Party

Buli

Buli means party in Hungarian. I wanted to talk about buli today because today was my going away party for going to Hungary. It was great having this one last great big gathering of friends and family. We played Can Jam, Ultimate frisbee, and some Basketball. The food was great! And I was given a great cake! As we speak my party is still going on, for my parents and their friends haha. My dad's friend is playing guitar and they are having a great time! I think the feeling of leaving home has really set in, mostly because of my mother. It finally hit her today that I was leaving, and she was crying. I just want to say that I will miss you mom! And I love you very much :) Peace

btw: I will post pictures of the party tomorow!

Idő

Idő means time in Hungarian (and weather if you want to get technical). Lately I've been forgetting that the whole world isn't under the same time. Because the Earth is constantly rotating around the sun, the Earth gets sunlight differently in each place, and this causes a different time of day in every part of the world (if you are going across). For example, lets say it is noon (12.00) here. In Hungary it is 5:00 PM (17.00), in Australia where my friend Matt live it is 2:00 AM (2.00)  , in Brazil where my friend Ulle lives it is 1:00 PM (13.00), in Mexico where Qaren with a Q lives it is 11:00 AM (11.00), and in California where my dear friend Nicole lives it is 9:00 AM (9.00). So as you can see, all of these time zones seriously confuse me :/ When I get to Hungary it's going to be worse haha! When I'm in Hungary, for the first couple of weeks my body will still think I am in the USA. Therefore, all of my basic body instincts will be screwed up. So I just thought I would mention that! Peace out yo!

BTW : I'd like to thank Nicole personally for telling me what time it is in Aussie land :D Oh ya! And Follow and comment too! :)

Félelem

 Félelem means fear in Hungarian. Today I went to a place that me and my best friend go to all the time, Agre Falls. This place has a waterfall with flat rocks below that you can slide on. It is a very fun place to go, yet a very dangerous place to go. The main attractions for this place are:

• Jumping off the top of the falls
• Sliding down the rapids
• Jumping into very strong rapids
• Swimming
• Jumping into a waterfall that has a secret cove inside
• Throwing logs into the strong rapids to see how they float

As I'm doing all of these things only one thing comes to mind... félelem. The reason I think of fear in these situations is because in every case, if you go the wrong way..... YOU DIE. No re dos, no start overs, you're done. This stays in my mind in everything I do while I'm at the falls. I'm constantly scarred, but even though I am always scarred (especially if I start to slip) I keep moving and don't turn back. I learned once, that true courage is always in having fears that you over-come. As there is no courage if there's no fear.

Agre Falls

The reason this applies to exchange is that people fear many things about it. It's scary to leave home for a year in an unfamiliar environment living with people you don't know. Fear strikes the hearts of most exchange students when they first walk in the country and understand NONE of what the people around them are saying. But, even though we have fear we must treat the exchange like my time at Agre Falls. We must have courage and push through the fears and continue on, and in the end we will have all had SO MUCH FUN! Just thought I'd point that out. Peace out yo!

BTW: I just got a twitter today, so follow if you have one. and do all the commenting stuff and following stuff you normally do. :)

Szörnyű

Szörnyű in english can mean many things :

• Terrible
• Horrible
• Awful
• Dreadful
• Dire
• Monstrous
• Deadly
• Terrific
• Gruesome
• Grisly
• Tremendous
• Dismal

All of these words are very similar in nature (they basically all mean NOT GOOD).

My reason for this word as my post is that today I had one of the worst experiences in my life! I started off the day having a great time! I got up and went to the gym like everyday this summer, and I was planning to go to the fair with some friends. I called my one friend who said he wouldnt be able to go untill later because he went to go berry picking with his family. He then asked me if I wanted to go berry picking. I had never been berry picking before so I said "Why not?" I expected it to be like the normal berry picking fields I drive by every now and then, but NO. We followed this witch lady (she realy was a witch! She went to Africa to study it and everything) into a bog (sort of a forest-swamp) and picked blue barries. The problem with bogs is that there are bugs EVERYWHERE! I would stop and there would be bugs swarming me with some sort of tactical stricking force and they would hide in my hair, bite me, the worst things you could imagine. Not to mention that bogs are very muggy and hot. I was sweating like a pig, and that just made MORE bugs come. After walking over two miles in the woods we FINALY got out, with our bodies riddled with bites.

You may ask "What does this have to do with your exchange?" Well I didn't think so either, but when telling this story, my GREAT friend Ulle reminded me of something. She told me that when you are on exchange you will be asked to do MANY things, and a lot of them you might think are Szörnyű. But, I am an exchange student, and I can't just go do something and then come screaming out of the woods, half naked, with a towel over my head, and the word "CAR!!!!" echoing meters behind me (which is coincidentally what I did with the berry picking ordeal, except the half naked thing.... that was when I got in the car.) You have to politely accept and thank, regardless of how you felt about what you were invited to do. These people are going out on a huge limb if they ever invite you, they dont know you THAT well, your most likely doing it with their family, and they have to go through the trouble of getting you there and back safely. And also being a good exchange student, you should accept any invite you might get, no matter how unappealing it might sound. Thank you Ulle for such a GREAT idea for my blog and for reminding me about this important fact of being a good exchange student! Peace out yo!

Beszél

 Beszél is a verb that means speak in hungarian. Hungarian verbs have a few differences than in English verbs.

• Beszél can be conjugated to determine who is expressing the action.

          I speak - Beszélek               We speak - Beszélünk
          You speak - Beszélsz          Ya'll speak - Beszéltek
          He/She speak - Beszél         They speak - Beszélnek

• The present tense form of a transitive verb (verb that takes an object) can be conjugated in two different ways.

                   Definite - Refering to a specific object ("the" apple)
              Indefinite - Refering to a more general object ("an" apple)

Speaking is essential to this exchange. If I don't talk, I will never be able to succesfully assimilate into the culture. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and be willing to give and take information that is very tedious and many times stressfull. One of the things that the Rotary has asked us exchange students to do in order to prepare for the exchange year is talk to strangers. This breaks the GOLDEN RULE that all parents tell us to do since we were very little. But, when you are an exchange student, at first EVERYBODY is a stranger! You have never seen anyone there in person most likely, and what makes it worse is that at most times you will bearly be able to understand them. So that is why they ask us to speak with strangers, as we have to be ready for it when we go on exchange.
Today I had a random experience with talking with a stranger. I was just sitting on my couch, minding my own business when I get a text message from an unfamiliar number. It was a girl who thought she was one of my friends, turns out she had the wrong number. I politely told her that I couldn't be the person she wanted to speak to and that I am sorry about the confusion. Well she apoligized right back and said that she usually is treated rudely by people when she has the wrong number. I'm glad I made a good impression, as rude is not usually in my nature. I also mentioned that the reason I am so chatty was that I was going overseas (she thought I ment the military lol). I was safe in the whole instance of talking with her as I did not reveal serious information that could give away my identity (for safety purposes only). But the point I am trying to make is that if you are calm and polite when talking with new faces, you will most ALWAYS make a new friend! And if I were to take my experiences here and apply them to my trip, I think I should not have a problem making friends! Peace out yo!

BTW: I would apprieciate it if you comment (check to make sure if your comment goes through too) and follow. If you do not have an account to follow with, then just make one and then follow! I should be posting every day untill I leave!

Nyelv

Nyelv means language in Hungarian and it is very crucial to understand the meaning of this word when you are becoming an exchange student. Unless you are traveling to a country that speaks your same language, you are most likely are going to need to understand and even speak the language of your host country (The country you're going to). In the case of my host county I need to learn Hungarian, and from what I can see so far, it's going to be a BIG challenge. Lucky for me I like a challenge though! But, I am trying to bite the bullet and get ahead by teaching myself early. These are just some of the few ways I am trying to learn:

• I have a book that my Spanish teacher gave me. She said that she always thought I would do something like this from the moment I first stepped in her class (I was trying to teach myself Japanese, it didn't work to well... But, I only had a dictionary haha).

• I changed my facebook language to Hungarian.

     
          

• I review the words I have learned by making myself a quiz using this program.

                                            

• I try using words daily in conversations with people (even though they don't know what the heck I'm saying)
• My ipod is in Hungarian (great way from keeping your friends from using your ipod btw)

Anyways, one of my goals in life is to learn at least 5 languages (I really want to learn them all). I believe if you can communicate with someone you can connect with them and understand them. Then, maybe I can help everybody else understand each other.


In a little lesson of Hungarian, if you wish to express the language of a certain nationality you add the ending -ul or -ül (depends on the word). So for example, if you want to talk about the Hungarian language you refer to it as magyarul.


On this exchange I will also hear many other languages spoken that I will not understand, as there will be multiple students from different countries attending the exchange. Fortunately for me, most of them know enough English for me to understand them. I wish I could do the same for them, but sadly in my opinion, the United States doesn't put much effort in teaching their students foreign languages. This is primarily because we don't start the language learning process early enough.


Just for fun, here is a list of language I have heard so far:

• English Angolul (This is obvious.)
• Spanish Spanyolul (The first time I heard Spanish was in my local Walmart while I was involuntarily eaves dropping on two ladies speaking Spanish)
• French Franciaul (I took a French class for a half a year of school)
• German Németül (Pretty much any WWII movie ever made has some German in it)
• Bosnian Bosnyákul (There are MANY Bosnian immigrants in my area)
• Chinese Kínaiül (I have a Chinese friend from the coast of China)
• Portuguese Portugálul (This year was the first time I heard Portuguese. It was from a new friend named Mark who was a dual citizen between the USA and Brazil)

Kedvenc

Kedvenc in english means favorite, and I have many favorite things in my life. To give you a better understanding on who I am, here are a few of my favorite things:

• My favorite color is GREEN
• My favorite food is Chinese food (I have no Idea why)
• My favorite ice-cream is mint chocolate-chip:

      

• My favorite day is saturday
• My favorite animal is a dog
• My favorite dog is a springer spaniel:

      

• My favorite season is winter:

     

• My favorite movie is Fight Club:

         

• My favorite sport is basketball:

          

• My favorite drink is Peach Iced Tea

     

• (At the request of my friend Ulle) My favorite kind of cooked egg is over easy:

      

• My favorite school class is Chemistry
• My favorite holiday is Christmas:

     

• My favorite actor is Brad Pitt (Who can deny it? He's a great actor)

       

If you want to know some more of my favorites, just comment. Otherwise, Peace out yo!

BTW: Commenting and following is the way to go for this blog