Goodbye Europe & Hello USA

Thank you Europe for showing me so much this semester. I still have a lot to reflect on and know that upon returning to the states I will see how this program has truly shaped me. I will miss your historical buildings, your fabulous food, your cheap airline costs and the many cultures to experience. Budapest, I will definitely miss your low cost of living, your Hungarian wines, and the wide range of places to eat. Most importantly, I will miss the people that you have introduced me to, from those on my program to the Hungarians I have met. Those individuals are what made my semester enjoyable.

The one thing I am taking away from my academic studies this semester is the importance of using problem solving, games, and manipulatives and the importance of finding a balance between different student interactions within each of my future lessons. I am also taking away the experience of teaching English to refugees and hearing some of their experiences. Lastly, I am personally taking back more confidence than I arrived with. I can't fully explain from what this confidence was formed and how it will change me, but I know I will see a difference back in the states. I'm also looking forward to seeing what other changes have occurred in me this semester that I have not yet noticed.

One of the hardest parts of this semester was the language barrier. I had been told that many people speak English here and that I would be able to get by just fine with speaking English. While that was basically true, I felt bad requiring others to speak a language that they may not feel comfortable with. Hence, I avoiding speaking to people that I didn't know if they spoke English. There were many times though that I hated not being able to speak Hungarian and have a small conversation with someone. I did take a short language course, but it moved through things to fast for me to become comfortable actually using it. I really only used and understood numbers, greetings, some foods, "thank you", "sorry/excuse me", and "I don't speak Hungarian". So yes I could get by, but never did I feel comfortable with this. I will forever be grateful for speaking English, the language used upon travelers and I am looking forward to being able to speak English more freely in the states.

I am greatly looking forward to being back in the United States. I've been told that I will greatly miss this semester and I am sure aspects of it I will, but I am looking forward to going home more than I have heard others speak of. It has been an adventurous, challenging, and enriching semester. Despite the fun times I have had and the great people that I have met, I'm ready to be back home surrounded by my family, faith family, and CSB/SJU community. Goodbyes are hard though and I have had to do many this week. First I said goodbye to the three very thoughtful women that I taught English to. They gave me an enriching experience that I will never forget. Next I said goodbye to the ICFB group that were so welcoming to Olivia and I. ICFB welcomed Olivia and I with open arms and continued to remind how God has worked in my life. I will be praying for all them as they continue their studies and work, especially Bernie and Sion who gave birth to a beautiful new daughter on Thursday. Lastly I said goodbye to the many people who I meant on this program. Some of them I know I will see again, but others I will probably never see again. Olivia and I got shakes on Thursday at the same place that we got waffles at and started our strong friendship at in the beginning of the semester. Then Julia, Rose, Olivia, Steffi, Haley, and I hung out together at Rose, Olivia, & Steffi's place. It was a great evening to spend together one last time. I pray that everyone has safe travels home and I hope to keep in touch with many of the wonderful individuals that have touched my heart this semester. While these goodbyes are always tough, it is time for me to be back home.

Szia later Europe & Budapest. Hello Minnesota,

Ashley

 *Notice: Szia means bye in Hungarian but sounds like "see ya".

Past Three Weeks

Below you will find rose-bud-thorns from my last three weeks in Budapest. A post about Amsterdam and a final post about my study abroad experience will happen later this weekend. Please pray for safe travels as I travel to Amsterdam and home this weekend.

Rose:
• Our Hungarian culture class saw Our Class, a play about Polish and Jewish classmates during the Holocaust. It was kind-of depressing and none of us had realized how depressing and violent it was going to be until we were sitting there watching it. But I'm still putting this as a rose because it was very interesting to watch (and a cultural experience).

• Olivia and I had a delicious dinner with a Hungarian who we meet through ICFB. We ate cordon bleu with plums on the inside with a side of salad and mashed potatoes. Olivia had made an Oreo cheesecake for dessert and then we finished the evening by playing a game of Pictionary together.

• I taught a lesson on division rules to an English-speaking math class at a Hungarian school for Practicum. We ran out of time to do everything we wanted because of some language barrier difficulties, but I thought the lesson went well and we think the students had fun with all the games we incorporated into the lesson.

• I made some math origami one afternoon at a workshop my program hosted.

• I saw Moana in 3D (in English) the day it came out in Hungary. I may or may not have cried it was so good. I also am in love with soundtrack and yesterday I shared on FB this really cool video of a mash-up of one of the songs in 24 different languages.

• The first Saturday of December a few of us from the program and one of the student coordinators visited a few spots in Budapest. First we saw some of the graves of the older Hungarian leaders. Then we went and saw this hidden church in the middle of the city: This church was built during the communist time, so in order for it not to be seen it was built with apartment buildings all around it. It has now turned into a gym. Our student coordinator told the guy at the desk that we were Americans looking at gym memberships and were wondering if we could look around. The guy at the desk did not care at all, so off we went to look at this gym that used to be a church. The only cool thing we saw was the courtyard from inside. We couldn't see the ceiling of the old church because their was a class in that room.

• There are so many Christmas markets here in Budapest. Haley and I went to one two Saturday evenings ago and enjoyed sipping some Apple Tea while looking at all the possible Christmas gifts.

• Two Thursdays ago I took my last final and was completely done with all classes. Since no one in my program had class on Friday, we went out as a group Thursday evening. It was fun to be with the group in a fun atmosphere like that. We spent a good amount of time giving teacher superlatives to everyone since almost all of us are going to be teachers. A few that I got include most likely to become a principal, most likely to marry a teacher, and most organized teacher. This last one should come as no surprise though. ;)

• Olivia and I saw the Nutcracker at the Opera House on Saturday. The performance, costume, and set pieces were all stunning and perfect for the Christmas season.

• Christmas spirit is surely in the air. On Saturday, I sang in the carol service that happened after Mass. It was fun, but very cold. I was at the church from 3 to 7 and I couldn't feel my toes as I walked home. Then on Tuesday, a group of us from ICFB had a charity Christmas concert where we sang many Christmas carols and all the money raised was donated to Preemptive Love, an organization that are helping people within war zones.

• On Sunday and Monday, Lydia & Logan, my cousin and her boyfriend, were in Budapest. On Monday, we were planning on going to Vienna for the day, but last minute decided to stay in Budapest. I had a wonderful day with them here in the Budapest. We met up a cute breakfast café and then did some sightseeing. I showed them the Central Market, Gellért Hill, Buda Castle, and Fisherman's Bastion. We ate dinner at a Christmas Market and then met up with some of my friends in the program at Szimpla and this other unnamed bar that has drinks at a low price. Lastly, we finished up the evening by eating these delicious sandwiches at Meat and Sauce. This place dips the whole sandwich in a sauce. It was so good. They headed off to Italy Tuesday morning and I'm excited to hear about the rest of their adventures at Christmas.

Shoes by the Danube as memorial of those died in the Holocaust

• On Wednesday I went to Gellért Baths. This was the only time that I went to the baths and it was an enjoyable experience. Later in the afternoon, my friends and I went to the Invisible Exhibit. This exhibit places you in complete darkness and then you are guided through my a blind person. We also learned a little bit about braille. It was a very interesting experience and something I will never forget.

• Thursday morning I went ice skating with my roommate Jane. It was fun, but I definitely would have enjoyed it more if I had ice skates instead of hockey skates. I can skate so much better in ice skates.

Bud:
• Being Home - Thanks to my parents moving to a new house in May/June, I was told I have a nice to-do list for when I get back. Exactly what I will need. :)

• I'm greatly looking forward to the Anne Frank house tomorrow!

Thorn: 
• Goodbyes are hard. More on that later this weekend though.

Weekend Retreat

It has now been like 2.5 weeks since my last blog post, so I figured I could post another one before October ends. :) 

Here have been some highlights from the past few weeks:

At the Chimney Cake Festival

• I took a Lindy Hop Swing Dancing class with Julia, a girl in my program, early October. It was soooo much fun and because the class was in Hungarian (except for the few times our instructor translated for us), Julia and I really had to learn how to follow.  This class made me realize though how much I love dance.
• That same weekend that Julia and I took the swing dancing class there was a Chimney Cake Festival at the city park. Friday evening Olivia and I caught the end of concert happening while eating a chimney cake and then I went back a few times throughout the weekend to people watch, listen to music, and have some more chimney cakes and other yummy foods. For those that don't know what a chimney cake is, I suggest googling it, but basically it is a delicious cake usually with cinnamon, walnuts, or cocoa powder on it. They are seen in Prague too, but are actually Hungarian. 
• On Saturday October 15th, I had to go to class because it was a 'working day' in Hungary. Because November 1st, a national holiday, takes places on a Tuesday this year, the government also gives off the Monday, but then requires people to make-up this work day on a Saturday.
• Later that evening, I went to a Pancake party at Eszter's place (Eszter is a woman in ICFB). Olivia and I made banana egg and oat pancakes and ate many Hungarian pancakes (basically crepes). 
• I am still teaching English Lessons to a group of 5-10 women refugees twice a week and absolutely loving it. It has become a highlight of my week.
• I have also continued to observe many Hungarian classrooms and have taught a mock lesson on parallel lines cut by a transversal in my CBG (Concept Building through Games and Manipulatives) class that focused on the discovery method often used within Hungarian math classes. It was great reminder of how difficult teaching math is. 



Our Shower Curtain

• My apartment has many heating issues and I still thinking our heating isn't working right. Our poor landlord has been to our apartment like four times in the past week due to this heating issue. Thankfully he is a lot faster at getting back to us on this heating issue compared to how long it had taken him to get our shower curtain up - we finally got the shower curtain we requested our second week here during the second week of October.
• See below about details from the retreat that I went on this weekend. After the retreat, I went to an 8:00 PM student Mass at the same church that has an English Mass on Saturday evenings. The Mass was all in Hungarian, so I didn't understand a word, but it was a very powerful Mass, especially after a wonderful Christ-filled weekend. The Mass was packed with students, even 15 minutes before it started. I was lucky enough to find a seat, but the church was full of students standing for the entire Mass. The student band playing was also great and I was able to recognize a few of the songs. 

In regards to the rest of October, nothing special is planned from now to Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon I leave for Croatia and will return on Monday. This will give me some time on Tuesday to prepare for next week when I have a lot due for classes. Hopefully I will be able to also put together a blog post about my trip on Tuesday.

Retreat

I spent this past weekend up in the mountains north of Budapest with the International Christian Fellowship of Budapest, the fellowship group I go to Friday evenings. This weekend was very refreshing and exactly what I needed. I did not have access to WiFi from 12:30 on Friday to 6:00 PM on Sunday and for like once in my life it was incredibly easy to step away from the phone and not think about it all weekend. The 60+ notifications I had from email, IMessage, FB, and snapchat took some time to go through, but the weekend was worth it. 

Our accommodations were in the shaded area in the middle

Olivia and I helped prepare some of the meals on Friday before we departed for the location. We arrived around 8:00 PM, and in the evening we did introductions and participated in the World Student Day of Prayer by praying for students in the many countries that those on the retreat came from and specific students that had requested prayers through the organization that puts this day together. Friday evening there was also a fun discovery: One of the American women on the trip is currently teaching in Georgia, the country, and came to Budapest just for the weekend retreat. She had met some of the leaders of ICFB last spring when she couchsurfed at one of their places or at one of their friend's places. As we were doing introductions early in the evening someone asked where she was from and she said Minnesota. I immediately got like super excited and asked her some more questions about where she was from. Turns out she is from Rochester, MN and her parents go to the same church as my aunt and uncle, so she knows who my uncle is. It was a crazy small world moment!

Muddy/Wet Trail

Saturday morning we went on a long hike in the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous and many spots on the hike reminded me of Northern MN. Some of my favorite parts of the hike were when there were little bursts of light flooding through the dark trees. It was a great reminder that God's light and love shines down on us even during struggling times. My least favorite part of the hike was all the mud . . . I had not thought about the amount of rain we had gotten lately and wore my fall boots. So my fall boots got very very muddy, but luckily I was able to successful clean them Sunday night after returning home.

Light shining through the dark forest

Later on Saturday, we talked about expectations. It was a very interesting topic and something I had not talked about before. In small groups we discussed our expectations in life, in ourselves, and in God. We also talked about how these expectations in life and in ourselves connect with our relationship with Christ. I highly encourage those reading this to think about the expectations they have in life, in themselves, and in God. It resulted in very insightful and interesting conversations. Saturday evening I also greatly enjoyed the various conversations that happened about different cultures. There was a whole conversation that happened about women working in the kitchen and what is expected of women in various cultures. This conversation was held between six of us from four/five different countries: America, Nepal, Mongolia, Georgia (even though she is from America, she knows a lot about their culture) and Hungary. Quite interesting.

Jumping for joy over this view!

Sunday we ate breakfast, had a short church service-type session, ate lunch, visited a women down the road who sells wooden spoons for a very cheap price, and cleaned up all before heading out around 3:30. One thing that I noticed about this retreat that may be culturally different compared to those in the US was the type of food served. Saturday we had a pasta sauce with a large variety of vegetables in it and Sunday was rice with a mushroom sauce. I could never imagine these types of dishes being served on a retreat in the US because there were way too many vegetables in them that a good percentage of people may not like, like mushrooms.  Retreats that I have been on tend to have foods that one would expect most people in the US to like. Just an interesting thought that had crossed my mind.

Overall though it was a very refreshing weekend and I'm so glad that Olivia and I went. I hope to have pictures on Facebook before I leave for Croatia on Friday.

    

It's October!

It is now October and in 8 days I will have hit my half way mark in Budapest. Crazy! 

Here are some RBTs from these past two weeks:

Rose:

Olivia and I at the ballet

• Olivia and I went and saw a ballet for about $5 on September 24. The show was incredible. There were four pieces and the first piece was for sure my favorite. They had this wall that they incorporated into the first piece so well. They moved the wall forward and back, brought it down for certain part so it acted more a stage, folded it to make it into a corner, and went through multiple doors within the wall. It was a beautiful piece.
• Haley and I found a really good bagel place one Monday morning. They serve bagels with omelets and avocado and a bunch of other yummy stuff. I just got a bagel that had cream cheese and tomatoes on it, but I definitely want to go back and get one with avocado. I also had an apple mint tea that had a really good unique flavor. It reminded me of fall back in MN.
• I have done two escape rooms these past couple of weeks:
• The first one we got 50% off at because it was World Tourism Day. It was a psycho-killer room and had a bunch of scary unnecessary noises throughout. We escaped with five minutes to spare, but got really lucky because we had guessed on a couple of combinations. I think we could have also escaped a few minutes earlier had I not dropped a piece we needed down some random small hole. We weren't able to get the piece back and it caused us to not get another number we needed.
• The most recent one occurred yesterday, and we escaped with about eight minutes to spare. The theme was "mind-boggling", but unfortunately there weren't as many puzzles as we all would have liked, just a lot of keys and combinations, nothing too fancy.
• My Hungarian culture class went and saw a gallery of Robert Capa, a famous Hungarian war photographer. It was a really cool gallery. The photographer had many interesting realistic photographs and unfortunately died after stepping on a land mine while capturing the First Indonesia War.
• I sang in the English choir at mass on October 1. I was shocked to find out that the hymn books we used were made at St. John's Liturgical Press at SJU. It was a very exciting moment.
• A group of us went and saw Les Mis last Sunday. The performance was really great, despite not being able to understand a word. There were English subtitles though, so the ones that don't know the show my heart, myself included, knew what was going. Our seats only costs like $5, but they were definitely not very good seats as I could only see about 3/4 of the stage due to our location in the balcony.
• I taught my first English lesson to a group of women refugees from Syria and Lebanon. All the women were so eager to learn and I am really looking forward to another lesson next week!
• BSME had an event where we were taught a bunch of Hungarian strategy board games (like chess-style board games). It was really fun and required a lot of thinking.
• Olivia and I enjoyed a wonderful evening yesterday. After the escape room, we got some soup and headed to ICFB. Then we caught the end of a performance of Margaret Island at the chimney cake festival while enjoying chimney cakes. We thought we were going to miss the music, but got there in time to listen to at least four of their songs. While I have no idea what they were singing about, they sounded really good and it was a perfect end to the evening.
• I got a lovely care package from my parents this week with some good American food like mac and cheese, Chex Mix, and angel food cake mix.
• The rest of this weekend includes a trip to the National Gallery, more exploration at the chimney cake festival, and maybe a swing dance lesson (and homework :) ).

Bud:

• The second to last weekend of October the fellowship group that Olivia and I are in is holding a retreat in some woodsy part on the outskirts of Budapest. I am really looking forward to this weekend full of fellowship, music, and prayer.

Thorn:

• Small Thorn: Haley and I planned to meet up for pizza last Saturday and ended up waiting at different parts of the entrance. So we both waited at this place for 20 minutes before figuring out we were both there. We laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't that funny. We were both thankful though that we have phone plans so we could call each other and figure out where we were.
• I got sick Thursday afternoon and haven't fully recovered yet, but am getting there.

RBT & BSME Blog

Rose Bud Thorn

For those that don't know what RBT is: Rose is a highlight from the week, Bud is what you are looking forward to or a God moment from the week, and Thorn is a low from the week. 

• Rose(s): 1. Sunday afternoon Olivia and I joined up with some people from the fellowship group we are in and hiked to Elizabeth Lookout on the western side of Buda. We had a gorgeous hike, nice weather, and an incredible view. 
2. Tuesday morning I got up early to do some studying at a cafe. Upon arrival, I found out this cafe has chai lattes (which seem to be fairly uncommon here in Budapest). It brought a little piece of comfort to the week.   
3. The Budapest Jazz Club has free jazz jam sessions that people can listen to a couple of times a week, so a group of us went Saturday evening and Wednesday evening. The club has a really enjoyable environment, and the group of us had two wonderful evenings. 

• Bud(s): 1. Olivia and I bought our tickets to Rome! So while everyone in the US is enjoying a large Thanksgiving meal and all the Black Friday deals, Olivia and I will be living large (as large as broke college students can live) in Italy.
  2. I got an email from the church that has English mass about the weekends the choir will be singing this semester - not only am I excited to sing with the choir, I'm also very grateful that I am being given the opportunity to do so. 

• Thorn(s): 1. Tuesday I realized how strong of a desire I have to feel a part of a community here in Budapest. I feel the community within the fellowship group on Fridays, but that feeling only comes once a week. I spent a good amount of time reflecting on this on Tuesday and continue to do so. This realization though did allow for an excellent conversation with a friend studying in Chile this semester, so this thorn definitely turned into a rose.
  2. Our practicum visit this week was not impressive. The teacher took the fun out of Pascals triangle by basically telling the students all the patterns instead of letting the students search for them. It was difficult and boring to watch.

View from Elizabeth Lookout

BSME Blog Post - Community

BSME has a blog that they encourage students currently in the program to post on. Since I had been thinking a lot about communities this week, I decided to write a post about community on the BSME blog. You can read it here: 

https://bsmeblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/community/

My Apartment & Weekly Recap

Nothing super exciting happened this week, so here are some highlights:

• I did my first escape room and escaped with 25 minutes to spare! I think this one was bit to easy for 5 math majors (and the few hints given to us probably weren't needed), but we all still really enjoyed it!
• Sunday I enjoyed a lovely morning on the hills on the Buda side. I also stopped at a cafe for lunch and had a yummy, but strange peanut butter egg pepper sandwich (see picture to left).
• I attended my first salsa class through my program this week! Our program offers a few PE classes as part of our tuition, so I thought since I have time, I would take the salsa class. Boy was that a right choice. Even though it was just the basic steps, I highly enjoyed it and am looking forward for the next class :)
• I am going to be volunteering at a refugee program here in Budapest. This program is new-ish, so they are really allowing us BSM/BSME students to step in and do whatever sort-of programing we want to do. Maddie, a girl in my program, and I plan to start a math tutoring session on Mondays to help students with homework and to teach some fun math lessons. For those that didn't hear about it on the news, there was a large refugee crisis here last March where Hungary ended up closing their borders to refugees traveling through to other countries. I am learning a little bit about the crisis and the referendum that they are voting on in October in my Hungarian + culture class, an optional culture course offered by BSM/BSME. It is very interesting and very sad. Maybe I'll talk more about this later. Otherwise, those interested in knowing more should either a) google it or b) message me.
• I started visiting Hungarian schools on Wednesday. One thing that I learned that was surprise was that group work isn't typical in Hungarian classrooms. Group work is huge in the states, so I'm curious to know more on why they don't do as much of it here.
• This weekend is the chocolate/sweets festival, so Olivia and I plan to hit that up at some point. :)

Living Accommodations:

• Below are some pictures from  my apartment. These apartments were set up by the program and previous BSM/BSME students have lived here, so all the necessities were included.  I live with two other BSM students, Jane and Shuchi. Jane is from Australia, so we have been enjoying comparing things the different foods that we both grew up with, but the other has never heard of (like what is fairy bread?!) and other different cultural aspects of our lives. Shuchi is from India, but goes to Brown University, so she also brings in another perspective to our cultural conversations. Late last week, Jane, Shuchi, and I found ourselves in the kitchen discussing the differences between the culture on our college campuses. It was a very interesting conversation. It has been a nice experience living with these two so far. We also live in a really convenient location - we are a 10 minute walk to school at max and have public transit stops on both sides of us. 

My Kitchen

• Our kitchen is small, but since the three of us don't cook at the same time, it works. We wish we had a bigger fridge though, or at least a fridge with a larger freezer. We are just glad we have a small freezer to store some small items in, although there is sadly no room for ice cream. Also lighting the gas oven is quite scary and since we have no idea what the temperature is, we don't really use it.

My Bathroom

• Notice that there is no shower curtain in our bathroom. Our landlord said he was going to get us one, but he has yet to deliver it, so here the three of us are waiting and meanwhile are using towels to wipe up all the water on the floor after our showers. Also, the toilet isn't pictured because it is in a separate little room.

My Bedroom

• This is my bedroom. It is quite large, but very dark. Notice that my bed is on the floor. My two roommates have their beds slightly off the ground, but I don't for some unknown reason. My mattress is also not really a mattress but couch cushions or something, so it's not very comfortable. Also notice the drying rack, unfortunately  dryers are not really a thing in Hungary, but luckily these drying racks were provided for us!

That is all I got for you this week! I've been trying to find more things to do, because I have a lot more time on my hands then I am use to. It was also hard this week to see all the club emails about involvement (our annual club fair at CSB/SJU for students to learn about all the different clubs/organizations on campus) and not be able to be there. However, one good thing that came out of all the email was I sent a screenshot of one with a comment to my ex-co-RA, Hannah Kosel, and we ended up having a spontaneous short skype session. It was very nice - I had missed hearing all her beautiful insight on things. :)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Szia,

Ashley Wilson

First Week of Class

Can't miss that first day of school picture!

I have officially finished the first week of class. I can tell that I am going to love some of my classes and others were not the type of class I was expecting from this program. First, the strange thing about my program is that the first two weeks are a 'shopping period'. This means that we are able to sit in on any classes that we want to in order to decide what classes we want to register for. Registration then happens Sept. 22. Since there are only four BSME courses offered and I have to pick three, I don't have that many to choose from, so this 'shopping period' is not as necessary for us as it is for BSM students, who have many classes to choose from.

Because I don't have a lot to choose from, I've decided I will be taking the following:
1. Practicum: We will visit various schools in Hungary in this course to observe the Hungarian way of teaching and discuss the difference between the American and Hungarian education system.

2. Concept Building through Games and Manipulatives: In this course we discuss how to build math concepts in our classrooms based on games and activities. The thing that I highly enjoy about this class is that we also discuss how we would expect our students to answer and how we, as the teacher, would respond to these answers. It is a very interesting course and I'm starting to note some of the differences between the Hungarian and American way of teaching. For example, in Hungary, there is a larger focus on letting students figure out the solution on there own and guiding them in a way that doesn't let them know if they are right or not. Hence the teacher asks a lot of questions and seems to give less positive reinforcement.

3. Problem Solving in Secondary School Mathematics: This course is deceiving because most of math problems are problems I would never be able to use in a middle school or high school math classroom. I'm a little frustrated with this course because there tends to be a larger focus on the math than on the education. I came here to learn about math education, not just more math. The other course offered through BSME is also very similar to this class. After sitting in on both this one and the other one, I realized the format for each class seems the same. This also provides frustration because I don't understand why they are basically offering two of the same classes.

4. Introduction to Hungarian Culture: This course we will discuss Hungarian culture with a focus on history, politics, literature and art. During the first class, we took time to get to know each other and the cultures we each come from. I have feeling this course is going to be very interesting and highly enjoyable.

5. Then because I can for no additional cost, I am also taking a salsa dance class and possibly doing an internship at a local refugee program. I am attending an informational session on Monday about the internship and I am excited to learn more about their program.

Taking these courses also allows me to have Fridays off, which will be great for the occasional weekend travel plans.

Besides the start of classes, this week has been crazy busy. On Monday, we had our welcome party and academic orientation. We got to meet the professors and the other two BSME students who didn't take the language course. They had these delicious peanut butter brownies, which was surprising, because peanut butter is not a common food in Budapest (and most of Europe I believe).

The school also offered two events for students: a boat cruise Wednesday evening and pizza and games on Thursday. Both were fun and had good food, especially the boat cruise. Through these events I realized how grateful I am for taking the language course, because it gave me the chance to meet many people in BSM and BSME. On the boat cruise, a group of us decided to do an Escape Room Saturday evening and I am so excited. There are a ton here in Budapest and I have been wanting to do one (in general, not necessarily one in Budapest) for some time now. I can't express how anxious I am for tomorrow evening. Additionally, some of us also bought tickets to Les Miserable in October. Tickets were only $5, so although I won't be able to understand what they are saying, the experience is definitely worth it at that price. I also made plans with Molly and Meghan, my two best friends from CSB/SJU, to meet up in Berlin in November. Prior to all of our study abroad trips (Molly is in Ireland & Meghan is in France) we didn't know if there was going to be a weekend that the three of us could meet up somewhere, but when Molly texted us the date of one of the only weekends that she doesn't have a trip with her program, Meghan and I quickly agreed that that was the weekend to go somewhere. We decided on Berlin because it was the cheapest for all of us. I have booked my plane tickets and we are now figuring out where we are going to stay. This weekend trip is going to be so much fun.

So as you can see there are a lot of fun adventures ahead. I will continue to try to update the blog weekly, but can't make any promises as classes pick up.

Szia,
Ashley

Second Week

I have finished another complete week here in Budapest and I can definitely say things are getting easier (I think). I am getting more comfortable with the city and really starting to get to know some of the people in my program.

Most of this week I was in my Hungarian language class. I feel like we have learned a lot in a short period of time, but I still feel really uncomfortable actually using it with Hungarians. Here are a few sentences  in Hungarian for those that are curious to know what I've learned:

Jacob öcsém.
Jacob is my (younger) brother.
Yes the verb is missing from the sentence.

A templomba megyek és a postára megyek.
I am going to the church and I am going to the post office.
Literal translation: The church in I am going and the post office on I am going.

A parkban, ő olvas és setal.
In the park, she reads and walks.

Ebédelek a szendvicset paradicsomval.
I eat a sandwich with tomatoes.

This week also included many fun adventures:

On Tuesday, Olivia, Steffi, and I took a Hungarian folk dance class that our language school was offering. I absolutely loved it! I don't have experience with any types of dance really, so I can't compare it to anything, but the posture for the dance is similar to many of the Latin dances, I guess. After class, we were told that the liberty bridge (which is closed for traffic) was having a swing dancing party. Some of us from class went to check it out, but unfortunately,  it was done by the time we arrived. Instead we enjoyed the scenery on the bridge before heading back to our apartments.

On Wednesday, our Hungarian class went to the Central Market Hall and bought supplies for a sandwich in Hungarian. We were then required to make this sandwich for our taste-tester. All the other classes did this on Thursday and the class with the best sandwich will be announced today (Monday). Our class made a ginormous sandwich with ham, salami, paprika salami, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and little bit of this super spicy sauce. I would say we are basically all professional sandwich makers now. :)

On Thursday, our class made a visit to the Immigration office to apply for our residence permits. Olivia, Haley (another BSM student), and I were done by 10:30, so we were able to enjoy the rest of our afternoon. We went to Testco at the mall to get some things we needed that couldn't be found in the grocery stories near us. I also got a bar of delicious dark chocolate bar for $1.30. So good and so worth it. We ate lunch at the mall and then headed back to our apartments to drop our stuff off. I then headed over to Olivia's place to study some of my Hungarian. At 4:15, we met up with others at the language school to go on a walking tour of Gellert Hill. Olivia and I absolutely loved being on the Buda side in the Gellert Hill area because of all the nature. We miss being surrounded by the open fresh air and all the grass and trees. Olivia and I plan to go back to the Buda side sometime to check out some cafes and maybe even do some studying in the grass.

 

While on this walking tour, we ran into a bride and groom taking wedding pictures. All the girls were freaking out over how gorgeous her wedding dress was. It was lace on the top with an open back and a fluffy tull-like bottom. We all couldn't help but stare at this couple taking the cutest pictures. Meanwhile, some guys in the AIT program (a study abroad computer science program) where in awe over a drone that someone was flying around the park, so you can see where everyone's priorities were on this walking tour.

Friday evening was also a wonderful afternoon. After a long day of class, Olivia and I checked out this International Christian Fellowship Group. This is a group of international adults who meet up weekly to talk about God. It official starts in two weeks once all the international students get back to Budapest, but Olivia and I still enjoyed speaking with some of the locals that attend the group. We sang a couple of songs, read a couple of bible passages, and prayed together. It was a great way to end the week. I had been told prior to studying abroad that I should make sure to talk to some of the locals. I was really hesitant on how I was going to do this, but Olivia and I realized this was the prefect way to do so. One of the girls name Eszter is in her last year of school, and even though she is from Hungary, she did study in Poland for a semester (or two?). Eszter was super nice and traveled back to the main train station with us just to make sure we got home safely. Eszter brought both Olivia and I a sense of ease and we are looking forward to going back again in two weeks.

Saturday, Haley and I explored the park by  Heroes' Square and enjoyed a lovely pizza and ice cream. I had a cone drizzled in dark chocolate with a small scoop of white chocolate strawberry ice cream and a small scoop of cookies ice cream. So good! A group of us also finalized plans for our trip to Prague next weekend! We plan to travel by train and stay two nights in an Airbnb. It will be a great weekend before classes start. Finally, I went to an English mass Saturday evening. The choir sang this week and after mass was over the lady in front of me said if I was going to be here a while that I should join the choir. So I gave one of the women in the choir my email and plan to join them the next time they sing at mass.

Finally, today a group of us went to Szentendre, a suburb of Budapest. We walked around an open-air museum, so there were little villages that we walked through and looked at all the different types of jobs/ways of life in each little place. We ate some very good gingerbread cookies and had lunch at the "inn" there. Our lunch included this very good cold fruit soup. It sort-of reminded me of a strawberry rhubarb pie filling. We then went into the actual town and had three hours to explore. A group of us went up to the beautiful catholic church on the top of hill and then walked along the river. We got home via a boat cruise on the Danube.

The amphitheater in one of the villages.

Our cold fruit soup!

It was a very fun week, but also a very busy week. I'm off to language class again this morning. We have four days left and then I'll be off to Prague for the weekend!

Szia,

Ashley

First Week

This week has involved a lot of changes and I am still adjusting to all of them, including life in a city, the language, Hungarian culture, new schedule, new friends, etc. As things progress and I get more comfortable, things are becoming easier. I have now had three days of my language course. I knew coming into this course that Hungarian was a difficult language to learn, but holy cow I underestimated how difficult it was going to be to pronounce some of these words. Here is a bit of Hungarian for ya:

Ashley vagyok. Húsz éves vagyok. Amerikai vagyok és Minnesotában élek. Angolul beszélek és most magyarul tanulok. 

My name is Ashley. I am 20 years old. I am American and live in Minnesota. I speak English and now I'm learning Hungarian.

Some days in the language course can be really long, because we are in class form 9 AM - 3:30 PM, but I am really getting exposed to the language. This week included classes that were slightly different than normal, because we had some other adventures: On the first day of class in the afternoon, some Budapest students who speak English gave us a small tour of the area. It was great to speak to a Budapest student to ask about some of the ins and outs of living in Budapest. Thursday we then visited the BSM/BSME school in the afternoon and had a mini orientation about some of the culture in Hungary. One thing that we are now all trying to do is to start with our thumb when counting numbers on our finger, instead of our pointer finger. We also learned that when bringing flowers to others here, there should be an odd number, because even number is bought for funerals.

Luckily, one of the things that doesn't need a whole lot of adjustment is practicing my faith: Wednesday when we got placed in various language courses, I got placed in the same room as Olivia, one of the girls that I had met Tuesday evening when a bunch of BSM/BSME people grabbed dinner. We started talking and I found out that Olivia's faith was also very important in her life. It is comforting to know that I have some one in my program that I can talk to about faith related things. We ended up making dinner together Wednesday evening: a salad with tomato, cheese, eggplant, and chicken. It was delicious (see image to the right)!

Also, when Olivia and I went to grab food for our Wednesday dinner, we stopped to take a picture of the gorgeous church down the block from me. Turns out this church is Catholic and offers daily mass - I can't explain how excited this made me! I tried going to mass Thursday morning, but I found out mass was only offered MWF at 7:30 AM and 6:00 PM on TR. I did make it to mass Friday morning before my language course though! I didn't understand a word, but the fact that I knew what was happening at each point is one of the best things about attending a Roman Catholic mass elsewhere in the world. I was also able to attend mass in English Saturday evening, which provided a piece of comfort. Olivia and I also found this International Christian Fellowship group that meets Friday evenings (and speaks English) in Budapest. We plan to check it out next Friday and see what it is all about!

This weekend has also been very busy and full of things to do! The language school hosts optional special events throughout the language course to help us get adjusted to the city and meet others in our program. Friday evening was the first one and included a Hungarian meal (goulash) and a cruise along on the Danube river. It was a very enjoyable evening. Then yesterday was a Hungarian National Holiday: St. Stephen's Day. Jane (my roommate), Olivia, some others in my program, and I got up early to see the flag raising ceremony at 8:30 AM at the Parliament building. We then waited in line for two hours to see inside the Parliament building for free. It was worth the wait, because it was absolutely gorgeous in there. We then found lunch and made our way over to the festival happening on the Buda side. The night then finished with fireworks over the river. There were four spots that the city was shooting fireworks from and it was a stunning show.

Goulash Soup!

Today I am off to see more of the festival and have a relaxing day before continuing the long week ahead of learning more Hungarian.

Szia,

Ashley

Getting Settled

I hung up some pictures today in my room to make it feel a little more like home.

Yesterday Jane, one of my roommates, and I did some cleaning of the apartment. While cleaning, we found a really cool record player, but it doesn't work. I also finally had some time to unpack since my parents left early in the morning. Saying goodbye was tough, but I know we will FaceTime plenty.

Today Jane and I adventured out to the Central Market. It is basically a building by the river with a big farmer's market. I bought some sort-of apple strudel pastry on our way out; it was very tasty. We then took a small detour by the river on our way home.

Tonight, some of the individuals in my program might grab dinner together. Then tomorrow my language course begins. I'm really looking forward to this course, because it would be nice to know some Hungarian. Currently I know a few words and am able to get by without knowing anything, but it would be nice to know a few more.

I plan to post pictures from the first weekend in Budapest within the next couple of days as well as an update on the language course and my apartment.

Szia,
Ashley