Boscanat, boscanat! Exchange life in Budapest is so busy.. There is so much going on and always something to do! Now, I finally found some time to write my blog. It contains about two and a half weeks... =) I will try to have more regular, shorter updates during the rest of the semester. Also, the story about my parents visiting and my 21st birthday will be in the next blog!Monday, 12th of September - Liszt Ferenc Tér, Budapest - 21.00 hr.
My first lectures today! I was so excited. However, the bigger the excitement, the bigger the possible disappointment.. I started today at 8 o'clock, with Corporate Governance. Bluntly said, I was annoyed for 80 minutes in a row.. The teacher spoke bad english, told us not
hing we did not know already and topped that off with giving extremely misguided and ignorant statements. "Managers only care for their own interest and having a private jet." *sigh* So, I hoped for a better second lecture, which was Social Inequalities. If only I would have been capable of writing down the right room number. C249 is what my agenda said. This did not exist. After searching for every room 249 in every building, I gave up and went home, where I found out I should have switched the numbers to C429.. Rookie mistake.
We decided to run off our frustrations (and the calories of eating and drinking too much) with 5 kilometers around Margit Sziget! Very good track, really nice view and a personal record: 35 minutes. I am really not a natural runner, so I was pretty proud of myself. Let's keep this up!
Tuesday, 13h of September - Liszt Ferenc Tér, Budapest - 19.30 hr.
Yeah! Today was so much better, luckily! I started off with History of Modern Europe, which is totally different from anything I have done since high school. Especially since we talked about World War I and in the Netherlands we only cover the main points of this era, due to our low involgement in this matter. Balcan wars? Moroccan crises? I do not know anything about it yet, but it is very interesting!
And then.. the cherry on every academic pie! The whipped cream on every educational chocolate milk.. International Debate! No seriously, the most interesting course I have ever taken. It deals with all possible issues of the United Nations, ranging from the issue of North Korea to Aids/HIV in Africa. First, everyone researches the topic and we discuss it, together with our extremely encouraging, funny, critical and triggering professor. Afterwards, everyone gets appointed a country, draft resolutions are made and each delegate prepares for the next session: the general assembly or security council of the UN. Will the resolution pass? How many amendments will there be? Will everyone stay diplomatic or will it be a verbal fight? Looking forward to it!
Wednesday, 14th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 22.30 hr.
First, let me tell you something: Hungarians are not as organized as Dutch people are. They change schedules at the last moment, start 30 minutes later or let a course disappear as a whole. Sendinga notification? Of course not. Why would they?
Everyone hadloads of scheduling problems so far, so I was waiting for mine.. Finally, there it was: my very important, lots of credits - course, was changed into a master course yesterday. Indeed, yesterday. Those Hungarians.. Gotta love them. Luckily, I found a quick solution in the form of Understanding International Economic Order, which is both interesting and useful for my degree. Everything was fine, but you can imagine this being a bit frustrating when you come from a, I now realize, pretty well organized university.
Therefore, we decided to run of our frustrations again! ;) 31 minutes this time.. yeah!
Thursday, 15th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 23.45 hr
Very full, but lovely day today! Started with a class of Poverty & Ethnicity, where the professor announced a whole weekend field trip to a Roma village in October! After that, I met Geran for a walk up Gellért Hill, to see the liberty monument and have a very nice view over the whole city. Since it was a rather though walk up, we decided to treat ourselves with something special! We sat down at the terrace of Gerbaud, the best and most sophisticated cake café of Budapest. Lemonade, cappuccino and two cakes called 'Strawberry Dream' and 'Hazelnut-truffel Heaven, what more can a girl want?
Then, next class was Studies on Equal Opportunities, which I believe will be very interesting. Our class is very small, only ten students, and the professor really wants to adjust the course to our own interest concerning equal opportunities. After two hours of research in the library, it was time for International Debate again. As our professor, Stan Ward Allan, says: "Forget marriage. Froget the birth of your child. Every day of International Debate class is the best day of your life!"
In the evening there was the event I had been waiting for for several we
eks now: Hiphop dance class! Geran and Emma went with me to Urban Dance Studio, the best known urban dancestudio in Hungary, to take a locking class. Although the girls considered it to be very difficult, we all enjoyed it and I am definitely going back next week! Also, the late dinner afterwards was very satifying! We went to For Sale Pub, a really nice Hungarian restaurant opposing our university. Extremely big portions, but also extremely nice atmosphere and tasteful food!
Sunday, 18th of September - Liszt Ferenc Tér - 22.30 hr.
What a lovely weekend! We enjoyed it to the fullest!
Together with Geran and Emma, I went to Szechenyi Thermal Bath on Friday, which is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Before entering, I first needed to head back to our flat, because
of course I forgot the most important thing when you go to a spa: my bikini! Eventually, it was wonderful. Enjoying, spa's, warm mineral baths, sauna's of all types, whirlpools and something not all of us liked: cold baths to tighten your skin and improve blood circulation! We spent about four hours there and it was really nice. In the evening, we went to the flat party of Remi, Fabian, Miguel and Max. Their flat was really big and had an amazing view on the parliament. Following, there was the mega-exchange party! A get together with students from all universities, just dancing and having fun. Until you realize your alarm will ring in one hour.. Woops! Time to go home!
Indeed, after the 25 minutes of sleep that were left, my alarm went off. I got in the shower, packed my bag and left home together with Geran at 06.45 am. You must wonder: why? Well, because our train left at 07.25 am.. to go to Bratislava!! (I survived by drinking literally liters of Red Bull, which made me extremely hyperactive, giddy and annoying, woops!) Some people already went to Bratislava on Thursday or Saturday and we decided to join for a two-day trip. Eventually, we were with a group of about 26 people and therefore decided to split up
during the day. Mainly, because not everyone was equally interested in the same things.. Instead of only drinking beer, our group decided to go sightseeing! We first went up to UFO, a belvedere tower on the bridge crossing the Danube. From this point we could see how small this city is. Bratislava has only been the capital of Slowakia since 1993, so that is the probable explanation for its size until now. After walking around a bit and eating the cheapest ice cream ever, we joined the free cultural walking tour around the city. This tour contained all the highlights and our guide was really enthusiastic and had a lot of fun stories to tell! Ab
out architecture, communism, urban legends, everything.. I strongly recommend everyone who is going on a city trip anywhere, to check out these free tours! At night we went for dinner and then had a party on a boat.
During this week nothing really much happened actually.. Well, of course the week was full of studying, chats, laughter, dinners, courses, research and parties again, but not many irregular things. Except for the extremely amusing karaoke version of Baby Boy that me and Ben did in Morrison's, with me singing Beyoncé and he totally getting into the rap improvisation as Sean P
aul. Oh, and there was the party sort of planned by Emma on thursday. Emma, who wanted to go to Outdoor Club Rio and that night strengthened her reputation about planning stuff which turns out to be closed.. poor girl. Luckily, we had a really good night anyway at on of the cheapest bars in town. Gong, remember that name! For the rest, I just had some grandma nights.. staying in, reading and going to bed early. However, that was for a reason: tonight it is going to be the housewarming party of Ben, Landon and Peio: French theme! I will tell you all about it later =D
Sunday, 25th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 01.00 hr.
That was a really nice weekend in Budapest again! There is just no time whatsoever to get bored here.. I love it! Every time when you are not sleeping and/or studying (because those two go really well together), there is always someone who asks you to join an activity. I am really glad to see that also here I have an extensive social life with lots of really nice people!
So, this weekend started off on Friday! In the afternoon Emma, Geran and me went to Vörösmarty tér, to search for striped shirts, dresses or whatever. Eventually, they got striped shirts and I got a t-shirt saying: Greetings from Paris. Why? Because this night it was French Night at the guys' flat! After dinner, getting dressed, twining our hair and painting mustaches on our face, we got all our courage together and walked out of our door looking like stereotypical French people. The rest of the evening was just as memorable: quiche lorraine, French wines, even French music.. It was an awesome flatparty!!
The day after we slept in and were just in time for the Corvinus Shisha Picnic at 14.30 hr.. It was lovely to be in the park at Margaret Island with about one hundred fellow students, having some nice drinks and snacks, smoking a bit of water pipe and just chilling out. In the evening, we decided to cook pasta for the guys to thank them for the party. Nothing special, but they loved it! Afterwards, we were invited to Emma's tandem partner's birthday party and afterwards we finally díd go to Club Rio! It was a really good vibe outdoor and we the music was extremely good.
This morning, we did the free tour here in Budapest! It was again really interesting and the guides were so enthusiastic and sweet. Also, it was a very good preparation for my parents to come. They will arrive this Thursday and I want to be able to tell them stuff you do not read in the travel guides. Like: Do you know the Disney logo was based on the Fisher's Bastion up on Castle Hill? Did you know Gödör Club is there because the Hungarians dug a whole for the National Theatre and then decided to place that somewhere else? I am going to tell them all about it! Geran and Emma decided to do another one, the Jewish tour, but I was supposed to study.. In the night we did get together again, this time for American Football. Seriously, I do not understand what is so interesting about this game. They play four quarters, which have each 15 minutes of playing time but take 45 minutes. So, from the three hours you are watching, they are only playing for 1 hour. During that 1 hour, someone kicks a ball, I do not see where it goes, then these men in tights start running around and jumping upon each other and suddenly everybody screams and stops playing again. Luckily, Landon told me some nice anecdotes, but.. sorry, my lovely American friends, you will have to go without me next time 0=) Now, I am going to sleep and stop this blog! I need my rest, because there is another lovely busy week ahead of my on exchange in Budapest!
Thanks for reading!! xx
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