One Month already!

They sell flowers at stands all over the place so we finally go some for our place-they're so beautiful!

Lift up your gaze be lifted up

Tell everyone how great the love
The love come down from heaven's gate

To kiss the earth with hope and grace

Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty

Lift up your hands be lifted up

Let the redeemed declare the love

We bow down at heaven's gate
To kiss the feet of hope and grace

There is one God He is Holy

There is one Lord over everything

There is one King

He is Jesus
King of glory strong and mighty

You are the King of Glory- The Lord, strong and mighty!

-Chris Tomlin

I was listening to this song during my quiet time today and I am just so thankful for His grace in my life-What an amazing God we serve!

Well today I have been in Budapestfor exactly a month! It's gone by so quickly, but I've enjoyed every minute! Last night I went to the opera house and saw a ballet and a folk opera...the building was incredible, and I had never been to an opera before! When I was sitting there I felt like I was in the musical,"Phantom of the Opera", haha, Libby and I both felt like the experience was surreal: ) Today I have my first Statistics test so keep me in your prayers, my teacher is a funny little Hungarian woman who does every math problem the longest way possible, haha...and with her accent sometimes she sounds like she's yelling, it's a little distracting but she seems like a nice little lady : ) I've definitely been teaching myself though so hopefully it goes ok! Th school weeks go so fast here because Thursday is like Friday, it's so nice! Well I hope everyone has a fabulous and blessed week!

Weekend at Lake Balaton

Travelling this weekend was so amazing and it was definitely nice to get out of the city for a little bit and see another part of Hungary...the weather was very nice too! I personally am definitely a country girl, I like the slower pace and more relaxed setting along with all the beautiful open land...I love it here in Budapest and I'm so excited to be here for the semester but I couldn't live in the city permanently...

Well we had quite a busy but fun time...
On Friday we left on a bus from the school and it was about a 2 hour trip to Tac-Gorsium which was an archaelogical site and excavation center of an ancient Roman settlement...it was so cool to walk around and imagine what it must have been like...we saw where an old ampitheater stood and he Governor's villa along with the forum and all these neat statues that marked the road to the settlement!Next we were off to Szantod where we took the ferry across the lake and then went to Tihany peninsula, we took a tour of a church with an Abbey founded in early Medieval times and this Roman church had the tomb of King Andras I who founded it and the abbey in the 11th century...it was so neat and it kind of got me in the mood to play The Mystery of the Abbey with my family, haha such funny memories : ) we will have to play when I get back!This town was right by the water and it's a fishermen's village with old stone houses and tons of flowers and pretty gardens...it reminded me of a fairytale, like somewhere I always dreamed of living...it was very peaceful andthe view of the lake was fantastic! When I was walking around the town I saw the funniest dog ever and I decided I want one, haha, it's called a Hungarian sheep dog and they only have them here, but it looks like a walking mop, either that or a dog with dreadlocks but anyways I ran after it to take a picture and when I got up close all I could see was its tongue!

Next we went to Balatonfured where our hotel was the first night and we got to walk around the town by the lake and see the pretty swans and parks...we stopped at this big water fountain thing that was used by the old historic hospital because of the intense minerals and massive amounts of iron in the water...people would come just to fill up a bottle and drink it for better health!

A lot of us tried it, but it tasted absolutely awful and kind of made me feel nautious, so I decided I would just stick to taking my vitamin supplements...Then we went to this very nice and classy Hungarian restaurant or "csarda" where we had live music and a fancy dinner with different courses, we also did wine tasting and there were 3 different very classy white wines they gave us but I didn't really like any of the wine, the dessert was amazing though : )

The next day we drove through the Bakony Hills which was beautiful, until we reached Tapolca(which I kept confusing with Tapioca!) We went to the Balaton National Park and we got to go boating on the lake in the famous cave...it was my first cave experience and I loved it, I even got to climb some of the rocks inside! We had lunch with everyone and I tried some interesting things that I wasn't really sure of exactly, but I guess what I don't know won't hurt me...
We found this playground and everything was made out of wood, it was so awesome and much more fun(and maybe more dangerous) than any playground I've ever been to! I even got to go on the see-saws with Libby and that made my day since they are illegal in Maryland : (Our last stop for the day was Kezthely, the biggest city of the Western-Balaton area where we stayed at a really fancy hotel right on the lake! We went for a nice boat ride and I discovered a Haribo candy/gummy stand, It was very exciting!

Here's the view of the lake when we walk out on one of the courtyards of our hotel...

Libby, Amanda, and I went to one of the beautiful churches in the town for a Hungarian mass which was very interesting, I really wish I knew more of the language! After we had a buffet dinner at our hotel and then walked around the town for awhile, Libby and I found this little restaurant where they had those kiddie rides that you put coins in and I got on the horse and she got on the motorcycle but then the man started yelling at us and we had no idea what he was saying so we stared at him dumbfounded, we found out later he was yelling "5 years!" at us so I guess we were too old for it, but he literally pushed us out! He almost made us cry, but it's kind of funny now that I look back on it...at our hotel there was a live pianist/singer so that cheered us up : ) Sunday morning our hotel had a huge buffet breakfast which had extraordinary amounts of food and after we ate we went to the Festetics palace which was an 18th-19th century French chateau! It was amazing to see all the old rooms of this place and it seemed to be neverending, if I lived there I'd definitely get lost in my own house! It was so old that we had to wear these covers on our shoes to protect the floors and unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures : / ...I think my favorite parts were the silk wallpapers, the obsession they had with horses, the pretty paintings, the ballroom/concert hall and the ginormous library they had with a secret passage! The library reminded me of the one from Beauty and the Beast, it was amazing! After this we went to an old carriage museum right next to it which was very interesting...Our last stop for our trip was the headquarters of the world famous porcelain manufacturer that was started in 1826, called Herend, where we got to see the actual intricate process of making porcelain and how each piece is handpainted still! Outside there was a neat courtyard, and I really liked this lion, it was painted with one of the famous Herend designs...and it reminded me of Aslan : )

This time I didn't get in trouble for being too big!

We got to look around the gift shop, but everything was extremely expensive...but it was really neat to see and it kind of put me in the mood to go to the Mud Hut and paint my own pottery...I can afford that : ) We got back home around 7:30 and I was pretty exhausted, I got to talk to my parents though and that completed an awesome weekend!

Exciting Travels...

So last night our dinner was a success! Thanks for the recipe Laura and Lew, it turned out great, and there's just something about Hungarian paprika that's amazing...I think I'm getting spoiled,I'm definitely going to have to bring some home and have a little Hungarian feast so people can try it! We cooked for 10 people yesterday so it was a lot of work but I really enjoyed it, it makes me look forward to having my own home someday and being able to be hospitable! I don't think I've ever cut up so much raw chicken in my life though, haha! Here's some pictures of everything, but I must say Chicken Paprika is not the most attractive dish but it really does taste very good!

So now I'm off to classes, I have Statistics and Literature of the American South and then my first Salsa dance class starts, yay! So I'll be there until about 8:30, and then tomorrow I'm leaving in the morning for our school's trip to Lake Balaton, I can't wait, I'll try and take lots of pictures and tell everyone all about it, I'll be home Sunday evening...: )

Creative in the Kitchen : )

So Sunday evening, our "family dinner" that Dadve made was one of the best meals ever, it was really just pasta with this spicy meat sauce but for some reason it was just so good! There was like 9 of us and we all were very satisfied afterwards, we decided we want Dadve to cook for us more often...He said that kitchens inspire him and he just creates things!

~Here the master chefs are at work in the kitchen!

Here's part of the pasta I ate, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it when they put it together it was so pretty but once I started eating it I kind of messed up the presentation, haha that's ok though..: )

Well this afternoon when Libby and I were done with class we went to the big Central Market and got some fresh produce from the central market and decided to be creative with dinner...we combined lots of different things but it mainly consisted of rice and meat, tomatoes, paprikas, garlic and onion(yes onion, I guess I've started to like it!) well anyway then we had fresh corn on the cob and we decided to use the husks and fill them with our creation and then bake them with cheese, we decided they were our unique version of tamales, haha, but they were so good! We were so happy there weren't any disasters, and then for dessert we decided to be creative again, we're getting a lot better at this and its pretty entertaining...we melted peanut butter(Didi finally found some but it was very expensive!) and chocolate, and then broke up pretzels in it and spread it on some bread, it was really good and we're excited to use our leftovers for another adventure tomorrow night: ) Libby and I are so happy that we will still have a kitchen next semester, it's been so much fun!

It's too bad the pictures just don't do it justice!

Well then after dinner we went to the mall, it's right down the street from us, but we hadn't really checked it out yet...it was so huge, we only saw part of one of the three floors and it took us like an hour and a half, really just window shopping! Most of the stores are really high class and more than we can afford but it was fun to look around. The stores are decorated so nicely and theres a lot of plants and pretty landscaping inside! There's actually this waterfall rock wall by the escalators! And it's so funny because there's a lot of stores just for men which is not so common in the US, I think a lot of the men here are a little too concerned about fashion, its pretty funny though! So yeah we decided we would go back to see the rest of the mall when we had a whole day to do it because of how big it is!

Oh and we are having a family dinner at our place on Wednesday and we were thinking about doing Chicken Paprikas so Laura if you still have the recipe we used can you send it to me, thanks so much!

Long weekends!

What a blessing to have no class on Friday, I'm back to class tomorrow morning but I've had a very nice weekend : ) On Friday, I woke up before Libby and Didi so I went to one of the markets by myself and I was so happy I figured out how to order fresh sausage all by myself(with the help of my Hungarian phrasebook!) and then I came back home and Libby and I made some french toast and sausage and I made some coffee in our little French coffee press! It's so much fun to have our own little kitchen and it was such a good time just being able to have breakfast with friends and relax and take our time! It was our friend Sarah's 20th birthday so we made chocolate chip cookies for her and this was quite an adventure because our oven does not have any numbers on the dials(not even in celsius!) so we had to guess what the temperature was, haha, they turned out pretty good though! We met Sarah and our other friend Stacey at this really neat cafe and by the time we got the cookies to her they were a little shaken up(It was a pretty long journey, haha, we had some issues finding it!) but they still tasted great : )

~Here we are presenting our lovely masterpiece to Sarah back at their apartment, we didn't have a candle for her to blow out so we held a lit match up to it so we could pretend, haha, so sillyThe cafe was such a nice atmosphere and we ended up staying there for a few hours...the nice thing about Europe is they don't rush you at all, we had to ask for our check! The coffee and pastries were delicious too! Then we headed back to Stacey and Sarah's flat and decided we would order pizza for dinner, so we got two humongous pizzas again and one was just cheese but the other was garlic sour cream-chicken, it was interesting...I ended up feeling very sick later, I don't know what happened but I have never felt such stomach pain it was pretty awful! I felt much better the next day but I guess some of the food here I am still not used to!

Yesterday we checked out the annual wine festival that they have in the Castle District over on the Buda side. It was so awesome to experience the culture there, they had a parade and it was so neat, tons of people were dressed up and playing music and singing little folk songs! I loved all their outfits and the dancing looked so fun, I really wanted to join in...I really would love to be a little Hungarian folk dancer! I definitely think my mom would've loved to see the parade and I think she would've tried to join in as well, haha : ) Girls were handing out grapes to the people watching, and they were so cute and little but it was crazy because each little grape had like 4 seeds in it! We got to check out the Fine Art Museum too which was neat, I unfortunately wasn't allowed to take pictures, but some of us pretended not to know this (Libby ; ), haha) The guest country at the festival was South Africa so it was really neat because they were doing lots of dancing while we were there! We had to pay to get in and our ticket came with a nice wine glass and wine tasting tickets, so we got to try a glass, but I've decided that I think drinking a glass of wine with a dinner for the cultural experience is nice but I'm not a huge fan of it, or alcohol in general, it's not my cup of tea, in fact I'd much rather have tea! Well then we came back and relaxed and got some work done and Libby and I watched the classic musical, Singing in the Rain, it was so cute I loved it!

I had to put this picture up because the accordion player was so goofy, I loved it!

This morning a group of us met up and went to church together, I really enjoyed it! On the way we stopped at this pastry shop where we got some of the famous Fornetti pastries and then we got to church and everyone was so welcoming and friendly, it was awesome, and people spoke English-which was pretty comforting! They had time to just fellowship and enjoy coffee and cookies and stuff in the beginning and then the service started and I was so grateful to be there worshipping with other Christians, God is so awesome! I really am looking forward to getting to know more people at the church and getting more involved...God's just provided so much for me, it was so awesome because I found out a few people I had met already go to this church, what an encouragement! Well tonight I'm going to our friend Corey's flat where our friend, Dadve or David, from Iran, is going to cook food for us! I'll write more later : )

I know this picture is random but I thought of my momma because the wild flowers they have everywhere are so pretty and remind me of her...I wish I could send a bouquet of them to her but I hope this picture makes her smile! : )

Also this is kind of a random thought but if anyone knows about going through Customs and what kind of procedure and restrictions apply I could use it b/c I am not sure what kind of things I can bring home with me!

Brrr...

It has been pretty cold here lately, I've actually been wearing my winter coat pretty often so I'm so glad that I brought it! The weather is definitely funny here, it seems to fluctuate so quickly! Well I made it through the first week of classes and I don't have anymore until Monday morning, my schedule is weird...today I didn't have my first class until 2:15 and then I finished at 5:30 and then none tomorrow : ) yay... It is such a weird feeling to have to allow so much time to get to class because I have to take a bus, but I'm getting used to it, at my home campus I can leave like 5 minutes before class starts and get there in time!
A group of us have decided to get together and cook each other dinner a few times a week, it's been really awesome! The other night we had everyone over and we had pizzas and garlic bread and some good vegetables we cooked with olive oil and then we had bread with nutella and dark chocolate on top for dessert, yum! Then last night we went to our friends, Sarah and Stacys place, and they made pasta and this sausage dish and bruschetta and bread and then we had these funny little chocolate jelly cookies for dessert...They have some really funny cookies and desserts here, but they're pretty good...anyways it's just been nice that we've been able to do this because some of my classes are late so I don't really feel like cooking right when I get home! Let me know if you have any recipes or suggestions for dinners for bigger groups of people...: )

This weekend we're going to the wine festival that they have here every year so that should be neat, it's in the beautiful Castle district and they are supposed to have music and all kinds of neat things, I still can't get over the fact that I'm going to be here for so long, I'm definitely excited but at times I do get a bit homesick especially with such gloomy weather the past few days but I was looking back over my little album my family made me and Lew had given me some great words of wisdom, reminding me that in both Maryland and Hungary the cross is the same and it's sufficient for me! That's so true and I'm just so thankful to have friends and family that are praying for me and reminding me of such truth, I love you guys!

Cruise on the Danu

Last night all the first year students here got to go on a cruise on the Danube River, it was so much fun! They had food and drinks for us all for free and the boat had two levels and you could go inside or outside! I don't think I've ever been on a boat like this, in fact it's one of the only boats I've ever been on, but I really enjoyed it and it was a blessing that it was such a nice evening because it's very rainy today...

We met a lot of really sweet people and I'm looking forward to meeting even more! It's so neat to be around so many different cultures and backgrounds at the same time, I love it : ) I am just so thankful for God's grace in my life, He provided this oppurtunity for me and it's already been life-changing, I am so blessed! Libby and I talked about this for awhile last night and we both were just so amazed thinking about it all and how God knows whats best : ) I'm so thankful to be living with her!

This afternoon I have another class and Libby's going to cook dinner so it's ready when I get home, haha, and then we're going to try going to Tesco for real this time because we know how to get there now, yay!

My first week in Budapest!

God is so good, this has been an incredible experience so far! It's funny because I've only been here a week and I already feel like I've been here for a long time but I've enjoyed it so much! I really would encourage everyone to try and take an oppurtunity to travel somewhere like this, it's so awesome and it's hard to understand until you experience it for yourself ...
Well let's see I'll try and start from the beginning...


The flight here was my first time being on an airplane, and I really enjoyed it a lot...The flight attendants were very sweet, and I got a window seat on both planes : ) I watched the Little Mermaid, haha, and tried to sleep but ended up no sleeping at all! By Monday night I was so exhausted but somehow still running on adrenaline...

Here's me and my long lost roommate, it was so good to finally see her after a summer apart!The sunrise on the flight to Amsterdam was amazing, I definitely stared out the window a lot of the time : )
Once we got to the airport in Amsterdam we walked around for a while because we had a few extra hours, it was a pretty small airport but they had some neat things, lots of those little dutch clogs and lots of chocolate and candy!
There were these funny statues so we decided to pose with them

I definitely learned that European bathrooms are kind of funny, they are called toilets and the toilet paper is kind of similar to sand paper in some places, the flushers are funny too, in our hotel there was two buttons a big one and a little one and we just laughed as we thought about why it was like that...On the flight to Budapest I had my first Hungarian brand of food, this chocolate wafer bar called "Balaton", it was a pretty good first experience : )

Once I arrived in Budapest I got some Hungarian forints out of the ATM and I was ready to go… we took a bus to our hotel which ended up being really nice!

This is our hotel lobby

Even though I hadn’t slept I wanted to explore the city so Libby, Corey, and I went on an adventure. We walked and stopped at a market where we bought some snacks. We tried these funny chips that kind of have the same consistency as Styrofoam but actually tasted very good, I’m still not sure what flavor they were though…The cashier was not very happy with me because I tried to buy an apple and I didn’t know that you have to put it in a bag and weigh it on this machine that prints out the price before you check out…well she took my apple from me and threw my money at me and then mumbled that I was stupid, let’s just say someone had woke up on the wrong side of the bed! I didn’t let this get me down, I actually thought it was kind of funny, then we kept walking and just seeing central Pest was so amazing that we didn’t really keep track of where we were going. We also didn’t have a map or really anything at all except some money and snacks…so we eventually found a man who was very friendly but he only spoke Hungarian…He went out of his way to find someone who knew how to get back to our hotel, He found another friendly couple and the whole situation was just very funny actually…being lost in a foreign country isn’t so bad after all! Libby used the little German she knows and Corey used the little Hungarian he knows while I threw in my past knowledge of French and we made it back! I have to add though that the streets of Pest are extremely confusing, I’m finally getting the hang of it but it’s tricky because a lot of the roads curve all over the place and change names randomly.

Later at the hotel the director, Dr. Mandy ordered pizza for the whole group and we were all so hungry we didn’t care that it was kind of weird. They were some of the biggest pizzas I’ve ever seen, some had corn and ham on them, some had mushroom and ham, and some had bacon and paprika, I had 3 pieces but I think I still prefer cheese pizza over these.

Even though I hadn’t slept the pizza gave me my second wind and a group of us decided to walk around Pest afterwards, and we didn’t get lost this time! On Tuesday we had breakfast at the hotel which was an interesting experience but delicious nonetheless. I had this muesli(like granola) cereal with chunks of chocolate in it and cocoa powder sprinkled on top! They also had lots of bread, and jelly and honey along with sausages and cheese and instead of fruit they had the popular combo of tomatoes and cucumbers…which I have begun to obsess over too. Their tomatoes and cucumbers are so much better than any I’ve ever had before, it’s pretty funny!

Next the whole group visited our college where we registered for classes and got our ids and everything and we had lunch there, where we had more tomatoes and cucumbers and green onion with sandwiches : ) We also got to try the only soda that originated in Hungary, it was kind of like gingerale but unfortunately not as good…In Budapest things are very different when it comes to drinks. The bottles are shaped funny and they mostly drink juice and alcohol, water is pretty expensive and always mineral water…it also is usually carbonated which I don’t like, but I’ve been drinking the tap water which is safe and really good!

That night we took the oldest European underground train/metro and went out to dinner with everyone at this Hungarian buffet restaurant called The Trofea Grill. I don’t really know half of what I ate but I was stuffed afterwards. They had all kinds of soup from goulash to raspberry soup : ) and they had a raw bar where you picked meat and they’d cook it for you, I avoided the liver, baby squid and little quail eggs, haha, but I did try just about every dessert they had and I think the ice cream was my favorite! The buffet came with juice and wine but we had to pay extra for water, so weird! After dinner a group of us went exploring again and ended up seeing the Danu (Danube) River, which separates Buda and Pest, it was especially beautiful at night with all the lights reflecting on it : )

We realized the public transportation stopped and we weren’t sure where to walk back but another friendly man and his wife guided us back to our hotel and we ended up having a lot of fun walking! The next day we moved into our flats/apartments and I just felt so blessed because our landlords were very friendly and we had a nice place with a balcony and lots of space! I wasn’t sure what to expect but I am just very thankful for what we ended up with : )

We went to the market a little later and ended up a little confused and overwhelmed because of the language barrier but we’ve been back since and are definitely figuring everything out and getting used to it. I’m still a little sad though that none of the markets seem to sell peanut butter, but I’m sure I’ll live… After our first experience though we were pretty tired so we decided to go out for dinner. We found this nice Turkish restaurant or “etterem” close by and I tried some Turkish pizza and this salad with tomato, cucumber and oil and seasonings, it was delicious and the pizza had egg and cheese on it! Later hat night we went out, and were definitely becoming better map readers in the process, we ended up going o Margaret Island which is in between Buda and Pest and really close to our place, the drinking age is 18 here so Didi, Libby, and I tried some palinkaliquor(honey and peach) and of course we were very responsible with it, we wanted some gelato afterwards, which is really popular here, but we couldn’t find one that was still open so I must confess we went to McDonalds and got soft serve ice cream cones(“waffles”) and it only cost us like 40 cents! The McDonalds was a lot nicer than any American one I’d been to but I still don’t plan on going back while I’m here, haha…and the ice cream cones are a lot better here too! I think every day since then I’ve found some gelato, my favorite so far was the nutella kind, it had nuts and chocolate in it, yum!

On Thursday we were on our own to get to our college from our place and it took us an hour to get there because we still weren’t sure about how to use all the public transportation, it really is so confusing! We went on a neat tour and got to see some of Buda…we stopped in the huge central market there where there is tons of meat and fresh fruit and vegetables all over the place along with lots of clothes and all kinds of neat souvenir type things…we got to try some sausage that was like salami…my favorite thing was this cherry strudel pastry I got and they have little bakeries all over the place too, it was really neat to walk around there. We got to see some of the history of Buda, lots of statues and old buildings with really neat architecture. The Castle District was amazing and the view from the Fishermen’s bastion was so beautiful even despite the rainy day. I felt like I was in a dream as I walked down all the cobblestone streets.

In Budapest gyros are very popular and they are all over the place so we decided to go out and try them for dinner, and it’s funny because they have the beef and chicken hanging vertically on this metal rod and they shave off the meat from it, it ended up being very delicious especially with spicy paprika added to it! On Friday we went to a market near us and had a lot more fun shopping this time because we know what we’re doing now : ) Grocery shopping is definitely pretty cheap here for the most part…there are also tons of shoe stores! The clothes here though are either nice and expensive or cheap and poor quality, so it’s hard to find a nice bargain place like Target or Kohls, but it’s fun to look around anyway. Libby and I decided to try getting to school the right way this time and we had no trouble, but the way back was a different story, hopefully someone will be able to help me figure that one out after my first class! Well since it was such nice day we went to the City Park and explored that area. It’s so beautiful, it was easy to forget you were in the city at all,, except when we saw this Hungarian band practicing and getting recorded, it was pretty neat! The landscaping is very nice though, and so many people have dogs here, especially little ones! They’re all so adorable and most of them just tag alongside their owner, on their best behavior, without even wearing a leash or anything! The lake at the park had little docks where people can sit and relax, and you can go boating too! There are also a lot of neat museums around the park that I'd like to visit eventually like the agricultural musem : ) We saw all kinds of statues but one in particular stuck out to us that we didn't expect to see...it is of George Washington and it's recognizing all Hungarian Americans, it was nice to see a familiar face!

Something funny about Budapest is there are hardly any public restrooms and when you find one you have to pay to use it! In most restaurants they have bathrooms but even if you are eating there you sometimes have to pay, it's pretty crazy! I must say though I do kind of miss those warm summer nights in Md, it gets very cold here at night even now, I have started bringing gloves along with me! I've also learned that I need to be quick getting on and off any of the metros or trams, haha, I actually missed getting shut in one by like a second, but I haven't had any problems since that night!

On Saturday we went back to the Center Market and got some paprika peppers and I got this funny green thing that kind of looks like a cucumber but I’m not sure what it is, I guess I’ll find out! We walked around Vaci utca, where there are tons of shops and cafes and restaurants but they’re all pretty expensive because it’s a pretty touristy area

A group of us decided to order pizza for dinner and we tried to get it delivered but when we called they didn’t speak English so we walked to the place and then took the humongous pizza with us on the tram back to Corey’s flat where we enjoyed it with a glass of wine, People were actually laughing at us when we were walking around with this pizza, I guess we did look a little ridiculous, this time the pizza was pretty normal, it was called pizza margherit(like margherita pizza) and we all decided we’d have to try something more exotic next time, maybe not so funky as liver though…which is very popular, yuc! It was nice to relax for a little while and watch a movie, and then later we ventured out to Hero square which was beautiful at night!

Right around the square they had all these stalls set up selling giant pretzels, strudels, candy and dried fruit, it was pretty funny!

Sunday Didi, Amanda, and I attempted to find a church that is supposed to be in an old movie theater but we followed the directions and couldn’t find it! I was pretty disappointed but we have another one we’re going to try next week and I think this one is a lot easier to find : ) Libby and Stacy had gone to a church in Buda so we met them there and walked around for a while… It's so neat to see the view of the river and Pest from Buda! This time we walked around the streets of Buda a little more and found a neat park, parks are very common all over Budapest, they're nice places to study or relax.

Later when I got back, Libby , Didi, and I attempted to find Tesco, which is a huge store kind of like Wal-Mart, and it originated in Britain, but we ended up not being able to figure out how to get there, I'm sure we'll figure it out soon though, but on the way back we saw the beautiful sunset so that was nice : ) Even though I'm living in the city, I still have seen God's beautiful handy work all over the place, it's refreshing...

Today, I had my first class, Medieval Art History...it was from 8:30 to 10 so I had to get up pretty early but I don't mind, I was glad I made it to school on time and didn't get lost anywhere! The class was very small, it's only 4 girls! It seems like it will be a good class, it's a little challenging to understand my professor because of his French accent but I feel like just in that hour and a half I made progress! I am very happy to be starting classes so I can get into a routine and everything : ) This afternoon I have the opening convocation at my school and then everyones going on a boat for a cruise on the Danu, I can't wait!

~I have tons more pictures that I've been putting on my facebook so I hope you get a chance to look at them : )