Yet another busy week has finished and another has just begun! I think I have finally mastered the art of waking up at 6.15am every morning, but knowing that we have three days off school this week because it is ski week makes me think that next week could yet again be a struggle!
An eventful last week included several excursions, events and memorable moments... We spent our Wednesday afternoon after school at the thermal baths in the Gellert hotel which was incredible! After hearing so much and reading so much in our tourist guidebooks i had expected the baths to be good, but I never imagined them being that good! I will definitely be paying them another visit before I go home!
I found a theater in Budapest called the Merlin which has English plays on Mondays and Wednesdays and we all went last Wednesday and on Monday as well. One of the plays we saw was called 'Stones in his Pockets' which is set in Kerry in Ireland. It was rather weird knowing that I was sitting in a theater in the heart of Budapest watching a play that was set in Ireland and that the humour contained within it was not even half understood by most the the American/Hungarian audience.
It has only really come to my attention over the past week or so how many American people are living here in Budapest and this seems to mainly be due to work related issues, but also people here as missionaries.
We were all having lunch at a coffee shop on Friday when we met an American girl who later began to tell us that she was here helping with an organistion called 'Hope for Hungary' working with young English speaking Hungarians- who we seem to know rather a lot of! So small talk led to a rather long conversation and we then ended up going to Church with her on the Sunday with her teammate! We loved the Church we went to on Sunday and are going to the midweek Bible study there tomorrow night and plan on going back to the Church next Sunday as well. We also joined the girl Caitlin and her team for the Bible study on the Sunday night and it was so lovely to be able to share about our experiences here in Budapest along with their experiences as well!
We have planned a trip to Austria from Friday to Saturday and do not know all the details yet... but know how to get the train there, which is a start! I am looking forward to experiencing yet another culture and exploring even more places...
We went to one of the famous indoor markets today which was really good and the food we had for lunch was amazing!
So far I am loving the life here, meeting new people everyday, finding new places to shop and eat, learning a new language and experiencing different approaches to life. I am looking forward to getting involved in the Church here and the opportunities it will provide... especially seeing as they have already said they would love us to come back! The scary reality is that life here is going so fast, that soon I will be at home wanting to come back...
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Sunday, 14 February 2010
School, sight seeing and snow!
Well, it has been one hectic week here in Budapest! We started off the week at 6.15am on Monday morning and headed to our university campus which is an hour away and our classes start at 8am on Mondays and Thursdays and we are in our school at 8am Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday which also requires a 6.15am awakening!
Our classes have proved to be very difficult due to the fact that the teachers don’t speak very good English and they don’t understand our accents, but there are students in our classes who help us to understand and translate.
The bilingual school we are in requires us to get one tram and then a bus every morning, which I would definitely not be used to at home! So I am really learning to appreciate the things I take for granted back at home… The children in our school are fantastic- they speak great English and they understand pretty much everything we say. But it turns out that they have been teaching us more than we have been teaching them because they are all so eager to teach us new Hungarian words everyday! The children just appear to be so enthusiastic about learning and having just observed them in their lessons for 3 days has already made me eager to teach them. We also hade the opportunity to stay for a Hungarian school dinner on Tuesday which I really enjoyed!
Apart from being exhausted most the week due to our early mornings, we spent a lot of time sight seeing. On Friday we took a city sight seeing bus tour which was amazing! We got to see all the famous sights of Budapest in only 2 hours. I can safely say I have never seen such beautiful architecture on such a large scale as this before in my life. Our evening was then followed by a meal out where we were sitting beside a mother and daughter from Newry… which we all found rather hilarious!
We then spent the whole of Saturday exploring some of the sights we had seen before on the Friday, for instance the Castle and it’s’ grounds and we also went to the ‘House of Terror’ which was an incredibly moving affair. The ‘House of Terror’ was originally a secret jail on the ‘Andrassy’ street in Budapest (a very wealthy street in the centre) where people where taken and then killed. We learnt a lot about the history of Hungary and how it suffered under Soviet rule and I found it extremely interesting and thought provoking!
We are in halls accommodation with Hungarians, some of which speak English and others who don’t, so we have found it rather challenging trying to converse with them, but they have been extremely kind and have been helping us to learn Hungarian which has been difficult, but fun!
The snow here is slowly disappearing, thank goodness and we have been told that spring is expected earlier this year which we are extremely excited about because it is still unbearably cold here.
I no longer feel like a tourist here and I am looking forward to getting used to our school and university routines this week and I am looking forward to trying even more new foods, meeting even more new people and to absorb even more of this wonderful culture!
Our classes have proved to be very difficult due to the fact that the teachers don’t speak very good English and they don’t understand our accents, but there are students in our classes who help us to understand and translate.
The bilingual school we are in requires us to get one tram and then a bus every morning, which I would definitely not be used to at home! So I am really learning to appreciate the things I take for granted back at home… The children in our school are fantastic- they speak great English and they understand pretty much everything we say. But it turns out that they have been teaching us more than we have been teaching them because they are all so eager to teach us new Hungarian words everyday! The children just appear to be so enthusiastic about learning and having just observed them in their lessons for 3 days has already made me eager to teach them. We also hade the opportunity to stay for a Hungarian school dinner on Tuesday which I really enjoyed!
Apart from being exhausted most the week due to our early mornings, we spent a lot of time sight seeing. On Friday we took a city sight seeing bus tour which was amazing! We got to see all the famous sights of Budapest in only 2 hours. I can safely say I have never seen such beautiful architecture on such a large scale as this before in my life. Our evening was then followed by a meal out where we were sitting beside a mother and daughter from Newry… which we all found rather hilarious!
We then spent the whole of Saturday exploring some of the sights we had seen before on the Friday, for instance the Castle and it’s’ grounds and we also went to the ‘House of Terror’ which was an incredibly moving affair. The ‘House of Terror’ was originally a secret jail on the ‘Andrassy’ street in Budapest (a very wealthy street in the centre) where people where taken and then killed. We learnt a lot about the history of Hungary and how it suffered under Soviet rule and I found it extremely interesting and thought provoking!
We are in halls accommodation with Hungarians, some of which speak English and others who don’t, so we have found it rather challenging trying to converse with them, but they have been extremely kind and have been helping us to learn Hungarian which has been difficult, but fun!
The snow here is slowly disappearing, thank goodness and we have been told that spring is expected earlier this year which we are extremely excited about because it is still unbearably cold here.
I no longer feel like a tourist here and I am looking forward to getting used to our school and university routines this week and I am looking forward to trying even more new foods, meeting even more new people and to absorb even more of this wonderful culture!
Sunday, 7 February 2010
The cold, the cleaning, the churches and the city...
The initial shock of having to acclimatise myself to a new and strange culture is finally beginning to wear off. After a few days of finding our feet, I feel confident enough to jump on a tram and go for coffee or shopping alone. We went shopping and to the cinema yesterday, which was lovely! However, following that we spent several hours cleaning our kitchen facilities, but they now seem safe enough to use! We all got up early this morning to go to church- Danube international Church, however the address we had taken from the internet must have been incorrect, because there was definitely no church to be found! So we came back and then planned our daytrip to the Parliament building. We had go work out which tram line and then which metro to use and it all worked out successfully! We made it to the building it plenty of time only to discover that the tickets went on sale at 8am for the 2pm tour and were all sold out already! So instead we went for a walk around the ‘Pest’ side of the city. I found it shocking how different the ‘Buda’ side of the city is compared to the ‘Pest’ side, mainly in terms of wealth. It has been snowing heavily all day and last night and the snow if even thicker and I am finding the cold air almost unbearable, but will hopefully get more used to it.
I am enjoying soaking in this new culture so far and am looking forward to learning more about the history of this beautiful city in days to come!
I am enjoying soaking in this new culture so far and am looking forward to learning more about the history of this beautiful city in days to come!
Friday, 5 February 2010
And so it begins...
The first full day is almost over and we have arrived safe and sound, are unpacked and are slowly but surely taking in our surroundings. We arrived last night in Budapest at around 8pm and took a taxi from the airport to our halls accommodation. Everyone so far has been so kind and helpful, especially when we first arrived and everywhere is absolutely covered in snow!
None of us slept well last night- I ended up sleeping on the floor due to the terrible broken camp bed I had been given to sleep on, but which has now been replaced, thank goodness!
We went exploring today, with help from one of our mentors- Eszter, who showed us around, how to get to our university and how to use the trams. It was a tiring day, but extremely beneficial.
After several hours of travelling around the city by foot and on the trams, we went to visit our best friend- Tescos! We brought our suitcases with us to carry our shopping back in because we knew we would have to buy lots and everything was really cheap!
We have all found it weird that only 24 hours ago we didn’t have a clue where we were, how to get around or where anything was, yet today it feels like Budapest is becoming home… even if it is for only 14 weeks!
None of us slept well last night- I ended up sleeping on the floor due to the terrible broken camp bed I had been given to sleep on, but which has now been replaced, thank goodness!
We went exploring today, with help from one of our mentors- Eszter, who showed us around, how to get to our university and how to use the trams. It was a tiring day, but extremely beneficial.
After several hours of travelling around the city by foot and on the trams, we went to visit our best friend- Tescos! We brought our suitcases with us to carry our shopping back in because we knew we would have to buy lots and everything was really cheap!
We have all found it weird that only 24 hours ago we didn’t have a clue where we were, how to get around or where anything was, yet today it feels like Budapest is becoming home… even if it is for only 14 weeks!
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