6 Weeks So Far In Budapest!!

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So I have now been here for 6 weeks and it has gone by so fast! I have done so much in that time! My first few days here, I got to tour around the city and take some great pictures. One evening I went on a boat tour down the danube which was amazing! All the buildings (the parliament, the castle, the bridge etc.) all light up and it's so beautiful! I tried to take pictures but because the boat was moving I couldn't take any at night as they just became blurry.

I started school September 1 and I am in a grade 11 class! Most of the students know english which helps in the communication part of things, although not so much in the "me learning hungarian" part. I gave my rotary presentation to the english class which was good times. Prior to the presentation, I had requests from a few of the students to talk lots and take up the full 45 minute class so they wouldn't have to do work, which I managed to do just fine (I can really talk!) haha no a lot of it was setting it up, the actual presenation and then answering questions, which were mostly from the teacher. She wanted to know mostly about the school system in Canada, and how it compare's to Hungary's. In Hungary, it is mandatory to take all the classes which means they don't have any spares and they start at 7:45 in the morning! They were quite surprised to hear that I never took physics, and I got to start school at 8:45, unless I had a spare then it was even later! I explained the semester system, and about credits, and fun stuff like that. I'm really lucky because I have a really nice home room teacher who thinks that 7 classes a day is way to much for me, and took physics, math, chem and spanish/german out of my schedule. I was quite pumped, she's looking at taking out more...she doesn't want me to get stressed out or something...I don't really do anything in my classes either, so far they have just been telling me to bring a book that I can read!

My first weekend here I went with my host parents to a museum in Szentendre, a city just outside of Budapest. It depicts life in Hungary from different years. It was a lot of old houses, schools, churches, as well they had farm yards set up, and animals!! It was very cool.

I attended my first rotary convention 2 weeks into my trip. Here I met the 43 other exchange students in Hungary, and there are 5 girls (including me) from Canada!! It was held in Debrecen (a city in Hungary about 2 hours from BP) and we stayed at a youth hostel just outside the city. Here there was a WWII bomb shelter where we had our saturday night disco...definetely entertaining! There was also a huge statue of Lenin that I got my picture taken with, along with Jessica and Essya, the other 2 girls from Alberta. Laying on the ground next to Lenin was Stalin...looked like he got pushed over!

This last Saturday I went with my host parents to Eger. It is a city about 1 1/2 hours from Budapest, and they have a famous castle there that we got to tour through which was really cool! We went on a tour, and although it was all in hungarian, I got to see lots! I was able to read bits about it in english as I went along, but I have a book that I'm going to have to read and study up on the history of this castle so I really know what happend! We also got to wander around the city for a little while which was really pretty!

I think that sums up the major events during my stay in Budapest so far. I forgot that its Thanksgiving today, and I had every intention of making my host family dinner, but I told my host mom I would cook them Thanksgiving supper next weekend!! Jessica (girl from Ft. McMurray) is going to come stay with me and Budapest and have dinner with us so that's exciting!! It could be a bit of a gong show, but I will be putting out more blogs, and I will let you know how that adventure goes...oh my!

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Photos

Flying In
I took this picture when I was flying into Budapest!! When I was on the plane, a guy from Germany was sitting in the window seat and I leaned over and looked down and asked if it was Budapest and he was like "umm yah, I'm pretty sure that's Budapest!" then he laughed. I put my camera over and got a few pictures! Turns out he was right... lol

Castle
The first couple of days in Budapest, my host parents took me walking around Budapest and this is what I got of the castle. It looks over the Danube.

Quite the view
We walked accross the chain bridge (shown here) to the Buda side. We went up the hill to a spot where I was able to take this.

Parliament
I also got this picture of parliament. You can see that one side is cleaner than the other, and I guess they clean it non stop. They just go around and around because by the time they finish, they have to start again. It's from all the pollution, although word on the street says that they're putting a coating on it to keep it from getting so dirty! I also heard the other day that it is the biggest parliament in Europe, and when they were going to build the parliament, they had a competition. Architects designed buildings they though should be the parliament and this design won (obviously) but the 2nd (I'm not to sure about 3rd) place was built also and is located not to far from parliament and is a museum. I'm not too sure, so I'll check that! I thought it was interesting though...

Fisherman Bastion 1
This is where I was standing when getting all my pictures. Way back in the day it was a watch tower where soldiers hung out. It's pretty long, and we were able to walk along the top

Fisherman Bastion
This is another view of the fisherman bast

Szentendre
This was at the beginning of the museum. It was a layout of the whole place, and if you look really carefully, you can see the Rotary Wheel on the plaque!!!

Bedroom
This is a picture of one of the bedrooms at the museum. If you notice the beds are really high. The more blankets you had, the more wealthy you were.

Host Parents!
This is a picture of me with my first host parents, Gabi and Istvan in front of one of the houses at the museum.

Blue Blue Blue!!
They would dye fabrics by dipping them in dye and well, I'm not quite sure what the process is...but this what it looked like! They're really pretty after. They are a really deep blue, with white designs on them.

Lenin
This is a statue of Lenin that was at the youth hostel we stayed at for the rotary convention. With me are the two girls from Alberta, Jessica from Ft. McMurray (right) and Essie from Calgary (left)

Debrecen
A picture from Debrecen...don't ask what is it, because I don't know! It was just referred to as the big yellow building that we were suppose to meet by in 2 hours after we wandered around on our own!

Exchange Studnets
This is a group picture of all the students who are in Hungary! Notice the brazilians...there is a lot and they make their presence known! You can hear (and see) them from a mile away cuz they don't stop singing and waving their flags! Lots of fun though, there was lots of cool people!

Comments

[Emily]

breaking the commenty seal
Hey Miller okay. why didnt I have this kinda thing when I was in brasil? SHHEEESH... sheesh is what I say. Anways. glad to see that you have a blog up so that I am able to keep track of your shananagins (that took me forever to spell out). I just cant believe that my baby is all grown up and wandering around Budapest! Couple requests: i wanna see what your host families etc etc and school CHUMS look like. Or maybe you just arent posting all your photos on here. EITHER WAY DO IT NOW! I cant believe how crazy big some of those castle-dealios are, pretty breathtaking. well.. you are going to call me when I get on the bus tomorrow. so that means that i should stop typing and undo my knotted undies (wait.. what) okay.. well whatever! Talk to you soon miller szia putzi (or something of that sort) beijos Emily

[Dzsesszika (hung. spelling)]

cant wait for turkey!
wooo hoo! I got three entries into your first blog! Next blog will be all about the TURKEY! and you are definatly right, it will be a gong show, but as long as I get some pumpkin pie and stuffing out of the deal I will be nagyon boldog!! ps. I love how you put in the story about the German guy on the airplane

[Jenna]

I miss laura :(
AWWW laura i miss you! Sounds like your having fun. i agree with emily- put up some pics of your host family and friends and such!!! <3 Jenna

[sydney]

"yaa...she was in my dance group..."
hello laura! well i c that u have an amazing blog, very cool and i will be sure to check it out more often. hungary sounds amazing and i know you must be having an excellent time! anyways i will kick shawnee for you tonight and oh ya... theres a salsa dancing course in fairview and i think im gonna try it out. im not exactly sure what salsa dancing is but we'll see. i havent got a call from dennis about an interview yet but hopefully soon! so keep posting your stuff for us to check out, its neato! lol. anyways, live it up... syd

[Kacie]

JEALOUSY EXTEREMOUS
I dont even think extremous is a word. U look like you are having tons of fun, make sure to stay away from the revolution! You rebel. I may have to rape that statue of Lenin, that's the hottest thing I have ever seen.

[dennis]

glad to see
Great job, glad you did it. Will type out the address and take it to rotary tomorrow and share with the Rotarians. I know they will love it as there were lots of positive comments when em had hers. talk with u later dennis

[Louise & Leo]

Hi
Hi Laura, have been thinking about U and how U are doing in Hungary! Got your blog from your parents, great job! We are just back from Arizona, time went sooo fast there, did lots of hiking, motorcycling, swimming, enjoying grandchildren etc. Now we are skiing F'w and starting to do a bit of work (not too much tho). Keep the Rotary smile and make each day count, before U know it the experience will be over! It's the journey that counts!!! Love from the Dechants

[Gillian Clarke]

Me too!
Hey, my name is Gillian and right now I am an exchange student in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary. I am in my computer class right now so I didn't have enough time to read your entire journal, but I did skim it. It is amazing, I have done almost the exact same things you wrote about, including get my picture taken next to the statue of Lenin. Anyway, I love it that you did all of this stuff too, so I thought I'd tell you so. Szia!