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...