First Month Likes &Dislikes

So... I figure that because I have officially been here for a month (woot woot)and have gotten (for the most part) acclimated to this strange new environment I'dve (is that I word? I feel like it should be... regardless its supposed to be a contraction for I would have) come up with a list of things I like and dislike. This of course will probably end up changing relatively dramatically as my exchange progresses but I figure for the sake of consistency I'll make this a monthly thing simply to watch the progression. A self made guinea pig so speak if that makes any sense. So, enough with the rambling...

Likes :

Public Transportation
Budapest
Túro Rúdi
Making sentences with the little Hungarian that I know
Learning Hungarian
Speaking Engarian
Bread (this is actually quite surprising as in California I ate virtually no bread and now I feel like I'm eating it all the time. Carbs are simply a figment of my new imagination)
Viktor Varga
Waking up at 4:45 AM to skype with my family scattered about in the USA
tights
fizzy water mixed with juice
meeting people
hanging out with the other exchange students
theres probably more but thats all I can think of at this very moment...

Dislikes:

butter in sandwiches
school schedules that keep changing
knowing just enough Hungarian to know when people are talking about me but not enough to know what they're saying
liver
the lack of ice cubes...
my inability to use elevated diction and having to simplify everything. (2 semesters of Ms.Spence are slowing slipping away D:)
thats it I think like I said, I love it here...

Neither like nor dislikes more like an afternote...

so I think of myself to be pretty chill. Coming from California I feel like I'm pretty laid back. I go with the flow. I'm not picky when it comes to food, plans, clothing, weather, etc. I'm usually in a pretty good mood if I'm not you'll notice. People should stop worrying. :)

So yeah. It's been a month. I'm happy to say I haven't gotten homesick yet. If home is where the heart is and your family lives all over the world. (the lovely family of Rotary that is...) then it truly is impossible to feel homesick. :) So yeah, good deal...

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Okay so...

Today school, as my blog shows, epically sucked. Epically. F'reals. But then after school Sam and I went to West End mall and met up with Collin, Carleigh and Sofia and Sam and bought tights, and a sketchbook and other basic things that Ive needed for a while... So that was super fun. Mostly just getting away from school and actually seeing Budapest was super refreshing. and after shopping Sam and I took the Hév to the other side of the city and got lost-ish looking for the hotel the Rotary meeting was in. After walking around in circles and using our mad Hungarian skills to ask for directions we finally found it and had a marvelous dinner... I got to talk to a guy from Verona, Italy which was really cool... I think thats what I love most about my clubs meetings is the fact that there's always someone new or interesting to talk to. So yeah. Good deal. My feet are dead,I'm exhausted and madly in love with the city of Budapest... :)

Good Night...

So....

At this very moment I am crazy freaking frustrated. Hungarian school makes no sense and thats not only because its in Hungarian. Apparently I cut my math class this morning but in my defense the last Tuesday I thought I had math, there was no one there. So, being the smart person that I am I asked Aniko and she said that I didnt have math on tuesday. So today people were asking me why I didnt go to math. Well, I DIDNT KNOW I Had math! and we had a test so poop. Then last period, I was supposed to go to spanish, so I go to the room were supposed to have spanish in but what? Oh yeah, there was no one there. So I go looking for Aniko to tell her that once again, Im hopelessly lost and confused. Shes teaching a class. Great. FabÚlous. So, because I have no idea where my class is, I dont go. Well, I missed another test. So yeah today is turning out to be complete and utter poop. Grrrr. =$ so yeah. At least Im going shopping and to a Rotary meeting tonight... good deal. I miss American school in the sense that we have the SAME 6 classes everyday at the same times in the same place... non of this getting lost and hopelessly confused stuff.

BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

♥

I'm going to Freeze.

Okay so the week was pretty uneventful. I stayed home on Monday and Wednesday because I was sick but I'm better now so no worries. :) Today was really fun. I woke up at like sevenish talked to Balazs over skype and then helped my host mom take down some trash bags. My host mom opened a few bags and then told me to look through them. The bags were full of winter clothing. Like heavy duty stuff. Scarfs, jackets, gloves, and shoes. Oh gosh... the shoes were amazing... I am now the proud borrow-er of 2 pairs of knee high leather heel-ed boots. They're more or less amazing. I'm also borrowing a few nice knit sweaters,snow boots, jackets, and scarfs. Apparently it gets below -5 Farenheit here. That is to say I will turn into an ice cube this winter and not thaw out until I'm back in California's 80-90 degree weather. Like serious permafrosting here... After that I helped peel potatoes and we had lunch. I learned that just because its wrapped in bacon, liver is still liver, and liver is gross. After lunch we drove to Budapest and I saw Charlie St. Cloud with Vivi Agi and their friend who's name I can't remember. It was a super cute movie... the movie theater was really... different in a lot of ways. The biggest being that they don't turn the lights off until like 10 or 15 minutes into the movie. After the movie we walked around and then Krisztina picked me up... On the way back home I read Cat in the Hat and Mr. Mohó. The Cat in the Hat was in English but Mr Moho (greedy) was most definately in Hungarian. Betti helped me with like half of it and understood like 5% of what I was reading still the fact that I understood at least some of it was cool... I felt like I was 5 again and learning to read.... which I am... When we got home my host sisters decided to play dress up the exchange student. (I'll post pictures in a later post. ) after that we watched XFaktor and now here I am blogging on the couch all snuggled up with my host sisters :) Life is good.

Past week...

So... I haven't blogged in a while simply because I've been crazy busy and our first orientation was this weekend. Last week went something like:

Monday- first day of school holy ship. The school is huge and no one speaks English. I find my classes only by following a group of girls I recognize from my homeroom. Can't find the cafeteria. Everyone eats so much bread here how is no one fat??? English class is super fun, helping people with their english is helping with the whole friend thing. Maybe this won't be so bad...

Tuesday- feeling pretty good about school. Arrive at my class. There's no one there. Find the math teacher walking down the hall who speaks basic English.He doesn't have a clue. Find Aniko Honig feeling like a lost cheeseball. Turns out I don't have a first OR second period on Tuesday. Thanks for telling me you stupid timetable you made a better tree than piece of paper... During breaks on of the girls who speaks English tells me that her mother packed me a Pottyos (not spoken at all like its spelled, its like cooked, curdled milk enrobed in chocolate and super amazing) which was super sweet. I still don't understand what my teachers are talking about minus in my language classes, but other than that morning, I don't get lost.

Wednesday- Really good day. I get invited to go hang out and see Charlie St.Cloud, I don't get lost, and I have my first Hungarian Lesson with Aryane (Brazil) Collin (Alaska) and Samantha (New York) super fun. That evening I have to pack because I will spend the night in Buda at my host grandma's house on thursday and then orientation this weekend.

Thursday- wake up, put stuff in car, off to school, school is uneventful that is to say going well same old same old. People eat so much bread here!! I still don't understand it. At host grandmas house which is filled with the smell of cigarettes... ew. :| I work on my hungarian and take a nap which is more like a 3 hour nap but whatever. Homework is sort of pointless here when you don't have the books (Exchange students get them on tuesday) and you can't understand what the teacher is saying...

Friday- wake up and walk to the bus station with Kata,Fanny and their grandfather. I'm walking to school for the first time today. After 2 buses and 3 trams we get to my stop and I walk but the tram station to school which totally wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We had media class today and watched Nasfurato with English subtitles. That's probably the most accomodating teachers have been so I was greatful to actually understand it. :) After school Janos meets me outside and we take the tram to West End mall where I meet up with the other exchange students. Its so fun to meet all the people I've been talking to on facebook for the past few months. Spoke a lot of English with some Hungarian mixed in. It's so nice to finally meet everyone! We get to the hotel and eat dinner, go through orientation and then free time in the hotel for the rest of the night. Lots of pin trading and jolly good fun.

Saturday- breakfast in the hotel, orientation, lunch more orientation. and then Budapest :D we went to Hero's Square and Parliament and the mall just walking around and taking the train, metro, tram, and bus. I love that my student card gets me on all of them for free. Europe is amazing. Alonso is a creeper but Frank (CA) Ariana (FL) Andressa and Caio (Brazil) are my lovely body guards. I love these people to pieces. After Budapest we go up to my room squish all the beds together and Makayla (WA) Sam (NY)Ariana (FL) Carliegh (FL) Collin (AK) Tiago, Caio, Andressa (Brazil) the Japanese students and a few other people all hung out till like midnight eating chocolate and talking. Which was super fun we're what you'd call "the good kids" That is to say we can remember the nights fun...

Sunday- wake up at 5 in the morning with food poisoning. Stupid turkish food. So I call Janos and Krisztina picks me up. So now I'm all cozy in my bed back in Mariahalom with some crackers and tea. Good deal. I have the option to stay home from school tomorrow but because it's Collin's birthday and we're making plans and doing stuff I think I'll tough it out. Which is definately a first. Really goes to show you how amazing things are going I guess...

So yeah. Good deal.

♥

Saijt.Cheese Donuts.Budapestíng...

Hello world and all who inhabit the internet... Hungarian in possibly the craziest but most enjoyable language I've ever come across. Every "R"is rolled and letters go every which way turning my brain into a pretzel. But a nice pretzel. Am I making any sense? I feel like I'm not but whatever. I went to Budapest today which was really cool. The city is beautiful but at times it feels as if I am being suffocated by the city itself which is kind of overwhelming. But like I said, no complaints, it is beautiful in its own way. I saw my school and saw the public transportation system available to me. Public transportation is crazy amazing here. Nothing like in California. I had Hungarian ice cream today which was freaking amazing (nagyon finom[verytasty])and talked to Balazs over skype. I swear, it feels so nice to have a conversation in English after so much Hungarian. Like, I love listening and learning Hungarian don't get me wrong but when you can only say a few words in Hungarian and you say those words as much as you can while trying to learn new ones, speaking English is like a glass of ice water. Speaking of drinks... I'm thirsty... speaking of being thirsty... I miss milk. A lot. I crave it all the time now... I drink a lot of water which I weird because in California I drank milk all the time... so interesting changes.

So yeah... good deal...

♥

Pictures :)

CooCooCaju

Well hello there world. I feel like I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing... I feel like I should be in school already. I've been out of school since the beginning of June and the Nerd in me really needs to go back for her own sanity...The past couple days have been really good. I went to a Rotary meeting on Tuesday where I met my Youth Exchange Officer, the other American RYExchangeStudent, some Rotarians visiting from Portugal, and a girl from Minnesota who is doing her second masters on human rights in Budapest. My club is very small compared to the Ukiah Rotary Clubs but they seem well organized. Meanwhile back in Mariahalom I've been slowly but surely picking up Hungarian. Last night I played some random mouse game and I now know how to say Red, Green, Yellow and blue (piros,zöld,sárga and kek.) we also played monopoly which is really hard when you can't read the cards... That brings me to my next tangent. I finally realized how scary illiteracy is. To not be able to understand what is going on around you, to not be able to communicate truly is terrifying. You rely on others far more than might otherwise be safe. The Russians were geniuses. That is not to say that I do not feel safe here or anything like that but it is an interesting idea... world domination and all that jazz... Luckily I have my trusty Hungarian-English dictionary which we are always using. Oh yeah, I met Fanni (another host sister) and my host grandma today too... she is super nice and an amazing cook. So yeah... I'm still alive,having fun and all that jazz...

♥

Brillo con la luz de promesa nunca se apagaran.