Penny for your thoughts?

Disclaimer: I wrote this a couple of days ago when I was sitting in a big hall at school. This is straight from the source, raw emotion that I'm giving you here, people. Enjoy. (My blog is gonna be an honest account of all the stuff that's happening and how I'm feeling about it because I want to be able to look back in a year's time and see how I felt in that moment and how I grew as a person because of it.)

It's really difficult to describe what I'm feeling right now, mostly because I've never felt anything like it before. It's a feeling of euphoria mixed with fear mixed with frustration mixed with incredulousness (if that's even a word). I'm currently sitting in the big student hall of Ságvári, the school that will be mine for the next year. The school is old but beautiful, it has a huge courtyard and is a 5 minute walk from the city centre. My class is in a Hungarian history course that I can't understand (yet) so I came here.
It's so easy to say before exchange "I'm not going to be one of those exchange students, I'm going to learn the language so quickly and make a ton of friends and know the city, etc etc." I've come to find out, however, that it's much easier said than done. I have confidence that I'll get to that point eventually, but for now, it's a long process that requires a LOT of patience and determination. On the first day, there was an opening ceremony where we all dressed in fancy black and white attire. I was introduced to my class (which is pretty big; around 30 people) and it was over quite early. Then, yesterday morning I woke up at 6 (SIX IN THE MORNING, UNHEARD OF) and went to an English class. It was kind of strange for me, so I found a really nice group of girls that showed me to their French class.  It was super refreshing to be able to communicate well, if only for a little while. I ended the day with biology in Hungarian; it's kind of fun to try and decipher what people are saying sometimes. It's weird, because sometimes I think I finally get something and someone will translate what was said and I realize I was VERY wrong.

School is still something that I'm trying to figure out. The timing of classes and breaks is so different from what I'm used to and I don't have a set schedule yet, but I'm sure I will get into the routine soon. I'm incredibly anxious to start Hungarian lessons (which I registered for today) because I have a burning desire to communicate or at least understand a little bit of what's happening around me. This is definitely the hardest part. There is so much that I want to ask people, and tell them, and be able to order things and wish people luck and just everything but I search my brain and it's not all there yet. I want to know more about my classmates and just everything but this language barrier is not easily broken. Speaking of my classmates, they're pretty great. A lot of people have tried to talk to me and make conversation, they're so open to me, something that I definitely wasn't expecting. When people realize that they're speaking too much Hungarian, they always translate and even though it must be tough for them too and not convenient to translate everything, I appreciate their kindness more than they'll ever know.

I'm starting to notice little cultural differences also like the fact that Hungarians bring everything to the table to serve it there instead of serving it before the plate hits the table. Also, once you've previously met someone, the next time you see them you greet them with 2 or 3 cheek kisses. Also, every time the teacher enters the classroom, the students stand out of respect. Different, eh?

In the middle of my foreign-ness, I tend to forget that there's a ton of awesome things that I've done and some to look forward to as well. This weekend, we hung out with the exchange students from Kecskemét at a fish soup festival. It was so much fun, we tried new things and got to go to a beautiful cathedral built in the 1800's in Szeged. I got to explore the town some more this weekend and I finally feel like I can get around a little bit more. On Friday I'm leaving to Budapest with the other exchangers from Szeged to our first district orientation. Am I excited, you ask? HECK YEAH. It's gonna be great to meet allll the other people that are gonna be experiencing this year with me.

Hmm, that's all for now but as I continue my adventure I'll be posting more to update everyone :)

Daniela

PS: The food is still good. My host mom made Shepherd's Pie and it tasted like homeeee (except the cheese is better here).
PPS: It's still hot.
PPPS: TOO hot. (Try 35 degrees).
PPPPS: Sometimes I look around and remember just how lucky I am to be here.