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!