Budapest, Round II
Oh look. A blog. I forgot about this.
Anyway, I feel like the time is ripe for a blog resurrection. Today, I leave for Europe, my second trip in approximately five months. (Actually, now that I think about it, this may even be five months to the day. I believe I left Budapest on December 23, 2011. So scratch the “approximately”.) I don’t know how much ability I’ll have to stay in contact with everyone since I don’t know what my phone will be like in Europeland, so hopefully this will be at least some small way to stay in contact with you, O Dear Reader.
When I left Budapest in December, I definitely was set to return at some point in my life, since it’s a place so associated with rich, meaningful memories in my mind. Nevertheless, I didn’t expect to be returning so soon. I applied for an internship at Prezi (headquartered in Budapest) on sort of a whim, but I didn’t expect to actually get accepted into the program, and also, I didn’t foresee myself agreeing to go had I been accepted, since I would have to cut my term at Carleton short. But here I am. I’m leaving Carleton early, I had to bid goodbye to my friends who are graduating (that was sad), and now I am sitting in MSP mentally preparing myself to do computer things in Budapest.
But these aren’t just any computer things! I’m thrilled about these computer things! Prezi is such an ideal company, or at least that was what I decided when I first visited the Prezi HQ some months ago! It’s a smallish company that uses cool technology (in my favorite programming language, Python, I might add), but most importantly, it has a cool office and cool people who are not only good programmers, but good designers and creative thinkers.
Also, a magic fridge with an array of fruit juices.
“What is Prezi?” one may ask. I think I’m so drawn to the company not only because I get to code in Python, but it’s a company focused on creativity and making beautiful things that are clear and clean. They make presentation software, sorta like PowerPoint, but I also really appreciate the work they are doing for organizations like the TED talks - I think it’s important to present data and information in a clear and meaningful way, and Prezi is devoted to doing just that.
To me, Prezi just sort of fulfills my vision of computer science as a total interdisciplinary, liberal-artsy experience, and in my mind, Prezi shows that computer sciency people can be artsy and creative and funny too, and on the flip side, artists and designers can think like computer scientists to create fantastic software.
So hooray. Enough fawning over computer things. Hopefully I can keep this blog going and I can stay in touch with you all better through this thing.
Also, stay tuned. Next post will document the French Family Taking Budapest By Storm.