody so viciously that the coroner said at the time, “the victim was nearly decapitated”. Adding further

insult, all this pardoning happened just a few days before the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh celebrated its Inde-pendence Day on September the 2nd. Currently the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has entered a

deeper deadlock because of these actions. This conflict labeled as “frozen” is actually much warmer than that with a flimsy cease-fire agreement holding together the status quo. Soldiers are still being killed along the border and

the situation is fragile. The constant worry is that even a minor turbulence may elevate this conflict to a full-scale war. Last week’s pardon by authoritarian president Ilham Aliev created much more than a “minor turbulence”.

Let’s quickly recount what happened in 2004 during a NATO “Partnership for Peace” program, in Budapest, Hungary. Around 5 in the morning, Azerbaijani Ramil Sa-farov broke into Armenian Gurgen Margaryan’s room

while he was sleeping and struck him 16 times with an axe Safarov had purchased the day before. While you may find this disgusting, Safarov’s actions actually made him a hero in Azerbaijan and within its society. This viewpoint likely stemmed from the full-scale war in the early 1990s

between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict was halted with a cease-fire in 1994 but it remains a very difficult subject with no peace in sight.

During the last week, it’s become apparent much of the world perceives the Azerbaijani pardon as a violation of justice. Azerbaijan continues to praise the mur-derer. Hungary is mostly silent: as oil and money seem to

have bought Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. When the negotiations of the European Neighborhood Policy started it was the EU that was interested to start the

negotiations with Azerbaijan, not the other way around. The EU was seeking to access Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the EU is also relatively silent on the issue. Current developments,

threats and the “hero murderer” situation is becoming more and more dangerous for the escalation of war. The situation can turn into a bigger problem if the issue is not properly addressed by the EU, NATO, UN, Hungary, Azerbaijan and the international community. At the end of

the day both sides are prepared for war, but we can only hope nobody wants to get locked into a crippling affair which will weaken their states and harm economic devel-opment for years to come.

Do we want an oil-rich nation to be able to spit on justice? The situation can be appropriately diffused with the return of Ramil Safarov to prison to face his sentence in a neutral country. Otherwise, what is the message to the world?

Hence the Azerbaijani “hero murderer” concept has re-vealed, once again, to the world the power of oil and money. This should concern everyone, including those peo-ple living in Azerbaijan, or else we will face a new oil-

doused setup throughout the world.

Sona G. Margaryamn

From Yerevan, Armenia,

Political Science Department Alumna

The Sharpest Triangle

January 18, 2012, Year 3, Issue 20

Hungary is a country that is a little hard to come to grips with,

and not only because the Hungarian language is nothing like

any other language in the world. The political situation is at

least as complex nowadays as the Hungarian soul itself, which

raises the bar rather high. In this section we choose a few

pieces of news to cover about

topics ranging from politics to

culture, with a focus on issues

that might be interesting for a

CEU student with an open

mind, living in Budapest. Don’t

think of this as a regular

source of exhaustive English

language Hungarian news.

For hints on that, I suggest the

article on in Issue 12 of the CEU Weekly at issuu.com/

ceuweekly, where we keep the previous issues in an easily

downloadable and readable version. This intends to be more

like a little taste of what is happening currently, trying to avoid

the exaggerations and misconceptions of the international

press, and tailoring the stories to the people of CEU.

This is a special issue in many regards, and I will be a little per-

sonal here, for which I apologize in advance. Last year, as a

student of CEU I was taking care of this section with a whole lot

of enthusiasm, spending my hours doing research about a topic

that I found especially important, phrasing and rephrasing,

practicing the thing that I – a non-professional – consider jour-

nalism. It was, and still is a fun and rewarding thing to do. At

the time of writing though, I am in the very first phase in settling

down in Indonesia where I continue my studies. I arrived yester-

day, and I could only get hold of my laptop today, not long

before this issue goes to print – I never thought I will be so

grateful for the five time zones between Budapest and Ma-

lang. Primarily, this is the rea-

son why in the current issue the

section only contains one piece

of original news, and was put

together in kind of a hurry.

Also, this context probably

explains the reason why I

would like to take this oppor-

tunity to invite you to join me in

being responsible for this sec-

tion, and maybe later on during the year, to take it over com-

pletely. If you think you would like to share the responsibility of

providing small chunks of Hungary to the CEU community,

please let us know at [email protected]! In the section below,

you can see a few titles from the previous issues, if you are in-

terested, you can look them up on issuu.com/ceuweekly. I hope

you will have a good time reading the current, the previous,

and the upcoming issues of the CEU Weekly!

Best,

Tamas Gyorgy

Hungary

PoliSci MA 2010-2012

Page 6

the the CEU Weekly HUNGARY NEWS

A Prologue to the Hungary News section

Problems with the Hungarian refugee system (issue 18, page 5)

-The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reveals the problematic aspects of the Hungarian refugee system

The Schmitt hits the Fan (issue 17, page 1)

-Hungarian President Pál Schmitt resigned as a result of a plagiarism scandal. The article discusses the context and a possible evaluation of the is-

sue.

Churches and Judges – the Venice Commission evaluates (issue 16, page 5)

-An article that takes a look at the report from the Council of Europe’s advisory body about the debated freedom of religion, and the legal status

of the judges in Hungary.

Transparency International: Hungarian state captured by private interest groups (Issue 15, page 4)

-This article presents the findings of the National Integrity Study in Hungary, which concludes that the system of checks and balances in Hungary had

weakened significantly during the past few years.

The science of the Family (Issue 14, page 4)

-In this article, we take a critical look at an initiative of the Hungarian Society for the Science of the Family, which re-defines the role of the family

through a controversial funding document and action plan. VISIT http://issuu.com/ceuweekly !


mailto:[email protected]

the the CEU Weekly HUNGARY NEWS

Ex-Prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany de-

clared to go on a hunger strike as an act of

protest against the government’s plans to

reform the election system. In a press re-

lease Gyurcsany explains that strong state-

ments such as this one are need from the

opposition parties, as the messages articu-

lated in traditional ways can not find their

way through the pro-government bias of

the mainstream media and the indifference

and apathy of the Hungarian people.

Gyurcsany and the other opponents of the

draft law argue that the real purpose of

the new system is to suppress voter turnout

in the upcoming parliamentary election in

2014 in favor of the current ruling party:

according to the draft, voters would have

to officially register with the authorities

long before the actual elections in order to

be able to cast a valid vote – an act which

is being argued to be unconstitutional. At

the same time FIDESZ (Hungarian Civic Un-

ion) argues that the new reforms will

streamline registration of Hungarians living

abroad and members of national minorities

within Hungary and there is nothing uncon-

stitutional about the draft.

Three other politicians from the opposition

party Democratic Coalition (DK) joined Gy-

urcsany in the strike, which takes place in

front of the Parliament. The self-proclaimed

reason of the DK politicians for not trying

to express their views in the parliament is

that the national conservative governing

party is not considering the points of the

opposition. They rely solely on their two

thirds majority, which makes consulting with

the opposition parties unnecessary. The

broader reasons that lead to the hunger

strike include “destroying the education and

healthcare system, humiliation of workers,

hollowing out cultural life and arts, the suici-

dal struggle against investors, shrinking

wages, and growing inflation”.

Taking the Metro from the dormitory to

Kossuth tér will not only let you take a

glance at the protesters, but it also rewards

you with the view of the parliament and a

more pleasant walk to the CEU campus. The

strike will end with a rally at the same

venue on the 15th of September.

Hunger Strike Against Election System Reform


CARTOON by

ERIKSSON

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he Weethe CEU Weekly

I can get no satisfaction (?) By: Erik Kotlarik (Slovakia, SJD)

It could be quite difficult to learn how to use all the functions which your smartphone offers. However, as was aptly pointed out in

one article, the most difficult thing to mas-ter is to learn WHEN to turn it off. The same is true for you as a student at the CEU. There is even a remote analogy between these seemingly unrelated issues. You are a smart person since you made your way here and soon you would be pressed (like keys on a cell phone) to fulfill all duties which would be assigned to you. You would be flooded with readings, bur-dened like an Atlas with writing of essays and you would witness many daybreaks when pushed by the deadlines to stay overnight. Besides that you need to find time for more mundane activities like eat-ing or taking a shower. At the beginning, it would not be easy to learn to coordi-nate all this processes. Yet the most deli-cate thing which you have to learn is when

to turn off. To get know how to disconnect yourself from a never-ending stream of work and yet to be able to fulfill all the assigned tasks. The trick is to compress moments of bliss dedicated solely to YOU. Sometimes it only suffices to visit one of the wonderful patisseries (cukraszda in Hungarian) and to fully enjoy your cake and cappuccino. One of the common mis-takes is to treat this delicatessen as fuel, as a mean necessary to reach end. In-stead of that, you should treat them as an end itself! Try to fully focus on the texture of the cake slowly dissolving in your mouth so you can heart-feel its taste. Trust me, in a certain moment the time will standstill and all your worries and stresses will evaporate. Or simply stroll through the Margaret Island (without listening to your MP3). As you will be roaming around, let your spirit do the same, set it free! Mens sana in corpore sano - sound mind in a healthy body. This quote originates from ancient Romans. Yes, Roman Empire crumbled centuries ago, but the evidence of their genius remains. So do as they did

and get in a shape! Do something for your flesh, since this the place where your spirit dwells. Make arrangement with your schoolmates and go to play volleyball in hall which is at Nádor ut. Remember, studying is a lonely activity; therefore it makes sense to compensate it with team-spirit (if you do not intend to become full-time monk in the future, of course). Guess which activity combines craftsman-ship, pleasure & leisure with work. Right answer is: Cooking! You will find out soon that cooking is like any other art. It liber-ates, allowing you to express yourself in a creative way (once you master some basics). But unlike other arts, your ultimate creation could be consumed right away, bringing happiness not only to you, but to your friends as well. By fully concentrating your senses, mind and body on seemingly petty things you would get not only satisfaction, but you would also discover great wonders in them. So first important lesson to remem-ber: Few minutes of rest and the world

(again) is yours.

CEU COMMUNITY

So you’re new to Budapest? In a week or so in the city, you’ve probably found the perfect apartment, linked up with a room-mate who seems like he/she won’t drive you crazy, and already completed a few laps in the VIIth District ruin pub scene. Each new “Budai” or “Pesti” or even “Kerepesi-Dormi,” as we can all eventually be la-beled, has their own way of getting to know this wonderful city. A common inter-est that most of us share is the desire to eat tasty, high quality, healthy food products. Many of us with eco-conscious minds may be looking to reduce our food miles by eating local and seasonal products. It’s a time honored tradition within each depart-ment at CEU to have group cooking nights, especially at the beginning of the semester during that all-important “getting to know you” period. Whether you’re motivated by

salivating taste buds, the need to re-duce your car-bon footprint, or just looking to impress classmates with the per-fect dish, a

trip to one of Budapest’s local farmers’ markets can do much to satisfy all food related desires. Be on the look out! Many of Budapest’s market halls, while seeming appealing from the outside, actually operate more like large retailers such as TESCO or SPAR from the inside. Aisles of conventionally produced and imported products deliver none of the differentiated qualities found at authentic local growers’ markets. For a true market experience, with actual Hun-garian producers, head to the following locations to fulfill all of your food needs: What: Budapest Organic Market, Largest certified organic market in Hungary When: Every Saturday, from 6:30 am to 13:30 pm Where: Main entrance on Csorsz utca, be-hind Gesztenyes park directly aside MOM-Park Shopping Center How to get there: Tram 4/6 or Metro Red Line to Szell Kallman Ter, then switch to Tram #61 and exit once it reaches MOM-Park. Walk up Csorsz utca to main en-trance. What: Hyunadi ter Market, One of the only weekday grower’s markets in Buda-

pest When: Weekdays and Saturdays from 7am-Early Afternoon Where: VIth District, in the Park on the cor-ner of Csengery and Szofia utca How to get there: Yellow Metro Line, Vo-rosmary utca exit, from CEU 12 minute walk down Andrassy ut, towards City Park What: Szimpla Local Producers’ Market, the most unique and funky market in Buda-pest When: Every Sunday from 9am to 2pm Where: Szimpla Kert, Kazinczy Utca 14, VIIth District How to get there: Red Metro Line, Short walk from Astoria or Deak Ferenc ter. It’s Szimpla, I’m sure you’ve been there be-fore!!! What: Kossuth Ter Local Producer’s Mar-ket, weekly market in front of the Parlia-ment When: Every Friday from 8am until the late afternoon Where: Kossuth ter, directly across from parliament under the archway of the UN building How to get there: red metro line, exit at Kossuth ter station. Or 8 minute walk from CEU.

Local, Fresh Food Options Galore in Budapest By: Logan Strenchock (USA, Environmental Sciences


issue 20

Documents

ceu alumni

ceu students

central asia

alumni ceu weekly interview

budapest page

corner page

ceu community student

time crossing asia