My First Day

Well, I arrived safely just so everyone knows. My Hungarian host mom is really nice. I finally finished unpacking and now regret packing all those clothes. Im in a lovely room in a 2nd story apartment. My mom kept asking me if I wanted to take a shower, so I finally got the hint and obliged. I just had my first shower without getting my hair wet and without a shower cap. They have a bath without a curtain that has a handheld spray nozzle and it allows you to have 1-minute showers.

This day is summarized in one word: Surprise! I was more prepared than anyone else, but there is only so much preparation you can do. The first surprise was security in Amsterdam. Unlike the US airports, Amsterdam doesnt have those metal detector things so when you walk through the security and the thing starts beeping, they do a full patdown. For someone like me who has never had a patdown, this was a slightly traumatic experience. The lady not only stroked every inch of my body several times, but also checked under my shirt and pants.

The rest of the surprises came like aftershocks. I arrived in Budapest a little early, with both my bags and left with 6 other exchange students who I had met in Amsterdam (Skyla, Irene, Pat, Claire, Alina, and Emily) When we got past the baggage claim, there were all these people waving to us. I picked out my host mom from the crowd immediately because she was holding a sign with my name on it. Another girl was with her who I thought was Nori, her daughter, but was actually Marisztéla, a girl who went to Toronto for a year and was going to my school.

We drove for 2.5 hrs and finally arrived in Debrecen. It is so pretty! They have really cool methods of transportation too. Instead of a bus, you take an electrical bus that runs on wires at the top, but otherwise looks like a regular bus. Their road rules are nearly identical to ours (you just cant turn right at a stop light and stop signs at intersections mean slow down, not stop) Both my host mom and Marisztéla have bikes.

As far as the language goes, they were really surprised at how well I spoke already. They also couldnt believe how well I caught on. I guess I know more words than I thought. They said I would definitely be fluent by December. I really really hope so.

After carrying in my leaden luggage, they took me to Erikas anyas house where I was served a delicious meal consisting of fried (with egg and flour covering) cauliflower, chirke (chicken), peas and rice, cucumber salad, pumpernickel cake, cheese bread stick thingies, and last and best of all, grapes. Now these grapes were unlike any grapes I had ever had in my life. There were the small yellow ones that are sweet and the larger yellow-green ones which are to die for. They have the most unique flavor that I cant possibly describe.

Anyway, to put it bluntly, right now, I am typing this in the living room at a time when I should be sleeping, so without further ado, I bid you jó éjszakát!