The summer is here! The weather in Budapest has been amazing this week, and today we even had our first afternoon of sunbathing, (well.. half an hour!)



Cultural

This week was full of random adventures experiencing new and wonderful things in Hungary! On Wednesday Klari took Kathryn, Kirsty and I to the fine arts museum. I have never been to an art gallery and so it was really good to try something new! The entire area around the museum is beautiful, (hereo's square) and the architecture of the museum was incredible to look at.


On Wednesday we went to a Bible study that our church holds. We had tea with everyone there and then had the study after. I am really appreciating learning from new people and listening to opinions of people from around the world.

On Friday evening the school that I teach in put on a concert at a nearby theatre. We were asked to watch it and so we went along. I wasn't very excted about going as I was so tired, however when it began I soon grew to enjoy it a lot. There was a huge range of performances, from choirs to solo gymnasts. What struck me most was that the teachers were so proud of their pupils, whether their performance was great or not. The pupils were encouraged to all take part, and the show was so laid back. The emphasis wasn't on putting on the best performance ever, but about having fun and letting everyone take part.

On Saturday Kirsty, Kathryn and I took a trip to Szentendre village, which is about 45 minutes outside of Budapest. Friends from church had recommended seeing it so we went. When I first stepped off the train I wondered why I had come as I thought the surroundings looked very basic, however we walked about 500 metres into the village square and my opinion soon changed. The village has beautiful cobbled streets and is full of traditional Hungarian souvenir shops. I had some Hungarian goulash soup for lunch along with apple struddle, which was the 'tourists menu!' After walking around the village we took a walk along the danube river and I had my first ice cream of the year!

The day ended lovely as when I arrived back at halls a Hungarian flatmate asked Kirsty, Kathryn and I to stay with her the weekend 10th-11th April. So I am really excited to spend time in a typical Hungrian home and watch how they live from day to day.

Church on Sunday was lovely as every week there are new international people and so there are always new faces to see and to talk to. This week I met a girl from Holland called Marie-Ann who is studying in Budapest for one semester. I also met Linda who is from California, and after church we went to a local market that is held outside on the main street in Budapest during the Spring festival season, which is on at the miunte.

On Sunday night I went to a concert in a local chapel, which I was invited to by my music teacher at university as she was singing in the performance. It was great to hear her choir as they are quite well known. I was very impressed with their performance, even though it was so busy that I had to stand for the entire concert!

Personal
At the beginning of the week I struggled with the thought that I was no longer experiencing new things and that I was spending a lot of time in my flat, however this feeling only lasted a couple of days and then things got back to normal. It was so lovely to be asked to stay with one of my Hungarian friends for the weekend, and also at church on Sunday all of the international students were invited to have Easter Sunday lunch with the minister and his family. These small things reminded me once again of the lovely people I have met since coming to Budapest!

Professional
School this week was really challenging as my teacher was off for two days and so I taught some classes alone. It was so rewarding to teach the first grade class especially as I was told it may be too hard, however it was my favourite class of the day. I was worried that the language barrier would be a problem, as there would be no Hungarian teacher in the room to translate, however it went absolutely fine and the children seemed to really enjoy the lesson, (I even spoke some Hungarian when the children got confused!)

This week has probably been one of the most challenging emotionally since I have come to Budapest, however I am constantly leearning new things, not only about the surroundings around me, but also about myself. So I am very excited to see what the next week has in store for me!

Cultural:

Week six is over! It really is starting to scare me how quickly my time in Budapest is going.

This week was certainly a week to test my knowledge of Budapest as my parents came to visit me and I wanted to take them to all the great sights of the city. It was the first time that I was relying fully on my own knowledge and not relying on others, and so I was very proud of myself that I didn't get lost and that my parents got to see everything that I wanted them to!!

On Tuesday morning I met mum and dad after I finished school and I took them to a lovely street full of typical Hungarian restaurants and cafes. (I attempted to use some of my Hungarian phrases when ordering food, which impressed dad!) I had already told mum and dad to take the bus tour in the morning and so they had an idea of what sights there were, and so after lunch I took the underground to the house of terror to let them gain an understanding of the history of communism within Hungary. One thing that struck dad was that Hungary has lost about 2/3's of its orginal size throughout the difficult times for the country, and also the fact that people of only 30 years old can vividly remember the days of communism within their country.

After visiting the house of terror I took mum and dad to the market where we walked around and looked at some of the typical hungarian tourist merchandise, and then we picked up Kirsty and Kathryn and went for some dinner in the 'octagon' area, which is full of European restaurants, and at night time the area is beautiful with the street lamps and cobbled ground.

(The photo to the left is of the indoor market)

Then on Wednesday I met mum and dad after school again and I took them for some Hungarian 'goulash' in the local indoor market, and then we went on a boat trip along the Danube river. These were both new things for me to experience so it was a great day for us all. I was surprised on the boat trip by the huge size of Margaret Island which is in the middle of the Danube and splits it in half. It holds a hotel and mini water park and even has an outdoor cinema (which I am very excited about going to when it gets hot!)

(The photo to the left is of the end of Margaret Island)

On Wednesday night we walked around St.Stephen's Basilica and went into a wine bar with background jazz music which was a lovely way to finish off the day.

Mum also booked me into a room in the Gellert hotel, which made my week! (The gellert is the main hotel in Budapest and is included in all of the tourist books.)

(The photo below is of the Gellert hotel)

So I woke up on Thursday morning and had a full hot breakfast as well as lots of fruit and yoghurt. This was

certainly luxury compared to what I have been getting used to over the last 6 weeks! After breakfast I went with mum and dad to the gellert thermal baths which are within the hotel complex.

On Thursday afternoon I took my parents around the city to show them the school that I teach in and also showed them my university.

So the three days that I had with my parents were very busy! It was so great to see them and it also felt good to realise that I actually do know my way around the city and was able to tell mum and dad things about it.

This week I also celebrated St.Patrick's day with some international girls who were staying in our flat this week. It was great to spend time with 4 other girls who are all from different countries around the world. We went out to an area called, 'Deac Ferenc' where the faculty of art held an event with a band playing balkan music. I had never heard anything like it before. It was amazing to listen to.

Personal:

Another highlight of my week was that Spring has finally arrived! The Hungarians in my flat told me that it comes suddenly, and this is certainly true, as on Tuesday morning I woke up to snow, and on Thursday morning it was 18 degress! Everything looks so different in the sun and people around the city are happier!

In our spare time this week we met up with Klari, (our hungarian mentor) and our friend Kaitlyn from America. We brought them along to watch the Ireland six nations match on Saturday in an Irish pub, along with some of our other American friends. Although Ireland lost against Scotland it was so good to eat some Irish food!

(The Irish girls are ready to support Ireland in the photo below!)

Professional:

This week I was able to teach the first grade English class at school. I was really pleased to get the chance to teach in this class as I knew it would be the most challenging. It was the first time in my experience of teaching that I felt I was teaching English from the very beginning. I am enjoying teaching the children the alphabet as I am witnessing the very first stages in learning the English language. It has been challenging also as the children's English vocabulary is very limited and so I am learning to mime what I want the children to do, thus my acting skills are improving a lot!!

In my forth grade English lesson my teacher said that she was enjoying watching my style of teaching and that she is learning from the Irish style. This was really encouraging to hear, and to know that I am moving forward in my teaching skills.

Thus it has been a really positive week in Budapest...

So week five of my Budapest adventure is almost over!

This week was a little less hectic as most, which was good to relax and have time to appreciate everything around me.

Unfortunately for the first half of the week the weather was extremely cold and so it was hard to get out and about in the evenings, and on Thursday morning Kirsty opened the curtains of our bedroom to discover a world of whiteness again! Luckily the snow only lay for two days, but we were not happy!!

Today was lovely as we got a lie in because school was cancelled for the day as Hungary holds a bank holiday every year on the 15th of March to celebrate the countries revolution of 1848-1849. Some of the bridges were closed off and many houses hung the countries flag outside their home in celebration, and so Kathryn bought me a badge to where in order to fit in with the rest of the country!

We took advantage of the day to explore more hidden streets of Budapest and we found a lovely Hungarian restuarant to have our lunch in. My parents are also arriving in the city tonight (which I am really excited about!) and so I forced Kathryn and Kirsty around the city on different trams and undergrounds just to make sure I knew exactly where I was taking mum and dad! It's going to be exciting showing them around the city, knowing what I'm doing and not feeling like a toursit, (hopefully!!) So I will let you know how that goes!

As I said, this week was quite relaxed and so we didn't get up to much in the evenings, however we have persuaded our hardworking flatmates to do one sort of flat activity a week, and so this week we went to play billiards! Most of the guys had never played before, or perhaps just once and so it was crazy that I was teaching them the rules, even though I am absolutely terrible at the game! Again though it showed me just how easy it is for us to try out new things at home, and that the opportunities for entertainment at home are endless compared to within Budapest.

This week we spent a lot of our time in school teaching, which is another reason why we spent our evenings resting! It has been really enjoyable getting to know the children and to feel comfortable in the different classrooms. One thing that I find difficult is that I am not getting the opportunity to teach the first grade class. My teacher feels that it would be too difficult due to the language barrier, but I would love the chance to teach them and so I find this a little frustrating, but hopefully some day I soon I will get to. My favourite class has definately been second grade. The children are very responsive and are extremely enthusiastic about what we teach.

In my fourth grade class this week I told the children that my parents are coming to visit the city and so they came up with lots of different possible activities to do and places to go to, and the childrens enthusiasm during this lesson was rewarding. It's really interesting to see that Hungarians get very excited and proud of their country when they hear that people want to come and visit it.

University this week has also been rewarding for me, as I had a singing lesson on Thursday where I attempted to sing a Hungarian folk song with my teacher which I have been working on, and she told me that my pronunciation was good! As I feel that I am terrible at learning new languages I was really pleased when I was told this!

Personally, I had a really positive week in Budpest, and I feel that I achieved new things. I am very excited to see what new things I will experience this week and also to find out if I will be able to show my parents around the city succesfully and not get lost!!

I shall let you know soon...

I'm half way through week five of my adventure in Budapest, and I really can't believe how quickly it is going! Culturally I have learnt lots of little things about Hungary this week. As it is Mother's day on Sunday I tried to send a card to my mum, however I couldn't find any as the Hungarians celebrate this day in May. I also discovered that they do not have a Father's day, although they do celebrate 'childrens day!'
On Monday a friend from my flat came into my room and asked if I realised that it was, 'women's day', I said no and then he gave me a flower in celebration of the day! My pink flower certainly made me smile!
Another celebration that I discovered this week is that the Hungarians celebrate their, 'name day.' Every Hungarian name is written on different days on their calender and you celebrate your name day on the day that it is written... some popular Hungarian names such as, Ferenc, Zoltan and Gergely have two or three name days! On Sunday a friend from my flat invited me to the kitchen to eat some chocolate cake with her as it was her name day and her mum had baked her a cake. Unfortunately the name Alison does not get a names day!!

The past week has been extremely busy, but the more I go out with Hungarian friends the more I learn about their lifestyle and I am finding this really interesting. Kirsty, Kathryn and I took some boys from our flat bowling on Wednesday, and they were so excited as they had never been! (Even though the building is very close to where we live.) It is at times like this that I realise how much we take the little things for granted at home.
I was very proud of myself on Monday as I was told that there was a swimming pool near to where I live and so I went on a tram to attempt to find it! I am very bad with directions and so I was very excited when I found it in the middle of nowhere! No one spoke English so it was a little difficult trying to get a ticket, locker key and find the changing room but I got there eventually!!

We have been teaching full lessons everyday for the past week and thus are slowly getting into the way of Hungarian teaching. It is very different from back home as we are teaching English as a foreign language, and within these lessons the teacher recommends the use of word games to teach the vocabulary. With the small children 'Simon says' is very popular!
I have also been finding it challenging teaching for 45 minutes on the same lesson, (this is how long each class lasts), but the 15 minute break inbetween each class certainly helps!

I was very disappointed on Sunday when I woke up to discover that the weather had changed from around 13 degress to being around minus 2 and snowing! I had been told that the weather can change rather suddenly here and now I have witnessed it for myself! Although I am hopeful that Spring is coming soon!! So hopefully in my next blog I will be telling you about the warm weather we are recieving!!

Cultural
So another week in Budapest!... The sun has finally arrived and the weather is beautiful. Now the parliament buildings look even more stunning and the Danube river reflects the sun making the city look incredible. We had a ski week from school last week and so we travelled to Vienna by train. We went to see an opera 'Carmen' in the opera house on the Friday night, which was in German. It is very different from back home as most people arrived in formal suits and dresses, and so we looked very out of place in our casual clothes! However the performance was amazing. On the Saturday I visited St. Stephens's cathedral, the anchor clock and the Palace buildings; which were all within thirty minutes of the city centre. I left Vienna with a warm feeling towards the city. Everyone is so friendly.. when we arrived in Vienna a random lady took us on the underground and showed us exactly where to go, which saved us so much time, she told us to have a lovely time and that we were, 'most welcome in Vienna!'

Personal
I have really enjoyed getting to know people on a deeper level this week. Last night I talked to some people in my flat about the communist system to understand more about it, and when you understand where the people here have come from it makes a huge difference to how you see things around you. Kirsty, Kattie and I went for coffee with a friend from church last night and she told us that Budapest is only 1 percent Christian, which shocked me a lot, and due to my faith, had a huge impact on me.

Professional
In my 'Teaching English as a foreign language' class this week at university our teacher taught the class some songs to use in schools. None of the other students in the class are music specialists, however I learnt so many songs from them that will certainly be able to be used within a primary school back home.
Within my music classes, school and singing lessons people regular ask if I could teach the children simple Irish folk songs, which has made me aware that in Northern Ireland we don't use very many within our Primary schools, perhaps because our folk songs aren't simple enough to learn, however it made me think about our heritage, and so I will be teaching the children 'cockles and muscles' next week!!