Budapest

Last week we went to Budapest. It was a really fun trip. 10 of us piled onto a bus and took the 7 hour trip to Hungary. We stopped in Brno, the second biggest city in the czech republic, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and then finally arrived in Budapest. We arrived with zero HUFs in our wallets so we were immediately faced with a challenge in a new city. After negotiating with two cab drivers they finally agreed to take us to our hostel. Little did they know that we had no money to pay them with. We told them "bankomat" and stopped at an atm. After all of us piled out of the cab to take out money, the hungarian cab drivers started to get pretty annoyed. While they were cursing at us in Hungarian, we rushed back into the cabs hoping they wouldnt drive away with all of our luggage. After another fight or two with the drivers, we finally arrived at Colors Hostel.

10 of us in one hostel room made for 8. It was quite an experience. We dropped off all of our bags and went out in search of a low key beer garden. We took the night easy in preparation for the big day we had in front of us. Thursday morning we woke up and set out to Sziget music festival. Sziget is one of the biggest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every year in August in Budapest, Hungary. It it located on a small island in the middle of the Danube river. We spent the day enjoying the scene and listening to good music.

There were several stages and we saw two concerts, the Ting Tings and Bloc Party. I was pleasantly surprised with the Ting Tings performance. I had heard some of their songs, Thats Not My Name and Shut Up and Let Me Go, but thats about it. I was not expecting much from them. For about 45 minutes they bounced around the stage exuding amazing energy into the crowd. Bloc Party played later in the evening. They also put on a good show, but the rampant outbreak of mosh pits detracted from the concert. Two of my friends went crowd surfing and enjoyed the concert from atop the crowd.

The next day was filled with relaxation while all the girls soaked in the famous public bath houses. The bath house was filled with different kinds of pools: inside, outside, hot, cold, mineral salts. We spent a majority of the day pool-hopping and enjoying the soak. That night we experienced a bit of the Budapest ngihtlife. After walking and walking and walking, Farah, our faithful map carrier, took us to a cool bar. We spent a good time there and bounced around a couple different bars in the area. It was our last night in Budapest so we had to do it right.

The next morning we unhappily woke up in order to check out of our hostel. I hadn't yet seen any of the sights of Budapest and could hear my mom in the back of my head saying, "you went to Budapest and didnt go sightseeing?" So I recruited some friends to walk around the city and take pictures of the sights. We walked up the Danube river and saw the Academy of Natural Science (I think) and Parliament. This is a picture of the front of Parliament. It is a massive and intricate building. After getting the required sightseeing pictures, I stopped at a cafe to wait for the rest of the group before we headed back to the bus stop to return to Prague.

I know that I am way overdue for an update....but I've been a busy girl.

The last two weeks of the TEFL class were insanity. We had hours and hours of class followed by hours and hours of lesson planning, grammar tests, and one-to-one tutoring. It was exhausting. I have a new found appreciation for teachers. I saw that a well prepared teacher is a much more effective teacher, and that this takes both a lot of time and effort. But all of our hard work definitely paid off....

We finished our TEFL certification on Friday. That afternoon, my group was teaching a class of 8 pre-intermediate woman for 4 hours. I was the caboose of the group, teaching the last 45 minutes of the class. The last to teach the last class on the last day. I was pumped to go out with a bang and teach a great lesson. But things did not go according to plan and I BOMBED the last lesson. My timing was off, I never got into a good rhythm, and knew the students were not even remotely interested. With 10 minutes left in the class, I threw my plan right out the window. Luckily, I had a fun game in mind and used that to salvage the last few minutes of the class. It was the least I could do to save the last lesson of the last day.

But I didn't get too upset about the awful last lesson because we were finally done! Word on the street was that the champagne celebration after the certificate ceremony was epic. But we all had our doubts. How can they throw an epic cecelebration for 25+ people? But they did not disappoint. The champagne was flowing for several hours while we all celebrated with each other, snapping as many photos as possible. This is a picture of our teacher, Terry, and his "biatches" as he so kindly refereed to us. Terry was a great teacher and I learned an enormous amount from him. He was determined not to just teach the information but for us to discover the information and learn for ourselves. On top of his great teaching, he is also a very funny guy. I don't know if it his British accent of his immense collection of anecdotal stories, but he could keep us laughing for hours.

After the champagne ran dry, we continued the celebration and hit the town. We left the Vysocanska metro station one last time as a big group and went downtown to find some fun bars. The excitement buzzing through the whole group was palpable. We were ready to get down....it was business time (hat and all). Our teacher, Trisha, led the way and brought us to two fun bars. We danced the night away until the sun was finally coming up. A fun time was had by all.

Saturday morning....not so much fun. We had spent our last night in Hotel Pivovar. We were hung over and tired after only 3 hours of sleep. We checked out at noon and had a surprisngly easy move into our new apartment. From the first minute of putting my bags down, I haven't stopped loving this apartment. It is amazing. It is located in Nove Mesto, a cute and fun part of town. We have hundreds restaurants, bars, and cafes all within a several block radius from our house. We walk out of our front door, turn right and less than a block away is the Vlatava river. A 5 minute walk brings you into the center of Old Town Prague. Its amazing. This is the view from our balcony. We look over the National Theater. At night, hundreds of white birds prop themselves on the roof and just hang out. Every now and then, all of them will start circling the building. It is a little errie but amazingly beautiful at the same time.

Now that we are living in the city, I am trying to see as much of it as I can. The streets alone are enough to be awed by this amazing city. Every building has intricate detailing and beautiful moldings. The pastel colors of the buildings makes for a beautiful canvas atop the cobblestoned streets. Yesterday, I went to the Jewish quarter with my friends Farah, Clinton and Jake. We walked around a bit and went into the Spanish synagogue. It was beautiful. The stained glass windows were purple and yellow and illuminated the building magnificently. I have never seen a synagogue be so ornate and magnificent. The signs said no pictures, but I snuck a few in.

That is all the blogging I have in me for today. Now that I am no longer in school all day every day, I hope to keep this blog a little more up to date. Next time I will tell you about finding a job and hopefully signing a contract.