I love Budapest!Classes have started! Even though I missed my first lecture of Social Inequalities already.. due to a scheduling fault of my own. Still, I am now an official student at Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem and that feels good!
The main building of the university is part of the UN
ESCO Heritage Site and I cannot disagree with that. It is really beautiful. However, most of my classe
s are in the C-building, which is located right next to the main-building and has a very modern architecture, which I also fi
nd very inspiring!
So, vacation is over.. and studying begins! Of course you will here many stories about that from me, but let me first tell you about my last 'free' week here ;)
Tuesday 6th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 18.00 hr
I fell in love. It was love at first sight, but after four weeks it is already starting to be a
real infatuation. The whole world is allowed to know now: I love
Yesterday was the Orientation Day a
t Corvinus University, after a lot of information
and hearing loads of things we already knew during
the day, there was the get-to-know program at night. This included a campus-tour, somwas so impressive to see the quickness of their movements and all the fun they had doing it!
e games with the other students and a suprise from ESN: traditional Hungarian folk-dance in one of the beautiful ha
lls of the main-building. For more than half an hour we gazed at the dancers. It
After this, we walked from the university, through Vaci Utca, to Merlin Club, where the opening party was happening. When we came in, I saw the weirdest thin
g ever.. There was an old man, starting a chainsaw. Making a lot of noise and running around with it. Carving something in wood and then getting applauded by all the Hungarians in the room. I still do not have an explanation for this.
. It was just extremely strange. The rest of the night was good, although it also reminded us of how lucky we are to have our language course friends already. Still, getting to know more and more new people is a good investment!! Today we de
cided to go the Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube, which is a very popular recreational area. We wanted to go to the pool wit
h all the slides, but it was closed. It would 'maybe' open on Friday, maybe not and therefore we decided to the sport spool. We had one and a half hour left until swim practices started, so during our refreshing and tanning we had the chance to watch the synchronous swimmer
s do their warming up. Now, let's have some dinner! Me and Geran decided to cook a lot ourselves, in contrary to a lot of McDonalds visiting people we know..
That is that! Our apartment is clean again! Finally, tuesday night we got our warm water.. I felt like someone for the prehistory, finally managing to have running and warm water.. I
t makes you conscious again of how dependent you are. On the other hand, there are s
o many nice people here offering their help.. =) To celebrate the warm water victory, we went for cocktails that night, with some Hungarian people Emma knew!
Yesterday, at 11 o'clock we met up with Emma again, to go shopping at West End Mall. (By the way, it is nice to see the buildings from our Architecture Class in real life!) Even though we packed so many kilos of luggage, we felt like we had nothing to wear. Luckily it was still sort of sale-period and after five hours of shopping we were v
ery content with our purchases! When Geran and me came out of the tram near our flat, the sun was shining in Erzsébet Körút and it struck me again: I am so lucky to be living and studying in this city. Experiencing all the great things this big, central city has to offer and enjoying every bit of it! A great smile appeared on my face and it did not leave the whole night.
Some of you have probably already heard about it or read it on Facebook.. but last night we had a bit of a get-together that got a little out of hand ;) We wanted to check out Club Instant, since we heard so many great things about it. Therefore, on Sunday night we created a Facebook-event saying everyone was welcome to gather at our place before going to the club. That is literally what happened! Apparently, on Monday there were already rumors about 'some Dutch girls throwing a flat party', which got a lot of people enthusiastic. Eventually, there ended up about 80 people in our flat! It was amazing and we were overwhelmed by all the lovely reactions we got. Then, nearly two hours after the get-together had started, the police showed up at our door. No worries, everything went really smoothly! The police was actually also laughing about it, just as the waiters and guests outside on the terraces, because they could not believe so many people came out of one apartment. We went to Club Instant immediately and had a lot of fun there! The only thing is that because of having such a irregular li
vin
g pattern, I am starting to get a bit sick.. so tonight I'll take it easy during the pub crawl!
Friday 9th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 23.00 hr
That was the perfect recovery day! We slept until 12.30 hr, since I was actually getting pretty ill the day before. Tummy ache and things like that, which apparently is all around among the exchange students. Even though I was still pretty late (or early) in my bed this night (or morning), I did take it easy and the sleeping helped as well. In the afternoon, me and Geran
went to university to find out where our first class would be. We also walked along the Danube. It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the city.. Today it was clouded, so the pictures will come another time, but there are so many beautiful buildings and the water of this big river makes it even a more vibrant place. I love how it is always busy in the streets and how life continuous day and night here. I love how people are always on their way to something new or coming back from an exciting day. I love that people are surprised and smiling when you start a conversation in Hungarian. I love the beautiful sights and I love all the great people. I just love being here. Oh, and I loved the sushi we had tonight, haha!
Monday 12th of September - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 15.00 hr
So, today classes started, but not before we first had a very good weekend at Lake Balaton! Freshcamp was a very good closing of the introduction period and a nice preparation for the upcoming study semester! On Saturday, we gathered at 08.50 near Marcius 15 Ter. (Still trying to find out what happened there on the 15th of March, but okay..) Of course the Mexians arrived way too late, but eventually we headed for our destination.
First thing on the program was an one hour boat trip on the lake. It was so relaxing! The weather was amazing and after a week in a big city it is pretty nice to have some real fresh air for a change ;) Later we did some games and at night there was a wine tasting arranged in a nearby winery. After some explanations about the origin and production process of the wines, we got to taste multiple sorts: féherbor (white wine), both dry and sweet, vörösbor (red wine) and a dessert wine. Then the most fun part of the night started: we ar
rived in a big hall, still underground, where a Hungarian folk band was playing and long tables were put all along the space. When we sat down, the waiters brought us enormous plates of food and multiple jugs of different wines. People started eating, drinking, singing and dancing.. I know there is no word in English, so I am gonna say it in Dutch: Gezellig!!!
The next day we woke up at 9 o'clock. After breakfast, we were supposed to quickly leave for the spa, but that was not possibly.. One of the Mexicans was missing. He was nowhere to be found. Eventually, in the afternoon, they got a phone call he went back to Budapest because he got lost.. *Sigh* Those Mexicans.. In the mean time, we had gone to Hevíz Spa, which is a big lake evolved because of volcanic activity many centuries ago. Nowadays, it is a medical institution, because of the healing power of the water which apparently also renews itself totally every 24 hours. As you can imagine, it was really relaxing being there and we all felt really good.
After an early dinner, we drove all the way back to Budapest, where we arrived around eight in the evening. When we drove by the back of the palace, on to the bridge, with a view on the castle, parliament and chain bridge on one side, and a view on the university and the liberty bridge on the other side.. I realized it again: I am living in this amazing, wonderful, exciting, inspiring, exciting city.. and I love it!!!
By the way, for those interested, my address here is: Liszt Ferenc Ter 4 - 1/3, 1061 Budapest.
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