Halfway Through

Good day!

I believe that this week marks the halfway point in my exchange!  I've learned over this past two and a half months and I can't believe how fast it went by.

I haven't really stopped to reflect on the past two and a half months yet so my mind is kind of all over the place.  I do know that I feel a lot more comfortable here than I did and have normalized living so close to Vienna and being able to go there so often and just being in Europe in general.

Speaking of being in Europe, this past weekend we took a trip to Budapest, Hungary!  We went by train, which was only about three hours, and spent Saturday night there.  Most of the time we wandered and explored the sights that Budapest has to offer.  

We also took a little bus tour around Budapest and were able to see a lot and listen to some history as well.  Apparently, Budapest is two cities, Buda and Pest, that join together to make Budapest.  Buda is west of the Danube (Duna in Hungarian) and Pest is east.

Something funny that we learned when we got there, is that Hungarians don't use Euros, they use their own currency called Forints.

Hungarian Forints

However, most places in Budapest accept Euros as well as Forints.  Some places even accepted US dollars!  One Euro is about 300 Forints and a US dollar is about 265 Forints.

I was confused at first when I saw prices for stuff everywhere because the abbreviation for Forints is Ft, just like the abbreviation for feet.  I thought everything was about distances.  I had to remind myself that 

1. That's the currency and

2. They use meters anyway.

I really enjoyed exploring Budapest.  It is absolutely beautiful!!

In school, I've found that I am able to understand more and more German.  If I really focus, I can get the main idea of what someone is talking about or I can read a children's story.  It does get tiring sometimes but I try.

My peers enjoy hearing the other exchange student and I speak German.  They also speak to us in German slowly and correct us when we say something wrong, which is really sweet!

Today we had school off because of St. Leopold's Day.  Only Lower Austria (the federal state that I'm in) and Wien celebrate this day.  We just spent the day relaxing at the house (:

Well, that's all I have for this week!

Thanks for reading!