Practically two thirds of the way through my time here and I’m now so at home here that I can’t imagine leaving! After yet another busy week I have once again seen and done things I have never done before.

Personal:

Personally this week I have been feeling rather frustrated because life here has become so normal, that sometimes I had the tendency to feel bored, just because I have done all the typical sight seeing things now, discovered new places and met new people and at the start of the week it felt like nothing else overly exciting was going to happen. But how wrong could I have been!

Culturally:

Yet again this city and this culture have surprised me! We all went to the Fine Arts Museum on Wednesday to see an exhibition that is here from the Pushkin Museum which was incredible and afterwards we were able to walk around Hero’s Square in the beautiful sunshine. On Friday night we went to our school’s Spring Festival which was absolutely amazing! We got to see our classes performing different role plays, dances, songs and snippets from musicals and even though the commentary and different parts of the programme were in Hungarian it didn’t seem to matter one bit. What made the whole event so special was the fact that the performers, even if they weren’t polished performers were still given the opportunity to perform for everyone.

I then got yet another surprise on Saturday when we went to a small little town called Szentendre- a beautiful little village just 45minutes outside Budapest on the banks of the Danube. We had lunch there and walked around the gorgeous cobbled streets and eat ice cream on the bank. It was so nice getting outside the city and being able to see another little bit of the country. I definitely want to go back! And finally, we went to a concert last night in a chapel after mass that our music teacher from school was singing at. The whole concert was in Latin but that didn’t take away from it at all. It was so nice to be invited by our teacher, especially because she was so eager for us to hear her choir.

Professional:

The teacher that I pair teach with for some of my English lessons was off sick this week, so I was left to teach the class alone. This turned out to be a great opportunity and I really enjoyed it. The children had spent enough time in my presence by this stage to understand that I could only converse with them in English, however they are not used to speaking English the whole way through lessons. This was therefore a challenge for them as well as for me. I feel like I have learnt more during these periods than during the periods when I have been pair teaching, so I am hoping I get more opportunities to do this again.

During our music lessons over the past few weeks we have been learning some Hungarian Folk songs and this week we had to perform these folksongs for our teacher as well as some well known Irish Folk songs. I have really enjoyed learning these Hungarian Folksongs, even though they were they quite a challenge to begin with, but I feel like I have accomplished so much in being able to perform them.

I’m looking forward to another week full of surprises, including some possibilities such as a trip to the zoo, hiring bikes, our trip to Bratislava and my mum and dad joining me here on Sunday!

How time flies!

Cultural:

Time really does fly when you’re having fun! I literally can not believe we are now into our seventh week here in Budapest. And what a week it has been! We have spent the last week researching Bratislava, how to get there and where to go and visit and I’m so excited about the prospect of exploring yet another city while I’m here. We spent this weekend in the company of some Hungarians, Italians, Germans, Americans and Canadians. We went with some of them to a bar to listen to some Serbian Folk music, which was fantastic and then to a Jazz bar, which seems to be very popular here, as do all genres of music really! We then spent Saturday in their company while watching the Six Nations Rugby match at a popular Irish pub here. I found it rather surreal to be in the company of so many nationalities and it was great being able to share the sport of rugby with them, along with some good Irish pub food, even if Ireland weren’t victorious…

Personal:

Personally, I feel like I have learnt so much this week, mainly because we have done so many different things this week that we hadn’t done before. I just love the fact that my time here now usually consists of being in the company of several people all from different countries and continents and yet we still have so much in common. I love the diversity of this city and the all the differences within this city and the fact that they all celebrated, including St Patrick’s day!

Professional:

I have been learning a lot this week in school about the English language, particularly the importance of teaching British English to Hungarian children, rather than them learning Hungarian English as I have come across a few teachers who sometimes make mistakes with the translation of certain words and letters, but this is due to the fact that they have learnt this from teachers when they were at school. I have found it beneficial being in classes both in our school and in University because I am able to help some of the teachers and lecturers with their learning of the English language.

I have been finding our music lessons in University more interesting in recent weeks, due to our advancement in understanding the teacher and the material we are studying and I have been learning lots about the teaching of music to young children and how easy it can be to develop a child musically. Well, much easier than I ever thought it could be anyway! We have been set an assignment in music, so that will be a challenge to see if I can assimilate my previous learning of music teaching at home with the music curriculum here.

I also had the opportunity to teach the children in our school about St Patrick this week on St Patrick’s Day. Some children were already aware that it was St Patrick’s Day, but they didn’t know the story of St Patrick or why the day is celebrated so I enjoyed sharing the story with them and answering their questions about St Patrick. I really enjoyed sharing something from our culture with the children, especially seeing as two days earlier they had celebrated their National Day.

National Day!

We all got a shock when we arrived at school last Friday to find that everyone was wearing black trousers and a white top and a Hungarian flag brooch! We then discovered that Monday was their National Day when the country celebrate their uprising in 1848 against their hated Austrian rulers. The children in the school performed a play which reinacted the events of that day which was really interesting, even though it was in Hungarian. The children then explained to us afterwards what the play meant and the details of the Uprising and why they celebrate that day. It was a bank holiday yesterday for the National Day and the city was adorned with flags and statues, everyone was wearing a Hungarian flag brooch and there were parades and lots of parties. It was really interesting learning about this day and being able to be a part of it. I even bought myself a Hungarian flag brooch!

I did lots more sight-seeing this week because my Auntie and Uncle came to visit for the weekend and we even did things that I hadn't done before which was great! We went on a tour round the Parliament building on Sunday afternoon. It was really interesting hearing about the history of the building and about the Government in Hungary and the building itself was incredible! We also went on a boat trip on the Danube which was really interesting because we got to see even more of the city than I had seen before and we also went around Margaret Island and I was so surprised that it was so large. I think we will be going back to the island before we leave because we have been told it is beautiful in the summer time.


After teaching for several weeks now, I feel more confident when teaching alone. The children are gradually getting more and more used to my accent, which is promising! The teachers keep encouraging us by saying that it's good for the children to hear real, authentic English accents. However this has meant that I have needed to be extremely careful when speaking to the children and with our pronunciation. Unfortunately things are made even more difficult by the fact that all the cd's and textbooks the school use for English lessons are American.

Personally, I felt very assured by the fact that I was able to show my Auntie and Uncle around Budapest with little or no problems. I no longer feel like I have to plan a route to get anywhere, but that I can work out a way of getting somewhere at any end of the city as I go. I also love the fact that I have enough Hungarian and German to converse with most people and any others speak good English! I am looking forward to planning a trip to Bratislava possibly in the next week or two to do even more exploring!

What don't they celebrate?

As we are now in our fifth week here, life here has become extremely normal and things that I found strange and obscure at the start have become a lifestyle. The early mornings are no longer a big problem and the transport system causes us little stress and even the language is becoming less of a problem because we have the ability to spot a foreigner or an English speaking person a mile off!

In terms of culture I have learnt several things this week. Today is women's day! Every man in Budapest is carrying a rose under his arm and every girl and woman you pass is holding a rose and Kirsty, Alison and I also got roses! The day is to celebrate women, simply because women here felt that every other day here was men's day! They also celebrate children's day here as well. However, I find it strange that Hungary doesn't celebrate Mother's Day...

We also celebrated a name's day yesterday... Everyday in Hungray, a name (or sometimes two)is celebrated and yesterday we were at a name's day party yesterday. I now think I understand why so many people in Hungary have the same name... this must be so they will be entitled to celebrate their name's day! My name's day is the 30th of April apparently...


We all taught our own lessons this week which was really enjoyable because after observing for several weeks we just wanted to start teaching! I think the teachers were possibly a little hesitant to allow us to teach sooner, not because they didn't trust us, but because in Hungary you only do school based work in your third year so the schools aren't used to having the equivalent of third years teaching. I also found it a little strange at the start that English here is taught through games and it is so far from the teaching of English that we are used to. Children here love English because they learn through playing games and simply getting used to speaking the language with other people. There are no text book comprehensions, passages to read and certainly no worksheets! The schools, although they possess the bare minimum when it comes to resources still manage to inspire and keep the children interested. I have certainly learnt a lot through observing the classes over the past few weeks and will hopefully be able to start to implement these things when I teach here for the next eight weeks and then also back in Nrthern Ireland.


I have enjoyed spending time on my own this week, exploring new things by myself, likewise with the other girls and through doing that we keep discovering new places to share with each other. I have found a beautiful library that I love going to and a coffee shop as well and as the weather gets better I am looking forward to going for walks along the Danube and having picnics there. I am looking forward to the start of several visitors arriving this week and from then on we will have visitors out nearly everyweek, so I'm looking forward to showing them around all the beautiful places I have found!

Wien, Wien, Wien!

Another week is almost over... and what a week it has been!

As it was ski week this week, we had three days off school, so we enjoyed a well earned rest as well as paying one of the famous food markets a visit for lunch and then spending sometime with a teacher from our school who showed us around some more of the sights in Budapest, mainly the castle area and St Matthias Church and in turn we showed her some of our favourite places in Budapest, some of which she had never even been to which made us feel great!

On Friday we left for Vienna... We bought a return ticket to Vienna which cost the equivalent of 28pounds and stayed ina hostel just outside the city. Thanks to a lovely, helpful lady who saw us struggling with our map and pointed us in the right direction, we saved lots of time and knew exactly how to get round the city shortly after arriving.

We spent the Friday night at the Opera in Vienna! We saw Carmen, which was in German, but it didn't really seem to matter because it was still incredible, especially as after years of studying music it was amazing to finally see a real opera in a real opera house!

We spent the Saturday wandering around Vienna (as you do...) and stumbled upon various beautiful sights including the anchor clock and then Schonbrunn Palace and we had our lunch in a lovely Austrian pub and I had some potatoes and sausages with sauerkraut, because I thought it best to try some when I was there! We are now in the process of planning another weekend away (possibly to Slovakia), due to the fact that there are so many countries near Budapest that are so accessible that we don't want to miss any opportunities.

Personally I have learnt so much this week, possibly due to the fact that I was able to practice some of my almost forgotten A Level german in Vienna which was such a great feeling as more and more words seemed to come to me and it became so easy to travel around the city when we knew what the signs said. I am loving going to Church here and we are all part of a Cell group here now on Sunday nights and it is so encouraging to be within a group of people (mainly from America) that speak perfect English and that they can help us when we have problems or just when we want to know where to eat!

I am really enjoying Uni now, mainly due to the fact that we are learning about how music is taught in Hungarian primary schools and it has been so interesting comparing the two different approaches and hopefully I will be able to use a combination of these approaches some day!

We don't have any specific plans for this week, but at the moment I am just excited to know that spring is coming and that the sun is already shining here!