Hello again, Hungary!
In the middle of March, right after I said that I would be more active on my blog, COVID-19 struck down the University of Pecs with a swift swing. As a result, I gathered my belongings and shipped back to my small Wyoming town of origin to wait out the virus with my parent's.
At first, the transition back to “normalcy” was fairly difficult.
Over my first year of studies in Pecs, I created a mental book containing a series of situations which I
expected to experience upon my eventual arrival back to the US. Some examples are seeing my friends I left behind, skating with my old roller derby
team, going to visit my old preschool class and enjoy breathing a bit after
finals period. Instead, Coronavirus prevented all of these expectations from materializing
while adding some unforeseen difficulties as well.
Even though I was back in the US, I still needed to finish the
school semester through online classes. Thanks to the eight-hour time change, I
had classes at crazy times; the worst being Tuesdays from 12:00 midnight to 07:00 in the morning. Shout out to
Professor Gabor for forgiving my accidental snoozes during his 5:00 am class. Completing
the semester also proved challenging in other ways aside from the time change. I had no excuse to get fresh air and always felt scrubby because I rarely
wore pants(don't judge, I am not alone in this). I couldn’t connect with my teachers and peers in the classroom which made giving presentations, and attending class in general, terrible. I constantly felt as if I was talking over the other students because I couldn’t turn
around and see if they were just thinking of their answers or not going to
answer. Plus, I had this ever-present feeling of being behind due to the increased work load teachers were forced to give us in order to ensure we were actually paying attention in class.
That being said, I was extremely fortunate to be in my specific situation the last few months. I finished the semester with fair grades and even published my first ever scientific peer reviewed journal which describes today’s global pandemic from the perspective of social workers; SARS-CoV-2 and two social workers. I was able to spend nearly six months of precious time with my two wonderful parents; time which was only possible because of COVID-19. Our weekends were full of hikes, drives, campfires and we ate dinner together every night. None of us contracted the virus and we became closer with every passing day. After two months I was able to start teaching at my old preschool again and even picked up shifts for a woman I used to be a caretaker for. I was never able to officially practice with my derby team, but we did get to see each sometimes and I skated frequently with a couple of individuals.
Over the summer I never really got the chance to breath as I had hoped for, but that is totally fine! Instead, the days flew bye and before you knew it, I was back in Hungary. I am in the process of registering for my classes and re-assimilating back into the Magyar society. I really will blog more this time. Uh huh, that's what she always says. REALLY!
If you have any questions about something I mentioned in my blog or living abroad in general PLEASE leave your questions in the comments and I will try my best to help you out.
Best wishes to you all, stay safe out there <3
Comments
Post a Comment