Five days in Hungary and...

1. BUSI 403 (aka Operations Management) has forever ruined flying for me. 
Not that flying was ever that great to begin with, and JFK has its problems anyway, but I did not ask for the added stress of hearing my professor's voice in my head while waiting in a 300-person security line an hour before my flight. "THIS IS A CAPACITY ISSUE!" I kept yelling inside my head. As if in response, a woman came down the queue, which trailed between check-in counters to the end of the terminal lobby, checking passports. Helpful? No, because the most time is consumed getting checked by security personnel. "ADDING RESOURCES TO A NON-BOTTLENECK WILL NOT INCREASE SYSTEM CAPACITY!!"

2. Everyone else must know a shortcut to Terminal A in the Frankfurt airport. 
 Last time I thought I just accidentally went the long way (I mean, what airport funnels passengers through an elevator and three flights of stairs/another elevator to reach its busiest terminal?) but this time I very carefully followed signage and went the exact same strange route. What's more bizarre is there are never more than six or seven people going the same way... yet my next flight had familiar faces and it seems no one else nearly misses their plane or even rushes for that matter! I only made it because some nice golf-cart-driving airport guy noticed me hustling and drove me to my gate, commenting that I was one of the last for that flight. Everyone else was already on the plane. Hence the shortcut idea.

3.  It's a really good thing I got an unlimited public transport pass.
Here's how I learned my commute to Babaház: Get on the bus outside Tesco, get off when you see the ice cream hut. Get on the yellow tram, get off when you see McDonald's. Get on the 77 bus, get off when you see the fruit stand. I thought it'd be a good idea to try out before my first day, so I took the bus outside Tesco, got off when I saw ice cream, took the tram to McDonald's, took the 77, and got off at a fruit stand. The wrong fruit stand, because I walked to where the kindergarten should be and it wasn't there.
No problem - I got back on the 77 and went one more stop. Got off. No kindergarten.
Problem - I got back on the 77 and rode and rode until I saw another fruit stand. I had just started to text my university student contact to ask for the address - not that where I live is on any of my maps of Budapest but it seemed relevant to ask. Anyway I got off and found the kindergarten. Hooray! This wouldn't be the last time I've had to try, try again to find my way on the public transport.

 4. That being said, it really is excellent public transportation.
During peak times in the day, the buses and trams come every ten minutes or less. They really do. The metro (the oldest in Europe!) also comes really frequently and can get you almost anywhere. There are bus lines and tram lines and electric bus wires everywhere; it's a very intricate and saturated system. The buses stop at every stop, which is really helpful when you don't know where you're getting off until you're there. Interestingly they don't check tickets or passes on the buses out where I live; you just get on and are supposed to have one. I asked one of the other teachers how often they got on and checked and she said never!

5. Hungarian prices are unbelievable.
 I went to see Otello at the Opera House tonight for less than $3. That is notably 1/3 of the price I paid for my McDonald's hamburger meal on Thursday, which included the spicy dijon mustard they put on it for some ridiculous reason.
(Yes I do continue to measure how much I'm paying against what I paid for my hamburger last Thursday!)
When I stop at the Tesco next door to my hostel for bottled water and bread and snacks, I rarely pay more than $4. Strudel and (albeit really bad) coffee at the metro yesterday? $1.50. Most museum prices, which I have to pay in full because I'm not the right kind of English, are around $7.
...Although, it's amazing how quickly one can adapt and get persnickety about these things. My landlord is charging me 1500ft for Internet use. "Hmph! The nerve!" I remember thinking. That's the upper end of the most frequent prices seen for everyday goods and some menu items, and it amounts to around 8 US dollars. For $5 I could have gotten a much better seat at the opera (and then I would have had an unobstructed view of the Hungarian subtitles, not helpful) but why pay $5 when you can pay $3? I also get mad when the museum women won't give me a student discount off the $7 entrance fee since I'm not from the EU. What can I say, it's a tough city here.