Today sucked. It was Hungarian Labor Day, so there was a big market in the park near school. The dance group performed. Basically,there were lots of happy people all over. So I should have been happy, right? Instead I was really miserable most of the day. I felt like I wanted something I couldn't even name, let alone have. I don't want to go home, that's for sure. I have only two months left. This sucks. The afternoon was better, though. Nadia and I went to Miskolc and saw "Miss Congeniality," which was very funny.
Wed. 5/2
I slept in a bit today. This meant I had to lock the door. Somehow this is impossible for me. I stood there fiddling with it for 15 or 20 minutes. I finally had to go to school, ask Eszter for help, run back and lock the door, and then come back to school. Bu the day was good. We talked about Italy a lot.
Nadia and I went over to Olga's today, to find hotels for her parents to stay at when they come. I used the 'Net for a while, too, which drowned out the disquiet I've been feeling. But then I went home and my host father freaked out because I hadn't eaten breakfast. Of course this means I must be having a problem or not like the food or something. I think he understood eventually, though.
Thurs. 5/3
I returned my ski stuff today, which was amusing. It is really warm - has been for a long while now, and there hasn't been snow for months. So it looked really funny me carrying a bunch of ski equipment up the hill (which is where the man I rented them from lives). Nandi Bacsi ("Uncle Nandi" - a warm-hearted nickname) even remembered my name, which was cool.
I watched some TV with my host father. It was OK - history of Hungary. But it got boring after a while, as it was just a televised lecture. So I went to bed.
Fri. 5/4
Friday's come at last. Darago called the 3 of us to the office, but I was the only one in school at the time. He asked where Pete was, and I said I didn't know and that he hadn't come for 3 months or more. Darago was mad, and said he'd send Pete home - he went so far as to call Pete's house and host mother's workplace. I don't think Pete'll get sent home, but maybe something will finally happen with him. Apparently, he's back from Amsterdam with a friend of his - he got back when I was in Italy - but we haven't met.
Anyway, I ran into Nadia while I was walking after school. There was a little fair set up in the main square, and then a group of guys re-enacted Mediaeval knightly combat. The complete lack of organization was reconciled by the fact that I got to watch guys in armor play with swords and battle-axes. At one point, dark clouds appeared on the horizon and I heard a little thunder, but no storm came. Nadia and I walked for a little bit afterward, and as we were going to her house, we ran into Laci. He was going to Miskolc to pick up Mariann, so we went with him. Mariann was surprised.
Just one bad thing happened today. The equivalent of my homeroom teacher (osztalyfonok in Hungarian) asked me if I wanted to go on the class trip. Of course I did, and said so. But even though I answered him in good Hungarian, he called a friend of mine over to translate. It was really insulting to me, though Mariann assured me later that he didn't mean anything by it. Whatever.
Sat. 5/5
Today was intersting. I went swimming with my family. It was pretty nice - there were 2 pools to swim in: one was normal (cold) water, the other was apparently natural thermal water. I hung out in the thermal pool. The biggest downside was that nearly all the guys wore Speedo-type swimsuits. These should be outlawed, especially for old, fat guys and little children.
In the evening I went to the Greek Catholic church ot listen to a classical music concert. The music was really fantastic - there was one violin soloist who was simply incredible. Mariann and I walked Nadia home, then came back. When I got back, my host family had an outdoor fire going. There are very few things I like more than a good fire going. They had peices of hotdog, bacon, and onion on skewers, so we had a BBQ.
Sun. 5/6
I woke up early today - seven o'clock - beacuse we left from Nadia's house at eight. The man and woman who took us - the Szabo Levente family - were really nice. We stopped in a couple of different villages, and I bought a really nice, handcarved chess set in one of them - Hortobagy. Eventually we got to Bp. They visited their son for an hour while Nadia and I walked around. At 7, "Cats" began. It was all in Hungarian, unfortunately. Musicals - especially operas - should not be translated. But of course one does what sells the most tickets.
After that, I took leave of them, as I'm staying here to meet some family friends tomorrow. Unfortunately, Viki (exchange student to WI some years ago) gave me a bad phone number, so we didn't meet. Consequently, I'm going to spend the night walking in Bp. The "adventure" has already started - just after I left them, it started pouring down. Its so warm that the rain was actually comfortable, so it was really quite nice. It is now almost midnight, and I'm sitting in my favorite 24/7 palacsinta (pancake) restaurant, writing. I love Europe!
Mon. 5/7
I walked around till just one last night - it was gorgeous. I wasn't tired, but I ran into a well-located, reasonably cheap hostel, so I checked in there. The guy who checked me in was pretty cool - he spoke good English, but because I spoke Hungarian with him, he reciprocated. But every time he'd start to say something, he began in English, and then laugh and say it in Hungarian - he was just that used to speaking English with people who were obviously from the States. Anyway, I woke up about 8.30, ate the free breakfast, and went walking. Eventually, I went up to the Citadella. I decided to stay in the cheap student hostel side, which is good enough. It is tourist season now, and prices on both sides have gone up... and I've become very cheap living in Hungary.
I had bought 3 tickets to the philarmonic concert at the Opera house, but it turned out that we couldn't do that because we went to dinner with the group about 7.30 - the same time the concert started. Miklos couldn't use them, so I called up the Szabo family. They accepted, so I went over to drop them off. However, Mrs. Szabo wanted to pay me for the tickets. This wasn't what I'd wanted, and I knew it was rather out of their price range, so I replaced the money when she wasn't looking. Unfortunately, they kept me really late, so I was about half an hour late meeting the Hildebrands in the Hilton. It ended up being a good thing I gave the tickets away - they'll be seeing it later, anyway.
The dinner was great. I was talked into giving a quick talk about my experience. There were four tables, and every course I changed tables, because everyone wanted to talk with me - I seemed to be rather a hit. There were a lot of interesting people there, which was really nice.
Ha - just now one of my roommates came in. Without thinking, I greeted him in Hungarian. I've been switching languages a lot - just the other day, Nadia and I were talking about Bp., and I said, "Its a very szep (beautiful) city." I only see this as a good thing.
Sat. 5/12
Today was good, for the most part. This morning was Eszter's graduation ceremony. The school was all decorated with flowers, etc. Only halfway through the outdoor ceremony, it began to rain. Of course. Anyway, afterward we came home and had a big lunch.
My host parents and I walked Bobo after that, and then had some dinner, and I lost a game of chess (with my new set, no less).
I'm depressed tonight. Leaving is now just a kind of dull ache for me now. I'm going to miss everbody so much! And even if I do meet them again, everything will be so different.
Mon. 5/14
Today was a roller-coaster. I was almost late for the train to go on the class trip. Somebody brought a speaker, so we hooked it up to my discman. All was well and good until the very end, when the discman was knowcked off the seat and broken. Freakin' pissed off about that, but I can't show it. Then we got to Gyor and started lookig for the hostel we're staying in - of course we walked way farther than necessary. But there are some really beautiful churches, so OK. We ended up having a party in our room till one.
Tues. 5/15
We caught a bus to Sopron today. I love that city. We also stopped at a princes' palace where Haydn lived and wrote for a while. Then we came back to Gyor.
There is a little mall nearby where we've been hanging out every night. It's good fun - we play pool. The party was in our room again, but this time we managed to smuggle drinks in.
Wed. 5/16
Stupid host father! He decided after I got back tonight that he was going to play by the rules. So he told me that before I went anywhere, he had to talk to Darago, and that I need a formal letter from my parents. Darn it all - if this screws things up, I'm going to be so mad.
On the good side, though, I bought a really cool magazine in Hungarian. Its all about comunism. The only catch is that its all written by foreigners - not Hungarians. But that's still OK.
Fri. 5/18
Today was great, until the end. I had learned both of the poems my teacher asked me to, and was going to recite them today. But then Darago called us to the office, so I had to skip that class. I guess that's OK, but I would have liked to get it off my back.
After school I went to Tomy's house. We ate lunch at his grandma's - she's really sweet - and then went to his house. We played computer games until I suddenly realized that it was 9.15. I called home and could tell my host mom was worried, so I left right away. It was just starting to thunder outside, and started to rain pretty soon, as well. If I'd been free, I'd have stayed out, because it was still very muggy and warm.
Anyway, I got home and was promptly chewed out by my host father. He had a valid gripe - I hadn't told them where I was going to be. Then he told me that he'd send me home if I did it again. Well gee, I'm going home so soon,what difference would it really make? Stupid jerk. It seems like no matter what I do - especially when I wake up "late" or go anywhere - is a huge problem, only they don't say anything in order not to offend me or something. I feel like I'm in the kind of family I feared - they only have me because the have to, and I'm only here because I have to be.
So after that, I had to tell them that tomorrow I'm going to Debrecen for the language contest. That was uncomfortable, but it worked out with no problems.
Sat. 5/19
I woke up early this morning, and we left for Debrecen from school about 7.45. The competition started about 11.45. First was a really easy written test - stuff we'd learned in the first month. After lunch I talked to someone from the radio. I managed to sound intelligent, and the woman seemed impressed. Then we had to talk to the 3 judges. Then we had to do skits, followed by more speaking - in front of the group this time. I told the story of how when Nadia, Mariann, and I were walking at night once, some dogs started barking. I told them "hajatok meg" ("die" - and this is the wrong way to say it, anyway, which I knew... but it came out wrong). I didn't know that there are 2 forms of this verb - one for people, one for everthing else. Of course, the form I used is for people. So it ended up being funny - much funnier at the time. One of the judges burst out laughing. The last part of the competition was reciting a song or poem. In the end, I won! That was a big ego boost. And to make it better, Nadia came in second. Peter was in the top ten, too, but was really deflated. He'd been bragging all week how sure he was that he'd win.
Then there was a walking tour. Nadia and I ditched to go see a movie. Afterwards, we had cake and cappucino at a little outdoor stand. We decided we wanted wine, and started walking around looking for it. We didn't find that, but we did find the theatre. There was a show going on inside - we tried to buy late tickets, but couldn't. So we walked in to talk to the ushers, who ended up letting us go in for free and watch for 20 minutes before we came out. We were a little lost, so we asked a guy how to get back to where we were all staying, and he ended up giving us a ride in his car, which was also really nice.
When we got back, some people wanted to go to some kind of disco/bar. At first it seemed like a gay bar - I really disliked the looks I was getting from some of the guys - but apparently it wasn't. We ended up meeting some Hungarian guys one of them knew, so we stayed till 3.30 or so. It was really a bit boring... and some of the male patrons kept giving me looks.
Wed. 5/23
Today was pretty nice. One of the Rotary guys is the chief of the fire department, and asked us to come for a tour today. Its strange how interested Rotary is in us now - they completely ignored us for the first three-quarters of the year. Anyway, the fire station was nice - it was fun to climb on the fire trucks and stuff. I remember that when I was really young I loved going to the fire station. Pete left early, but Nadia and I were given porcelain statues of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.
Sat. 5/26
Today was the "Famiy Day" celebration. It was pretty fun, actually. I met Nadia in the afternoon and we walked down to the park by school where it was held. Kozmix did a half-hour show, then we walked for a bit. We ran into Pete and went for drinks and a couple games of pool - Pete's really good. We went back in time for another band to start playing - they parodied some songs... it got a bit long. I walked Nadia home, and some jerk in a car seemed to be following us. Also, it was really cold, and I was only in shorts. As I walked back home, they shot off fireworks, which was pretty cool.
Mon. 5/28
Today was pretty good. The Italians came about six. They got moved into their respective host houses, and then we met later in the evening. We walked around for awhile, eventually settling in the new coffee house/pool hall. As in Italy, I hung out with the Hungarians all night.
The walk home was really sad. I realized I only have 5 and a half weeks left in Europe, and only 3 and a half in Hungary. That SUCKS! It is just not enough time. People keep saying, "You should stay if you want," and "Oh - come live with me," and things. That hurts just as much, because I want to and CAN'T. I just can't quite come to grips with the fact that I'm going home again so soon and will probably never see these people again. I hate it - this is a hundred times worse than leaving the States... even if I do come back here, nothing will be the same. Nothing. Maybe that's what sucks the most, or maybe it's just that I don't know if, much less when I will come back.
Tues. 5/19
Today was long. I slept in this morning, so I skipped first hour. After third hour, Nadia and I went on a walking tour of the town with the Italians - she was friends with them all by the end. We had a surprisingly good lunch in school - Darago even gave Nadia and me some good wine (tasted like Aszu). Only I was in such a bad mood from last night that I only pecked at the food - I really didn't eat anything.
After that we went to Patak. We saw the big school, then went for icecream. Just as everybody finished buying everything, it started to rain really heavily and hail. I got pretty wet, because I was just barely under an awning, and the rain was coming in at an angle because of the wind. Then we went to the castle. There was a big puddle outside of it, so while we were waiting, and since I was already wet anyway, I splashed in it. That was the high point of the day, I'd say.
I ate some dinner at home, and then we all met in the Henriette. For some reason, Pete came too. Even the Hungarians were confused about that. There was a meeting room all prepared for us - Nadia's host father owns the place, and his daughter Ildiko has an Italian girl staying with her. We hung out for a long time, and then everybody split up to go home. A few of us went to the main square and hung out for a while before going home.
Wed. 5/30
What a long day. I woke up at 8 AM, realized that that was when the Italians were supposed to leave for their tour of the area, and literally ran to school. Running is something I try really hard to not do. I just barely got there in time. So I was the translator for the day, which was actually very nice and not at all difficult. Though I was a bit disappointed in the Italians themselves. They seemed like they weren't very interested in anything, and didn't try too hard to be polite about it.
I ate dinner with Tomy - he felt sorry for me that no Italians were staying with me. After that, we went to the disco in Patak, which was OK for a while, but got pretty boring. I guess I'm still depressed. We ended up having to rent a bus to leave at 3 AM.
When I got home, I decided that four hours wasn't enough time to sleep, so I took out my contact lenses for a few hours and climbed the Magas Hegy. I wanted to see the sunrise, but as the sky was already pink when I started climbing, the sun beat me. But only by a little bit. I didn't go all the way to the top, but sat at the bufe (which is most of the way up, anyway) for a long time. It was really beautiful.
Thurs. 5/31
Today was OK. After school we all went to a place called Karsca. It is kind of a summer resort - the school owns a large-ish house there. It is on a pond - really a picturesque setting. We made a bonfire and roasted hot dogs, and had gulyas, both of which were very good. But then it started raining, so we had to go inside.