Rina’s 6th month

​So this time I will just start where I just left off. So the beginning of 2026 was with my beloved friends from my homecity. We continued with sightseeing like going on the cruise and going out at night. The magical snow was becoming very annoying because it was so cold and there was almost no sun. When I was getting water for the shop the sun shined for the first time in a while and just couldn’t stop myself just standing for a second and enjoying the sun. I couldn’t wait for spring to come. 

Middle of January the second round of sightseeing seeing has begun. A Colombian friend I made in Bratislava in the hostel came to visit me and we spend a lot of time together checking the typical tourist spots out. He’s a very kind and patient person and enjoyed the together and we even met a bigger group of volunteers and we hung out at their flat. 

 Before I went to the midterm in Visegrád I spent time together with Kriszti and Barbi at the ice rink and drank some hot chocolate afterwards. It was fun and a nice way to spend time together before Kriszti moved out. 

In the last week of January I went as mentioned to Visegrad. Sadly the weather was not keeping up with us but it was nice to meet the people from the on arrival training and also a few new people. As a long sleeper I even managed to wake up at 5am one time to go on a hike with some to the castle. It was so cold and parts of the way were frozen so it was actually kind of dangerous. I would like to say that the view was worth it but well…it was too foggy. But still it was a nice time bonding with people. The Programm of the midterm was very nice and I felt really comfortable with the facilitators. The medieval evening was really fun and the food at the restaurant was nice and it was nice holding a torch and trying medieval clothes. 

On the last day of January I went to a comedy show with Manal for the first time. It was not necessarily my humor but the vibes were good. 

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Rina’s 7th month

This was the first time spending a longer time alone on the flat. At first it was really a bit weird to be alone. This short month was kind of a test of my patience: snowing and raining and then this little hope of spring starting. Therefore I didn’t necessarily feel like going out a lot. Still I spend time with people. At the start of February I caught a cold anandd I started to crave mother’s food and my favourite Vietnamese dish so I went with Manal to eat Bun Cha. And I also spend also time with my German friend I met through others volunteers and I cooked with her and just chatted for hours. 

As the month was short not much happened so let me just focus on a few things that I did. We went to the Corvinus Uni to have a workshop and as a reward we ate really good pizza! Thank you Zsuzsa! 

And I also enjoyed going to a flea market with Barbi. I found a cute sweater and cute top for night outs. The best way to spend money for me is mostly food and unnecessary expensive cafés. 

 

As a foreshadowing I am looking forward to my trip through Romania I booked this month, so I think there will be more to tell but also that a new volunteer will arrive is something I am looking forward to. (also hopefully good weather) So please wait for my update…

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Rina’s 5th month

 

So December has been pretty eventful looking back, so let me tell you how the last month of 2025 went. It started with my Highschool classmate visiting me again and even though we had an argument we managed to have fun. For instance we visited the lantern exhibition at the Zoo and we played board games for hours in the board game bar and especially the WW2 board game took so long (& I lost sadly twice).

Also in the middle of the month I got a haircut which was needed. Zsuzsa introduced me to her hairdresser which I’m super grateful for.

With Christmas approaching we decorated Store matching to the festive to the vibe with decorations like ornaments. Also the Christmas break being very soon I planned for the holiday to travel with Manal, my Moroccan friend, to Bratislava and Vienna. So this month I experienced a lot of firsts, first time spending Christmas without my family, going to a hostel and visiting those cities. 

 

We spent a lot of the sightseeing but also had night outs like joining pub crawls and so on. But my highlight of the trip was meeting a lot of different people who are living in different circumstances and countries. My favourite night out was when we went to karaoke bar with people we met in the hostel. One of the guys we met put requested a song and he tried to convince us to come and perform with him. Normally I wouldn’t sing in front of strangers and it gave me a lot of anxiety. But somehow I just said yes and it was the best decision. I haven’t felt alive in a such time and it was such a nice time. And the whole bar was singing with us and it was a really overwhelming atmosphere. From now on “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay will be connected to that specific experience.

Close of the end of the year my closest friends from my hometown visited me and we spend new years together. We spent a lot of quality time together and for new years we went to the Füge because it was too cold with the snow. Still the snow was magical. We lit up the sparklers I had prepared and it was such a nice way of celebrating the start of 2026. Looking back 2025 has been a really really long year with a lot of ups but also little downs. Let’s hope that the year 2026 will be the year for everyone. 

 

 

 

 

 

I am grateful for my friends and the feeling of having a sleepover like children was really nice. It reminded me of the lyrics of Lorde’s “Ribs”.  So as last for December I will add this here, even though I’m pretty sure you know this:

“You're the only friend I need 

Sharing beds like little kids 

And laughing 'til our ribs get tough

But that will never be enough”

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