Oh the skills I learn in Hungary

A few weeks ago I promised my host family that I would make them some Canadian pumpkin pie. The other day Gabi came home with the ingredients that I asked for, except in place of a pumpkin, she brought butternut squashes. Well...I just have to say that by the time I come back to Canada I will be able to make a five course meal from eight different ingredients. After I thought, 'hey who ever said pumpkin pie was any better than butternut squash pie?' I got onto creating. It turns out that they dont own a rolling pin, so I proved the great diversity and usefulness of peanut butter by using the container as my rolling pin. It worked even if Gabi gave me the wierdest looks when she walked by and saw me up to my elbows in flour with a peanut butter container in one hand and a make-shift pie plate in the other. So the make-shift pie plate. It happens that hungary just does not produce pie plates of any kind. We went to all of the huge supermarkets and looked but nope! there were no pie plates to be had! I soon found out that the lid of a casserole dish works just dandy to bake butternut squash pie in. All said and done, butternut squash pie is amazing. So if you are ever in doubt (and out of pumpkin!) pick up some squash and bake em up! Oh and I have to say, that sadly yes, last month Laura and I did slave over the stove for those four hours uselessly, becuase as I guessed there was a MUCH easier way to get it to the pureéd state. Its called baking. Isnt that simple. Well at least I found out for the second time around.

A little while ago Laura heard about this soccer game between Hungary and Canada and somehow her host family got her tickets for the game! So up I went to Budapest with everything Candian that I own. It was ridiculous. We were ridiculous. I only had a Candian sweater, but Laura...ohhh Laura. She was wearing a Canadian shirt, sweater, touque and socks. Off we went to the match with my giant Canadian flag. Lauras host family could not stop laughing at us. They would just look over at us and start laughing. It was great. Really, if you are going to make a fool out of yourself, it may as well be in a foreign country. We know nothing about soccer, but we just cheered everytime the hungarians booed and booed whenever they cheered. Easy enough. Canada ended up losing 0-1, which we didnt care about at all. It was just alot of fun. Lauras host father knows someone in the media business and when we were at the game he called up his friend who was a photographer at the game and he took some pictures of us dressed up in the full glory of our Canadian finery. So there we are, the first pictures on the Hungarian fútbol website. oh those crazy Canadians...

The day after the soccer match, members from Szegeds Rotaract club picked me up in Budapest to bring me near Eger (Egernel) for a 'Roraract Team Building Weekend' translated into Hungarian that means a weekend where we just relax and party and have a good time. Although there was about an hour during the weekend where they DID talk about rotaract...I really see the necessity of us going to the other side of the country for this talk. It was a really fun weekend where we (exchange students) got to know the other members of the rotaract club better.

At the high school I am in the fourth year (translation: grade twelve) and one of the things that I am pretty excited about is graduating again! Really, it was one of the funnest things in all of high school, so why not do it twice?! What they do over here is that they have their formal ball at the end of January (the 26th) then they do something at the end of the school year. What this something is, hasnt really been made clear to me yet, but I am sure it is great as all of my friends are really excited about it. SO the ball in January, now when I hear the words formal ball my mind usually jumps to something that resembles the ball in Cinderella, not really the type of thing that we do at Grad in Canada. When my friends kept referring to this ball I just thought it was a fancy name for a regular Grad ceremony. ohhhh no. At this ball, we waltz. Thats right, I am in waltzing lessons. ohhh...the skills I am learning in Hungary. By the time I come back to Canada I will be fluent (hopefully) in a language that only 10 million people speak, and I will be a professional waltzer. Who ever said that this year would be better spent in University?!
In your first year (trans: grade nine) in Hungarian high schools (gimnaziums) you choose what area/field you want to specialize in. The Sciences, English, History...Im not too sure what else, but I am sure there are many other options as there are many different classes. So once you have chosen, that is the class that you will be with for the next four years of high school. At the ball each different class has to prepare a 'class dance' if this sounds like something you did in grade three, I was thinking the exact same thing as you are. So this class dance, the class agrees on a song or some vague idea of the dance then they bring it to a dance school (a little hard core if you ask me) then they choreograph a dance for the class. So here I am, Monday nights in waltzing lessons, and friday afternoons in hip-hop class. yup, Jessica is hip-hop dancing. oh my. But the song is wicked, it is the first song of the the sister act part 2 and it is called "Whoopi Goldberg & The Ronelles , The Greatest Medley Ever Told". Any song with that name has got to be amazing. Check it out and just imagine the dance that we are doing, it is hilarious. Im definatly going to have to get someone to video tape it for me then I will send it back home, for all of you to laugh at it.

So exciting news!! Tomorrow officially marks my three months in Hungary! It seems like it has been 8 months and a week and a half at the same time.

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