Finally in Hungary

Well, I'm here. My flights were very smooth though 9 hours is a crazy long time to be on a plane. No complaints there though because I ended up next to a very nice British woman coincidentally also named Katie. However, once I got to London I was super confused because I thought I only had one boarding pass (turns out the guy at the desk had put my other one in the folder thing) so I'm running around the airport trying to find where my flight connects and all that jazz and finally I get to the terminals and I don't know where my gate is (it wasn't printed on my ticket) and people keep telling me to look at the screens. Well, the screens don't tell you where the gate is. So here I am half asleep trying to figure out the time and where the heck my gate is. I finally find it and get on and all that jazz. I must have been tired though because I honestly don't remember falling asleep. Just getting on the plane and waiting for it to take off. Then waking up to see that we were flying over Berlin. woot. So finally off the plane and I find another guy in his lovely Rotary Blazer who is the Alaskan Student, Collin. We pick up our luggage and go out to find out families. Within 5 seconds of looking around I see my Host family, Uncle Janos, Kata, Betti, Krisztina, and Zoltan. Kata, who is starting first grade tomorrow immediately grabs my small rolling suitcase and happily prances away. When we go out the the car I meet my host brother, Adam who is freakishly tall. My entire family is all very long and lanky by the way... It is about an hours drive to Mariahalom on the drive there I show Betti and Kata those magnets that I've been playing with for the past week and like everyone else spend hours playing with them (haha) and Kata showed my how she could sing "This is Me."from camp rock. She was actually really good especially seeing as she doesn't speak a word of english. We finally get to the house (which is gorgeous) and Janos's wife (who I can't remember the name of) is there. I get the grand tour of the house and we go over basic things and I am shown my room. It is a small room but very cozy and beautiful. Kata and Betti had taken on the task of labeling everything from the wall to the lamp with its Hungarian name which was super cute so now there's sticky notes covering my room. I unpack and we eat dinner. Krisztina had made traditional goulash which was delicious and Betti made banana bread for dessert. After dinner I excuse myself and go to bed as I was exhausted.

Today I woke up at 8 ish (11pm PST) fully rested and ate breakfast with my sisters and Adam. We watched SpiderMan 3 with English subtitles. A little while later I went with Betti and Kata to the store to buy some school supplies as they start tomorrow. Rain is cold here! So yeah. I have to go to Budapest today to go to a Rotary Meeting, the immigration office, and meet my grandma who I will be staying with on Thursdays because Krisztina works in the city that day.

So yeah, it's amazing here, the food, family and scenery is amazing.

♥

Airport!!!

Well, Hello all. I feel like I should write something simply because I am in the San Francisco airport taking advantage of free wifi while I still have it. So yeah. These past few hours have been incredibly exciting, sad, and over just amazing you know? I'm currently sitting in the airport terminal waiting for my flight. I'm alive and well and miss you all. Well, I gotta get going. Love you all! I will write more when I get to Budapest. ♥

12 Days!

Okay so while I wait for the feeling to come back to my mouth (after 4 shots of Novacain from my lovely dentist) I feel like this is an appropriate time to tell you all about my town(s) in Hungary where I will be living for the next year...

Máriahalom:

From what I've found on the internet and from what my host brother has told me, Máriahalom is a small village with less than 700 people. It looks a lot like Ukiah except for you know, Europe. It's going to be interesting living in a town smaller than Ukiah which I already thought was tiny.

Budapest:
Budapest seems to be on the other end of the scale from Máriahalom in the sense that it is the largest city in Hungary with 1,721,556 inhabitants. I've heard it has an amazing public transportation system which I'm rather excited about simply because the public transportation in Ukiah, is so terrible I have to rely on my little Sunfire to get around town.

So yeah... cool beans. 12 days till I leave. I have nearly everything packed. I'm so excited to leave!

However, I still can't feel the left side of my face... hmmm
Brillo con la luz de promesa nunca se apagaran. ♥

A Wise Man Once Said...

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."

I'm not entirely sure who said that because I just googled quotes and that's what popped up and I can't say that I don't like it. It's totally true. Wow I really wish I could write eloquently. I feel like this blog would be more amazing that way but in any case at this very moment you are getting my exact half asleep thoughts. Go you. Speaking of half asleep thoughts driving around Ukiah half alive really wasn't one of my best ideas, then again neither was taking a nap at 6 in the evening. So yeah sorry about the tangent well no, not really because I myself am a walking tangent but whatever. On to the story. CHARGE!!! whoo. Rotary.Yes.Concentrating. Back to the quote.

This time last year I would have never expected my life to take this sort of turn. Yes, I've always wanted to be an exchange student but I guess I never realized all the amazing people who would come with it. This weekend was the last weekend I would see most of my fellow 5130 Outbounds for a year. We all met in January and really haven't spend that much time together as a group (maybe like 15 days since January?) and its like totally crazy because in those 15 ish days I've found my second family so to speak. They are people who like the quote above said, have left their mark on my life and changed it for the better. When I signed up for this I really had no idea how the months leading up to my exchange would change me. I can only imagine how this next year will flip my world. I've met so many people in the past 7 months who have made my life so incredibly amazing I can't seem to find words to describe it.

I leave in a month. Wow, I really hope I get my ticket soon/ I leave before Nikki goes off to college. Can you believe it's already August? Where does time go?

I want to fly.
♥