Szia, sziaaaaa!

Sorry about not posting for the past few months, nothing too exciting happened in regards to exchange. And then about 4 days ago, that changed and so much started happening so quickly. Two days before my departure, I had a going away party with all my friends, my family and a few Rotarians from my club. It was an absolutely wonderful day, and I'll never forget it. It made me realize how much I am going to miss home and how much I had been taking everything for granted. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to think about that because 2 days later I was hopping on a plane to Hungary. It was hard to say goodbye, and I miss my family and my home so much more than I thought I would. This homesickness part is not fun. But, this is going to be a very positive experience in my life.

The traveling part went down without a hitch, a lot of running around from one plane to another but not a problem other than that. I got to Budapest at 2:15 PM on Wednesday, August 22nd (22 hours after I had left with the time difference). My host mom, host dad and my oldest host brother were there to meet me. They brought me a cute little flower and we were on our way. One thing about Hungary at this time of year: it's really hot. But it's a nice change to finally feel like I'm experiencing summer!  So we left the airport and went to IKEA in Budapest. Everything is exactly the same only I can't understand anything on the signs! After that, we drove around Budapest for a bit, and I got to see some of the city, which is absolutely beautiful. I think they saw that I was very tired and so we drove down to Szeged. I was exhausted so I slept the entire way. We got home at around 9PM, I unpacked and ate and then I went to sleep again and slept for a good 11 hours!

My host family is pretty great. My host mom (Szusie) and the oldest host brother (Richie), speak English so I've been able to communicate with them. My host dad (Szoly) and smaller brothers don't speak English. I think it's a good balance because I can communicate but still have motivation to learn Hungarian. Motivation. I need a lot of that. Hungarian is notttt for the weak. It's a super hard language and when they speak it sounds like it's all one continuous word. My host mom gave me a couple of kid's books with some basic words in them to start learning. It'll take a while but I'll get there! It's a little strange being in a house full of boys, something I'm not used to! But they're a lot of fun, and we're becoming good friends :)

The day after I got here, we stayed inside all day because I was still super jetlagged and it was seriously too hot to go outside. I spent some time with the family, we watched Home Alone with English subtitles and Benny, the youngest in the house, got over his shyness and we played with his train set. Today, my host mom and I went across the bridge to Szeged (we live in Ujszeged which translates to 'New Szeged') and we went to a mall and to buy a bathing suit for me. After that, I met the Australian on exchange here, Matthew, and he took me to walk around Szeged. We walked around, got some pizza which was super good and then we came back home. Using transit here is really nerve-wracking because sometimes the bus drivers will ask questions and I don't know what they're saying and ahhh.

But hey, it's a part of it.

I'll update soon!

Daniela