Events 11/14-11/18

Another ho-hum week.

Couple of highlights:
Hungarian National Gallery
For Art History, us students had to go to the National Gallery and do a report on some things there. I went with another student, and it was beautiful. Amazing paintings, I think I like certain time periods. I especially loved the landscapes. I took lots of photos (fewer than I had thought, tho).

Other misc photos
Here's a 3:30 sunset. It's crazy.

Friday was a busy day. I finally got more warmer clothes, a hat, some gloves, a pair of sweatpants (to wear under other pants), and some long sleeve shirts. For lunch (in between these purchases), I ate an interesting bagel sandwich from Budapest bagel. There was a bunch of stuff on it, including bacon and pomegranate seeds. It was funky, but delicious. After all the shopping, I went to the Christmas market, and met up with people there. We toured around the Christmas market, got some food, and then went to the symphony. The symphony was amazing. It was great fun, and the music was breathtaking.

The next day, I would leave for Germany.

Events 11/10-11/13: Poland

Photos

Thursday, we went to Poland. The drive was long. We stopped in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia for a short tour and lunch. It took so long for me and a few other students to find lunch, that we were supposed to be leaving about the time we got our food. I got some delicious pork for lunch. I wish I had been able to savor it, but I had to wolf it down. We did watch Schindler's List on the bus. The bus seems to take forever to get anywhere, so by the time we got to Krakow, it was dark. Krakow was cold. Much colder than Hungary ever gets. It was even snowing at times. I miss snow.

From the bus:

We went to dinner near the hostel, and then went in for the night.

The next day, we went to Birkenau and Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is technically not one camp, but a complex of camps, Birkenau being the largest one. The "Auschwitz" we went to is actually the best preserved camp, which is not Birkenau. It was very museum-like, with exhibitions inside the barracks. There was even an entire Hungarian exhibit, documenting Hungary's role in the Holocaust. Hungary likes to think itself innocent in WWII, in part likely due to the Soviet narrative of "liberation" from the Germans. However, they allied with the Axis during WWII at first, before wanting to pull out, and then when threatened, peacefully surrendered to Germany to avoid being invaded. Germany then put the Nazi sympathetic party in power, so the country was still run by Hungarians. So while not actively advocating for the Holocaust, the Hungarians didn't exactly fight it, either.

Birkenau was mostly destroyed, there were some barracks still up; we got to see stable that was "converted" into a barracks for women; the Nazis barely changed it. The conditions were so terrible, it is difficult to comprehend.

It's hard to call it awesome or good, but it was a very important experience, and I am glad I went.

We went back, to dinner, and then I went to bed.

Saturday morning, we went on a tour of Krakow. The medieval market was actually at a lower level than the ground is now, so there's a series of catacombs underground, and the few old buildings left have entrances with stairs up to ground level.

We toured around the city, even got to see some of the places where the shot Schindler's list; the Jewish quarter in Krakow was emptied during WWII, and never really recovered. So Steven Spielberg chose this location to shoot because it was still dilapidated and falling apart; most of the other Jewish quarters around Europe had been fixed up. This is a staircase that shows up in some scenes.

We went a couple tours in total, and ate at a place we had already eaten, right next to the hostel, I believe.

The next morning, we got up early, drove south to Slovakia, and stopped to tour a castle. It was an excellent tour. The castle was gorgeous; no pictures were allowed inside, however. We ate lunch nearby. Finally, we completed the trip back to Budapest, Sunday evening. I was pretty tired, so I don't think I did much (the Lions had a bye), and finally went to sleep.

Events 10/31-11/9: Skimming

A few misc pictures

So, in the interest of catching up, and getting everything blogged, I'm going to just skim the week and a half.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (other than Wednesday night Art History) I didn't have class or Service-Learning, but I did have a lot of homework to catch up on. Thursday was normal with regards to classes, meaning Econ and Late Antiquity, and I discovered I had an Econ group presentation on the day of Thanksgiving. Joy.

Friday, my friend Tristan and I powered through our vacation plans. Tristan is a friend of mine from the US, who is serving in the US army, stationed in Germany right now. We had previously made plans to go on vacation together the weekend before thanksgiving, but our plans so far had amounted to four places we wanted to go. By the end of our 5 hour session, we were making airbnb reservations. (Hence the pictures of me)

Friday was relatively uninteresting, although I did go to a birthday party of another student. She's actually in Hungary through a different program. She lives in the same dorm as us, but is only auditing one of the professor's courses, and so is a bit detached from the rest of us. (She does go on all the excursions). I was the only other Calvin student who came, but she had lots of friends from the church she is going to (Danube) and is on the worship team at. We got dessert at a relatively fancy place. It was good. (small plate, fork, and napkin, not giant glass)

Not much happened over the weekend that I remember. Doing homework and preparing for the trip to Poland, I suppose. The Lions won another nailbiter.

The election dominated Monday-Wednesday. I didn't sleep Tuesday night, and ended up staying up to watch the results come in. I finally went to bed when Trump had a 90% chance of winning. It was crazy. I went to sleep a couple hours before I would normally have gone to service learning (I obviously didn't go). But I didn't have long to dwell on it, for early Thursday morning, we left for Poland.

Events 10/29-10/31: Prague

Photos

So, Saturday morning, we headed to Prague. The train ride was uneventful. Our Airbnb was a bit out of the city, due to all the holidays around this time (other countries had a long weekend, so we got public transportation passes and took the metro. We had to walk a bit from a metro stop to get "there". When we got to where Google Maps told us to go, which included going down a small dirt path, we couldn't figure out the address. We stopped a guy going down the path to ask for help, and he explained the address we put in had no street number, just a street. He was extremely nice, and called the number for the host that we had. They conversed for a while, and the person on the other end eventually came to get us. She came, explaining that she was a friend of the owner, and the Airbnb was only supposed to be available for a couple months while she was gone. She still offered to let us stay at her parents' house, but we declined and started looking for another place to stay. Everything was booked. One of the other students remembered a place his girlfriend had stayed at and recommended; a "botel" (a motel on a boat permanently attached to a dock). Someone called them up, and they had a room free. So we made plans to stick seven of us in a four-person motel room.

Before we did that, however, we went looking for dinner. It took a while, but we found a great place. I split a half duck (with a bunch of stuff on the side) with someone (as did some other students). The waiter came over and actually showed us how to eat it, which was everything together, not one thing at a time. I'm glad he did. It was delicious.

After dinner, we walked around the city, seeing all kinds of cool stuff. There were lots of cool stuff, but most of it was closed, so I just got lots of pictures of the outsides of things. The Charles Bridge was cool, but I don't think my pictures worked (too low light). We headed back to the botel. I went to bed, but everyone else went on a 45 minute (since the bars close at 11 here) whirlwind tour of the Prague bars.

Sunday morning, we got up, and headed to Prague Castle. There was a huge line for security to get in. We decided to wait for the line to die down, so we went to the Schwarzenberský palác, an art museum. It was quite beautiful.

After the museum, we went up to a medieval monastery, and got lunch nearby. After lunch, we wandered around Petrin Hill, which is full of parks and some medieval stuff, before heading back to the castle complex, which we then entered. The complex is massive, with an entire cathedral inside, lots of cool stuff. It's on a hill, too, so we got a lot of great views.

After that, we headed back, got some dinner, and I went back to the botel to sleep. Everyone else stayed out to enjoy the night life.

Monday morning, we got up super early, and boarded the train back to Budapest.

Quick update: Getting behind

Sorry I've gotten behind. I hope to catch up some tomorrow, but it may be difficult. Lots of traveling going on.

What have I been up to?

After Vienna, I went to Prague with some other Calvin students. It was a great experience, with a near-disaster. I'll get to it tomorrow morning.

I had a relatively boring week, mostly just homework and stuff, but kept me busy, and the week after that was extermely busy, because we had a shortened week; we left for Poland Thursday morning! We stayed in Krakow, and it was another great trip, although I got a sore throat that persists to today. This week is very busy, having been gone, and now another trip this coming weekend.

But first, Friday night, I'm going to the symphony, which will be quite interesting. The next morning, I leave for the trip. I'm meeting my friend Tristan, who is in the US army, and stationed in Germany. He has a car, which will make travel much easier. We're going to meet in Salzburg in Austria, spend a little time there, and then travel and experience some places in southern and western Germany. I'll take a 14 hour train back, going from Koblenz, Germany, back to Budapest. The train leaves at midnight, and has a transfer at 6am. It'll be kind of crazy. I'm excited for the trip, as it will be quite an experience. I'll be excited to blog about it. Hopefully more quickly than I have been.

Events 10/28: Vienna again

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/KCfRW7iGVeqSKyJz7

So, Friday morning, we got up, and went to Vienna, for real this time. It was about a 3-hour bus ride, not too long. We got to our first stop, Schönbrunn palace, a little late, however.

This picture is actually from after we went inside. Before, we were rushing to make our tour at 10:00. It was an audio tour, with a little PDA type device you held up to your ear. I don't know how we could have been late, but apparently it was important we got there by 10.

The palace was beautiful, but they didn't allow pictures, unfortunately. It was interesting learning about Franz Joseph I, the last emperor of the Habsburg empire, since we had just read a book about the time period, that talked about him a decent amount. There were things about his wife, as well. Apparently, while we know Franz Joseph loved her profusely, we have little idea of whether she loved him, and the evidence suggests she did not. She lived an independent lifestyle, traveling all over on her own, rarely spending time in the palace with her husband. Unfortunately, this eventually led to her death, when she was killed by an Italian revolutionary while traveling.

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After the tour, we split up and went to the palace gardens, which were beautiful.

Lots of walking, tho. My group even went up a hill to see a building under construction, with a cool pond nearby. Don't know what the building was about.

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After exploring the gardens, we went to a bunch of places I went last weekend. We walked to Belvedere Palace and the Hofburg Palace with the tour guide, then stopped for lunch. Lunch was at an interesting buffet-type place. There was a central area, which kind of had sections. There was a buffet, but I got schnitzel, which was a limited amount, but I was also allowed one plate of sides, so I loaded up. It was delicious. After that, we split up. I went with some people who were going where I had been last weekend, going to St. Steven's cathedral and St. Peter's church, and ended back at Maria Theresa Square. While waiting with some people, I found you could go inside the bushes there.

We left after that. The bus ride back was fine, and I went to bed, again with a trip in the morning: Prague.

Service-Learning

So, all of the Calvin students on this semester have to do some service-learning as part of our experience here. The main idea is to do something other than studying that helps the Budapest community, and helps us Calvin students learn about Hungary from a more Hungary native point of view. There's a variety of options, but nearly everyone got assigned to helping teach English.

I, in a sense, was a bit lucky. I go to a bilingual school, UMSZKI, where the students are almost all native Hungarian speakers, and know varying levels of English (by class) and can be anywhere from 10 to 19. I go for three classes on Wednesday mornings, and my job is just to get the students talking in English. I have a lot of flexibilty as to what I can do, although just on Wednesday, I had great success with math. It makes it easier that math is kind of a common language, although they do do their notation a little differently. I should be preparing a bit more, I'm apparently supposed to do some presentations later. At the very least, I'll make one on the US itself, the election system, and Grand Rapids. Maybe Midwest food, too.

It's usually very nerve-wracking. I get put in front of 15-20 students and just have to come up with stuff to talk about for 45 minutes, and it can't be very complex. The teachers have to help give me stuff to talk about at times. I came into this semester, thinking that maybe I could be a teacher. This semester has shown me that even if I can do it, I don't think it's really in my nature. Tutoring sounds great; I might see if I can sign up for it this Spring/Summer through Calvin.

My point of contact and guide is Kati, the vice-president of the school (she also teaches). She's an amazing guide, and keeps me from getting overwhelmed. Honestly, I'm doing it more for her than myself. She's always excited to meet me and show me to more students. It's been dicey at times, but all in all, I think it's been a good experience.