Still Here and Alive

I've realized I've stopped updating but that's mostly because life here is just... life. It is normal for me to live in a country where I don't speak the language, take the bus to school, be surrounded by math majors from all over the US (and my roommate from Canada), all that. Last week it did feel a little weird to be here because it was room draw and registration is this week so I've mentally been at CMC a lot in the last week. Tomorrow is the one month til I go home mark, which feels weird. I'll end up being 3 days short of being out of the US for a full 5 months. Pretty crazy.

But yes, last weekend was one of my most fun weekends in Budapest. I stayed out late every night- pretty out of character for me but fun to do every once in a while. The first night we went to a bar, then a chocolate bar (chocolate fondue and really really rich hot chocolate), and then another bar with dancing. We stayed out dancing and karaoking (is that a word?) until 4 in the morning but it was a great, fun night. Morrison's (the place we went) will now likely become a regular Thursday night thing (staying out all night to catch a 6 AM bus to Poland on Friday morning is the plan for this weekend). And the next morning, someone hosted breakfast meaning excellent french toast and good company!

Friday night we had another girls' party. Girls' party roughly translates into all the girls in my program get together and share all stories of who is dating who, who is hooking up with who, etc as well as some actual deep conversation about being abroad and stuff. It's great fun! Not too much new stuff had happened since the last girls' party in February that everyone didn't already know about it but it was still a great time. The people in my program really are all nice, good people.

Saturday night was another awesome, fun night. Some friends and I have concocted a Siamese Twin party. The premise is everyone gets randomly paired with someone else and they are tied together for the night and then everyone watches hilariousness ensure. Well, unfortunately, the rest of the program was not very excited about this party idea so it basically ended up being those of us who came up with the party theme. However, we stayed strong and tied ourselves to each other (I kid you not). It was good fun. My twin and another set of twins even decided to attempt a limbo contest while tied together (and I am embarrassed to admit we lost to two guys lol). After that, we attempted to go out dancing but not enough people were into the idea so the idea quickly died. But this evening was also followed by french toast!

I was sure by this point in time in the weekend, after three nights in a row of little sleep, that Sunday would be a mellow evening. I was wrong. Another girl in my program and I had decided to make dinner for anyone who was interested and serve Passover food so we could feel like we did something for Passover, even in Budapest. We made charoset, kugel, matzah brittle, matzah pizza, and a lentil salad- all good Jewish food! It was a success- we had like 15 people and the matzah brittle and pizza were especially popular! After that, four of us decided the night was not yet ever and wandered the street of Budapest while drinking some beer and ended the night with finding some gyros

Now I have a normal week, then going to Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz (and meeting Michelle, my best friend from high school!) then Michelle will come back to Budapest with me for a few days. Then I go to Paris for a long 4 day weekend! After that, we have our last full week of classes and my 21st birthday! Then we have another 4 day weekend (likely with a trip that is not yet booked), then 3 final days of classes, then finals! Crazy how fast time has passed!

Who Knew Hungary was Beautiful?

Finally, springtime has arrived! This weekend, my aunt and grandma are visiting. It has been really nice seeing them. Yesterday, I went on a tour of the Danube River Bend with them. We visited three small towns along the Danube north of Budapest- Szentendre, Esztergom, and Visegrad. The view of the river and the beautiful cute houses along the river was amazing. I really had no idea that parts of Hungary could be so beautiful! These towns were colorful, everything was in bloom, it was amazing! It was really great finally getting out of Budapest and getting to see some other part of Hungary.

It is funny because in my program we all associate Budapest as ugly and grey and cloudy and covered in dog poop. But now, the sun is starting to shine and things are in bloom. I looked out my kitchen window today and realized that the trees at this park across the way are green and beautiful. I totally missed that happening. Literally, everything had no leaves and all of a sudden everything is in full bloom. I mentioned it to my roommate that it seemed like it happened all of a sudden, like overnight. She told me that indeed it had. Last weekend while I was gone, she noticed that on Friday everything was still brown and grey and all of a sudden on Saturday, everything was blooming and green and beautiful. Budapest transformed into springtime with greenery overnight! It is amazing and a wonderful, much needed change.

Wonderful Weekend in Switzerland and the Problems with Cities

This weekend, I went to Geneva to visit Greer. It was such an amazing and needed weekend. I will note, first, thought have flown Air France for the few trips I've flown and I really like them (they are nice, good food) but they are ridiculously inefficient. Like when I landed, we had to wait on the plane for a good long time because the ground crew wasn't there. Um, this same flight itinerary flies everyday... how could the ground crew not be there? And on another flight, our clearance to take off got canceled. What? How does that happen? But anyways, Greer's homestay is on a farm that you have to take 3 trains to get to from Geneva. It is this adorable little town and it is just surrounded by the beauty of Switzerland, and let me say, Switzerland is breathtakingly beautiful. Greer's homestay family was so nice. The food was absolutely amazing- they make everything by scratch and so much of the food was fresh from the farm. I ate fresh eggs that I saw Greer take out from the chickens, jams made from fruits they grew, fresh baked bread, vegetables from the farm, it was amazing! They even made cheese fondue! And served us wine made from their vineyards! Honestly, one of my coolest European experiences this semester. Greer and I walked for hours around the town and the nearby hills and farming fields. After being in a city for so long, I absolutely love getting out of cities and getting some fresh air and some cleanliness and just the slower pace of life that exists out of cities.

Speaking of needing to get out of cities, I returned to Budapest to discover I hate cities. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, I return to discover that public transportation had a strike planned for the following morning (today, right now). This meant I would have to wake up at 6:45 AM to walk to school (an hour ish walk) to make my class this morning. So I got up but then got a call saying that the strike had been called off so I could take the bus as normal. So I left my apartment at normal time, got to the bus station, saw there was no one there and got another call saying they were wrong, apparently the strike was not off. At this point in time, had we walked, we would have missed at least half of our class. So the plan- go back to sleep. Which sounds great, but this class was a midterm review session. And the class that this midterm in is HARD. I feel so unprepared for this test already, I am so upset that I missed that review session this morning. I will get the notes but it is not the same. So because of stupid things like public transportation and strikes, I am really upset with cities. Life in suburbs with my car is just so nice...