Commentary on Week #1

This first week has been full of surprises and adventures. My most honest feelings about Budapest? I LOVE IT! I was a bit homesick the first three days- not because I was not happy, but just from the shock of my move. Imagine 6pm on a Thursday being in Boston, master of the English language and the situation around me. A mere twelve hours later I am in an unfamiliar city, living with a new family, smack dab in the middle of a language I cannot even begin to understand. Not only is it extremely depressing to be in a situation where you cannot understand anything going on around you, but it is mentally taxing to try and understand and make the most basic conversation (for example, I am hungry, Can I have some water, I need to go to school now).

So how am I doing with the language, one week into this adventure? Surprisingly well, if I may say so myself. I arrived on a Friday and started intensive Hungarian language classes on Monday. We have class for 3 hours a day, and then I come home and talk with my host family for another 1-3 hours and also complete my homework. With five classes (15 hours of instruction) under my belt, I can somewhat follow conversations between my host parents- in other words, I can figure out the general topic of their conversation, but not all the details. I can also understand and respond to their basic questions- are you hungry, are you thirsty, how was school, do you have plans this afternoon, etc.

I remember back to my year abroad in Bolivia- I arrived in Cochabamba with more than a year of Spanish instruction under my belt, and yet could not understand nor communicate the simplest of concepts when I first arrived. The accent and vocabulary were so different from what I had studied, I think I was thrown for a loop. Surprisingly, in some ways my present situation of arriving with extremely basic knowledge has been more advantageous as far as my language learning progress is concerned.

There are 8 students in my Hungarian class- 4 Americans and 4 Germans. Everyone has studied a foreign language before- many are fluent in at least 2 languages- which makes things much easier. One of the Americans in my program is also a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and will be in my public policy program at the Central European University (CEU) as well. He is from Massachusetts and lived in Ecuador for a year so we have a lot in common. There is also a guy in our class from Dover, NH. When would you ever have guessed that I would admit that it is nice to be surrounded by fellow New Englanders!

I have gotten a lot of emails asking about Hungarian food. What is it like? Extremely varied. In my first week I have eaten everything from toast with Nutella to paprika chicken with the Hungarian equivalent of spaetzel (a kind of noodle dumpling). My host mom made an amazing garlic-eggplant spread that she served on toast with feta and cucumbers. I am convinced that the cucumber is the national vegetable, as they seem to serve it at every meal (yes, including breakfast). For some reason my host parents are concerned that I am going to fade away, so they are serving me insane quantities of food, which of course I am unable to eat. I know my mother is happy that they are taking care of me in that regard. All in all, no complaints about the food, though eating out (in a restaurant) is surprisingly expensive and you have to pay for condiments? They also will not give you free water in a restaurant. It is either carbonated or not and comes in a bottle. Also, for some reason the microwave continued to run this morning after I opened the door? Weird.

I have also gotten a number of emails asking for my address. I cannot comment on the Hungarian mail system, so if you do want to send me something it might be best to send a test piece of mail first, just to make sure I get it. The address is:

Erdős Kalman
Budapest 03
Kabar utca 11. 4. em 18 ajtó
1039
BUDAPEST HUNGARY
EUROPE

I also have a new cell phone number: 70 633 08 97. From the US: 011 36 70 633 08 97. Home phone number remains the same: 011 36 1 2453624.

Most importantly, I have posted some pictures on Shutterfly! You do NOT need to sign up for an account to view them. Just click on http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BcsWLVsxZsXFQ&notag=1.

I plan to lay low this weekend, maybe getting together with some friends tonight and trying out one of the international churches tomorrow. My host parents are away for the next 4 days so if anyone wants to meet on Skype or Messenger to chat this would be a great time.

Cheers!

PS I could not get the spellchecker to work, so I apologize for any spelling and typing mistakes. On a more positive note, I am doing much better with the keyboard and the y and z!