A Tuesday in Budapest...

Greetings, all!

Brandon, here! Tomorrow is the midterm exam and with our Oles diligently studying away, it is my turn to tell you all about my day in the life of a Program Assistant in Budapest!

My day started off with the most enthralling activity of them all: LAUNDRY! Thankfully our hotel has laundry available as an amenity so we don't have to worry about finding a local place to wash clothes. Navigating the washer and dryer was... interesting. Did I fully understand what was happening? No. Did it all end in clean clothes? Signs point to yes!

Following my laundry escapades, I enjoyed a lovely continental breakfast, did some personal reading, and tackled a few work emails (gotta stay connected to the Hill!) while students gathered to study for tomorrow's exam. Speaking of the exam, Adam and I took a little trip to the school to print the exams and grab a bite to eat. We stopped by a great Asian food court (recommendation courtesy of George) and I had a wonderful bowl of ramen and some bubble tea.

I'm a bit of a bubble tea aficionado (shout out to Tin Tea in Northfield) and I must say that "BudaBoba" (possible business idea) was pretty good! After lunch, we made our way back to the hotel. Before heading up to relax, however, we made one more important pitstop. Adam and I were both craving a kürtőskalács, the official dessert of Hungary. We all know these delicacies as chimney cakes and they are FABULOUS!

Picture it: an enriched dough is delicately wrapped around a wooden spindle and baked in a rotisserie-style oven until golden and steaming. Once hot, it is brushed with butter and rolled in toppings of your choosing (I went for half freeze-dried raspberries and half cinnamon sugar). To eat, you peel the coiled pastry apart like a spring and enjoy! I highly recommend one if you ever find yourself in Budapest!

After resting post-chimney cake, a group of us (Dylan, Harry, Michael, Signe, Will, and I) went to a concert! We traveled to the Papp László Sports Arena to see the King's Singers perform with the Hungarian National Philharmonic orchestra. Budapest was a stop on their tour singing Disney music in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Disney! It was a great concert and a wonderful evening was had by all!

After a long day, it's great to be back at the hotel relaxing before bed. Thank you for reading along about my day and I hope you'll keep reading along with our Budapest adventure!

Goodnight!

- Brandon :)