While our original plan was to give away our rusty car halfway through May, so we'd have a few weeks left before departure and therefore would close the kindergarten chapter here in Hungary and slowly work towards the final day here. I was already facing time scheduling issues with the distance to and from kindergarten to bring her and pick her up. Although I have found the best way to avoid the big traffic jams by bringing her there at 7 AM and picking her up at 3 PM (the soonest time possible) I've been having a very hard time getting up as I work until midnight most days. Thankfully for me, they are super relaxed with parents not bringing the children while they're at kindergarten. I've been taking advantage of that the past weeks and it has helped me get through the days, lol.
Budapest is very big you see, we live in the shittiest inner center area you can imagine, great if you are looking for cheap accommodation and a party holiday, so I've been told, but for a family, it's just not that great. Unless you grew up here, I suppose. For us, it was quite a culture shock at first, but we choose to rent this place from the older man that helped us out during our first months as well, the apartment is good and a real upgrade from our last, so we got the dirty district with that for free.
At first, this was the best solution time-wise as my boyfriend was still working near that school because they have this rule in their system that you can only attend a school in your district unless you have a parent working in another one, then you can attend one there. Funny thing is that this was only the case for a few months because then covid demanded working from home, but as she was already assigned she could stay there. I tried public transport out of necessity but that's even double the time almost if you add the waiting on the bus since they closed a big part of the subway for renovations not long after the start of her school year.
Even though it's a public Hungarian one, there is one assistant teacher in her class that helps her a lot with the language. In December I decided to hire her for some private classes in Hungarian to make sure she would not have too many struggles during her last period there, but the funny thing is holidays got in the way, and some other things, meanwhile the child suddenly started speaking whole conversations in Hungarian, haha. Super cute. And now our plans suddenly were speeded up and we are focusing on Spanish instead.
I'm super grateful for the help she has offered and I'm thinking of buying her a gift card as a thank you on top of the chocolates I will bring for the others. It would have been a lot harder without her help.
Our friend who will take the car needed a ride hours from here and we personally have avoided those situations every single time since we had that scary drive to Balaton in the summer. I don't want to take any chances so instead we proposed that they'd get the car before he needs that ride so we have another thing done and dusted and I can also close the insurance before we leave, so it's another task completed. A few days ago I was compiling a bucket list for Budapest with the thought that I'd have a few more weekends left to go somewhere with the car, but now I have to prioritize the things that really need a car so that we only have things on the list left that can be easily done by public transport.
With the Easter holidays in between, we already decided to keep her home this week, we are crafting and painting and practicing some other things while she can also use the learning software I bought last year. I didn't want to just close the chapter without her being able to say goodbye next week though, so she will have a day to celebrate and she can give the kids and teachers presents and say goodbye and thank you. While discussing this with her teacher, I got all emotional as now it's becoming real, she loved it there and I'm happy she has made friends as well.
I teared up when the teacher told me she was a bit sad as they prepared an English poem for the mother's day celebration on May 2nd as she won't be there. Luckily she said they will give it to her as well as a gift for mother's day. So sweet, and I will make sure it will be taken to Spain.
They took school pictures a few weeks ago and I'm truly hoping that these will arrive before next week or at least in time to pick them up before we leave. If I don't have to travel in horrible rush hours, it's not too bad to take the bus there but it's the rush hours that make it a shitty situation. But worst-case scenario, I guess I can just pay the teacher the money and ask if they can send them to me, but I hope it will not be needed so that I can take care of it before departure. It will be an extra memory of her final months here as the pictures were taken recently and will include her classmates and teachers.
While I was super relaxed about it last week, I now start to feel more pressure to list items online for the sale, although without these extra sales we will still manage just fine, it's just more that I want to see the cabinets get emptier as well as clutter disappear. I'm constantly surrounded by clutter now while going through stuff, so I'm hoping that when we will do the test packing of our suitcases, I have more clarity about the actual stuff that I still need to list vs the stuff that can go for free now or last minute. I should not worry though, this is my most organized emigration ever haha, I'm definitely getting better at this! It sure helps that this time we had more than a few weeks to get things done!
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