It has been a while since I
posted anything on my blog and since then, a lot has happened. It’s interesting
because while you’re living it, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot is happening,
but looking back on it, it definitely is. Three weekends ago I went up to
Budapest to visit my friend from Wisconsin, Ellie. I had a fever of 100 degrees
but hell or high water I was going to visit her. Turns out that taking the
train by myself was not as terrifying as I thought it would be and thankfully I
got there no problem. That night we went to a huge mall in the middle of
Budapest and we watched Lawless in English with Hungarian subtitles. It was the
first movie that I have watched while here and it was such a strange experience
for me. It was phenomenally well done in my opinion, and for a good hour there,
I completely forgot where I was. For all I knew I could have walked out of the
Chinook theatre back in Calgary. And
when we finally walked out of the theater I had the realization for the first
time since I got here “wow, this is my life now. I don’t get to go home anytime
soon”, and I realized that I am very much okay with that.
Ellie and I walked till we dropped around Budapest for the
next two days and I still don’t think I saw even 10% of that beautiful city.
Guess that means I have to go back and visit again soon…We did a bunch of touristy
things, drank tea and ate pad Thai and had a wonderful time. I got to know
Ellie a lot better and I can’t wait until the next time I see her. Her host
family treated me with a ton of kindness and I am so grateful for that weekend.
Budapest is absolutely without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the
world and I fell in love with it that weekend. The sights and sounds and the
life in the city are like nothing else I have ever experienced.
I came home and life continued on in Szeged. Unfortunately
the Monday after I got back, my wallet was stolen on my way to school. It’s
really too bad because apart from all the material loss, I had a lot of things
of sentimental value in there that I’m not getting back. At the moment all I
wanted was to have my mom there with me but I had to deal with it on my own and
in the end, it wasn’t that bad. I went to the police station and gave a
statement (it was quite a different ordeal!) and hoped for the best. It still
hasn’t been found but the experience taught me that things will happen and as a
grown girl I have to learn how to deal and not lie down and die because of it.
In other news I’ve done some things with my classmates and that
makes me beyond ecstatic. I love hanging out with all of them. I’ve gone
to a couple of parties with them and they’re all so nice to me. I also went
skating with a couple of my classmates, Patri and Vivi. They are incredibly
sweet girls. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had since I’ve been
here! The rink is like a disco on ice, SO different from the ones at home.
There is music and a DJ and lights and everyone is dancing on their skates.
It’s quite a hoot! Hungarians are surprisingly excellent at skating, too. It
was actually them teaching the Canadian a lot of things! Go figure. I’m going
to Budapest at the end of October with my class to see a Moliere piece that I
studied pretty in depth on high school so I might understand some of it even if
it is all in Hungarian. I want to work really hard on making more Hungarian
friends because not only are most of them so kind and open to foreigners, but
what better way to get a super cool cultural experience.
Speaking of Hungarian…it’s a
challenge. I (and anyone who has ever been on exchange or learned a new
language will understand this) wish I could just snap my fingers and be able to
speak, or at least understand what’s going on. It gets truly frustrating
sometimes but I also admit that I could be putting in more effort than I am.
It’s just that sometimes I get exasperated and English is everywhere so it’s
just a lot easier. But now is the time to change my ways and this way of
thinking before I can’t catch up to the language anymore. In Hungarian classes,
though, it’s helping that I am starting to notice rules and patterns. The
language, while difficult, turns out is not as erratic as I thought it would
be. I have come to find that Hungarian is a very phonetically focused language
and the way things are said and
pronounced basically determines if you will be understood correctly or not. For
example, the other day at the train station dropping Judith off, I asked a
woman “beszélsz angolul?”
(which means ‘do you speak English?’). She looked at us really funny and just
walked away. At my next Hungarian lesson I asked my teacher if I was
pronouncing it wrong, and she told me that while I was pronouncing it correctly
I didn’t have the correct intonation when asking to make it a question so the
woman thought I was simply stating ‘you speak English’. A lot of questions in
Hungarian are also just statements depending on the intonation. The alphabet is
44 letters long (I think…) and Hungarians never really learn how to spell
because EVERY word, even though a lot of them are long and convoluted, sounds
exactly like it is spelled. There’s nothing like having to know that in ‘knee’
the k is silent. Because of this though, every letter has to be pronounced
almost perfectly or else people won’t know what the heck you’re saying. So
these are all things that are small details but make a huge difference when it
comes to communicating. My new host family is helping and encouraging me to speak a lot so I keep trying...
Last weekend, 5 other exchangers
came down to Szeged to visit us. Judith and Paige are from the US and Yago,
Stephannie and Maria Eduarda are all from Brazil. It was a fantastic weekend.
We talked about anything and everything and really got to know each other. Being
with them really put a lot of cultural differences into perspective. It was
super interesting to see how different we all are but now we have this one life
changing experience in common. I truly
love my fellow exchangers and it’s kind of crazy to think about the fact that
the only reason I even know them is because of exchange. It’s surreal for me to
think that there are so many people in my life now that I wouldn’t know if it
wasn’t for exchange. I can’t imagine my life without them. I hope they come to
visit soon! I also have an Autumn break for a week at the end of
October/beginning of November. I don’t know if my family has anything planned
yet but I want to make time to visit some of my exchange friends. I think this
year I may celebrate American Thanksgiving. Hmm.
Last Friday I made Shepherd’s pie with the exchange students
in my city. It was quite the process. It actually turned out pretty good though
and the Hungarians loved it. Yesssss. My host family also really wants me to cook for them. Am I a good cook? No. Will I try just for them? I will try my best.
Speaking of, I switched to my second host family earlier this week. It had been a good couple of months with my first family, and I will
always be so grateful that they have opened up their home to me but now it’s
time to go to another! My host mom and host dad are named Anita and Daniel and
I have two host sisters: Anna who is 15 and Dori who is 11. I’m super
excited to become a part of their family and see this culture from another
perspective. They have made me feel incredibly welcome and I haven't been here a week; they treat me as one of their own :) It’s also very convenient that they live 2 blocks away from my last home so I already know how to get to school and all those formalities
will stay the same. On Wednesday, the other Rotary club in Szeged had us as
guests to plant a tree in a beautiful Rotary garden and then we got to go to a
restaurant (free Hungarian food? Heck yeah.) I ate game for the first time. On Saturday and Sunday we went to Gyula, a town approximately 2 hours from Szeged where I met my host mom and dad's parents. Guyla was beautiful and both sets of my host grandparents were nothing but kind to me. I had a wondeful time and got to go to visit a 600 year old castle right on the Romanian border. It was a wonderful weekend. Also, I realized that I know a lot more Hungarian than I thought I did. Would I say I'm fluent? Nem meg (not yet.) But...baby steps! We have a 4 day weekend so I have two more days...I dunno what I'll do yet but I'm excited to have the time off school. I have to study for my Hungarian midterm. Yikes! On Thursday, I have to present a
little PowerPoint talking about my life in Canada to my Interact and Rotary
clubs. I will use as much Hungarian as I can, but English will also play a
part. For my final presentation, I have promised myself not to have to use any
English at all! Then BP Friday and a week long break! My life is soooo difficult...
As I love this city and this
country more and more every day, I also have a newfound appreciation for Canada
every day. I miss home, but my
life here is pretty awesome. Every day here is a roller coaster, and I’m so, so
lucky to be on it. I wouldn’t give my ride up for the world.
I promise to post again soon!
PS: I don't post photos on my blog because....I don't know why, but I have albums dedicated to my time on exchange on my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/daniela.galindo.52
PPS: Sorry this post is so all over the place...I kind of just wrote things as I thought of them. I hope it's at least semi-understandable!
-Daniela :)
