I had an "Excelent"...

...so did everyone, I think, lol!
Anyway, I'm back in Porto, and i can proudly say I finaly have a place to call my own! It's in a really nice area, 5 minutes from the subway, near St.István church (remember? that really big one?). I'll be sharing the flat with a hungarian girl, and I was lucky to find a place in my last day there!
She's really nice and the room is big, very sunny and with a small balcony... it will be my home for the next semester at least! As soon as i get back, I'll take some pictures to post here... in the meantime, take the map:


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Balaton Lake

Finaly, some time!
Today I did the written part of the exam, and on friday I'll have the oral part (I'm quite in panick...)
I think it went quite ok, some things I didn't know, but I still wrote something anyway. I'll tell you when I get the results.
In the meantime, have some pictures from my trip to Balaton!
We went to the castle in the hill, and around 14h, I guess, we went down to the lake. It felt like a huge pool with a nicer scenery! It even had those pool-like stairs to get in.


some kind of small harbour...


you can see it was quite cloudy in the morning!


the view from the top of the hill


down at the lake!

Nham Nham!

Mnhammyyyyy, palacsinta fahejjel!! (cinnamon pancake!)

Links!

That's right, I now have a list of links (well, it will eventually be a list as soon as I have at least two sites there...), in which you can peek into other erasmus blogs!
The first one is Lukas and Marta blog, debrecen-by-night.
(You can see a lot of people there, specially in Andrea's birthday party!)

(yes, I know, I'm cheating, I should be posting some of my pictures... but the written exam is tomorrow, so I really need to study. Maybe later!)

hugs to you all!

Duna

Pictures from the trip we did about one week ago... we were in a 2 hour trip in the Danube, and I was a little bit bored, so I had fun taking pictures...
enjoy!


(experimenting with "HDR" photography... I like the result!)


(this one was taken with Britta's sunglasses in front of the lenses... hence the strange colour!)


...and meet Britta, my roommate! the vintage feel is due to my glasses in front of the lenses... (you can see I didn't have much to do!)

Adventures with the language...

Today I had the first "real" conversation (if I may call it that) in Hungarian!
We are searching for a flat, and this agent called me and started speaking in hungarian... so, obviously, I panicked! I started saying "nem ertem magyarul!!!" (which is I don't understand hungarian) and asked her, in hungarian, if she spoke "angolul"... she said "kicsit" (a little),but when I asked "when could we arrange a meeting" she answered me back "nem ertem, nem ertem!!"
Ok, it was already becoming quite dificult to comunicate at this point.
I was saying "SEE! APARTMENT! WHEN?" but the answer was always the same "NEM ERTEM! NEM ERTEM!"

So, it was time for drastic measures. I HAD to speak in hungarian.
and even using extremely simple sentences (I don't think they were actually gramatically correct, lol, but those "key words" were enough), I was able to understand her, and she understood me. After a few words (that envolved telling her that I wanted an apartment with 4 rooms, and that we couldn't see it tomorrow, it had to be the next day) we now have a meeting on "Szerda" (wednesday), at öt ora este (5 in the afternoon).
Or so I hope.
lol.
(in the meantime, Piotr and Britta were laughing at my panick and strugle, and of the fact they were not in the same situation...)

So, I am extremely proud of myself XD
After that, in the elevator, a hungarian lady said that I had a pretty necklace and I thanked. (of course, I only understood the word "szép", which is pretty, and she pointed to my necklace, but those are minor details.. I'm still proud, lol)

This whole episode is helpful at least to forget the major fail two days ago, in the bus, when I actually thanked a lady for stepping on her toes. Lol, am I nice or what?
(oh, thank you so much for allowing me to step on your toes, you're way too kind! It was always a dream of mine, you know? so thank you for your generosity!)

Yesterday morning...

...guess what I drank?
That's right, another tiny shot of palinká... but it was a little bit later, around 10h30 A.M...
Pffff, much later, so it had to have more alcohol... 45%!
I swear that next trip, if I see them with plastic cups around 11h30 a.m., I will run for my life, lol.

here's the proof:


(I really didn't notice any difference between the peach palinká and the plum palinká, but I would say that I'm really not exactly a specialist when it comes to alcohol...)

and the last...

...from the 3rd day, the last one sightseeing in the company of my parents.



(just a drawing from a detail that was in a building... to practice)

In front of the Basilica

Shot at the square right in front, with gorgeous patterns on the floor.

Still from the 3rd day

One cookie for the first one to find my parents in the photo ;)
(yep, that's one biiiig basilica... St. István Basilica.)



(you may click on it)



(and no cookies for whoever finds me on this one ;))

Something for Nuno

Just a picture my father obliged me to take to show Nuno... so here it goes! (I had forgotten about it.. sorry!)



(I'm not sure if can post this wihout the authorization of the owner of the audi... oh well, if he, for some weird reason, sees this, I will take it down)

Some place to call my own?

I have officially started looking for a flat. I have 2 weeks and a half to accomplish it!
Wish me luck!

Mom and Dad

I hope everything is well in Portugal... Sometimes I miss my family and friends (oh, and mom's cookings... as soon as I get back I reaaaaally want to eat some fish... it's hard to get it around here!)

A japanese garden...

... for Ana Marques ;)

A japanese garden that was in Margaret Island... I went there with my parents, in my third day here. I'm only posting because I know it will make Ana envy, hehe ;) *

Yesterday

Yesterday I had a wonderful and really relaxing time at Palatinus, in Margaret Island.
I had to pay 8€ for the whole day, but it was the most well spent money of my life... I was really needing a break from the classes and the hot weather...
I know, I know, I'm in a wonderful city, so I seem to be on vacation, but learning a foreign language (such as hungarian!) is not an easy task, and I miss my two weeks of doing nothing by the beach. It was great to take the sunday off to do nothing at all... I want more!
We have just started a new week with a new teacher, that doesn't (or doesn't want to) speak in english. In a long term it will be better for us to get used to hearing it and trying to understand, but still... it was a really tiring class!
Let's see how it goes. Wish me luck! ;)

what the...?

Omg, today I had a small shot of Palinka at 9h15 IN THE MORNING!!
These people are crazy, lol.
We were going by train to a little town, and the hungarian girls had a bottle for us to have a little... in the morning...

For the record, that Palinka had 37% alcohol.. not much, by their standards, since there's a palinka with 50%...
In the picture we have the bottle being held by Britta, and you can see it was a "Barack Palinka". (no, not the president, but "peach" in hungarian)

ps: at least I think my throat was a little bit better for a while (it probably got numb or something)... it has been hurting for 2 days...