Submitted by Elena Lynn on the 2024 Winter UAPP program in Budapest…
As week 2 comes to an end, I have fallen in love with this city. It’s a beautiful place and I never get tired of the breathtaking scenery. We have gotten to experience many different things and be pushed outside our comfort zone.
On January 17th, we had dinner with some local Hungarian University students. It was really cool to meet these students and learn about their educational experiences and compare them with ours. They were very welcoming and I even learned some Hungarian from them. Getting to learn about how Hungary works and how we can relate that to our upbringing was awesome. They also gave some recommendations of places to visit and I really appreciated their feedback.
On January 18th we had a very action packed day. We got to learn about Hungarian culture and gastronomy. We took a Hungarian cooking class and learned how to make traditional dishes. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to take these recipes home with me and make them for others. The dishes tasted so good and getting to make them was a very proud accomplishment. Later on in the day we did a community service project with making sandwiches for the homeless in Budapest. I feel as though pairing these two activities together really impacted me. In the morning, we got to experiment with food and we made a lot of dishes and then in the evening we learned about access to food in the city. It is really cool and eye opening to see how something as simple as food is taken for granted. It really changes your perspective.
On January 22nd, we did a river cruise along the Danube river. The Danube river splits Budapest into two and the city center is along the water. The river cruise was beautiful and relaxing. We were able to see buildings like Parliament lit up at night and it was stunning. (Submitted on January 23, 2024)