Starting to realize that I'm back home..

Dear all! It has been almost three weeks since I came back home =) First one and a half week were great. Everyone wanted to meet up with me, hear my stories and it was great to feel all the love and all the great things about the Netherlands again. Now, things have calmed down and everyone is back to his/her own life again, including me. This week I will be starting my bachelor thesis. Really working on my graduation from Tilburg University! Perfect timing to make an analysis of the pros and cons of both Budapest and home:

Things that Hungary could improve 0=)

- Our International Office coordinator.. what an..
- Getting in separate queues for stamps, envelopes, addresses and sending the actual package at the post office. The bureaucracy is still crazy, especially in the Immigration Office; the only place where people actually need to speak English.. and don't.

- The women in the supermarket yelling "Tessék?!", when I did not come to the counter quick enough.

- The political climate and the challenges of post-communism for the society, first and foremost corruption.

Things that are great at home

- Seeing and hanging out with my great family and friends.

- Normal supermarkets, with normal bread and a nice variety of food.

- Structure and good responses at Tilburg University.

- Okay, this list is too short... uhm!

- Oh! The one I have been coming to appreciate the most about the Netherlands: the freedom of debate. I have become to realize how special it is that no matter the subject and no matter how much we disagree, when we keep our decency we can talk speak about everything in our country. Anything. That is one of the greatest values of the Dutch society I think and it should be cherished.

- My bike!!

Countdown..

By now, I am back in the Netherlands. My last week in Budapest, by some horrifically called 'The Countdown' has gone by so fast. Especially, since my cousin Roel visited me for my last four days. That was so great! Also, after being back for two weeks I will post a list of pro's and cons of both The Netherlands/Tilburg and Hungary/Budapest.. some sort of reflection! However, first let me tell you about my last week in dazzling Budapest!

Saturday, 21th of January - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

The flat is clean, the laundry is done.. I am ready for Roel to arrive! I am so excited. The last two days I spent saying goodbye to some people, cleaning the flat and packing my suitcase. Now, it is time for me to start saying goodbye myself to this wonderful city and to close my exchange period in the best way possible!

Mini Balkan Trip aka WOW

Amazing! This was the best final trip I could have made on Erasmus in Hungary. Ever since my last exam all the days have been great, with the trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia as the icing on the cake! I cannot thank my great Erasmus friends enough for all they have given and keep on giving me..

Thursday, 12th of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest
Oh! Some things I forgot to tell you in my last blog: A week ago, I was on my way to have dinner with Ashley, Matteo and his friends from Italy. Since everyone is always late here, I was waiting on Deak Ter. Just enjoying my view on the beautiful dome of the Basilica, when suddenly three people in bright orange jackets walked up the stairs. The girl looked very familiar and when I heard them talking Dutch, I offered to help them with directions. Turned out this was Diane Valkenburg, here this weekend for the European Championships Speed Skating! Honestly, I had no idea it would take place in Budapest.. After some conversating they started the sightseeing route I recommended them and I decided to go to the ECSS during the weekend.
So, on Saturday me and Marius, who is from Nijmegen, put on our warm coats and established ourselves on the bridge behind Heroes Square. The atmosphere was so nice! Not only because of the beautiful court and fairytale buildings next to it, but mostly because half of the people there were dressed in orange!! Singing Dutch songs and cheering like we always cheer at every sports championship where the Dutch do well. When I took the Spanish the next day, to see Sven Kramer win the 1500 meter, they were so impressed by our enthusiasm and support. It was great to be there!
Also, yesterday Ashley took me to a wonderful chocolate shop near the Basilica, where we decided to choose the Chocolate Fondue. The very first one for both of us! It was a wonderful afternoon, especially because of the great conversations we had about our future, our countries and also just about silly stuff. Nice! Gonna miss her a lot..

Leaving and returning to Budapest!

Sorry for being so extremely late with this blog. The last weeks have been incredibly great, but also really busy. Lots of visitors, a return to home and also loads of studying.
First of all, I am happy to tell you that I scored the highest grade on five of my courses! My active attitude in class has definitely been worth it. Secondly, again, this is going to be a long, but hopefully fun, blog. So let's start!

Tuesday 6th of December, 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest
It has been a great weekend! After all the preparations for the exams (making summaries, organizing notes, highlighting half of my book), it got rewarded with some great parties a we have here innd some Dutch visitors! Harm, Laurens and Linda were in Budapest and of course we hung out together. Linda was on exchange in Budapest in the fall of 2009, so it was really great to talk about our experiences.

Also, together with them, I finally went to one of the extremely big clubs Budapest! About a thousand people, a wall full of dancing women and hearing 'snuff sounds' while being in the toilet. Well, and obviously great music and all our dance moves!

Other fun things I did this weekend: a visit to a tea house where you would have to climb over and crawl under things to find a cushion to sit on, the Thai massage I got for my birthday, great

talks with AnnMarie at Sugar for her birthday.. and Sinterklaas!! Igen, igen. Together with three other Dutch girls, a German and a Britt we put enormous amounts ofcandy on the table and played the dice-game with all the presents. So much fun to see the Dutch fanaticism catch on to Emma and Lena! Having a bit of a tummy ache now though..

Friday, 9th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow!! What a great two nights we just had... Okay, it does seem now like exchange is only partying. Do not get me wrong, I have been studying for about sixteen hours in the last two days, but I do not think this is the most interesting story to tell.

What is really interesting, are the two concerts we visited the last nights. On Wednesday,

to warm up, we visited the A38 boat and the show of the King of Balkan Beats: Shantel! Trumpets, an amazing female singer, jumping around, dancing, water drums, Shantel on the bar.. it was ecstatic! Just insane =D

Then, yesterday night.. the evening Emma, Geran, Annie and me have been waiting for since the beginning of this whole adventure... RIHANNA! Finally! We had heard some disappointing stories from different cities in Europe and obviously she had been very sick two months before, so we were praying the show in Budapest would be of good quality. It was more then that. It was fabulous and just out of the world! After a hour warm-up by no one less then Calvin Harris, the queen of R&B entered the stage!!! So many great costumes, an amazing staging, incredible vocal capacities.. she had it all. She made us laugh when we toasted on Nicki Minaj's birthday (Cheers to that!), cry when she went up in the air singing 'Love the way you lie' and dance our ass of on so many songs, with the fireworks of 'We found love' at the end! Amazing.. just purely amazing.

I am trying to recover now, because in a few hours my lovely friend Lotte is arriving! Cannot wait to finally see her again...

Tuesday, 13th of December 2011 - Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest

I have got only a few more hours left until my first Final Exam here in Budapest, so I will quickly write an update on the weekend with Lotte here in Budapest. It was simply great. She had already visited Linda here in 2009, so the major sightseeing was not necessary anymore. Therefore, we had so much time to just talk to each other and also to let her get to know my friends here, which was very important to me. Some of the people I met here have really conquered a place in my heart, just as Lotte has, and it was great to see them get along so well. We had dinner altogether, bought champagne in White Angel, watched Real Madrid - FC Barcelona and went to Széchenyi Bath. Just a perfect weekend. Now, time for exams!!

Friday, 16th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Well, that went pretty okay! Did not have enough time to finish my three essays in History exam, but the rest was fine =) Especially, the 'exam' for International Debate, which was watching the movie Team America with a lot of snacks and drinks on the table and the Americans under the table from laughing.

Tomorrow is Geran's birthday, which we are going to celebrate at the concert of David Guetta. Also, tonight I have organized a suprise party for her in Doboz Bar.. so hopefully that will be okay! Now, we will first go to dinner with the two of us.. tapas at Pata Negra!

Sunday, 18th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

That must have been the best birthday someone has ever had and Geran deserved every bit of that. Okay, the surprise literally 'fell into the water' a bit. Even though she was extremely surprised when about thirty of our friends turned up singing 'Happy Birthday' outside in the street of Doboz, it was supposed to be ínside of Doboz.. However, there was some kind of private party in the bar. How often does that happen? This could not suppress the fun and as a Plan B we went to Pauline's flat party! After a few hours, I went to the next birthday party, which was Adam's. Obviously, I was a few hours later then the rest and that was noticeable. Everyone was exuberant and we had a great time together. Well, until I got three elbows in my face by AnnMarie, an accidental slap in the face from Adam and almost pieces of glass in my eye from a cup falling on the ground. Time to go I guess!

Yesterday night then, we went to the David Guetta concert =D First, we invited the Corvinus girls to come eat pizza all together in our flat before going to HungExpo, where the show would take place. Arriving there, we were not prepared for the three hours we still had to wait until Guetta came.. He was supposed to start at eleven, but waited until a quarter to one. Not nice. However, two minutes after the show started this was all forgotten! What a great energy does this guy have and what a great party it was!! Highlight of the night, to be seen in the picture, the minutes Guetta played to song 'Without You'.. which made us all sentimental: "I will never be the same without you.." and him ending with a light show stating: BUDAPEST ROCKS! Igen!!

Now, we are going to have sushi (again) with Kristine and Emma, to close this birthday weekend in a fairly good manner!

Wednesday, 21st of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

It is now almost over. Well, over.. Of course I have another month left! However, tomorrow me and Geran will fly back for Christmas and so many people will not come back to Budapest.. Therefore, the last three days have been all about saying goodbye. Last hot wine together in Szimpla, last time Morrison's 2, last time dinner together.. Snif, snif ;)

On monday, Emma, Annie, Geran and me went Christmas shopping in order to find the perfect gifts for our loved ones back home. I especially wanted to find something good for my dad, since he it was his birthday that day and I was missing it! Finally, we succeeded! At night, we went for predrinking to Lena, Anais and Yesenia's flat with about twelve girls from Corvinus and afterwards met a lot of other people at Morrison's. It was a great night, which ended with me sleeping in Mona's bed. No, not like that. I forgot my keys and my phone battery died, leading to me in search of a place to stay the night. I considered a small, sweet Chinese/Indian girl to be the best option.

Tuesday, we went to the Hospital in the Rock, which was a secret military hospital and nuclear bunker in Budapest from the Second World War on. Very interesting and especially impressive to see all the pictures of destruction in the city we now adore so much. Later that afternoon, we went to Airi to finally make ginger bread together. At night, there was the now (in)famous EILC Flat crawl, which was basically a pub crawl in flats. Everyone prepared a special drink/shot, ranging from vodka jelly to B52's. The start was a little slow, but eventually we had so much fun! I will always remember this night as one of the perfect endings to a wonderful semester!

Then, at 4 o'clock in the morning, we had to drop Annie, who had been living with us for the last week, off at the taxi. For me, this was very hard. Annie comes from Oregon, USA (yes, just above California) and the chances of me seeing her in the coming years are just very small. It is very hard to say goodbye to people you have become very close to, even when you have prepared yourself for it from the start of the semester. This afternoon, it was Emma's turn. Had a final lunch together with the three of us and then escorted her to the train. This is by far my least favorite part about Erasmus....

Tonight, we are going to have one last dinner with the EILC people (Geran is also not coming back after Christmas) and have drinks with our university friends afterwards =) Then, tomorrow, I will finally see my family again!!!

Thursday, 29th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Christmas is definitely more special when you have been away for 4,5 months! On Thursday, after oversleeping, hurrying to catch our plane and clearly seeing the Budapest Danube area from the air, we arrived at Eindhoven Airport! By the way, it was really funny to once more experience the difference between me and Geran. Her way of remaining calm is to act as if everything is normal and there is nothing special going on. My way, is to name everything we do and to make sure I fully take in every step. "Last time we close the door together. Last time we take this tram together. Two hours until we will land. Three hours until we will be in our parents' house." Haha, so I tried to remain silent and Geran tried to remain sane ;)

Then, in Eindhoven, my brothers were waiting there, each with a rose in their hands, and also my parents were there! So sweet! Geran and I said goodbye and then we drove off to Schaijk. When arriving home, my mom had prepared my requested dinner, we walked through our village (wow, you can see in between the buildings here!) and we mostly just hung out on the couch. Next day, I took my bike (!!) and went to my uncle and aunts. Lovely to see everyone again. It is strange how normal that is.

I have to admit, this holiday at home has mostly been about eating. Christmas dinner with university friends, Christmas dinner with my family, Christmas dinner with my old flatmates, Christmas dinner with my friends from high school.. Basically six days of eating! Who cares, it was so great to be back!!!

Now, I returned to Budapest. However, not alone! My brother and his friend have come with me to celebrate New Year's Eve in this wonderful city. So, now I am turning off the computer and I am going to pick them up from the airport shuttle bus they took!

Tuesday, 3rd of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Totally in love with this city again!! This is not infatuation, I think this is pure love!
The weekend with my brother, Stijn, and his friend, Teun, was really great. Better than expected actually, also for them. They were surprised by all the great architecture there is here, the vibrant atmosphere and the overall beauty of the city.

We visited (if ever going to Budapest you could use the following as tips for your travel:) the Castle District on Buda side, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Operahouse, the Central Market Hall, Corvinus University, Margit Island, Heroes Square, City Park, Széchenyi Bath, the House of Terror and Gellert Hill at sunset. We had lunches and dinners at For Sale, Soul Cafe, Thai Buddha Étterem, Hummus Bar, Langos and Pariszi Department Store. We partied at Szimpla, Corvintetö and Merlin.

It was so much fun hanging out with my brother for these days after missing him for all these months. We talked and laughed so much. It was really great having them over! Also, New Year's Eve was great! A little different then in the Netherlands; less fireworks, more children with trumpets.. but great to experience this night here! Looooooooooooooove Budapest!!

Thursday, 12th of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter Budapest

The last two weeks of my Erasmus Exchange have started, which is a very double feeling. On the one hand it makes me very sad and on the other hand it makes me very enthusiastic and excited to make the most out of it! So I am focusing on that last part =D
The past week I have made my last exam and mostly spent hanging out with my friends here. Nothing too special, just dinners and drinks, but for me that is now the most important. I am going to miss them so much that I do not want to waste a minute not being with them. This does not mean we are not going to do cultural stuff anymore, on the contrary! Tomorrow we leave to Bosnia & Herzegovina!! Eduardo, Silvia, Ania, Pauline, Eddy and me will take the train in the morning and eleven hours later we will arrive in Sarajevo. We will stay here for two days and then go to Mostar. I will probably come back with Eddy on Tuesday, the others will continue the journey through the rest of the Balkans. Another reason why Budapest is so great; because of its central location it is so easy and cheap to travel. It gives great opportunities, which I think I have and will continue to exploit to the fullest! Bosnia here we come!!!

Kick off of the visits - marathon!

This weekend the first visitors after my parents arrived: my dear friends Marianne and Suzanne! After them, people will keep coming.

My sweet friend Lotte in the beginning of the December, then my brother and his friend for New Year's Eve and finally my cousin to spend my last weekend here with me! Until now, it was a good start of the visitors marathon =D but let me first tell you what else I did in the past two weeks:

Tuesday, 15th of November 2011 - Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest
At this very moment, I am waiting for my friend Mona to arrive. She studies in California, has lived the whole of her life before that in Hong Kong, but is of Indian origin. That last part is exactly where it gets most interesting for me ;) I loooooooove Indian food and she has made me some! So, I hope she will be here soon!
Yesterday, I went to the market hall with Annie do to shopping for our extensive cooking for the language course girls. She is used to 'cooking' with the micro wave back home, so she had some really great ideas, but just needed some assistance on the actual preparing. Especially, I was there to calm her down about hygienic differences between the United States and Hungary.. hihi.

Also, we got hooked on skating! I do not know why, but I used to sincerely hate skating, which is considered to be really weird by all the others here.. "You are Dutch? Why did you not like skating?" Well, I do now! The mystery is still not solved, but that does not matter. I Love Skating! Until now, we skated on a court up on the West End Mall, but hopefully the beautiful and romantic one in city park will soon be open!

Thursday, 17th of November - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Yesterday, we had a really nice dinner with the girls from Corvinus. Some of them I had not seen properly in a while, because of all the travelling. It was really nice to catch up with them. Also, we got to talk about family relations and it makes me realize everytime how lucky I am with mine =) Most of the others have nice families too, but I really appreciate the bond we have together, even more now that I am away for so long. That is why I am really excited for my brother to come see Budapest at the end of December!

Sunday, 20th of November - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Some interesting events the last couple of days! First, on Friday we decided to go to the non-existing museum of contemporary architecture. It is always so nice here in Hungary, to find all these wonderful, exciting and mind-blowing non-existing places...
At night, me and Emma went to have chocolate fondue with Anita, one of the organizers of our language course. However, our favourite chocolate bar Noir was closed. Instead of it being a disappointment, it was a very delightful change of scenery! Anita took us to a place called 'Sugar' and for those of you who know me a little better: that sounded like music to my ears! I have a real sweet tooth and this was heaven! I ate a cake in the shape of an Hamburger, some maccaroons and a strawberry shake. Sweet dinner is totally underestimated ;) The reason of our meeting was me interviewing Anita for my History project. I talked with her about the life of her mother under the Kádár regime. It was really horrible, since Anita's grandfather had participated in the 1956 revolution and was therefore hated by János Kádár. Her mother could not go to university and every year in October, the anniversary of the revolution, her father was taken away again and treated really bad. It was a really impressive story..!!
Yesterday, me and Emma finally went to the forrest up on the Buda hills. It was good to breath in some fresh air again and I am definitely gonna go to our forrest more often when I am back in the Netherlands! After some studying, we went to Ben's place to make and eat pizza's. However, since our ovens are not the newest ones ever.. well, it was a good effort ;) Probably it was good we did not eat too much, since at night it was time to put on our bikini's! Bath party in Gellert Spa! We were extremely enthusiastic about it. Especially, since I was expecting something like SpringBreak in Tilburg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-9HUJLHMuo) It was a little disappointing. The bath was beautiful, the architecture was amazing.. but the water was just too cold. Only the really drunk people were dancing in the main party bath, while the others were crammed in the small 36 degrees pool..
Today was all about studying, more ice-skating and finally: Indian food! In the beginning of the week it had not worked out with meeting Mona (phone batteries dying, no credit..), so tonight she made me some lovely Dahl. I believe I am even going to dream about it tonight!

Tuesday, 22nd of November - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Yesterday, I went to the Christmas Market with Annie. She had spend some days in Germany, so I was really curious how she liked it. I also went clothing shopping with her, because she wanted some good guidelines on how to shop. "Do not buy an item that does not fit with at least 2 or 3 other things in your closet." "If you are on a low budget, invest in tops instead of pants since it is a much more obvious change of outfit." "You NEED at least one good blazer." etc. etc. Glad I was able to help her out

again! =)

At night, Ashley had a very good idea: cheap cocktails and karaoke at Morrisons' Opera! Perfect! Only thing was that it took me about four hours and twelve cups of tea this morning to get my voice

working again. It was repared just in time for my History presentation, which went very well. Several students came up to me after class saying how impressed they were to hear my story. Always really nice to hear!

Tonight, I am going to Mona's birthday dinner and tomorrow night I will be going to Vera's! I can already tell you now that it will be loads of fun!!

Thursday, 24th of November - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

I was right! Both birthdays were great. Lovely meal, lovely people and lovely party afterwards! Now, I am just a couple of minutes away from departing to the airport.. Mar and Suus are in Budapest!!!!!

Monday, 28th of November - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

What a great weekend! The girls were really glad I had not changed much: When I arrived on the airport (20 minutes late, because Hungarian trains sometimes just decide to just stand still for no particular reason), I decided to sneak up on them and jump on their shoulders. Of course, I should not have done that. The floor was slippery and I fell flat on my back in the middle of the airport.. so typical! =P It was really mixed seeing them again. On the one hand it felt like it had been ages that I had seen them, but on the other it seemed so normal having them around again.
After visiting my flat, meeting Geran and putting their stuff down, we went for lunch in the Hummus Bar. All kinds of stories were exchanged and we could not stop talking. Later, we went for sight seeing on Buda hill. It was a pity that there was so much fog. Budapest mostly has clear blue skies, but it was not meant for us this weekend. In the evening, we went to the guys' flat to have Thanksgiving Dinner with the people from the language course. It was really nice to see my friends have such a good time with some of the people that are really important to me here. Later, we went to Szimpla, which sort of blew their minds. They had not expected this style of bar and needed some adjustment time to it, but eventually really liked it!

The next day, the only thing we actually did was shopping 0=) Our mission was shoes. Shoes, shoes, shoes. As always, when you are on a clear mission, you do not find anything. No shoes. What we did find were crowns for the evening. The guys' had organised a flat party with the theme 'United States, the most/least awesome country in the world', so we decided to dress up as Misses. Suus was Miss Minnesota, since that is where the most natural blondes live. I was Miss Illinois, since apparently I have a Chicago accent, and Marianne was Miss Colorado, because she is very fond of skiing. Altough Landon did not like our/my choice for Colorado, it was still a great party. People dressed up as cheerleaders, cowboys and some girls wearing a self made fatsuit; perfect! Around one o'clock we left to go to the second episode of the Balkan Beats Party at the A38 boat. The girls loved it just as much as I did the first time. Also, we ran into a big delegation for Tilburg University visiting one of the other Dutchies.. It's a small world after all!

On saturday morning, we went to the House of Terror on Andrássy Utca. In this building, the Arrow Cross Party has been imprisoning, torturing and killing many people during fascist and communist regimes of the twentieth century. It is now a very impressive museum. After this, we went to see St. Stephen's Basilica and have dinner in my favorite káveház. Then, it was time for my birthday present to the both of them: Széchenyi Bath! It was really beautiful to now see it at sunset and in the dark. Also, because it was around zero degrees outside, the warm pools were so extremely satisfying. I am really glad that the girls loved it as well. After dinner at For Sale, we ended up in our flat. Not partying, but talking until late in the night =) So lovely to have had them around.. It was a great weekend. The goodbye was not the part I preferred at all, but I will see them in about 3.5 weeks! Love you girls, see you soon!

And now normal life has started again. Well, normal: studying, studying, studying. Finals are coming up! So loads of things to do!

Love, xx

Travel Tornado

Hello!

In this blog I put a lot of photos, since over the past two weeks I made another 340 pictures... Guess my camera was the best present I have ever had!
From today on I am going to stay in Budapest until Christmas =) After Vienna, Lake Balaton, Bratislava, Pécs, Belgrado and the latest additions Krakow and Prague.. it will be nice to have some more settling down in 'my' lovely city. Besides, my body started protesting this weekend (eye and troath infection).. So, time to stop running around Middle- and Eastern European. Time to slow down and enjoy the last weeks (!) of Budapest.

Maintaining Tourist Status

Hi everyone!

These two weeks have been full of some ups and downs for me. Luckily, I found the solution on how to avoid the downs and only feeling high up in the sky all the time =)

It is not that easy to really integrate in the Hungarian society. There is mostly, as I expected, contact with other international students and together you really create an 'Erasmus Society'. Personally, I do not mind about this. I love that I learn about dozens of other cultures anyway and I am lucky some of my courses at uni really focus on the elements of Hungarian/ Central European society!

I have been living in Hungary for 2.5 months now and it has been a hell of ride. So many experiences, so many things to do and things to see.. However, if you do not pay attention, things might start to get normal at some point. You might start to get used to all these amazing people and sights around you and might not even notice anymore that you live in another country. I personally try to remind myself of how special this all is as much as possible, especially since I have the tendency to adjust to things really quickly. In general that I consider that to be a really good quality, but on the downside it sometimes means that things become too much of a routine to me and if there is one thing that does not fit me... So, my intentions for the coming months: Maintaining Tourist Status =) Visiting other countries, making a list of tourist stuff to do in Budapest itself, going out for dinner and taking a lot of pictures! It works!

Happy Budapest!

Call the Washington Post! Send an email to The Guardian! Send smoke signals to NRC Next! The biggest news of the past weeks is.. that I turned 21 =D

I am probably the only one (besides the Americans here) that is that excited about this news, but still.. worth mentioning! Especially, because a lot of the events I will be telling you about in this blog are related to this. Happy birthday to me =)

Busy exchange life!

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!

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 ;)

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!

Első héten Magyarországon!

Sziastok! Welcome to my blog about Erasmus Exchange in Budapest, Hungary! =D

My name is Marit de Looijer, 20 years old and a 4th year student of Business Studies. There were multiple reasons why I chose Budapest as the destination of my big adventure. First of all, I wanted to see more sides of Europe, since I have experienced only the western and southern part so far. Secondly, I wanted it to be a country which was in such a location that it could bring all nationalities together, so I could learn about a lot of different cultures at the same time. And thirdly, I have heard so many good stories about this upcoming city, that I just wanted to be a part of it!