Stereotype II

For you I collected some more stereotypical Hungarian things: good drivers; salami addicts; hot cuisine full of pepper and paprika; “a small nation struggling and surviving against the odds”; oppressors turned troublemakers; indigenous; often desperate and hopeless; calm and objective way of thinking; courage; audacity and insistence on ideas.

Also: we don't share our private life in great details, we switch to informal style very slowly, that's why we use each other's family name a lot at first unless we talk with people in similar age. Hungarian learn less languages compared to EU average.

The "flu season" is starting in Hungary. It is an usual epidemic here. The substitution board is full at school, many students are sick and so on. Luckily I don't really get any illnesses. Today we discussed the term averages and marks. I was No 1 among boys and No 4 or 5 (Biology deteriorates my average a lot) in the whole class according to averages. The class average was 3.95 out of 5. We were 18th out of 21 classes in the entire school. It is not so bad because we used to be the last ones. Today I managed to say something absolutely not wrong on Hungarian Literature ... marvel happens.

Today I got the topics for the Oral part of the final exam at Geography. I have 43 topics to study. These are not so difficult I think except a few. There are some I would like to skip but 80% of them is not so horrible. It is good I posted it here because it is not a great problem if I lost my papers.

1. Northern part of the Great Plain (Hungary)
   
2. The Small Plainland and the Subalpine Region (Hungary)
   
3. The Transdanubian Middle Mountains (Hungary)
   
4. Southern Transdanubia (Hungary)
   
5. The Northern Middle Mountains (Hungary)
   
6. The Physical geography of Europe
7. The physical Geography of Northern America
8. River discharge and food hydrograps
9. The inner structure of the Earth
10. Plate Tectonics/ Constructive and Destructive margins
11. Volcanic activity/ Volcanoes
12. River Landforms in lowlands
13. Sea currents
14. Drought and water supply in developing countries
15. Warming up of the air/ Weather and Climate
16. Formation of falling precipitation
17. Cyclones and anti-cyclones
18. Global air circulation
19. The equatorial belt
20. Global Warming
21. Mediterranian and Monsoon Climate
22. European Union
23. Evolution of EU
24. Old and new industries in the UK
25. Mediterranian farming
26. Japan - levels of development
27. The effects of intensive agriculture
28. Advantages/disadvantages of transport forms
29. Non-renewable energy sources
30. Renewable energy sources
31. Population Growth
32. Population Structures
33. Transnational Companies
34. Sustainable development
35. World trade
36. Inequalities in World development
37. Tourism- recent trends
38. Hungary - population development
39. Hungary- the structure of economy
40. Hungary- employment (structure)
41. Hungary- energetics
42. Hungary- machine industry
43. Hungary- fundamentals of the agriculture
    

Some things can't be learnt from books

Well, it seems my ideas, views and thoughts about my Obama inauguration weren't really welcomed overseas, that's why I deleted these posts. However I made my conclusion about your reactions and I will remember to the lesson what life taught me. I am not going to tell them because seemingly it was difficult for Americans to digest my (deleted) posts about the inauguration so I am sure it is better to keep my conclusions for myself.

Blogger

Steve asked me to make a video about Hungarian Blogspot and pronunciation of Hungarian words. So here it is. I hope he is going to appreciate it because I had many difficulties with that. I hope you can enlarge it. Originally I wanted to upload it to Youtube but it wasn't allowing it. I hope it is more or less alright. In reality my voice doesn't suck that much. Tea is keen on showing me to her family so I make my excuse in advanced: General Ropi may be a General, General Ropi may be able to dance but General Ropi is not really able to talk. Yes, I speak slowly, I say a lot "uhmm"s, I have stupid accent and there are gaps between my words (when I speak Hungarian too) but that's what I am. I don't really want to make video in the near future.

Well, yesterday I fullfilled my promise. You may remember that I had a bet if I get a 5 to my Maths test then I will go out with my friends, Zsófi and Ádám. We went to a pub and we had a good time. Actually, vodka is a really cool drink.

Well ...

Yesterday afternoon Russia stopped sending gas to Europe through Ukraine. It influences Hungary pretty much.

Russia Shuts Off Gas Supplies to Europe

The Associated Press

01/07/09 - 06:31 AM EST

Updated from 2:14 a.m. EST

By Maria Danilova

KIEV, Ukraine -- Russia has shut off all its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine -- the latest move in a pricing dispute that has reduced or halted fuel deliveries to a dozen countries during a winter cold snap.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom, which had sharply limited supplies through Ukraine on Tuesday, has stopped all gas shipments through the country as of 7:44 a.m. local time, said Valentyn Zemlyansky, spokesman for Ukraine's Naftogaz.

About 80% of Russian gas to Europe is shipped via Ukraine. Other smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey.

"It was the Russian side's decision to stop all gas deliveries to Europe" through Ukraine, Naftogaz head Oleh Dubina told reporters. "I think it is inappropriate."

Russia confirmed the cutoff, but said it was Ukraine's fault because it had shut down the last pipeline carrying gas from Russia. Gazprom also says it is reducing to compensate for the gas it accuses Ukraine of diverting.

The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute has left tens of thousands of people in Europe without heat as governments scrambled to find alternative energy sources.

By early Wednesday, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey had all reported a halt in gas shipments, while France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary had reported substantial drops in supplies from Russia.

Russia stopped all gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after both countries failed to agree on prices and transit fees for next year.

Over the past week, Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off tens of millions of cubic meters of gas meant for Europe from its transit pipelines.

Ukraine admitted diverting some transit gas, saying it had the right to use the fuel to run its pumping system. Gazprom then started dramatically reducing supplies to European consumers this week.

The crisis erupted after Russia and Ukraine failed to agree on a gas price for 2009 and on payment of $600 million Gazprom says it is due from Naftogaz.

URL: http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/10456393.html

Well, in the past 2 years I advised 2 quite cheap holiday opportunities, which are not so popular but I guess they are nice places and cheaper than popular places such as Italy. Let me give you an advice. Be careful when you swim in the sea in Italy because at some parts it is very dirty. So the two places which I mentioned were Ukraine's shoreline (Odessa etc...) and Albanian, Montenegro shoreline. Of course my idea wasn't accepted but if on any Wednesday after 8 periods of suffering at school a cold home will be waiting for me then I won't be happy and in the next few years I won't go to Ukraine.

The term will be closed on next Wednesday so teacher soo will start or has already started giving term marks. I got 3 at Biology, which is very good to me. However my English teacher is hesitating about my mark. I am between 4 and 5 because I got 4 to my grammar test so she await for my Literature marks from our native speaker teacher. It is the first time ever that 5 as a term mark became an option to me at English and I hope it is going to be more than an option.

Happy New Year!

I managed to find out how I can schedule my post so this post is sent by the timer option of Blogger. I would like to welcome you in 2009. I am thankful for your loyal reading and good ideas, even if I didn't take them. Well I am stubborn at times. When I write this post, there are approximately 10 and half hours back from this year but probably I won't go to party or anything like that. My resolution for 2009 is that I am going to be stricter but trying to be more out-going in the same time. We will see if I am going to be successful.

Hopefully when blogger posts it, I am going to enjoy the first minute of the Hungarian New Year according to local time.

Finally I would like to share a technological device with you which was builtby Hungarians: The SOLO. Thanks to Komaja for the link.

Hungarian "Solo" concept car, super-light and super-ecological

Prototype of the first ever Hungarian hybrid vehicle called Solo is on display at the Museum of Transport in Budapest, Hungary 16 June, 2008. The three-seats, 3.12-meter long and 1.92-meter wide environmentally friendly vehicle powered by gas and li-ion batteries is designed and built by ANTRO company based in Oeriszentpeter, Hungary. The ecological gas-electric vehicel can reach 140km/hours top speed and is expected to go on sale in 2012. EPA/BARNABAS HONECZY.

by Staff Writers
Budapest (AFP) June 17, 2008
The prototype for a new Hungarian car that can reach 140 kilometres per hour while only consuming between 1.5 and two litres of ethanol per 100 kilometres, was unveiled Tuesday in Budapest.

The smooth,oval-shaped "Solo," developed by Hungarian company Antro and presented Tuesday at Budapest's Museum of Transport, is just over three metres long, less than two metres wide and can carry up to three people, with the driver sitting between the two passengers.

With a car frame and body made of a carbon fiber composite, the vehicle is ultra-light, weighing only 270 kilogrammes (595 pounds).

And the glass roof is entirely covered with high-performance solar panels, enabling the vehicle to cover 15-25 kilometres on solar energy alone. For longer trips, four small electric engines are also hidden behind each wheel.

"Solo is a hybrid car with two modes of functioning: moving in the city using electric engines, solar energy or even human power thanks to mechanic pedals attached to a generator -- for traffic jams. And for longer trips it uses a modern engine running on not only traditional but also biofuels and ethanol," said Antro director Zsolt Hegedus.

The interior is elegantly cosy with wood and leather everywhere, even on the steering wheel and on additional pedals allowing the passengers to help move the car along.

Solo is expected to cost about 12,000 euros (18,606 dollars), the usual price for a small city vehicle of this kind, but its carbon-dioxide emissions are only a quarter of that released by its non-hybrid rivals, its developers said.

They said they were hoping to begin mass production in 2012.

Antro has also promised a big sister for Solo by that time.

Baptised Duo, it will carry six people and its owners will even be able to go their separate ways if need be: according to its designers, it will be possible to transform the Duo into two Solos in ten minutes.

Finally, let me introduce you to my life a bit more and let me show you my favourite movie, at least one of them. Luckily I found a site where you can watch movies with out downloading.
Watch "Canadian Bacon" Movie I advise you to see the whole movie in your free time.