Bence in the States: 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

11.26 - 12.02 - West Coast III.

Coming up... scroll down to see what's up!

11.19 - 11.25 - West Coast II.

Coming up...scroll down to see what's up!

11.12 - 11.18 - West Coast I.

Alright, I am gonna tell you the whole story of our west coast journey. I finished the 3rd semester at school, now i have time to spend on writing my blog again. It has been for a while since i updated the blog. So, let's get it done.

Everything started in September when Andras and I were drinking some refreshment on one of our Wednesday sessions. Or maybe we started thinking about this trip while we were traveling in Alaska. Who knows, but the point is that it was a very well planned trip. Andras planned it, because he loves planning long trips. He kept me updated, we got the itinerary ready and then the initial budget plan and with time the plan became more detailed until it got its final phase around mid October. Andras invited couple of his friends, finally two of them could make it. We knew that Xiao is gonna come with us for us, so we booked our flight tickets together. We were three at least, but the plan was to get together 7 of us. I convinced Marti on one of the Wednesday nights (a different one), it took for three ours to get her playing on our side. On the next morning she emailed us, that she wants to join the team! Great! We were on the way to fill up a bad ass SUV. On one of my accounting class I mentioned the trip to Aziz, who immediately got caught on the plan. He did not hesitate at all, however, his wife were coming on the third day of our trip to visit him in Hamden. "It's not a problem, Bence!" - said him, and joined us for two days in San Francisco. Plus Levi and Stefi also confirmed their arrival and booked the flight tickets. Nice! We were six. It was good, but not enough. We were unable to find anybody else as the date of the trip was coming and the flight tickets prices skyrocketed. A week before we left I just got an email from Xiao that said: "Hey, Jing wants to come!" Wow! You got it! He found a real good deal on the flight tickets, actually he spent less on tickets than us, but he had to stay one more night in San Francisco. So our final team got together! 7 of us!

This trip one of our biggest trips and we knew with Andris that this is gonna be pretty intense, hoped that everybody will be able to keep up with the tremendous programs and timely schedule. We visited five new states, such as California, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Nevada!

Here is our schedule:

CA-NV-AZ-UT-OR

(Nov 16-25)

http://goo.gl/maps/9MWXL

CA-NV-AZ-UT-OR nagyobb térképen való megjelenítése

Total length: 3300 miles (at a 50 mph average speed it means we sat 66 hours in the car)
What is this length? Well, the length of the Hungarian border is 1400 miles, 2.35 times we traveled around it. Or like I drove home from Budapest to Tarcal 22 times (156 miles x 22 miles)

I break the total ten days trip into three sections. I go with the first three days now. Then 3 days again and finally 4 days.

Friday (Nov 16)

· arriving to San Francisco (CA)

· San Francisco night sightseeing

Saturday (Nov 17)

· sightseeing in San Francisco (CA)

Sunday (Nov 18)

· leaving SF in the morning

· Yosemite National Park (Mariposa, CA)

Yosemite Valley Visitor Center

Tunnel View (Yosemite Valley Overlook)

Half Dome

_____________________________________First Section___________________________________

Monday (Nov 19)

· Kings Canyon National Park (Three Rivers, CA)

· Sequoia National Park (CA)

Tuesday (Nov 20)

· Death Valley National Park, Furnace Creek (Inyo, CA)

Stovepipe Wells Village

Badwater

Furnace Creek Visitor Center

· Mt Wilson Wilderness Area (AZ)

· Las Vegas (NV)

Wednesday (Nov 21)

· Zion National Park, Zion Canyon Scenic Drive (Hurricane, UT)

_____________________________________Second Section_____________________________

Thursday (Nov 22)

· Lassen Volcanic National Park (Mineral, CA)

Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center

Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway

Manzanita Lake

Friday (Nov 23)

· Crater Lake National Park (Klamath, OR)

Steel Visitor Center

Watchman Overlook

· Redwood National Park (Orick, CA)

Crescent Beach

Prairie Creek Visitor Center

Klamath River Overlook

Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway

Kuchel Visitor Center

Saturday (Nov 24)

· beach (Fort Bragg)

· Historic US Highway 1 scenic drive

· Napa Valley (Napa, CA)

Wine tour (Mumm Napa)

Sunday (Nov 25)

· leaving San Francisco (CA)

· arriving to Hamden (CT) on Monday (Nov 26)
_____________________________________Third Section_______________________________

Day 1. - Hamden, San Francisco - November 16th

We are sitting on a train towards NYC. We left Whitney Village at 9:40 AM on November 16th, took the bus J4 that got us to New Haven where Andras joined us from work, took the train from New Haven Union Station to NYC Grand Central. Then took the GoPrime shuttle service from Grand Central to JFK, where got on the plane and flown to San Francisco through Atlanta, GA. I can tell that was a long journey.

First glimpse of the west coast. San Francisco from the sky. Pretty city even if this picture is blurry. By the was I have tell that these photos have been taken either Xiao, Jing or Stefi. Thank you guys for the excellent pix!

Here we are on the San Francisco International Airport Gate 22. All we had to do is to find Levi and Stefi who arrived 5 hours earlier than us. Cell phones did not work well, no texts went through. Andras and Levi could talk only one minute and then a long wait started....

...just like this:) We were tired and had no clue where our Hungarian friends were. And then Andras found them waiting for us one level higher.

So cool! We united! The whole team was together but Aziz. He arrived to the hotel earlier and was waiting for us around three ours. We went to rent our big ass car. A Ford Explorer, the biggest car I have ever sat in. http://www.cars.com/ford/explorer/2010/

Day 2. - San Francisco - November 17th

The boy section sitting in the hall of a three star hotel called Renaissance

On the back seat with the girls. I liked that place:)

Walking like a man in the Berkeley neighborhood in SanFran.

In the first half of the day we met Bandi who is from the same college as Andras and I and he is doing his Phd. at Berkeley. A very smart dude:) So he showed us around. We are standing in front of the Berkeley tower

Right under the tower

At the top of the tower:)

Subway Sandwich on our way:)

Then we got a very nice sunny day and we split apart. Marti, Levi and Stefi were driving around in Sanfran, doing the famous 49 mile trip sightseeing. Aziz, Jing and Xiao with me wanted to visit Alcatraz but we had to face with a huge line and the fact that those people were waiting for tickets two weeks ahead. They were sold out for weeks basically. Only one company has the licence to take you on the island...What a monopoly. Su we said: f*ck it! I called Marti: "Where are you?? We need you!!! This Alcatraz is sold out, we want to join you!" So they came and picked up us and we took the 49 mile scenic drive around the city. You can cover every neighborhood, famous building, park, point, everything. So we saw the whole city basically. Smart idea!

The fun car!

attempt 1st

2nd

3rd

finally! I jumped this high every time, but the timer was not on time:)

The Golden Gate - wow

The city from the Golden Gate

A bit closer to the bridge. Info about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge

I saw many guys who were fishing in the wharf, and i wanted to try fishing at the Golden Gate. So I went to a guy, asked about his rod and how to cast...

...and he let me fish! So cool! Fishing at the Golden Gate on the West Coast!

At the Pacific Ocean, spectacular view.

At the Golden Gate Park - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco

On the peak of San Francisco

San Francisco is the gay capital of the world. One of my friend told me dont buy anything that says San Francisco on it unless you are gay. So I did not.

Our Chinese guides took us to the biggest and oldest China Town in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_San_Francisco

We had a wonderful, wonderful dinner! With wonderful friends!

Turn your screen left please or skip this photo of the China Town.

Then we picked up Andras and went back to the twin peaks to shoot some photos. Not bad.

Me with the Golden Gate at night. Shutter time 30 second: bridge is sharp, bence is blurry.:)

Taken by Aziz

That was the second day! San Francisco was the best city I have ever been to! I want to go back!

Fisherman's wharf is a must see!

Day 3. - Yosemite National Park - November 18th

The third day was pretty straightforward. We left San Francisco in the morning.

(By the way it seems like a lot of pictures on the blog, but not! Believe me. I could have posted around 600 photos just about San Francisco. Rather I post photos of me and photos of our group than the city. I am sorry about that.)

And headed towards Yosemite National Park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park

If you read about the park, you become really excited just like me. Maybe too excited and expect too much, just like me...It was beautiful though!

Having breakfast a budget WallMart shopping. It was far better than any subway sandwiches.

Crossing the Sierra Nevada - it was a mysterious place, with unearthly colors.

Just reached Yosemite. That is the only National Park that I did not have picture with the sign.

Finally

My picture rotation doesn't work. I am sorry. I'll try to fix it. So on a special pine tree.

Lichen in macro mode.

First deer on the road out of the many.

In a large valley

I was like this...at the Half Dome. The most well-known part of the park. (In the background covered by clouds)

That was my favorite minute in the park. I have a 20 pix portfolio with these animals. They were watching a small coyote. You can find it in the back if you zoom in. I went and checked it out. But run away.

Others were amazed too.

And at the end of the day Andras got a flat tire in the park. It was 4:45 PM and we were so lucky because it was 150 feet from a garage which was open until 5 PM so the guy fixed it in 45 minutes and we were ready to go. Don't ask what we would have done otherwise, there was no cell phone coverage, no 3G...:) Just wild nature. Sometime you need luck in order to survive.

We had! That was a great team performance!

Keep reading the next spot is coming up.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

11.05 - 11.11 - Obama-Romney, Trade Visit II, Deer Hunting!!!

This was one of my best weeks. These are the highlights of this week: Presidential Election 2012, Snow Storm, CEENET 2nd Trade Visit, Deer Hunting:)
Let us start with the election. It was a big deal for every and each of Americans, people took it seriously, everybody I know and is eligible to vote went and voted. Here every election is on Tuesdays either it is a election of mayor of the city or the president of the United States of America. In Hungary we go voting on Sundays, so I was a bit surprised when i heard Tuesday.
On Tuesday night we were following the special election edition on FoxNews channel, it turned out very quickly that Obama is going to win again.
On statistics class we talked a bit about voting theory and not voting is actually a rational behavior if costs overweight benefits.

Own chart based on Prof. Stone's lecture

The interesting thing is that Obama won much more electorial votes (63%+), but still republicans will have more seats in the house. Obama and his team made a brilliant campaign and it paid him off. Romney forgot about targeting Latinos basically. The United States has been changed forever. Republicans have to re-position themselves in order to be competitive at the next election. You can read a lot of different analysis about the election 2012, and you can understand them however you like, but you will see what i mentioned here.
Here is his election night speech:

Here is Romney's election night concession speech:

So that is about it. Four more years under Obama era.
On Wednesday a huge snowstorm hit the East Coast right after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.

You can read about it here: http://goo.gl/fPt8f. It started snowing around 12am, and around 3pm it still didn't show any signs of stopping. I didn't take it seriously at all. Who cares? Sandy was a huge disappointment, so this will be as well. Around 4pm my boss left the office and ordered us to go home while it is still safe. By that time, it was not safe at all, but I was still working another hour. I was one of the last ones to go home. All right, I thought, everything is going to be ok. What could it happen? Oh, and another worrying sentence was: Drive safe! When I reached the main entrance and looked out, I thought Holy Moly! This is something!

I had no scarf, no hat, no gloves, nothing that would have prepared me for this early arrival of winter. I only had a small ice scraper about 6 cm wide. At that time the snow that was covered my car was about 3,5 inches or 10 centimeters. Cleaning my car took at least 15 minutes, until I was able to sit in and look out. I started the engine turned on the heater and sat about another 10 minutes until I felt my fingers again. Then my 40 minutes of a horrifying journey started. I have never felt anything like this, regarding the driving of my car. It was incredibly slippery. My car's butt was sliding left and right all the time when I did something, even accelerated or slowed down. The maximum speed was 5 mph in town and 15 mph on highway. There was no accident on the road fortunately, but you should have seen this situation and those conditions. Terrible! Finally I got home in safe (a normal trip to go home takes 8 minutes) During the night I had to go out and clean my car and its surroundings again because on Thursday morning I had to go to Stamford to the CEENET Trade Visit Conference.

On the highway - 15 mph

Thursday morning

I got up at 6am and cleaned my car again, checked the road condition and waited an hour to leave Whitney village. I was only late 10 minutes, and it was because of the huge traffic jam that I was faced with on I-95 southbound.

So then around 11am we started the event, people were arriving one by one and slowly filled up the room. Not the number of participant’s matters but who they are. I met great people at this event so I was very happy. We all had a great time in Stamford. I was not planning to spend a night there, but it turned out that if I want to enjoy the more informal night session, I will have to stay. So first Aron Kovacs said that I can spend the night in his room on the couch and then Chris offered me a room with bed and bathroom. What a great night we had:) Besides the company I also enjoyed the food! Marriott Hotel Stamford buffet-lunch, breakfast, dinner, in another restaurant. Yummy. You can read our event on the following website: http://ctceenet.org

Bence (CEENET Founding Member), Zoltan Hajdu (CEO, Smartstaff), Aron Littvay-Kovacs (Head of International Department - BKIK)

HABL Contingent - Bence, Ildiko, Kati, Marti, Andras

Good fellas

At the Stamford Innovation Center

Bence, Andras Kiraly (Chief of Cabinet at MNV), Gergely Horvath (CEO at MNV)

I spent the whole day in Stamford on Friday as well and left the hotel at 10pm, because I got an invitation from Jeffrey to go on the farm. So I was driving home, picked up Xiao, put together my suitcase for the weekend in like 5 minutes and was driving towards the farm. We arrived there at 00:15am.And that is where the week's most exciting part started.

I told Jeffrey, I am sleepy and get to go to sleep. No no, we need 15 minutes to discuss something, he said. OK, we sat down and went through all the steps that I need to know about using the rifle. How to look into the scope, how to pull the trigger, and what safety rules we have to follow, everything. I said, ok, it is easy stuff, but was very tired and when we finished, he told me we would talk about these things tomorrow morning. So, I was relaxed, and still not sure who will have the gun while we are sitting on the stand.
We got up at 5am and were ready to go out by 5:15am. It was too early and dark to go out to the stand so we were waiting 10 minutes and then we left the house. Everything was still dark, quite and on the way to the stand we had to cross a big grass field, Jeffrey pointed around with his flashlight where the forest and the field joined, we saw two pairs of light eyes. Two deer were standing there. It was a great moment; we knew that they were out. Around 5:35am we reached the stand that was located on the best spot of the property where three deer trails were joined. It was the most likely place to see something. We tied the gun to a rope unloaded, then I climbed up first, Jeffrey second, I sat on the left, he was on the right. I pulled up the gun and he loaded it, then the rope dropped back. We were surrounded by full silence. I was wondering about ancient times where you didn't have a state-of-the-art rifle, super location, perfect condition and had to make your living at hunting. It was truly a hard profession to feed your family and to reach prosperity. So I was sitting like that and a loud scream broke the silence. I was scared to death basically; my heartbeat soared in a second, and had no idea what it was. I looked at Jeffrey; he waived his left palm and shows me relax, Bence, that was just a coyote. Coyote is a wolf type of predator but in a smaller and weaker edition.:) I thought, holy crap, hunting is not about relaxing:)
As the first hour waiting went by the forest was filled with life. First, the small birds started tweeting and singing then bigger birds, like bluebirds arrived and entertained us, while we were sitting on the stand silently. It was such a great feeling, I felt like we became part of the Mother Nature again. We were watching carefully every sign of deer, but we saw nothing. We did hear a big buck's deep voice, invitation for a fight. But not much happened. Around 9:30am we climbed down and were heading home but in a longer way stocking for deer.
I took a 2 hours nap, then we had a nice lunch. And the afternoon session started around 2:45. I was more comfortable on the stand and more relaxed as well. Jeffrey told me: I feel that we are going to get something this afternoon.
I was not sure at all, and felt glad that I had no chance to use the rifle in the morning. As the sun disappeared behind the back of the mountain, the forest became silent again. That was the right time, Jeffrey told me, the one-hour after sunset. After half an hour two deer were coming down from the grasslands and walking towards the valley where they sleep. As we heard the noises we were getting excited. After 10 minutes we still just heard them, they were behind a thicket. We had no chance to see them, but I was hoping that I could get a glimpse. Suddenly something was coming behind us, as we turned back to see what it is, it stopped. Maybe he smelt us, most of the time there was no wind at all, but sometime it was and blew from different directions. So we continued watching them carefully, Jeffrey looked behind, I looked ahead. Almost two calm hours turned into 10-15 second incredible excitement. The something behind moved again. 1-2 steps. Jeffrey immediately showed me to turn back.
And the following happened in 12 seconds:
J: - Bence do you see it? Do you see it? It is coming, it's coming!
B: - I don't see it! I see nothing!
J: - Get your rifle ready, your moment is coming very fast! You are going to shoot this deer!
OMG! My pulse soaring into the sky and my pulse was above 200 per minute. Tried to pull myself together and remember everything that Jeffrey told me last night. Of course, we did not repeat that conversation:) OK, Bence, I said to myself, you know how to turn it on fire, how to look at into the scope no closer than 10 cm, otherwise when it jerks it can hurt and cut your eye, then the hospital is in your future. Remember how to hold the gun properly so when I pull the trigger it will not break my shoulder, where to put my finger to pull the trigger, not to pull it with my whole finger, just with the tip of it, so the cross remains accurate...And on the other side lots of thoughts run through my mind at the same time. I am about to kill a deer, how it will feel, what if I screw the moment and miss the shot, etc. What if and what if and what if? But I had no time to think deep, everything happened so fast, and the deer didn't stop, not even for a second!
J: - Put it on fire! Are you ready? Stay calm! Are you ready, here it comes, here it comes! Be ready! Do you see it?
B: - Not ready (I just turned it on fire), still don't see it!!!
J: - I see it, it is coming, it is huge! Beautiful buck, I knew it! Do you see it?
B: - No (The deer was coming down from left and when we looked back, because he sat on the right, he saw it from the left side of the tree. Thus he got to see it first. I was looking back on the right side and that 50-centimeter difference meant 3-5 degrees difference in the point of views.
J: - Are you ready? OK! I count down and you are going to shoot it. Ready? 3-2-1- NOW!
B: -...(I did not say anything just tried to calm down, breath deep and hold my gun straight. I did not pull the trigger, because I still did not see the deer. OMG, I just glimpsed it!!! It was huge, dignified, and respectful! Full of power and muscle. I started to find with the scope and the cross.)
J: - Now you must see it! OK! Ready! (He came over to my side, so we were watching out on the top of each other in the coverage of the thick tree) 3-2-1- Fire!
B: - No- said very silent (The deer was in the crosshairs and I followed him as he kept walking, I had to hit him behind the front leg where every vital serve is in order to kill him immediately. There was a steep side towards the valley and if he reaches it, we lost him. So I had to shoot before, but the steep was coming so fast as the deer didn't stop. Jeffrey saw it and made some weird noise with his mouth to grab the deer's attention and he made it stop. It stopped for a second just after he passed a big tree, so it was not covered any more. I was ready to pull the trigger.
Booooooom!!!!! A deadly shot left my gun in the mean time. I do not remember the moment when I pulled the trigger, I may closed my eyes, but I do remember that right after I shot, I could not hear anything, just a long blunt whiz. I did not feel any pain in my shoulder and around my eyes, so I did not get hurt (you may think it is weird, but your own safety is first while hunting) and of course I looked at my deer. He jumped 3 big ones and reached the steep point where he stood for a second, in the meantime Jeffrey asked for the gun, I still did not hear him, but saw his mouth and he got the gun, reloaded, aimed and shot again.
It was a safety shot, we had to make sure it wont run away, because it was getting dark so fast. Many deer have never been found in the dark and coyotes have eaten and finished them brutally before the morning. If you respect your deer, this is the last thing that you want to happen to him. So we got him! I was still full of adrenalin, heartbeat was still above 200, my hands and legs were shaking a bit. Jeffrey told me that we have to wait a bit. In order to calm down, be sure that the deer died and will not harm you.
We climbed down, and slowly reached the deer. He was lying on the thick litter and was dead. What a wonderful animal! And it was my honor to shoot him. It was a Very special feeling, and a great one. We carefully turned him on his side to take some photos. We got A Beautiful healthy buck with a seven-point rack. (Every branch of the antler counts that can hold a wedding ring) Whoever shoots the deer has to clean it, so I did. When we finished, it was dark and had to walk back to the house, and get the quad to carry him home. Jeffrey's friends who also hunt as well came along and looked at my buck. Everybody was so happy, and proud of me. Although my shot was deadly, it was a perfect teamwork with Jeffrey! We took some other photos of the deer and took him to the butcher.

By the time we arrived Xiao and Alley were ready with the dinner, so then we had a wonderful meal together while we were telling them the full story of the deer. I have the antlers and the cartridge case and the experience. Will never forget this weekend.

Practicing

On fire - just before the moment!

My beautiful first deer, first shot

(For those of you who think this is not a big deer, you have to be aware that what we have in Europe is elf, not deer. It is different from our "deer".)