Student Living

The dormitory where the students live is located on Temesvar utca on the Buda side of the Danube and a little south of the center of the city. It's operated by Karoly Gaspar University and is named for the Hungarian Bethlan Gabor. Everything in Budapest has bars and locks and so does the dorm. We need to enter a code into the pad near the door in the gate.



The restaurant across the street is the Saint Florian, named for the patron saint of firefighters. There is also a coffee shop a few doors away, but most of the street is a quiet spot. The dorm is in the middle of the block with a tram stop on the nearest corner.



The yard inside the fence is large and full of trees. As you face the dorm the classroom where we had the Hungarian classes and where the Calvin classes are held is on the top floor above the entrance. The student rooms are on a dedicated hallway to the left of the front door on the ground floor.



This is the coffee shop that is just down the street. It is a favorite spot for the students.



This is one of two of the four-person rooms that half of the girls live in. They are very large with closet space, a bedside stand and a desk for each person. The kitchen and bathrooms (with a washing machine) are across the hall.



The guys have a separate apartment with a kitchen, laundry room, bathroom (with shower) and a large bedroom for the three of them. They enjoy their own kitchen, washing machine and space.



Then the remaining eight girls live in the girls' apartment at the end of the hall. There are two bedrooms (one with four beds and one with two beds) with doors and an alcove where two more students sleep. It also has bathrooms, shower, a washing machine and a living area. The living area has three extra beds that are used as couches to relax on while studying, desks, bookcases, and a TV.



These students are sitting in the opposite end of the common living area of the apartment. There is wireless Internet. We've had some difficulty with the strength of the signal and adding routers has helped a little. However, the programs that are most often used today take a lot of band width and the service seems slow.



The kitchen in the girls apartment is the largest with two refrigerators, tables, stove and cupboards. Both apartments as well as the interior of the four-bed rooms have been newly remodeled. The hallway, however, remains poorly lit and reminiscent of the Communist era.



The students are welcome at our apartment every Wednesday night. We usually have soup and bread. It always turns out to be a nice time to visit and relax.



Here's Paul at the stove checking out the soup. I think it has his approval. Everyone brings a hearty appetite and sometimes there are leftovers to take back to the dorm.



For the first three to four weeks the students attended a compressed Hungarian language class. The class met for several hours most days of each of those weeks. Here we are with our language teacher, Ms. Kati Fugedi. This picture was taken at the last class in late September. Kati has the white jacket on. It was amazing just how much Hungarian we all learned. It turned out to be very helpful in Budapest.



One of the English speaking churches that the students have attended is St. Columba's Scottish Presbyterian Church. This congregation is jointly sponsored by the Presbyterians and the Hungarian Reformed Church. One pastor is Scottish and one is Hungarian. You can check it out at www.scotskirkhungary.com



This church has a practice of serving lunch to anyone who wants to stay after church. At one of these lunches several of the Calvin students volunteered to prepare the lunch for the next week.



These students were very hot that September Sunday. The kitchen area is very small and the stove could have been faster!



The reports were that the lunch was very good and much appreciated.