Another day goes by. . .

Sziasztok újra! Két nap múlva leszek itt a második hónapja!!! 

Hello again! Two more days and it will be two months!! 

Wow. Time is actually flying! I mean of course there is moments when I feel like time is absolutely crawling, but when I look back on the overall I think about how it feels like yesterday it was September, and now October is over half over! Since I last wrote on my blog a lot has happened again! On October 6th was my host Dads birthday. He was gone most of the day on business and so we had a surprise birthday party for him! It was a lot of fun making the decorations with Kira. I gave him a Molson Canadian T-shirt, and a shot glass with a maple leaf on it. I also got my classmates to help me write in his card in only Hungarian. He loved that! :) On that weekend I went to a classmates house again with a bunch of friends and did more baking! We made Canadian Pancakes and I brought Maple Syrup!! It was a self declared success! The afternoon also doubled as a surprise party for one of my classmates as well. :) It was a lot of fun and I really liked having the chance to hang out with them and talk to them again outside of school. It was really funny to hear the type of conversations that go on! Let’s just say they aren’t entirely similar to simple conversations here. :P We’ll leave it at that! I also went to another birthday party that weekend. It was for Amanda’s classmate, Henni. We started the night out at a Pub, and we eventually ended up at a night club. I also was playing Jumper between there and Mesi’s party at the Karaoke Bar. It was a fun night with some pretty random events!! I’ll never forget what happened to Riassa and I on our way back from the bar. We were walking down the street and a very drunk young guy ran out in front of us and starting dancing and singing in front of us while we were walking! All I could understand was that he was calling us “beautiful girls” and blowing us kisses and we were laughing SO HARD!! Good times! Later that week I got really sick with some kind of viral flu bug. I lost 8 pounds in the 2 1/2 days that I was sick! I felt so bad because Andi and Toni were worried sick about me, I was keeping them awake and there wasn’t much they could do for me. When I stayed home from school it was nice to get the rest, but after being home alone for a while I got really bored! I watched a movie on my laptop while taking a bath, read my magazine, slept, and just laid around. It was really nice to have Andi and Kira back in the house! :) I talked to Taron on Skype that week too! It was SO good!! I hadn’t talked to him in over a month! I never realized how much a friend my little brother/s are to me. It was nice to hear all about what was going on at home, and reassuring to hear that things are completely regular and not a lot is new. The following days were really nice because my Italian teacher was sick and so I didn’t have the first lesson for most of the week! I finished the letter for my school and by the end of the week had all of the approvals of the teachers to get out of Italian and Chemistry for good! :) I was pretty excited about that. One day after school I came home from a long day and was SO excited to discover a package from Dani on my desk!! It made my entire week! She had sent me a little box of chocolates and a letter :). I LOVED it. I also went for the first time with Panni to her volleyball practice. I really enjoyed it. It was much more like the volleyball that I’m used to from home. The coach made sure I knew that I was welcome anytime and wanted to inform me of the annual International tourney that they attend at invited me to a bring a team from Canada! Wouldn’t that be nice! :P On Friday I was really happy to finally be through with the week and was kinda in a melancholy mood. I brought home a rose for Andi “just because” and it earned me a nice big hug and kiss :). Later in the afternoon I was supposed to go to Bori’s house for the evening. When she came to pick me up I was happy be have someone to hang out with and distract me from my thoughts. When I walked into her house I was shocked to find all of my classmates standing there yelling “SURPRISE!!” and standing under a sign that said, “HAPPY NAMEDAY!! BOLDOG NÉVNAPOT TORI!!” I don’t even have a nameday! my classmates had made one for me and had been planning a surprise party all week! It was so amazing to see how loved I am already! Even after only 2 months of being here. They had bought me a cake and brought games, they even had gifts!! I got a SWEET tank top which they had drawn, “Hungarians <3 ME” on it and they all signed it. I got a pillowcase from Panni that she had drawn a beautiful butterfly on, a bracelet from Viru that “bonds memories”, a trinket box from Kira, and my Lady Gaga ticket!! It was an awesome night! I am so lucky to be so loved! Finally, that brings us to yesterday. I went to a place called Eger with Amanda and her host family. Her little brother had a dance competition there and so we went with and her Dad took us sight seeing. We saw lots of cool things. There is tons of history in that town! There is a castle, and many old churches etc. Most of the history there involves the invasion of the Turks way, way back in the 17th Century. The thing that hit me the hardest was when her Dad showed me a piece of tile that was made in the same year that Columbus discovered America! It was amazing to me to think that there are items like that EVERYWHERE in Europe that are older than Canadian or American history itself! It really blew me away! Today Kira and I helped Andi do a bunch of cooking and baking, we also watched a couple of episodes of the Vampire Diaries online. So that brings me to now. . .what a ride this has been. What an interesting and totally unpredictable adventure. Even the simplest days, the ones that go exactly according to plan, are different. Start to finish every day brings new emotions, new discoveries, or something new to think about. There hasn’t been a single day that doesn’t have its ups and downs. I can safely say that things here are going great, and that I’m having the time of my life, and that there isn’t anything that I would trade this experience for, its also safe to say that every single day there is at some point, a moment where I need to just take a deep breath and remember why I am here. I think its pretty much impossible to throw yourself into a new world and not struggle with it a bit. I was thinking about this just yesterday. . .I have obviously suffered from many bad days, bad feelings, even heartbreak and sadness before I came here. To be completely honest, I don’t entirely remember what an of that felt like! Since I have been here, I have had an ache in my heart for home for at least a few minutes of every day. It doesn’t mean I’m not happy, and it doesn’t mean I’m not having fun. It’s just that split second that something brings my mind back to home and the little stab in my heart reminds me that I’m away. Sometimes its a smell, or a sound, or a story. Sometimes its just simply me thinking about my family or my friends. It can be the littlest or the randomest thing, but it never fails. I’ve learned something since being here though. And that is not to fight those feelings. If I’m feeling lonely I remember to pray, if I’m feeling bored I remember how many AMAZING things I’ve done so far, if I’m wishing I could just be back home, then I think about how fast this experience is going to go by and how I need to embrace every moment of it and cherish the time that I DO have here. After all, I have a lifetime of memories to make and days to spend with the people I love from Canada, but there is no telling how many opportunities in my life I will have to do something like this. Sometimes its hard to think about things this way and you just want to throw yourself a little pity party, but I have also learned that thats ok too. Every exchange student will have the same feelings at one point or another, and there are times that the best way to get over those feelings is just to let them happen. I know that when I get home and get to see and hug my family again it will be amazing. But I am also starting to realize that after a few weeks of being home again everything will return to the exact same state it was when I left. Life will go on, we will still be our crazy busy selves, my Dad and Mom will still work too hard, my brothers will still fight, there will still be plenty of hockey seasons for me to watch, and lots of nights to chat with my parents about nothing important. One year sometimes seems like an eternity, but every year that goes by, I can safely say had gone by fast! So will this one, and so as I come to realize that I’m already 1/5th finished this experience, I try to look at the rest as an opportunity that I need to make the most of. Wow, this has turned into a ridiculously long entry! I hope you aren’t all asleep by now!! But I suppose if nothing else, you can safely say you have officially seen what has been going on in my head! Comprehend it if you can :P.

Hello again!

Where to begin. . .

Since my last update I have done a lot of really cool stuff! On the 24th of September David Guetta came to Debrecen and so a bunch of the exchange kids from all over met up and went. It was insane! loved it!! we had to wait 2 hours just to get into the building and once we were inside we listened and danced to some Hungarian DJs until David Guetta arrived. This wasn’t until about 12:30!! so the concert didn’t even end until after 3 AM! Obviously it was an extremely long and tiring night but also SO much fun! The next night was Amanda’s birthday, and our first night out on the town together. We were at a little birthday party for her and her host brother and sister for a while and then went out to a pub with her classmates. Soon we met up with the other exchangers as well and hung out and talked until 3 AM! That night was also my first experience trying Palinka :P. It is a VERY strong drink that is famous and more or less exclusive to Hungary. Very interesting to say the least. All in all that weekend was a lot of fun and not very much sleep was had by any of us. Since then I have also gotten together with some of my classmates and did some baking. We made everything from muffins and cake, to homemade fries and deep fried cheese! It was great to spend some time with them outside of school. I also got invited to one of my school mates houses (Bori) who lives just down the road here in Jozsa. It was awesome to be able to speak to her and just hang out, I really appreciate the friends I have made here so far and I find them all so kind and caring! 

This past weekend was the trip to Venice! All of the exchange students were reunited in Budapest and were all pumped for an awesome weekend! We kicked off the journey by stopping at Lake Balaton. This is not only Hungary’s largest lake, but also the largest in all of Europe. Its about 75KM long, or so I was told. The stop here was short and sweet, but interesting for sure. The rest of the night was spent on the bus, with stops every 3 or so hours. I got NO sleep at all. I’m almost sure that no one else did either! Between the laughter, chatting, temperature extremes and uncomfortable seats it was almost impossible to sleep. I ended up in the isle on the floor most of the night. Early morning brought us to Venice. After forcing our eyes open and accepting that its already daytime we were off!! We took a water taxi into the city and the whole time all I can remember thinking was, “how did they actually build this place ON the ocean?!” It was truly amazing! I now know why this is one of the most famous cities in the world! We did everything. Walked up and down the narrow streets and shops and looked at the typical Venetian masks, bought some souvenirs and post cards, and then went for lunch in a tiny Italian restaurant where I tried authentic Italian pizza! Afterwards a small group of us got into a Gondola and took a short tour of the streets by boat. It was so interesting to see things from that perspective. Peoples doorways opened right out to the ocean water! they didn’t have vehicles, but rather boats. SO COOL!! Everything had a beautiful and unique/old style to it as well. However I could never live that way, especially during tourist season. The city was absolutely PACKED with people everywhere! I couldn’t handle that. Later on I also had some Italian ice cream and Spaghetti for supper before saying goodbye to the city and taking a sunset ride on the water taxi back out to our bus. Needless to say I had an amazing time and Venice is a place I will never forget! 

Aside from a few key highlights I have been keeping myself really busy here in Debrecen. I have Volleyball on Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesdays is Rotary meetings and Im considering joining an Aerobics class as well, Wednesdays there is a HUngarian conversation club at the American Corner that is more or less a free Hungarian lesson so I have started going to that as well. Thursdays is Spin class, and on Fridays will be Basketball. The twist with Basketball is that there is no girls team! So Im going to be playing with the boys! :S Wish me luck!! So as you can see I have been anything but bored AFTER school! Its DURING school that is sometimes a slow and painful death. I feel bad talking to my classmates while they are studying, and so sometimes I have absolutely nothing to do and remain silent for hours. You can imagine how hard that is for ME! But its getting better all the time. I find things to do and Im meeting more kids so I can wander around and find someone to talk to most of the time. I have suffered from a little more homesickness recently, but the reason mostly being because of a slow day in school. Afternoons are more or less always great! :)

I LOVE my host family!!!! They are amazing! Living with them has been more than easy and I am becoming so close to them! I miss my family and friends back home a lot, but I  am feeling better all the time. 

I am hoping to be starting private lessons for Hungarian sometime within the next couple of weeks and I can’t wait! I need some motivation other than my own nagging mind :P. 

So there is my update, next time I’m sure won’t be half as exciting considering I won’t have any extravagant trips to tell you about until December. But who knows!! Until next time! Sziaszok!