Saying Goodbye to Budapest, the end of the Semester

Well, I am in a tricky spot right now. It is Dec. 14 and tomorrow I will be leaving Budapest to return home. I have tried to catch you all up what I have been doing while I have been here, but still have come short. My previous entries are not nearly as in depth as my others, but I guess, if you want to know more, just ask me when I am back. I also cannot recall entirely what happened at the end of November. On the 27th we did have a Thanksgiving Dinner and even invited some Hungarian friends over to celebrate with us. It turned out pretty good for being in a different country. I made the green bean casserole and other people pitched in to make things also. We had corn, pumpkin pie, a great apple dish, some turkey breast, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, wine, palinka, and stuffing. It was a good turn out. The beginning of December was fun and crazy at the same time. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts with my art history class one last time. Claire and I ventured to Salzburg, Austria from Wednesday until Saturday. While we were there we went on a Sound of Music tour, because it was filmed here, went to the fortress, saw where Mozart was born and where he lived later in life, saw some Hapsburg palaces, went to many Christmas markets, had some more traditional Austrian food, and saw a St. Nicholas day parade willed with St. Nicholas and these scary creatures called krampusse. That parade was one of the scariest things I have experienced. If you would like to hear more about it, feel free to ask me, it is a story told much better in person than through words anyways. : ) So our exams were on the Monday following our trip so on our way there and back (six hours each way) we were studying, I was focusing only on art history. Sunday was filled with more studying along with extra credit work for art history, and some work on my take-home poli-sci final exam. Monday was a tough day. I had my Holocaust lit exam at 10 which was a paper and some brief questioning on the readings we have done through the semester. At 6 I had my art history exam which went better than thought mainly because the final section where we have to analyze a painting was the same painting that I had chosen to analyze for my extra credit paper. And then my take-home exam for poli-sci was due by 11:30pm that night. It was a relief to get all 3 of my exams with over with on the same day, but it was a little stressful at the same time, but I shouldn’t complain, I could have bee taking exams at Calvin-that would have been much worse. On Tuesday we had our closing dinner at a restaurant and after that a small group of us and Mar and Cor went to a bar for beer towers. The towers were basically transportable taps. It was here that I tried my first honey ginger beer. Wednesday there was a Christmas/farewell party for us at Karoli Gaspar College and I got my Holocaust lit exam back from my professor. It was also our final dinner at our prof’s house and the day I got my art history exam back because my art history prof stopped by for dinner. After dinner a large group of us including Mar and Cor went to a bar where I and others tried some Absinthe. Let me just tell you, it is not hallucinogenic anymore but it makes your pupils look funny-one gets dilated and the other does not. It is really cool to see the servers prep the drink too. It involves sugar and fire, so how could that not be cool. I also learned that Absinthe comes in many different types and colors. Now I didn’t get a full shot, I just tried some of other people’s, but I can tell you, it tastes like black licorice, at least the traditional version does. Therefore it wasn’t my favorite, but I am glad I tried it. The drink I actually got at this bar was called a Virgin Lady: it was a virgin drink with pineapple juice, cream, black currant juice, and something else. It was much tastier than the absinthe. Haha Well, as for the rest of my time here in Budapest, I have been to the Christmas market multiple times, I have walked up Gellert Hill, ridden on some fun slides, hung out with some people in our group, walked across the Chain Bridge again, been to Central market again, visited the Great Synagogue (the largest in the world), saw a famous statue called the Little Princess, visited some shops again, and have tried to enjoy my last few days here as much as possible. I have taken lots of pictures while I have been here and have some stories to tell you all when I get home. I have tried to take in every experience, good and bad, while I have been here. I have learned a lot about Hungary and even some more things about myself. I have enjoyed my time here in Hungary very much and am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to study here for a semester. I have met some interesting people and have made some more friends. I have gotten to travel to a lot of great places that I would not have thought to go to and have gotten to experience a side of Europe that has been through a lot of challenges. Overall, I have had a great time and have mixed opinions on coming home. My time here has flown by and it is hard to believe that in 7 hours I will be on my way to the airport to come home again. While I have enjoyed my time here, I am also looking forward to coming home to see you all again and to tell you and show you pictures of my great expedition. I never thought I would ever go on a semester abroad, but I am so glad that I did. So, in other words, thanks for supporting my decision to study abroad for a semester, thanks for reading my blog, and I will see you soon!

Late November

November 17-23. Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. Holocaust Lit at 10, Culture class at 1, and Art History at 6 and then Poli-Sci at 6:30 respectively. Wednesday was dinner at Cor and Mar’s as usual except this week we had tacos and a guest! Our guest was Szabolcs, who was a friend of Robbie, a tour guide on 2 previous group trips. It was nice getting to know a little about him because Thursday through Sunday he joined half of our group as we ventured to Croatia with Robbie and Janos. Only half of our group went on this trip because the other half, including Corwin and Marilyn, went the previous week. So, 9 of us ventured to Croatia where we experienced lots of new things. While we were there we planted trees, watched the musical movie Hair-which I am a big fan of, visited a museum to learn about the Turks invasion in Hungary, saw slideshows of the regions we were visiting, played with Hungarian/Croatian kids, saw monuments and churches, saw a trashed Hungarian museum, learned about mine fields, learned about Yugoslavia and the war of the 90s, ate the traditional fish soup of the region, ate chicken gizzards, ate a venison soup, and drank and talked with some local Hungarian-Croatians. It was a very busy 4 days, but it was also one of the best trips I have been on.

Brief week description involving Vienna

November 10-16. Monday I had my normal classes except we went to Central European University to hear a lecture by one of the professors there. It was interesting to see another college in Budapest, even though we have seen 3 already, but we did find out that this one was more Americanized than the ones we attend. Tuesday for culture class we went to a Philharmonic Orchestra Concert at the Opera house. It was pretty cool to listen to and to see all of the instruments. If I can recall correctly I believe they played some Mozart and Beethoven and someone else that I forget at the moment. Then Bree, Stephanie, and I left for Vienna the next day where we stayed until Friday. We took a train to get there and it took about 3 hours. When we got there we checked into our really cool hostel and then walked around the city at night to scope out what we wanted to do over the next few days. While we were there we saw some Hapsburg palaces, some great art by Gustav Klimt and others, checked out some cool shops, ate some good food-traditional Austrian food and other types, saw some traditional Austrian clothing, took a tour of the Opera House, and saw where Mozart lived when he was in Vienna. We probably did other things, but I cannot recall them at the moment. Saturday and Sunday were spent catching up on homework and resting up from our busy week.

Mid November

Let me try to catch you all up on the week of November 3-9. Monday was class as usual, but Tuesday was Election Day in the States. Ladies and Gentlemen, I got to vote in my first Presidential election, while overseas. It was great; I request my Absentee Ballot while here and then mailed it in. I thought about turning it in to the U.S. Embassy here, but in the end, I chickened out and just mailed it. It was too intimidating for me, and yes, I realize that sounds a little ridiculous, but it is the truth. Well, anyways, on election day my professor and his wife had a party at their place from 12 am to 3 am. This is of course due to the time difference. Well, we didn’t really find out any results, but it was fun none the less and I learned more about the US election process because my professor is a Political Science prof. Wednesday, it was back to my prof’s house for our group dinners, Thursday wasn’t particularly interesting, and then it was Friday. My friend Breanna and I went to the Budapest Zoo! It was so cool and actually very large with a lot of animals. They had it set up like most zoos grouping animals from specific regions of the world together and even had a Hungarian farm setting with wild Hungarian dogs! After the zoo we went to a restaurant across the street called Robinsons for a late lunch. The restaurant was particularly cool because it was in city park and it floats in the pond there! It was really cool and in a very relaxing and enjoyable setting. After that we went to Gloria jeans for some coffee and then called it a day. Saturday, Bree and I hung out again and went to the Museum of Fine Arts. I had been there once before but did not get to check out the whole museum because it was a class trip for my art history class. So this time I got to check out an Egyptian exhibit and a Ferdinand Hodler exhibit. It was pretty cool, but the museum was so large that it was a bit of art overload, even for me. Then on Sunday our group was invited over to a family’s house for dinner. This was an American family that recently moved to Budapest because of the father’s job in the military; he is a fighter pilot. They have 2 girls, twins, who go to Calvin College, and in fact one of them was in my computer class and the other one lived on my floor freshman year, so I actually knew them a bit. Well, they had had us over earlier in the semester when their daughters were there, but they asked us over again, so we went and had chili for dinner. It was pretty cool to learn more about the family and all of their travels, and the chili was great as well.