This past weekend was the orientation for all new inbounds to Hungary. Below is the entire group in front of one of the Capital buildings in Budapest. (The Brazilians are a very proud bunch as you can see by all the flags). Hungary is all one district so it's very interesting to get people from literally every continent into one place. Everyone stayed up late (some as late-early as 5am) talking with others and getting to know everyone. There is a bit of a language gap for some, but it will all become easier when we start to pick up Hungarian.
This is the group shot of the Americans (I think all of them)being stereotypically American. The other is of the New Yorkers: one from New Hartford and the other right down the road from Deposit.
The orientation was also a bit interesting due to a slight misunderstanding about the conversion of Kgs and lbs. The elevator in our 2 star hotel had a weight limit of 550 kg and a few exchange students decided to all ride back downstairs together (about 8 of them). This caused a slight problem in the mechanics of the elevator and they ended up being stuck in there for about a half an hour. The elevators here have one sliding door, and one door which pushes open - that one wouldn't work. By the time someone could gather enough Hungarian to inform the hotel workers and get someone to pry open the door, most of the other students were waiting around and laughing at the situation. The elevator ended up being below the level of the ground floor and slightly crooked. The woman who was at the desk left the group first yelling in Hungarian then saying "500! Only 4 persons, Okay?? You crazy, You crazy! Always!"
The next day we left the Rotarians and were led around some of the sights of Budapest by some Hungarian outbounds of last year. We saw many of the popular areas including Parliament building, and one of the famous churches in Budapest. We couldn't go all the way through the church to see the main part because there was a couple from the UK getting married (what a gorgeous place to get married!)
1 comment:
Hey Sarah!
I just started reading your blog the other day and Hungary looks amazing! I'm so glad to hear that you're having a great time. I know last time I spoke to you I told you that I wasn't sure about doing foreign exchange but reading your blog and getting more involved in the process is making me so excited about it!
From all your pictures Hungary looks beautiful. The architecture of the historic buildings look absolutely stunning just from the pictures alone, I can't even imagine what it's like in person! And it's great that you get to go to the music college for half a day, seems just like your "cup of tea." Anyways I can't wait to read more :-)
-Beth (aka. Betty :-P)
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