What Im Really Doing in Hungary

In all seriousness, I do plan on doing work this year. I am meeting with my Fulbright Sponser, Dr. Istvan Ijjas at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) tomorrow to discuss my dissertation project. JoAnn, a professor from MIT who funded me to go to Prague the past couple of summers is coming into Budapest tomorrow as well and is staying until Sunday. I will be housing an MIT student at my flat for the rest of the week (Elizabeth).

The next couple of months I am going to (1) finish my application for an National Science Foundation grant, (2) finish the Duke IRB (institutional review board, approves research projects) (2) Meet with and interview scientific/water experts in Budapest, (3) develop a database of all towns/cities in project area (includes most of Hungary, and a touch of Romania, Slovakia, Austria, Sebia, Croatia, Ukraine) (4) Develop an online survey for town mayors (asking questions about past flooding, water quality issues, land use development, cooperation with other cities and nations. This online survey will be developed in all of the languages of the area.
Then in January I will select four specific watersheds based on the information I have collected in this first part to study how past flooding has affected management of the rivers and water quality.

So the next three months or so will be spent mostly in Budapest, working on my Hungarian, making Hungarian friends, making contacts with translators, relaxing, hanging out a bit, etc. After January I will be travelling a bit more throughout the region.

well i better get to work, ashlin, a fulbright playwright (working on his mfa at columbia), former NHL hockey player is coming over for dinner at 7. real nice guy and a bit random. okay, really going to get to work, my skype telephone just arrived from Denmark, so hopefully that will improve reception!