Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Long Awaited Travel Story.

Well, I've made it.
I've arrived to my beautiful house in the lovely village of Ostoros, Hungary, just outside the town of Eger. The trip was a long one (possibly the longest week of my life - of which I'm still recovering from) but I could not be more excited to be here!
Let's jump right into my journey. After a 5 hour car ride with my (natural) parents on Wednesday, we found ourselves at a hotel in New York, only ten minutes away from JFK airport. After a difficult goodbye, a short overnight orientation ensued. Although more than a little boring, I met many great people and made friendships I hope will last.
The next afternoon, at around 3 pm, myself and the 4 other Americans departing for Hungary, along with people going to places such as Belgium, arrived at the airport. Now, you could say I was more than a little nervous, as I had never been on a plane before this and only had the expectations of the horror stories I'd been told. However, we made it through baggage and security almost totally without incident, much to all of our relief.
Our flight to Munich, Germany, started boarding at 5:30 pm, and after that was when the troubles started. Before we left the ground, we were delayed for two hours! Everyone became irritated quickly, as we were not allowed to move around or do much of anything. I, not even having the attention span for a single movie, passed much of my time both in the ground and the air starting and stopping movies, listening to music, attempting to sleep, watching our flight, and playing games. It got a bit tedious towards the end, but somehow I survived the 8 hour flight.
The Munich airport came with much excitement. We only had to endure another hour of flying before we arrived in Budapest! After almost not making it through customs, the rest of our journey commenced without any issue.
AFS picked us up at the airport in Budapest, and with students from Germany, Malaysia, and Thailand, we rode a bus to our orientation camp, where we would stay for two days. Every student going to Hungary from all over the world was there, and it was amazing to meet so many different cultures in one place.
Now, the one stereotype I heard time and time again while at this camp was that all Americans know how to line dance and break dance. The five of us there could do neither. We COULD, however, dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe. So what, exactly, did we do for the cultural talent show we were forced to participate in? Show everyone how to dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe!
As Sunday came around, anticipation was high as this was the day we would finally meet our host families. We prepared a small paragraphs about ourselves to say in Hungarian and got a flower to give to them when we first met. My host father was the only one to pick me up from the camp, but he instantly assured me that everyone else was waiting at home for me!
This family...first of all, wow. I have four energetic siblings that definitely keep me entertained. They always try to speak to me in Hungarian (or Magyar, as they call it here) and even though I have no understanding of it, it warms my heart that they're so happy I'm here! I've been spending a lot of time exchanging the learning of a Hungarian word for the teaching of an English one, and it's a lot more fun then I thought it would be!
All in all, I have nothing but good things to say about the journey here. I've met a lot of new faces and already done things outside my comfort zone. If my trip was indicative of my year here, then my time will be a fun (and exhausting) experience!

6 comments:

  1. Enjoy! Looking to reading your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Too Cool Daughter! What an excellent way to share your adventure - and build your writing talent. Love You

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking forward to reading your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. stay bless! can't wait for more...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Embrace this experience and thanks for blogging about it. Have a. Ball!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Embrace this experience and thanks for blogging about it. Have a. Ball!!

    ReplyDelete