"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." - Jimmy Dean
Wonderful, exhausting but my emotions are great after the five days I spent in Hungary. Like most of you know, I started university like a month ago, I also joined an organisation called BEST. So, why I had this amazing journey to Budapest? The BEST organisation has it's local groups around whole Europe (BEST stands for Board of European Students of Technology) and therefore regional meetings (later called RM) are organised so different local groups could come together to discuss about their plans and doings (and also have some fun!). This RM which called name is RM of Tararas was really special for me because it was the first international event with BEST for me and it also wasn't my local BEST group's regional meeting I attended, I was an out of region (OoR) participant, so to speak an Estonian spy.
A group photo of all the participants and organizers
But what I did there? Mm, we had some training sessions, I had to introduce my local BEST group and of course, we had lots of fun and I met many new amazing people. I started my trip on Thursday by waking up in 4 a.m to catch my flight. It was little bit scary because it was my first flight alone but it turned out that I actually like to travel alone. When I arrived in Budapest I took some time to enjoy the city center and considering the fact that I'm not an artsy person, I loved the architecture of the city. I went to have a lunch and then went to the place the RM was going to take place using public transport. I was the earliest participant in there and met with some of the organizers. At first, I felt really odd in there because the more people came the more I felt lonely because I knew no-one in there.However, thankfully my roommates from Ukraine interacted with me. Thanks to them I started to enjoy the RM right away. Since the RM took place like 25 km from Budapest, we had no idea where we could find the nearest shop. I can say we didn't find one but we found a strip club even though we sadly forgot to go there. Anyway, in the first evening I had to present my LBG (local BEST group) which is as you might know LBG Tallinn. I was little bit nervous because I haven't been in the organisation for a long time yet and I'm not quite familiar with it's structure and projects yet. Thankfully, the presentation went fine, I managed to make the crowd laugh for a couple of times which is important to me as it makes me more confident during the presentations. After that, we had a party and we danced and had a huge amount of fun altogether. I met more and more people and therefore felt more and more awesome.
Emotions after the workshop about social media promotion
We had a training session about presentation skills which I think was the most useful session for me this meeting
Also, we got many wristbands from other LBGs
It wasn't an easy morning. I hadn't slept much and had to wake up early and the first training session I had chosen was IT tutorial which taught us how to properly use BEST's private website meant only for the members. It lasted for almost four hours but we had some coffee breaks too. After that we had a quiz about BEST and it's history. I was quite bad at it but at least we were in teams so I many wise gals and pals surrounding me, hehe. Furthermore, I attended a workshop about social media promotion. I'm quite familiar with the topic but I still got some new advice which I'm also going to use with my blog's FB page. Besides that, it was time for dinner and the last session was about different departments of BEST. After working hard the whole day, it was time for another party. What I still didn't do was that I couldn't manage to go to sleep early to be rested for the following day.
Feedback is the way to perfection
Egészségére!
Still, even though I was tired in the morning, it wasn't hard for me to take part of the session because it was about presentation skills and everyone had to talk and perform in front of the others. It was quite scary at first because I'm not used to perform in English but I liked that we got feedback from the others and learned some new tips and tricks to reduce podium stress. But then the day got bad for me. For some reason I had severe back pain, I couldn't move without pain and if I made any wrong move it also made me hard to breath. I managed to take the group photo but after that I had to skip the remaining two sessions I wanted to attend. I just laid in my bed and took many painkillers. I even called my mother and best friend to know the hell is happening and what should I do. Fortunately, painkillers did their job and I managed to attend the international evening. IE was awesome, imagine every country putting out its most special food and drinks. I prepared chocolate, mustard with bread, some candy and the classic Old Tallinn liquor. Somehow, I went to sleep at 6 a.m and woke up at the afternoon when most of the people had their things packed and Polish guy pulled me out of the bed.
The vibe of the international evening was amazing!
Ha-ha, I picked that photo because it's like I'm playing an imaginary saxophone - finally I can say that I can play an instrument
Hot damn!
My awesome neighbors from Ukraine
Living the life on the edge
The whole event was really educating and fun at the same time but this wasn't the end. We took a bus to the city and some of us left and we said our goodbyes but some of us including me stayed in Budapest for another day. Firstly, we went to one of the organizer place and ate lunch. Afterwards, we went to the city and enjoyed the pure beauty of the city. When the sun went down, we decided to go to a bar and got some beers and enjoyed the last few hours together. Love you, guys, see you around Europe!
Trying to look like the statue
Budapest is one of the nicest places to go for sure
GROUPIE!
Sorry for blocking the view xd
A small collage of our adventures in the city
That wasn't all for me either, the following day I met up with a friend of mine from
an Erasmus+ project which I attended last spring. We had a coffee and did a quick catch up on our doings lately until I had to leave to airport. It was nice to see you again, Anett!
@ Budapest
My selfie skill isn't really good tho
Starbucks spelled my name incorrect but I'd like my first name to have only one "o" anyway
Yeah, so far everything seems all good and stuff like that. There is only one thing I wish would've gone better which are the elections in my hometown. My political party didn't win and I didn't manage to get a seat in the city council. It's my own fault because again I have so many things to do and I lost my focus at the end of the campaign. But what I learned from that is that I should try everything even though if I'm not sure about myself - therefore, there won't be any regrets later.
