The holidays are here!!


Cultural:

This week started off well with a trip to the zoo on Tuesday afternoon. The weather was great and so this made for a great day out. Budapest zoo certainly has more to offer than Belfast zoo! One thing that made me sad when walking around the zoo was though, that in the farmyard section there was a bull placed in a tiny shed where it had no room to move, and it was tied up. As I live on a farm, I think this affected me even more. However apart from that it was lovely to see all the giraffes, elephants, polar bears etc!


On Wednesday night I went to the weekly Bible study. I was having dinner with some of the men before it started and we began talking about Ireland. A man asked me lots of questions about the country, and I simply said that I didn't know as much about Southern Ireland as I live in Northern Ireland. He actually laughed at me and made fun of the fact that it was such a small country and yet I didn't know about it. When I tried to explain that it was actually two countries he didn't believe me! (He is from America!) I was shocked when he went on to try and tell me about my own country! This made me realise how little we all know about where other people live in the world!



On Thursday night I climbed Gellert Hill with some people from my flat. It was amazing to finally see the city by night, which is the recommended thing to do for any tourist in Budapest. The view was incredible!


















On Friday morning Kirsty, Kathryn and I went off to Margaret Island, (which is situated in between Buda and Pest.) When we arrived we hired a 'maxi' bike and cycled around the island. It was good to finally see the island after two months of travelling past it.



















On Saturday morning we set off to Slovakia for the day! This was really exciting as I really didn't know what to expect of Bratislava. When we were on the train we heard some familiar accents and discovered that there was a guy from Ballymena on the seat infront of us! So we talked to these people on the way... very random!

When we arrived in Bratislava we discovered why we were recommended to do it in one day! It took us twenty minutees to walk into the city centre and from there we feel that we conquered the city by foot in about two hours. I was proud of myself that we got around the city (even though it is very small) without using a map! We walked up to the top of the castle and saw a great view of the city. We also saw Micheal's gate and walked around some of the pretty coloured buildings, which had been painted different colours after communism ended in their country. We finished off the day by eating some Slovakian food! I'm still not entirely sure what the meat was that I ate, but it tasted amazing!





















On Sunday I had possibly the nicest day of my trip so far. My pastor from church invited all of the international students from the church to his families home for Easter Sunday lunch. The house was stunning and the food was absolutely amazing! It was great to spend some proper time with people from church and relax with them. I had a great chat with the ministers wife and she gave me some great life tips!



Personal:

On Wednesday afternoon Kirsty, Kathryn and I met Caitlin and went for pancakes. It was good to catch up with her and just relax for the afternoon. knowing that I didn't have to get up early for school the next day as Easter break had begun.
I had a lovely relaxing day on Thursday. Kattie and I got up for a run, which was a great start to the day. A girl in my flat had told me about a pretty park by the Danube river which is really close to where I live and so we attempted to find it. Thursday was a very warm day and so it was beautiful to run in. When we found the park it took my breath away, and so later in the afternoon I took my blanket and went back and read a book in the sunshine.... the perfect way to start my Easter break!




Professional:

On Monday at school we were given our assignment dealine and so now I have to get to work on that! It's so scary to think that I'm coming near to the end of the trip!

Teaching at school this week was good, and I got some positive feedback which was encouraging to hear. My second grade class had completed the test of the topic which Kirsty and I had taught them and the teacher had marked them and told us that their results showed that we had taught the topic well! So that's always good to hear!

Now I'm entering week nine of my trip! I'm excited to see what new things I can learn and take in about Hungary before my time is up!!