What's up, Romania?

Going to Romania this weekend with my friend, Eve.

On Friday, I will have been here officially for one whole month!

Side note: I drink about 2 liters a day! That's half a gallon of water! Which equals to 64 ounces of water which is exactly 8 glasses of water a day. Wow, that's disappointing. I thought I was drinking a lot more. Did you see my excitement fade the more I typed? Man.

Edit! Whoa, just kidding. I drink way more than just 8 glasses of water a day. I have at least 6 cups of hot tea a day too! (that's .3 liters which is 10 oz)! Yay! I knew I was drinking a lot more than just the recommended amount.
















stay thirsty, my friends.

Americano

My class schedule. Lovin' it.

Here's the song I'm listening to that's shown at the bottom of the picture.

For some reason I think that since I'm in another country that caloric content 1) doesn't not exist and 2) has no impact on me. What an assumption!

The life to live...

I have not worn mascara in almost a month so I feel like I might bust it out today. It's so odd but I've almost been in Hungary for a solid month...

Got my classes figured out. My visa is getting worked out.

Otherwise, just loving life here in Hungary.

Weekend Trip around Hungary

I'm home from my weekend away. I had planned on going to Prague, but since it was raining I packed up some basics and went on a very spontaneous roadtrip with my friend, Balint.

All photos are unedited.

It's raining in Prague so I'm taking my ticket to Budapest and going somewhere in Hungary with it. Next weekend-- Romania. Unless it's raining there too.

Be back Sunday night or Monday morning! Szia

Update

The picture on the left is Hungary. Photo credit goes to Balint Vargha. The picture on the right is Dubrovnik, Croatia


I'm so sorry that I've been doing such a horrible job updating!
Hungary is GORGEOUS.
Croatia was magical.


My roommate is great, my suite mates are fantastic, my boyfriend is working hard at his job but we're doing great too...I'm really excited for my parents to come here and to travel to Austria with John.

Never enough traveling

Just got back from Croatia on Monday.
Thinking about going to Prague this weekend

The lake!!

what's better than a 3 day weekend? a 4 day weekend, EVERY WEEKEND. Love my class schedule, love Pécs, & I'm off to Lake Balaton till Sunday!

What culture shock?

I felt a lot better about my frustrations after I met up with Luca and Eszter and we went on a walk. I figured out where an actual train station is (!!!) and then I found out that I am going back there tomorrow to figure out their schedule. So that was nice. And the more important thing is that I found out what's going on at night. The international club is putting on some events, traveling a bit to Hungary, and then Eszter and Luca told me about Hungarian dancing that goes on Wednesdays. I'm willing (more than willing) to try out Hungarian dancing. Sounds like fun. I'm also going to look into Hungarian language night classes. We shall see.

A walk was what I needed. I feel like I have shin splints, but it's probably just my body getting used to the crazy amount of walking that I have been doing. Nothing is normal in my schedule. I talk to Ben, I go back to sleep, wake up and don't even realize that I was asleep. I eat fruit for breakfast, yougurt and fruit for lunch, and fruit and some meats for dinner. Very light in comparison to what I have in the United States.

My two other roommates are both from Norway. They are very pretty and they are best friends, so I don't see them all that much. However, they have both invested a lot of time and money into making their small room quite fashionable and cozy. It makes me laugh because my roommate, Franzi, and I do not care about that so much. Our room looks really pathetic in comparison (haha) but we both think it's silly to invest so much money into something that we're only staying in for a few months and then we have to leave all of our stuff behind. I don't know what the two girls are planning on doing with all of their stuff, but kudos to them for investing all the money. I'd love to make my room cozy, but eh, it's not on my priority list.

Anyway, that's life, and it's good. Pecs is beautiful and I'm really settling into the idea of always being here, even though I know I won't be.

Interesting

Pécs really is a romantic kind of city. It's a small, quaint city, but it is filled to the brim with couples. Luca, my mentor, told me the other day that a person is thought to be a loser if they don't have a boyfriend. I thought that was a bit odd. Not to compare, but in America it's expected for young people to be single. I was single for two years after my break up and I loved it. I never thought that people thought of me as a loser, and hell, I was having a lot of fun so I wouldn't have cared if they did. While I was walking aimlessly through Pécs tonight at about 8:30 I saw couples galore. Everywhere. All ages. & I kinda felt left out. I'm a very independent person so I wasn't sure if I was going through a bit of culture shock, or if I was just missing Ben, but I felt odd. It was rare to see a person without her/his significant other. I think my parents will enjoy this city at night though. It's a very sweet idea to go on a leisurely walk with your significant other through the paved streets of Pécs.

I was thinking about it on my walk and as far as culture shock goes, I don't think I've gone through much of it. I've done a lot of research on it (a senior capstone, to be exact!) and I can fairly well pinpoint what stages a person is going through. I'm probably in the honeymoon stage still, but there isn't a whole lot to be shocked about. Hungarian's focus on the family. They focus on school. They like sports. I was really shocked when Luca told me that she was going to take ELEVEN classes in addition to evening chorus and practice for her sports. In Hungary, students have to take 30 credit hours per semester, not like U.S. students who have to take 30 credit hours per year. She makes my 4 classes look like a tiny dot on a paper.


Something that I will always wish I had done: minored in Linguistics. Sadly our school does not offer it, but I do love it so much...

My love for Hungary continued:

-I walk everywhere. I firmly believe that I have walked more just in the 3 days that I have been here then in the three years that I was at GCSU. That's what I get for living on campus at Bell Hall, haha
-The food! I forgot to mention how amazing authentic Hungarian dishes are. So good.
-The cute little shops all around the place. I went into a bead shop today and it was so quaint.
-The random streams of water through out the city.

more later.

Things I love in Hungary

1) The old buildings.
2) The fact that I can walk almost anywhere.
3) None of the Hungarian men are more attractive than my sexy boyfriend. (trust me, I've looked ;) )
4) Everything is so cheap! I want to go on a shopping spree all the dang time.
5) There are pianos placed randomly throughout Pecs. Why? It's a music festival and they want people who are walking around the city to stop and play a random tune. I played the Can-Can and Mary Had A Little Lamb. Classics, of course.
6) The gelato stands at every single corner. It's so popular!
7) My mentor. THANK GOD FOR HER. She feeds me, helps me with classes, and went shopping with me for a cell phone today. Her family has really taken me in. They have given me dinner for the past two nights, and her dad (who is a realtor of sorts) is helping me to find an inexpensive flat.
8) the beauty. Hungary is absolutely gorgeous. Stunning. Walking through the city is relaxing and energizing at the same time. It's a completely different energy than New York, but I think of New York as an energy drink but Pecs as a relaxing spa. It's a really beautiful, old city. I could easily fall in love with it.



Nothing quite like getting a ton of fruit, some alcohol, 6 TWO LITERS of water, and some yogurt for only 11 USD. To talk about the water for a second...okay. It's a 2 liter bottle of water and it is 49 Hungarian Forints which equals out to 0.22 USD. 22 cents! For 2 liters of water! Also, the fruit? The peaches cost 229 Hungarian Forints which equals out to $1.03. I love fruit

Here

I'm really tired.
And I'm scared to plug my laptop into the wall outlet.

Getting to Hungary was such a *&#ing hassle. I don't even want to type it out because it makes me so mad.

Good news: My college town has a great nightlife, apparently.
Bad news: I don't have a kitchen. Or a microwave.
Good news: I ate the airline food so I'll figure it all out tomorrow, eventually.