There are 33 students (12 boys and 21 girls) in the program. Most of them live or study on the East Coast in the US; however, we have representation from Florida, California, Oregon, Texas, the Midwest and Pakistan as well. Three people in the group have Hungarian ancestry and all three speak some Hungarian so we practice speaking together when we can.
Monday:
We moved into our dorm rooms and spent sometime walking around the city.
After eating lunch we went to see our university and Szabadság híd.
Tuesday:
After taking a quick tour of the streets surrounding our school and dorm CIEE (the program we are all here with) helped us learn how to use public transportation. In the evening CIEE treated us to a very fancy, all you can eat buffet dinner.
Wednesday:
We started the morning at 7:45 am with heading to the immigration office to apply for visas. This was supposed to last from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm; however, it turned out the lady at the office knew our group leader and let us cut to the front of the line.
Once we finished the visa process four of us decided check out what is called the Cat Cafe. It literally is a cafe with cats roaming free and cuddling up next to you while you dine. To some it might sound gross, but it was a very clean cafe and the cats were never invasive. It was probably the most expensive hot chocolate I have every purchased; however, it tasted like a melted chocolate bar and the gift of playing with cats simultaneously was totally worth the price.
Thursday:
Some of us went to the Opera. After buying the tickets to what we thought was a show in the Opera Haz (Budapest Opera House) we discovered that it was instead in a small theater in the outskirts of the city, but the show was still amazing. We saw Turandot written by Puccini. It was an incredible production and we are looking forward to next time visiting the Opera House and maybe seeing a ballet there.
Friday:
On Friday a few of us had the morning off so we decided to go find the famous Alexandra Bookstore. However, after seamlessly navigating our way to the designated location we realized that actually we had the address to a large mall (Plaza Arena) instead.
After deciding that we were hungry, needing a place to sit and work on some application for home, and seeing what restaurant options the mall had we decided to turn this day into our one and only "American" day this semester. So....we ate at McDonald's and afterwards sat in Starbucks. In the US I NEVER eat McDonald's; however, word on the street is that it is made with fresher ingredients in Europe and is considered a nice, quasi-expensive meal. Therefore we decided to try it once during our time here.
This was my snack salad and small fries. I had to pay for ketchup and it tasted different. I was definitely not impressed enough to come back.
This is Rachel (one of my roommates) and Emma was taking the picture.
Saturday:
On Saturday we were given a scavenger hunt list to help promote exploration of Budapest. My group decided to start with the locations on the Buda side (Budapest is split up into two parts by the Danube River ~ Buda and Pest; we live and go to school on the Pest side). We visited the Buda Castle.
This is the Hungarian Parliament. We had a beautiful day for this adventure.
This is the Castle and part of the view from the Castle.
Here our dear friend Alex spent some time messing with this guard who not once cracked a smile, spoke or even moved. You could hardly even see him breathing.
A sauna on wheels. Who would have thought...
Looking forward to this semester with a great group of people and getting to know all of them more and more each day. This was a great week with some great people, but today I realized that since classes and my internship have started I have to get back into the working mode. Wish me luck!
Emily
Great to read about your orientation week. I loved seeing the pictures of folks in your program including one roommate. When I lived in Hungary we would never have dreamed of "messing" with a guard. I thought they would arrest me.
ReplyDelete