Events 9/3-9/5

Saturday morning, I went looking for a bathing suit. A bunch of people were going to Lake Balaton, a nearby lake great for swimming. Well, five hours later, I got back with a bathing suit, well after everyone else had left. I looked in two different malls; checked a bunch of stores. I had to learn how the sizing system worked, figure out where was cheap. The second-hand store had nothing labeled, which was infuriating, so I quickly left. Many of the clothing stores sell women's clothes only, so it was rough looking up stores online. Finally, in a sports store, I found a large bathing suit. They had only one pattern, which was a bluey-green, which was fine by me. But I got it. (I also picked up some underwear). For shirts and shorts, I plan on going back to C&A. But I've figured out the washing machines, and they only take very small loads, so I'm adjusting. The rest of the day was studying and relaxing; I had assignments due before classes started.


Sunday, I went to St. Columba's Church of Scotland, which is the church of pastor Aaron Stevens, who is working with our program, mainly in setting up the service-learning. It was a good service, quite small. Afterwards they provided lunch.

The church from the front.

The streets were very narrow; this was with my back near the wall on the other side of the street.

After lunch, I think I grabbed some groceries and went back. In the process of figuring out to meet with my service learning host, we figured out Monday morning would work best, and they're an hour from the dorm. So an early night for me. I also talked with my sis, and got the first blog post in.

I dragged myself out of bed Monday morning and went to UMSZKI, a bilingual school north of the city center. I discovered that I will be dealing with students who are learning English. Basically, my job is just to get them to talk in English. I've a big list of things I can do, (I'll have to do things for 3 hours a week) but I've been told they have a lot of questions, and I'll probably do a lot of explaining how things work in the US. Lots of questions on politics, I'm told.

In the afternoon, I did a bunch more blogging. That evening was a Karoli orientation, which was at the university. It was mainly for Erasmus students, who make up 80% of the international students, and had orientation stuff all week (and had all of their classes at Karoli), but there was some stuff for the other international students which were more than just us Calvin students. I was going to have my first class that night, but due to a scheduling mixup, it was set to start immediately after the orientation, which was half an hour a day, so it had been cancelled. So my classes started on Tuesday.