Sziaztok Budapestbòl! (A gramatically incorrect hello from Budapest!)

SZIAZTOK!! I'm in Budapest!

I got in to BUD about 12:30 yesterday afternoon and was met by Noamy (please excuse my awful Hungarian spelling!) and my flat-mate, Sarah, a Junior from Harvey Mudd. I was disappointed at first, since I thought that because I had a flat-mate, the two of us just had a flat together, not the host-family I'd requested. This disappointment was silly! Turns out the two of us are living in a beautiful flat in the Castle District in Pest (District I, very schmancy!). We live with a host-mother who has hosted girls from our program for several years now. Her name is Éva and she's a little older than my mama. She has two older daughters, who we have yet to meet, and two grandsons. Since her daughters are out of town at the moment (until Tuesday) she brought in one of their friends, Esther, to translate for her. She speaks very little English (but she understands more than she can speak), which is perfect, since one of the things I was really looking forward to on this trip was learning Hungarian, and so far I'm already picking things up from communicating with Éva.

I was so sleep deprived and jet-lagged by the time I got to bed last night (at 20:30 local time) that I slept until 11:30. 13 HOURS. That is ridiculous. I set some kind of record for myself.

When I finally got up I was met by Sarah, who'd been up since 8-ish. Éva had left breakfast for us: butter, cheese and a salami type meat on bread. We hung around the flat for a few hours, talking and figuring out how to compose a note to Éva (who wasn't home) to tell her we were exploring Budapest and would be back by 18:00.

We left around 2 and walked down to the Metro stop by our house, which is about a 20 minute walk from our house. We also could have taken the 16 bus down to Deák square, but we felt like doing more exploring, since the 16 bus stops right across the street from our flat. We took the metro to Deák square, which seems to be the tourist central of Budapest. Most of the signs were in Hungarian and English, there were McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway, and so many damn touristy booths. It was sort of disgusting.

The Red Line Metro after Deák square is closed until the 19th for construction, so we took the M2 bus (which is replacing the Red Line while it's under construction) to Keleti square, and walked from there to College International at Bethlen Gabor tér. There were locked gates all around the school and we couldn't figure out how to get in, so we decided it was about time we headed back home. On our way home we stopped at a huge grocery store to poke around and see what was available. The building is two stories and in the second story there are several smaller shops and a druggery. I've decided I would rather not spend much money here until I understand the exact value of a forint. (I paid 200 Ft for a bottle of Coke today, which is about $1.05... but that was in Deák square, so they probably charged more than other places would).

When we got back to our flat, Éva was home and cooking dinner. While we had been out all day she had gone to her garden, which is in district III, and picked peaches, apples, plums and grapes. She explained to us, while speaking slowly and using lots of gestures, that when her husband was alive, he would bring her roses when he came back from the garden. She made us ham and mushroom pizza for dinner.

After dinner Sarah and I walked down to the Internet Cafe which is just down the hill from our flat. It's an "American Coffeeshop" where you can get American style drinks and free wireless. Very awesome and handy! I've gotten a decaf Americano two nights in a row, just because I miss the taste of coffee. But I do believe now is a good time to temporarily wean myself off caffeine, what with my schedule so messed up. I got a caffeine headache around 18:00 tonight, which is about when I'd be drinking my morning coffee in Portland (9:00 am).

This weekend is a holiday weekend (St. Stephen's day is on Monday, the 20th) and then the language class starts on Tuesday. It sounds like some other people from our program want to meet up on the weekend sometime, plus there is lots of exploring to do... this should be a good weekend! There will be lots of pictures and stories soon, I am sure of it!

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