The real deal!

Hi everyone!

Halleluja, the past two weeks have flown by so rapidly.. So many things happened that I just did not have time to upload my blog 0=) So prepare, it is gonna be a long, but exciting one this time!

Me and the girls at Lake Balaton!

Tuesday 23rd of August, 2011 - Pazmany University, Piliscsaba - 20.30 hr.

Forgive me for saying this, but $^#&@!.. that was not the most fun day of my life, haha. Today me and Geran decided to take a full day of from classes to search for an appartment in Budapest. This morning we were really excited about it! We had made some very promising appointments and my tandem partner from Corvinus University told me she also found some flats for us to look at. Unfortunately, they were all very disappointing.. Combine this with 39 degrees, running around the city all day, sweating from are head until our toes and no result whatsoever: you get two filthy and grumpy Dutch girls.

Luckily, Monday had been a lot of fun! It was our time to organize the intercultural evening, together with Emma (England), Lynsey (Ireland), Ashley, Annie and Landon (all United States). We decided to make American chili, following a recipe by Landon's dad, and Dutch 'wortelstamppot', a dish I was in charge of. In order to make it work, we bought 14 kilo of potatoes, 11 kilo of carrots, 4 kilo of onions, some milk, some butter and of course salt and

pepper. After the well-organized logistics of cooking all the vegetables (we are Dutch, we have the main port of Europe..), the mashing started. After some improvisation, due to lacking cooking gear, the result was fantastic and luckily everyone liked it. The rest of the night was really chilled out. Everyone playing beerpong, making smores above the fire and just hanging out together. Al tough, chilled out? My legs still hurt from doing Irish folk dancing in heels.. but it was wonderful!!

Friday 26th of August, 2011 - Nyugati Palyaudvar, Budapest - 09.40 hr.
Okay, let's do this! With a fresh body and open minded spirit,

we just arrived at the train station of this wonderful city. We are going to find ourselves an apartment today =) Luck has been on our side the past couple of days, since we both passed the Hungarian midterm exam! My success rate was 96%.

Everyone passed the midterm, so on wednesday night with a crazy Eastern European Night!

Best thing I learned from the Eastern European people so far: Combine vodka with pickles! I never like pickles when I am eating them, which my father does not understand, but this combination..

A side from that it tastes really well, it also takes away the bad aftertaste of cheap vodka. Brilliant! After dinner, which was heavy but very delicious, Magda taught us the Polka. Peio was my dance partner and let me say it politely: we are both probably not the best polka dancers in the world.. We considered ourselves to be very talented, but since we could not pull of a decent circle we kept on bumping in to everyone else and I kept on standing on his toes (sorry!).

Yesterday was a very relaxed day. We had Hungarian language class in the morning, slept all afternoon, had some pasta for dinner.. and watched the weirdest cartoon movie I have ever seen. It was of course Hungarian, but luckily with English subtitles. It was about mice fighting evil cats and rats having a conspiracy against them. The movie was filled with inappropriate jokes and double messages.. still confused about it! ;)

So now, here we are! In Budapest, with better weather, a more structured plan and the feel

ing we are definitely going to decide today on where to live the coming five months of our life!

This is the result!!!

Monday 29th of August, 2011 - Pazmany University, Piliscsaba - 13.00 hr.

What a wonderful weekend! Let me start by saying: We got ourselves an appartment!! Right in the middle of Liszt Ferenc Ter, on of the best locations in the heart of the city. After some doubting, we decided to take this one and we are very happy with it! Thursday we are getting our keys and on saturday we will move in officially. So happy!!

To celebrate this and because everyone was really up for a good night on the town, we all gathered at Ania and Silvia's appartment. After some hanging out there, we went to Morrison's Opera again and showed the others why we had so much fun there. Me and Pauline started by singing Rehab at the karaoke place. I do not know why, but it was like Amy Winehouse had revived. Not because I was so incredibly talented, but because my voice sounded as if it was damaged by a lot of smoking cigarettes (which I do not) and drinking alcohol (which, of course, I do not either). Anyway, it did not stop us! Beyonce, Rihanna, Red Hot Chili Peppers.. They all came by, before we decided to infest the dancefloor with our amazing moves!

Karaoke with Pauline! Partying with my EILC-friends!! Hahahah.

We took the first train back, since on Saturday morning we left for our trip to Lake Balaton! The weather was really nice and after a three our drive we got in our swim suits as soon as possible. We ran to the lake side, put down our stuff, jumped in the water and.. stepped into a lot of mud. Hmm. Not the kind of paradise re freshness we were expecting, but of course that did not hold back the boys. They found their inner child and with all their competitiveness started a mud fight! I managed to avoid it pretty well, but still my hair felt like a dead beaver. The following jump in the pool was really satisfying!

After some sleeping in the grass, eating pasta and showering, we left to a nearby town to do some wine tasting with the whole group. It was pretty stormy and I have to admit that I was kind of worried about the guys who decided not to go by bus, but hiking. Karcsi from the International Office was the leader and he did know the way, sort of. After several hours we finally got some message that they were okay. They were just hanging out in another winery and that showed when they finally met up with us. Karcsi had taught them some Hungarian songs and we listened to them with pleasure ;) It was a great night! Hanging out with all these lovely people, drinking really good wine, taking crazy pictures, laughing until we felt of the benches and talking about everything that came to mind!

The next day it was somewhat cloudy, so the organizers decided to do a cultural day. We first visited a cave, in which we transported ourselves by rowing in a boat. Afterwards, we went to Tihanny, which I visited as well with my mom and dad a few weeks earlier! After some sight-seeing, some food and some beers, the trip was over and we headed back for Piliscsaba. Perfectly satisfied.

Tuesday 30th of August, 2011 - Pazmany University, Piliscsaba - 13.00 hr.

My oh my. What a day was yesterday! After two language classes in the morning, we went to Budapest for a third one. There we visited the 'piac', or in english 'market'. The one we went to is next to the Liberty Bridge and Corvinus University and is the biggest and most beautiful market of the city. As you may expect, it was not our task to just wander around.. We had to buy stuff on the market using our Hungarian skills. It actually went pretty well! Me and the girls bought 'retes', which is some kind of Hungarian version of the strüdel, filled with sweet cheese and sour cherries. Also, we decided to be courteous and bought the guys a housewarming gift, since they would get their keys today. "Kéret egy üveg palinkát."

After visiting the market hall, we went to visit the parliament with the whole group. I do not want to offence everyone, but 'het Binnenhof' in the Netherlands is extremely boring compared to this building. The Hungarian parliament is the third biggest parliament in the world and it would be believable if it was the most beautiful! The outside is already really pro

mising, but the inside is even more impressive. If you ever come to Budapest, make sure to visit this building!

Then, we were all invited to Ben, Peio and Landon's apartment. On beforehand, the guys told us the flat was a wreck and that it was totally good for them, because everything was torn down already. That was a lie. Okay, not every chair or bed was still intact, but the apartment was really nice and they really did a good job finding it! After doing a welcome shot of our housewarming present, we decided to get some dinner at Tacos Locos. Fajita's are probably my new addiction ;) Eventually, the real party started when we headed for Morrison's Opera, where the first Hostel Party of ESN Corvinus was taking place. I met some Mexican girls there, who asked me if I was from Latin-America too. Apparently, I shake my booty to much to be European.. Let's consider that a compliment! It was soo much fun and I met a lot of new people. Most of them, I do not remember their names anymore, since I kept on saying to everyone: "Hi! Where are you from? Where are you from?" I definitely had my 'social switch' on yesterday night. The walk home was also really exciting and the McChicken in the middle of the night tasted very good as well. We decided to stay over at the guys' apartment, but unfortunately we did not make the decision to put on the alarm clock.. Woops! Missed class this morning...

Friday 2nd of September, 2011 - Pazmany University, Piliscsaba - 12.30 hr.
We are done! Done studying Hungarian gramma or vocabulary, done making exams about architecture and culture, done practicing our conversation.. Yeah baby! Passed the course with 80% for the culture test and 94% for overall knowledge of the Hungarian language. So proud of myself right now ;)
Unfortunately, we are now also done with hanging out together at the campus, sleeping in the dorm, cooking too much pasta, laughing your ass off with 40 other people and all that.. No worries! Everyone will still be living in Budapest for at least four months and we have the goodbye party coming tonight!!

Monday 5th of September, 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest - 11.00 hr.
The real deal. Our exchange has now finally really started. No 'summer camp' in Piliscsaba, our first day at Corvinus University in one hour. No dormitory, but our own flat. No packed fridge with food of eight girls, but just our own. No small bed, but a huge one with new sheets. I love it!!
We spent the weekend settling down in our appartment. Cleaning it, having our first dinner, inviting people over. On saturday we went to Tesco, which is a huge supermarket just outside of the city. We decided to bring a suitcase, so we could put all stuff in it, since we had to start from scratch with all the groceries. However, since we bought almost éverything in the store (at least, that was what it felt like), we felt like pack donkeys anyway! With a suitcase, a backpack, a huge pack of toilet paper and five carrying bags we went back to our apartment. Now that it is filled with our stuff, it really starts to feel like a home =) Only thing is that we still do not have warm water, only ice and ice cold.. On which our land lady replied on saturday night: "Can't you wait until monday?" Uhm, no?? Hopefully, it will be fixed today anyway. Fingers crossed!!

Now, we are just about to leave for our University. Today is filled with information and tonight with 'get to know each other'-stuff. Looking forward to it!! Let's get real exchange life started!!