I love such days.

I love when I am crossing the mighty Danube when it's snowing. It's like being in the middle of a snow cloud, seeing nothing but the white eternity. And after getting off that bridge, seeing the city all dressed in white... it's something magical and very lyrical to me.

And despite (or rather because of) the falling snow I walked on in our neighbourhood while it was almost dark, with music in my ears, and even though my hair, my face and my hands were getting wet of the melted snow, I felt a free, light and somewhat pure feeling in my soul.

Yes, I believe these moments are those that really belong to me.

Childish, but today I decided to visit an event centered around Europe Day (9 May), and of course I stacked up with two plastic bags of entirely useless things: T-shirt with EU stars, mug, EU pen, European Parliament pen, beer opener combined with keychain (!!!), coin purse, mobile phone strip, EU-style umbrella... And as there were tents of some EU member states (and other countries, too, like Turkey... :o), I brought a Slovenia umbrella, 2 Slovenia pins, Slovenia sticker, Belgium pen, Belgium pencil, Malta poster and some tourist brochures - all these things being carried in a Malta and a Portugal plastic bag. The Portuguese guys also made me taste some Portuguese wine, and I must say it's really great :) Well, I admit that the event was more like a propaganda that a mental challenge, but it was still fun to look around :) AND I also saw our European Commissioner, but I didn't stay to listen him for too long, because he rather spoke about Schengen, the euro and many other things that everyone knows about (at least I hope)

The other part of my post centered around the European Union is maybe more interesting :) A few weeks ago I applied for the Model European Union simulation game taking place in the EP, Strasbourg. My application is accepted so between 25 and 31 May I'll do nothing else than representing a given fraction as the delegate of a given country in the European Parliament (I don't know my role yet - maybe I'll receive it in a few days). But the thing I know is that it will be a VERY challenging event and I better give all the abilities I have into this game :))))) You can learn more about this event here :)

Whoa, I'm done with all school things until Christmas, so now it's time to make something more fun. :) I'm about to start preparations (just in time, am I right? :D) but I suppose I will make all these things until Christmas Eve. For example, I can't wait for the day (it might be Friday) when my mum and I will go and choose the christmas tree. Oh, that smell... it resembles Christmas so much, and it feels so good after being kinda sick from the big plazas' and companies' marketing attacks...
In the last two weeks, let's see, I had Finance of companies (I did kinda bad in this - I didn't fail but I want to get a better grade, so I'll write this again in January), IT test (still no results), Business etiquette and protocol presentation (well, this was FUN :D), Business law exam (this was pretty easy :))) and this week Statistics and today Operation research tests. Blah.
I also have to mention that I slept about 4 hours in the night so I'm about to faint... Tomorrow I guess I will go to a morning mass held in my past school. I really love morning masses and this one is unique because they have guitar music there. For me it means so much more than "ordinary" church music played by organs. Nah. Then I'll go shopping, get the perfume I chose especially for myself (that will be one of my Christmas gifts) and after then, I will meet my friend and we'll take a walk in the Castle District! I hope we'll have some more snow tomorrow.
And I really hope that my envelopes sent on Monday will arrive to their destinations until Christmas...

I am so sorry that I haven't written earlier - I have so many things to do now, so maybe you could forgive me that I will only write a few keywords that came into my mind:

- tests next week :( Statistics, Operation research (what's it called in English? :o) and Applied IT.
- riots again in Budapest, national holiday tomorrow, eek!...
- congratulations to Poland :D
- started a thesis collection for a contest named "Tézeusz 2011" - I must write some ideas for the year 2011, when Hungary will bear EU presidency for half a year. From the 5 themes available I chose Lisbon Strategy. :)
- It's autumn - my favourite season! - the weather is wonderful, although it's veeeery cold! :(
- I am eating raspberry yoghurt right now.

That's all... See you next time :)

Back to everyday life. College starts on next Tuesday. I'm happy because of that, it may sound strange, but I am. I was too bored and felt so guilty filling my time with unworthy things. Now I am feeling happy not only because of that, but because of the City Mission in Budapest, between 15th and 22nd September.

Yeah. City mission?! What the heck is that...?

I think I have already told you (or, OK, some people from you) that I am a member of the parish group at St. Francis of Assisi's church in Ferencváros, Budapest. Now we are joining a huge and exciting event in our capital city, which is about showing ourselves, our churches and customs, faith and happiness to those who are interested :) We organize concerts, games on the streets, craft programmes for kids, film clubs, we talk to people who come and ask us... :) At our square there will be a so-called coffee house with home-made cookies, coffee and tea, actors, singers and stuff like this :)
The thing I am involved in (well, we organize it together with another girl, a friend of mine) is some kind of race... :) The participants need to find places in our district, answer questions and then come back to the checkpoint, in as short time as possible.
Our city also organizes an event called "The Night of Open Churches" which means most of the churches, including ours, will be open from 8 pm until midnight... people can come in, and we show them the architecture with a guide, show screenplays, make some music... :)
At the top (roof terrace) of Westend City Center (remember this huge shopping mall, Aldona? This was the place you photographed "Báthory street" ;)) there will be gospel/christian rock/etc concerts :D There will be artists I remember from Cologne, like the Bronx rapping priest Stan Fortuna (unfortunately I didn't get to go to his concert two years ago, and see, he comes to see us in Bp now!) So I'll definitely find some fun and lots of things to do next week and the week after!

I'm telling you about these things exactly now because today I was at an event... we call it "lelkigyakorlat" in Hungarian, which means literally "soul exercise". :P It lasted from 9 am until 6.30 pm... but it was sooo great I didn't even feel bored :) However, I feel I could just go and act and do right at the moment... I am so dang excited!!!

Oh I didn't even mention: all the city is filled with giant billboards, citylights and advertisements in the metro, saying "Look up!" That's why I chose this title for my entry. These ads look exactly like this at the header of the site of the city mission and the Congress for the New Evangelisation (this will be held parallel to our programmes):

http://www.varosmisszio.hu/index.php?lang=en

I hope I was clear enough :) yeah, I know, it's almost midnight, but somehow I felt I need to give you a little slice of my joy today.