I'm Blogging

Hello All,
So this was officially my first week of school! It has been really rough, three whole days of class. The good news is that I am taking 16 credits (a full load) and possibly 18 if I decided to take and Erasmus class, so I am done in three days and still get all my credits in! All of my classes seem really interesting, one I am taking is called Nationalism and Ethnicity and it talks about Nationalism in Hungary and then the Ethnic groups (there's only 1 Ethnic minority in Hungary, The Roma, or the Gypsies are they are known). It's a really hot topic here, I did not know that the Gypsies were a distinct ethnic group and that there is a ton of prejudice and discrimination against them in Hungary, to the extent of hate crimes and killings. Other than school I have been hanging out and trying to get my bearings in the city...which is happening slowly. Sunday I went with my roommates to the International Circus festival! In the City Park in Budapest, is a huge built in Big top for circus performances that is 120 years old. It was really fun to go and see the competition (I'm actually not sure if it was a competition but there was a panel of judge-like people so I think so). Laina came in on Tuesday so for the next week we're going to run around and explore Budapest some more! I am so excited! Yesterday we started the trip off by going to school (haha yes, she attended class with me on her break), ate delicious Gyros that they sell all over for 600 HUF (3 dollars) and then went to a party hosted by French Erasmus students called "Everything's better French" which was basically this French guy playing French Techo and feeding us. hahahaha. Well anyway, we're about to head out to venture over to Buda in the snow (it's snowing again! The temperature is a balmy 18 degrees). I love and miss you all!







Circus! Circus!



Our Orientation ended with a trip to Szimpla! A very cool ruined pub!



I found Fish Sauce in the grocery store!

Orientation Day 1

Hello!
After being her for officially a week, I have finally started Orientation. Today I woke up at an early 10am and got ready to head to school. We met up at the University for some Orientation. There are officially 21 American students in the program I am in 19 from USF and 2 from St. Louis University. We got the full tour of the school, which included walking up and down the same flight of stairs like 4 times hahaa. We started today by some "culture shock info" followed by some survival Hungarian. This is what I learned today "Én Kailey Vagyok" meaning my name is Kailey, Koszonom, meaning Thank you, and "Éhes Vagyok", I'm hungry. I'm pretty sure this is about all I need to know anyway! hahaha. The school provided lunch for us today and we got pizza from this place got don pepe, these were the world's largest pizzas. Seriously, the slices don't fit on a plate. After orientation we went to another USF students house and drank some wine and hung out, this life is getting rough I tell ya. Anyway, I love and miss you all :)

P.S. I finally did laundry yesterday! I don't know what it is in Hungary but no one has dryers, this means that we have to air dry our clothes. Luckily our washer is super efficient and my clothes were really dry when they came out and dried in a day! So cool and so green!

Egészségedre!

Well hello!
The last couple days have been more of the same, wandering, eating, drinking wine, and sleeping. Hahaha, it's a good thing school's starting soon because I could get very use to this. It started snowing in Budapest and everything was so quaint and European looking! Yesterday I decided to go on a walk to see some of the unexplored parts of my hood. I walked down to the Danube River, saw the Parliament building and looked across as the Buda side of the city. I walked along this really cool street with lots of shops and Gyro stands. They have these store fronts where you walk up and order and they slice the meat off one of those huge hunks of something and give it to you, I didn't order one but I will soon! They look so good! About half way into my walk I started to head back to my apartment. I walked and walked in the direction that I thought was the way home, but ended up at the West End mall which is where Vicki had taken me when I first got here! I couldn't figure out how to get away from the mall and back towards my house but I figured if I just kept walking I would end up at something familiar. This took about an hour. I kept walking and walking, and ended up at the mall like 3 times, apparently every time I thought I was headed in the right direction I was actually heading back in a loop. Eventually I ended back at the Parliament building and was able to navigate my way home. Other than being cold it wasn't too bad because I knew I could always call for help or ask people where the Basilica was (it's great to live next to such a big landmark :)). After I got home my 3rd roomie, Kelsy arrived, and we now officially have a full house! Kelsy passed out after her loooongg flight in to Budapest and Lily, Katie and I decided to go out. There's a place pretty close to my house called Morrison's and they host "Morrisons Monday" where you pay 500ft ($2 USD) for 3 beers. One of the tutors Melinda came over and she brought two girls who are studying abroad here from St. Louis. We the all headed over to Morission's together. The bar was in this long tunnel thing and it was part bar, part karokee stage, part dance club. It was also packed with people from everywhere! Needless to say it was very fun. We ended up coming home around 2:30, even though I think my roommates could have stayed out longer I was ready to crash. Anyway, it's all been great and orientation hasn't even started yet! I can't wait to meet the other kids in the program (there are 19 of us in total).

Oh P.S. I went to the grocery store and tried to buy some stuff, but I ended up getting some sort of mystery lunch meat (I think it's poultry of some type) and instead of Laundry soap and I got fabric softener...aye, this Hungarian stuff is harder than you think!

P.P.S The title of this blog is how to say "cheers" in Hungarian

The Door to Budapest

Today was a nice relaxing day... but I guess they've all been nice and relaxing. I slept in until 12 (I guess the Jet-lag actually set in hahaha) and then woke up ate some breakfast, and headed out. I walked around my neighborhood and took tons of pictures...of doors. Hahaha, I just love the buildings here, they're so interesting and the doors and beautiful. It's the little things that make a city beautiful I guess :). I walked over to a street called Vaci Utca This is a very touristy place, but it was fun to see all of the western shops and the touristy things. I looked around a bit, went into H&M, and stopped by a little shop to get some toiletries. I thought this would be easy, but most of the products are in Hungarian so I bought what I hope was shampoo, conditioner etc, but I guess we'll see! hahaah. I also apparently spent enough or something to get "a gift" from the store, of some hair product and a little mirror. I was trying to figure out what the products were, but again the Hungarian baffled me. One said something about hair shine and was in a spray can, so I used it...turns out it is sparkly hair spray! So now my head is full of glitter. I went to a little grocery store, picked up some food, and headed home to meet the newest roomie Lily. We then went out to get some food at this little Italian restaurant, but on the way home I stopped by a little store and bought some vino! So exciting to be of age! hahaha! And it was only 675ft which is like 3 dollars! Awesome! Anyway, Hungarian life thus far seems pretty laid back and awesome!

Day 2

I finally got to bed last night about 1am Hungarian time, which means I had been up 41ish hours! This actually turned out to be not so bad because I went to bed at a regular time in Hungary so when I got up this morning I didn't feel jet-lagged at all! My mentor came to my flat this morning at 11 and we went to school to get my new cell phone and my student ID. For my ID I needed passport size photos, but I had neglected to get any before I came to Budapest. This meant that I had to go to one of those photobooth kiosk type deals and take pictures there. This sounds simple, but I had to get the appropriate change (which meant I had to buy this delicious chocolate croissant) and then take my photos. I put the change in the machine and all of a sudden it began flashing and shooting pictures. I wasn't sure how many picture it was taking (the instructions were all in Hungarian) and I was taken so off-guard that I start laughing and spazzing out like normal. All in all I ended up with 4 very weird pictures. The first one (the one I ended up using as my ID, is me looking off into space), my head isn't even in the second one, and the third and the forth my eyes are closed. Hahaha, well at least I have an ID now. After we got my school stuff taken care of, I got my lost bag (yeahh!) and headed back to my house. Viki then took me to the Basilica which is really close by and we looked around at the beautiful building. We then took the underground to this delicious Indian place. I went back to my apartment and met one of my roommates, Katie, from Portland. After hanging out a bit (Katie went to bed after traveling all day plus some) I went for a little walk to see what the neighborhood has. I ended up going to get some dinner at this place called California coffee shop. HHhahaha, I know, I know, not very Hungarian, but it was there, I was hungry and I wanted to see what it was like. It is basically what you would find in California, except for one thing. It seems as if everyone in Hungary smokes, they even allow smoking in the restaurants. Hungary does seem like old-fashioned America, there's indoor smoking, a lot of fur, and people generally dress nicer, I don't think I saw anyone in jeans today, and a lot of the boys at school had ties. I like it! Anyway, all is well here and I am very glad to be in this cool country, even though I feel very lost :)




The Courtyard in my building



My awesome school ID




In front of the Basilica



The Basilica






The view from my window



My Hungarian breakfast. This Croissant thing is so yummy, it's called Keeflee, but I'm sure it's probably spelled like szkolzileefliazzbjz or something.

I am here!

Greetings from Budapest! It is so awesome to be here! After sitting in the airport for way tooooo long I finally boarded my plane for Heathrow, Wednesday night at 6:30. I was seated on the most gigantic plane I've ever been on... I'm talking monstrous, this thing was bigger than my house. Anyway, I sat next to this super old Irish man who was great. He kept talking to me the entire 9 hour flight, but I couldn't really understand anything he said so I would wait and see if he laughed, and then I would laugh, or I would nod, or occasionally say "What?!?!" and then we'd try to have a conversation. The plane we were on had tv screens on the back of the seats and he couldn't quite figure his out. He kept pushing my remote and changing my channels, but I didn't care because I had no sound from the headphones so I wasn't watching it anyway. About 2 hours into our flight he turned my tv on and said "would you like to watch a program?" I responded with "Well I would but I have no sound so I can watch it but I can't hear anything." To this he said, "Well just use your imagination" and we then watched figure skating for the next hour. Wahoo! hahah. The flight was pretty uneventful expect the British flight attendant fighting with this other British lady who didn't want to sit in coach even though that's where her ticket was, but I was entertained because it was like watching a British comedy. Anyway, from Heathrow I flew to Budapest, again not too eventful, thankfully. I got off the plane in Hungary and went to collect my luggage. I had heard stories of baggage being lost from numerous people so I luckily placed all of my important things (underwear, toothbrush, etc) in my carry-on, because when I got to baggage claim I only claimed half of my checked luggage. This really sucked. At first I thought it couldn't be really that my luggage was lost because there were literally 20 other people standing around the same kiosk thingy waiting for their bags..but no. Somehow we all had our baggage misplaced. This required going to a counter, getting papers, going to another counter, signing the papers, going to customs to have the papers stamped and then finally being able to go home without your bags. Awesome! haha. After this minor problema, I headed outside to meet up with my Hungarian mentor Viki. She's 24 and a law student at the same University I am attending. Viki picked me up, after waiting for an hour for me and we headed to Budapest. We met up with my landlord, or his girlfriend, or his business partner..I'm not sure who she is, but anyway she let me into the apartment and gave me the 411. This place is beautiful! Afterwards, Viki took me out to get money out of the ATM, buy some groceries and meet up with her boyfriend. We went to this mall that is possibly the biggest mall I've ever been in and got some sort of dinner that was chicken and potatoes and this corn with mayonnaise and a Fanta that was looked like Fanta but was a different color pop color and tasted different. We then took the Subway back and now I'm about to go bathe and pass out! All in all a great start!

Ahhh! I leave Wednesday

Oh Hello!
Welcome to my Blog. For those of you who are just getting caught up, I am about to embark on a 6 month trip to Budapest! I will be studying at Péter Pázmány Catholic University taking classes to cover mostly my European Studies minor. I leave Wednesday, fly to Heathrow in England, the proceed to Budapest, where I land and meet my mentor on Thursday! I am very excited! I am going to try and blog on a regular basis, so hopefully that will be one New Year's resolution I make and stick to.
Anyway, here are some interesting facts about Hungary to tie you over until I'm actually there to enlighten you myself:
* The official name of Hungary is ‘Hungarian Republic’.
* Hungary is situated in East-Central Europe and shares its borders with Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
* The official language of Hungary is Hungarian and its currency is Hungarian Forint - HUF.
* The main religion followed in Hungary is Roman Catholicism, followed by Calvinist, Lutheran and Greek Catholicism.
* Hungary follows republican form of government.
* The largest city in Hungary, Budapest, is also its capital and its cultural, economic and industrial center.
* Hungary is one of the oldest countries in Europe, founded way back in the year 896.
* Hungarian language is also known as Magyar and is the direct descendent of the language spoken by the Huns, who gave the country its name.
* Asian genes form only a tiny percentage of the Hungarian population.
* The Kingdom of Hungary was one of the largest states in Europe, around 1000 CE.
* Hungary was amongst the first communist-era countries that opposed the Soviet regime during the Cold War.
* The Hungarian Grand Prix of 1986 was the first Formula One race to take place behind the Iron Curtain.
* In 1989, Hungary became the first communist-block country to open its borders with Western Europe.
* The noiseless match, Rubik's cube, holography, ballpoint pen, theory of the hydrogen bomb, BASIC programming language and the krypton electric bulb were invented by Hungarians only.
* Hungary has one of the most important thermal spring cultures in the entire Europe. There are as many as 1,500 spas in the country, adorned with Roman, Greek and Turkish architecture. Hungary also boasts of 450 public baths.
* Numerous established composers, like Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Franz Liszt, belonged to Hungary.


Until next post, hugs and love,
Kailey