The volcanic ash chapter...

We have had a rather strange week this week... mainly due to the stress caused by the volcanic ash! Kirsty's friend came to visit a while ago... and we ended up having an extra person staying in our room for 10 days because she couldn't get home! On top of that, Alison's friend couldn't get out here because her flight was cancelled! But on the plus side, this meant even more sight seeing all over again!

Personal:

I am still enjoying my time here and don't really want to go home! Everyday here seems to bring about new challenges and new experiences, which I love! The most recent challenge was trying to get Leanne home. We spent hours at the airport trying various different ways and means to try and get her home. A bus to London was suggested, but we decided to try and plan a route ourselves. We booked a flight for 5 days later, but then it was cancelled as well, so I eventually found another flight for 3 days later which wasn't cancelled and Leanne got home safely!

Cultural:

We visited Szentendre again this week because we had been advised to go and tried the baked potatoes there! So we brought our adopted friend with us. We also cooked for our Bible Study on Wednesday night which was great. It is so nice to feel like we have a family here and that is definitely how I feel when I go to the Bible Study every week, however it does make me miss my friends and our cell group on a Friday night!

We also booked flights this week for our american friend Caitlin to come to Paris with us and then back to Northern Ireland with us. I also booked flights to come back out again in June with my friends and my sister, so my erasmus experience is far from over!

Professional:

I have really been enjoying school recently and the preparation required for the lessons has become less stressful. Being that we know exactly what we are doing and that we know how to present the lessons (introduction, development and conclusion), it is now easier to connect what we have to do. I am still enjoying teaching the non-bilingual 4th grade class who I think in turn are enjoying having me there. I taught them the time last week, which was a difficult concept for them to understand and it turned out to be a very challenging topic for me to teach as well! It helps having the class teacher in the room for the non-bilingual classes incase of any language barriers.

We are still having music lessons and singing lessons which are still enjoyable and we have been entered into the university's music competition which is this Thursday, so we are busy practicing for it. It is our last week of classes this week though, so we are busy completing assignments for university...

The parentals visit Budapest....

It has been a very long time since my last blog, but I have just been so busy that blogging has been the last thing on my mind! So much has happened though, so hopefully this will make for an interesting read!

Cultural Development:

We spent a day in Bratislava a few weekends ago and had a fantastic time. We got the train from Budapest which took just over two hours and while on the train we heard some people having a conversation about Ballymena, of all places! So naturally, we interrupted and found out that a guy on the train was from Derry and is living and working in Budapest. I thought this was such a crazy concept; being on a train from Budapest to Bratislava and being in the company of someone from Northern Ireland!

My parents were here last week, so we spent the week sight seeing and also doing some new things that I hadn't done before. We went to the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest which is the largest Synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world after the Temple Emanu-El in New York. It was one of the most interesting things I have done in Budapest since I got here. We also went to Buda Castle, on the bus tour, to the indoor market and to Szentendre.

We are also in the middle of planning our inter-railing trip around Europe before we head home, so we have booked our flights home from Paris so far!

Personal Development:

Personally, it was lovely having my parents here last week and being able to show them around Budapest and the places I go to and we also went home with a girl at the weekend to her house which was so nice, but it did make us all miss a home a little bit. Home cooked food and watching tv on the sofa appear to be a distant memory! We also went to our Pastors house for Easter Sunday which was so nice and hospitality and kindness like this just remind me that I can have a home away from home...

Professional Development:

Over the past few weeks I have been observing in a non bilingual class and from this week I will be teaching them as well as my bilingual classes. At first I found the bilingual classes challenging, but the non bilingual classes have proven to be even more challenging because I am having to use very tiny bit on Hungarian that I know to talk to the children. Their topic at the moment is Europe, so it has been nice being able to share things about Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and Ireland with them. I'm still enjoying our music classes here and still think I am learning a lot and becoming more competent at using the sol-mization method.

I'm looking forward to having even more visitors this week and being able to show them around Budapest with the other girls!