If I’m going to be honest I have felt pretty unmotivated lately. It has taken me a week and a half to finish this post. And it’s not just being unmotivated to write this but kinda unmotivated in general. Anyways if you’re reading this I’m obviously pushing through and getting the little things I need and want to do done!
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Last week, Monday the 31st to Friday the 4th, was our autumn break at school. Which was absolutely lovely. Now while going on any social media that first weekend I was constantly seeing post of my friends back in Canada celebrating Halloween but other than carving a pumpkin the week before I did not join in. In Hungary like any country there is some Halloween items in stores because of western influence but it is not celebrated here. Instead they take that time of year to pay respects to the dead. I went to a total of 4 cemeteries from Saturday to Tuesday. It’s quite a beautiful experience for all the graves get decorated by family members with flowers and candles.
On a side note in one large cemetery I saw multiple graves together all from deaths from during the Hungarian revolution of 1956. They all had little revolutionary flags on the graves and it was really interesting to see since the weekend before, the 23 of October, was the 60th anniversary and a national holiday so I had just learned about that historic event.
Two of the cemeteries we visited weren’t in the Budapest area but up north by the Slovakian border, for we travelled up and stayed in a little village where my host mom Maya grew up. During that little trip I was able to meet more of my extended host family and we stayed in Maya’s dads house for the three days.
Other than visiting the cemeteries while up north we did a bit of sight seeing for the area.
(This little village is literally just one street)
These photos were all taken at the Füzér castle.
And one day we even ventured across the border and had a little day trip to Kosice, Slovakia!
The weather during that week was beautiful!
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The second half of the week during autumn break was spent at home, but was still just as enjoyable.
On Thursday we went to the Budapest zoo, which if I’m honest was a bit of a conflicting experience for me.
But fun fact: did you know that the Budapest zoo is 150 years old, meaning it is a year older than my country! Canada still isn’t 150 until 2017! Shows how young we are compared to Europe, that as well as some of that dates I’ve seen Sára memorizing for history class.
On Friday I tagged along with Sára and her group of friends which are all my classmates for a hike during the very very cold day.
And then Saturday I went out with other exchange students for Anita’s going away celebrations, we also said goodbye to her last night at the airport. Since she’s from Argentina her exchange year started in January.
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And know I’m slowly getting back into the routine of regular school weeks, though I missed two days this week because I got quite sick. The weather has also changed from the start of the break, getting much colder, it has already snowed in other parts of the country.
I hope you enjoyed my short little update on what has become my sorta normal life.
Emma
ET Go Abroad 