Hello all! This blog is meant to update all my family and friends with what’s going on in the next year as I begin this new adventure in Hungary with the Central European Teaching Program (CETP).
*Disclaimer: As this is my first blog, please don’t expect my first entry to be quite as riveting as they will (hopefully) be in the future, and despite this first entry, I hope you continue to follow me and my adventures in Europe... And tell everyone you know who knows and loves me, because I want more followers than Brenna... Love you Brenna :)
Brenna and I arrived in Budapest on Monday the 23rd after three different flights into three countries. Ontario to Denver went smoothly, but Denver to Frankfurt was a different story. Apparently Lufthansa believes in seats that recline to a surprisingly comfortable position, and 'universal' air control, which means they never turn on the air. As we were overheating, the small French boy seated in front of Brenna decided to take advantage of his seat and recline his eight-year-old self into her lap so the ‘latest episode of DuckTales’ was inches from her face. Brenna was not a happy camper. There were definitely points where I wanted to laugh at her situation, but the gorgeous Brazilian volleyball player sitting across the aisle from me meant that I couldn't sit (or sleep for that matter) in an unflattering position. It wasn't the most comfortable flight for either of us.
We did survive that flight, but we almost didn’t make it out of Germany because the Frankfurt airport is about 18 miles long and our gates were at the exact opposite ends; in terminals A and C. After hurrying through security again and sprinting to our gate, we met Jaq from Las Vegas. Sweating from our unexpected exercise and fanning ourselves with our passports and boarding passes, Jaq noticed we were from the US, assumed that we were with CETP and awkwardly introduced himself, we did likewise. Thankfully, before any more 'we just met you and now we're supposed to have a lot to talk about' conversation could ensue, we filed onto the plane,shuffled into our seats, and were pleased to find that this plane had individual air controls, and no small French children near us, and no beautiful Brazilian athletes. As promised, Mary and Hajni (the directors of CETP) were right outside the gate at Ferihegy Airport with their homemade CETP sign, Hajni quickly arranged a shuttle to our hostel, and we were off again.
When we arrived, we hardly had enough time to shower and prepare for the welcome dinner at Dunacorso in Budapest, and my first experience on the public transportation went quite well. We followed Hajni’s simple commands in her thick Hungarian accent like a herd of sheep and made it there in no time. We enjoyed our meals and were the first table to return to the hostel to catch up on sleep as we didn’t get much rest on our flights.
Since the 23rd, we have been attending Hungarian 101 and methodology classes at Corvinus University during the day, and at night we explore the city and try to figure out how to convert US dollars to Hungarian Forints. Not an easy task considering my history in mathematics.
On the last night a small group of other CETP teachers and myself hiked to the freedom statue (the Hungarian version of the Statue of Liberty) that looks over the whole city. We were the epitome of ‘obnoxious tourists’ taking pictures of absolutely everything. Filling the camera with pictures from this night was well worth it because this was the first time I had seen Budapest from above and it’s something I never want to forget. It was beautiful. I loved the trip up the hill because the city was amazing at night, but if we had known better I most definitely would have brought water and worn shorts instead of jeans because it was sadly, a little more physical activity than what I’d been used to at camp all summer, and we’re hot messes in all our photos.
Tonight, Brenna, Lexy and I wanted to explore the the Buda side by ourselves so we took the ‘Budavari Siklo’ up to the huge castle that overlooks the city and, again, took too many pictures of the city, the castle itself and many of the statues around it. We are now masters of the trolleys in Budapest so we hopped back onto our familiar route and went to dinner at our favorite restaurant and had Italian food for the third time this week. What can I say, they make good pizza in Budapest... Tomorrow night will be our last dinner in Budapest this week and all the CETP teachers will be together, so I’ve promised myself I would try some traditional Hungarian food. I’ll let you know how that goes next time.
