ESN Corvinus Rockin' It

Yesterday was orientation day. We met at the school around noon and all gathered in one big room to hear a bunch of important information. Definitely information overload, but they’re sending us all the information via email, so that’s good. I almost fell asleep if it weren’t for my British friend, Kay, sitting next to me making jokes and saying ‘literally’ in his beautiful British accent. After about two hours of just information, we were asked to sign a form that stated we have arrived in Budapest and then we got to take an orientation packet. There are 285 international students studying at Corvinus and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a group of Hungarian students who cater to us! They plan all of the events, sight-seeing tours, parties, and give us any information we need. It’s so good to have them; they show us where to go, give us advice, and try to teach us some Hungarian even though it’s extremely difficult! So after the orientation, we could go out into the lobby and purchase an ESN card, which will give us discounts to all the weekend trips that ESN plans, as well as discounts to a bunch of different restaurants around Budapest. Then we could also by a Pub Crawl ticket and a Fresh Camp ticket. All my friends and I bought the card, the Pub Crawl, and the Fresh Camp ticket. The Pub Crawl is Thursday night when ESN will take us to four different popular pubs and we get free entry and discounted/free drinks. Fresh Camp is on Saturday and Sunday – ESN is taking us to Eger, Hungary. Google says, “Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, lying between the Mátra and Bukk mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings, and red and white wines.” With our ticket to Fresh Camp, we will be doing two Hungarian wine tastings, four meals, a night stay somewhere, and access to a private party. ESN is doing it right. I’m so thankful for all their help.

Side note:

Today, Wednesday, and Thursday are sight-seeing days coordinated by ESN. We are going to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath today, so we are all bringing our bathing suits and towels. I’m guessing it’s like a big hot tub. Copy and paste the name into google, so you get an idea of what it looks like. On Wednesday we will walk around the Pest side and take a visit to Parliament, and Thursday we will see the Buda side. Once it starts to get warmer, the Buda side is known to be way more green than the Pest side.

So after we purchased our ESN card, Pub Crawl ticket, and Fresh Camp ticket (it was all around $100 which I think is extremely reasonable), we went over to the Great Market Hall that’s right next to Corvinus University. I walked in and almost cried. On the bottom floor they have every fruit and vegetable known to man plus nuts and dried fruit. I was in heaven. On the top floor there are cooked food stations with all Hungarian food, and also little shops to buy souvenirs, bags, coats, shirts, etc. I bought a huge pack of mushrooms, three bananas, and three oranges for under $3. Score! In the future, I’ll probably do most of my grocery shopping there because it’s cheaper than the grocery stores, but I just didn’t have bags to put everything in this time. So, we went grocery shopping to a place right across the street from our flat and got a few things. I made my first dinner in the flat last night – a huge, fresh salad which was so good. The first few days I was here I was starting to worry that I may have to start eating meat again – every food here has meat in it. I’m glad I can cook/prepare food for myself now! There is one other guy, Ben, who is a vegetarian, too so we’ll stick together!

After that, we had to meet back up at the school around 7:30pm and we all separated into five different groups. These smaller groups did a tour around the school and played get-to-know-you games. After that, we all gathered in a big room and they had a Hungarian dance performance for us. It was really neat to see this! They do a lot of stomping and slapping on their boots and knees – very different! At the end of the performance, they came out into the audience and grabbed a few of us to dance. I was pulled up there and let me tell you, I was sweating afterward. The guy I was dancing with was covered in sweat, but he was teaching me a few Hungarian dance moves. I got a few of them down, but some were too hard for me. But, I was dancing with him in front of all the other international kids, so when we went to the bar ESN rented for us that night, everyone kept coming up to me saying how good of a dancer I was! It was funny! While I was dancing, all my friends saw me and came over to where I was dancing and were taking a bunch of pictures. I was just laughing so hard! So, yes, after the dancing we went over to the bar and met some more people! I talked with one guy who is part of ESN and is Hungarian, so he told me he would show me all the local Hungarian bars and restaurants because we’ve been going to more of the bigger bars/restaurants. His name is Bendegúz (pronounced Bendy in English).

Around 4am they started closing the bar, and no other bar was open for us so we ended up back at Marco Polo Hostel. Too funny! We thought we were all out of that place.

I’m ready for a thermal bath; definitely could use some relaxing time. Until next time…

xoxo

and I completely forgot… It snowed pretty hard yesterday! I woke up and opened my curtain and it was just pouring snow. Loved it! This is just the beginning… February is their coldest month. Thank God for my boots.

Some photos for you!

This is Corvinus University. Beautiful!

This is the bridge right outside of Corvinus University. It connects the Buda and Pest side. Corvinus is on the Pest side, but they do have another school on the Buda side. I think one of my classes may actually be on that side, but my roommate will have all her classes on the Buda side, so she can show me where it is!

This is one of the lobbies inside Corvinus. I can't even believe I go to school here.

This is one corner of my new room!

This is the window/door in my room that opens up to a very tiny balcony.

This is where the Hungarian dancers performed for us.

These are the little bread stores that they have at every metro station. You can get sweet or savory breads. They have some with icing, some with meat and cheese (like a Hot Pocket), and some with just baked cheese on top.

My favorite place! Great Market Hall. So many different fruits and vegetables to choose from.

This is the Parliament building at night - and my roommate in the bottom right corner. 

This is the view right outside of Corvinus University. The bridge looks so pretty lit up at night.

Hungarian dancers

The girls did a dance with wine bottles - hard to tell in this picture. They did a little dance with the wine bottles and then some boys came in and danced with long wooden sticks. Very fascinating!