My touch down in Budapest was smooth and successful. Besides being sent to the wrong gate twice and having a SCREAMING toddler on my flight from Montreal to Frankfurt, my travels have been great. At the airport I was greeted by one of the program directors Hajni (pronouced Hoy-nee) who introduced herself as our "Hungarian Mother." From there we took an airport shuttle to the nicest, trendiest hostel I have ever seen. Our program rented it out exclusively for our program orientation, and it feels just like being at summer camp! Our room overlooks a cute little square with cool architecture and a small cafe:
After a long nap we headed out for our welcome dinner along the Danube River, where I got to know some of the other teachers. Most of us are in our early 20s, just graduating, while others have just picked up and left their real world job to come teach. So cool! Dinner consisted of some rather unusual dishes including Paprika chicken (Hungary is famous for their paprika), calves feet, and goose liver. (I passed on the latter two items).:
After dinner a few girls invited me to go on a night cruise on the Danube River. Despite my severe jet lag I couldn't pass it up. Thank goodness I didn't because it was one of the prettiest sights I have EVER seen! The bridge and parliament all lit up at night is a view I could stare at forever:
Orientation has been interesting and helpful, but also rather exhausting. As you can tell from the title of this blog post, Hungarian is a DIFFICULT language. If Brianna hadn't learned it so well I would be saying that it is downright impossible for Americans to pick up on. This blog post reads "Welcome to Hungary"- "Magyar" is Hungarian for Hungary, and "ország" is country. Confusion. Anyway, the second day of Hungarian lessons went way better than the first, and I actually learned how to say some practical phrases. However, still point to things and kind of whimper nervously when I actually interact with the locals. I hope this changes...
Our schedule for orientation consists of Hungarian history in the morning at 10 am, a lunch break from 12-1:30, Hungarian language from 1:30-3:00, Teaching Methodology from 3:00-4:00, and Hungarian Culture vs. American Culture from 5:00-6:00. Fun fact about Hungarians: they are pessimists. They always think the worst so that they can be happy when anything better is the outcome. When asked where they see themselves in 10 years, a typical Hungarian will answer "I don't know, I may be dead." It will definitely be an interesting adjustment to say the least!
I am having a lot of fun getting to know the other teachers. Last night we enjoyed drinks on the rooftop terrace of our hostel and dancing to "One Direction." We spent the night out on the town going to several fun bars and clubs. One place was an old apartment complex that they converted into a bar. There were different rooms and even a bathtub that was made into a couch.
We have two more days left of orientation before we all separate into our cities and I head out about an hour and 20 minutes southeast of Budapest to Kecskemet. I will be in touch when I move into my apartment and set up my wi fi! I miss everyone dearly!
