Euro Tour

What an incredible 10 days! I had high expectations when all 33 of us crowded onto the bus at 6 am on Tuesday, but I never thought it would surpass those expectations. Tour was incredible. We visited 9 cities in 6 different countries in 10 days.

The first day, we visited a cave in Slovenia. No one was particularly excited about it, but the cave turned out to be gorgeous. We rode in a mini roller coaster through the caves and listened to the tour guide after we stopped to walk around.

That night, we drove to a small city outside of Venice and spent our first night in a hostel there. We ate pasta in Italy and failed to get any sleep because we were all so excited for the next day.

In the morning, we hopped on a train and traveled to the isolated city of Venice. We had a guided tour for a few hours and then we had a few hours of free time to shop and explore. We tried the gelato and went shopping before taking a gondola ride through the watery streets. 

The best part had to be the view from the tower in the city center.

We spent the night in the hostel near Venice before heading over to Florence in the morning. Florence was the exact opposite of the small, twisty streets of Venice. Florence was wide open and felt more comfortable to me. We saw Cross Church, where the bodies of Galileo, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo are held in our guided tour. In our free time, we found an amazing library by accident and while we never actually made it to our original destination, it was still totally worth it.

We spent the night in a hostel in Florence and woke up early to go to Rome in the morning. We arrived around midday and visited the Vatican. We didn’t have a guide, so we could do anything we wanted. I climbed to the top of the Basilica because one of the Rotary guides recommended it and said the line was shorter than normal.

We stayed in a hostel on the outskirts of Rome and went straight to the Colosseum the next morning. We had a casual guided tour of the Colosseum and the Pantheon and then we had a lot of free time. I didn’t love Rome, The city felt like a bigger, dirtier version of Florence and while the ancient sights were incredible, the city itself didn’t impress me.

We stayed a second night in Rome and drove to Pisa the next morning. Our guided tour was short and to the point. I really liked the Square of Miracles, where the tower is, and I took some of my best pictures there. Pisa also surprised us with a huge flower market.

We slept in a hostel in Pisa and prepared for the long drive to Monaco in the morning. The drive to Monaco was beautiful. There were beach towns every few kilometers, but we all gasped when we saw Monte Carlo.

We had time to do whatever we wanted and some people went to find the casino. I took pictures of part of the Formula 1 racetrack, then spent most of my time at a small hidden beach. I missed the beach so much. I missed the ocean and the sound of the waves. We hung out and joked that we were the poorest people in Monaco.

We didn’t sleep in Monaco, instead we drove to Nice, in the south of France to spend the night. A lot of people decided to go swimming that evening, but I know the water would be crazy cold.

The next day, we could do whatever we wanted. We could take a bus back to Monte Carlo or to Cannes, or to other, smaller cities, or we could explore Nice. I hung out with my Japanese friend and we explored as much of Nice as was humanly possible. We went into every store that looked interesting and explored the twisty streets of the old town. We spent hours at the beach. Nice was easy to explore. I liked the way it felt to walk around and I felt like I could live there.

We spent a second night in Nice and drove to Luzern, Switzerland in the morning. The drive was long and we didn't get much time in Luzern. People bought Swiss chocolate and Swiss army knives. I couldn’t believe that you could walk down the street and see the gorgeous mountains at the same time.

We slept in Luzern and made the short drive to Innsbruck, Austria the next day. We went straight to the 4-star hotel, which was owned by a Rotarian. We were allowed to explore the city until 10 at night. Innsbruck was really fun to explore because it was so different from all the Italian cities we’d seen.

We spent one night in the hotel and woke up early the next day to make the long journey back to Budapest. We were on the bus for 10 hours that day, only making short technical stops at gas stations. We were all glad to be back in Hungary. All tour, we’d been saying “thanks” and “sorry” in Hungarian because we are so used to it by now. It was so frustrating to have this language that we couldn’t use. It was refreshing to be speaking Hungarian again and to eat the Hungarian food.

Euro tour was an amazing experience and I’m so grateful that I could go. I only have two months left on my exchange and almost every weekend is packed full of new adventures.

-Alina

Easter in Hungary

Spring break has just ended and it was a lot of fun. Our break was Thursday the 24^th to Tuesday the 29^th, making sure that I didn’t miss a single choir practice.

My exchange student friend came over for the first few days of break and we had a great time making apple empanadas with my little host brother. He left Saturday morning so we could have Easter Sunday for the family.

On Easter, we visited the grandparents’ house and met up with the rest of the family for lunch. In Hungary, the tradition is for the women to color the eggs and the men to spray the women with small bottles of perfume. This tradition used to be much more extreme. Boys would dump buckets of water on girls because they needed water to grow up beautiful, just like a flower. This tradition has calmed down over time. I was only sprayed with perfume, thank goodness.

Easter is a very family oriented holiday and I loved sitting around the table with my Hungarian family. It was a lot like what we do back home, but without the commercialism. There are no Easter baskets delivered by the Easter bunny. There are no egg hunts or parades. This is a day to be with your family and eat lunch together while enjoying the company. It was simple, but it was so fulfilling to sit around the table with my family.

My spring break was great, but I have even better things to look forward to. My next blog post will be about Euro Tour! I leave April 5^th and I’ll return the 15^th. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Happy Easter

Boldog Húsvéti

-Alina

Language Camp: Adding to the Family

What an amazing week! I hadn’t seen the exchange students since early December so it was great to see everyone and meet all the newbies. Most exchanges go from late summer to early summer of the next year, but some go from January to January to match up with their school year. These are the crossbounds. Our oldies left in January and we just all the newbies for the first time.

There are 2 South Africans,

3 Argentinians,

And 2 Australians

It was so great to meet everyone for the first time and spend a whole week together. We spent most of our time in a hotel in Szolnok trying to learn more Hungarian. They let us out a few times to go bowling and to go to a Rotary event. The bowling was fun, but more importantly, we got to buy food. Most of us just stood around the chocolate and tried to decide which one to pick.

The Rotary event was a costume party where we introduced ourselves and danced late into the night.

We were important enough for the mayor of Szolnok to show up and wish us good luck in learning Hungarian.

The best part was just hanging out with everyone. It didn’t matter if we were dancing or playing games. I love out group so much because anyone can hang out with anyone and different nationalities intermingle easily. I know how to say phrases in five different languages. I have friends that don’t speak English. This is what being an exchange student is all about. Now, world events have more meaning to me. I care more about a terrorist attack in France because I know people there. A hurricane is Mexico affects me because my friends live there.

I hope we did a good job of welcoming the newbies into the exchange student family and that they will do the same for the next group.

-Alina Mendoza

Wild Hyperbole

“Have you ever noticed how everyone around here speaks in wild hyperbole? Everything’s ‘the best’.”

-Liberal Arts (2012)

I have noticed something very specific and very interesting about American culture and language. We speak in wild hyperbole. We say “it was the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten” or “he’s the best author in the world”. Americans exaggerate everything. If you ask your friend how the movie was and they say “it was good”, your first reaction might be “just good?” Americans use ‘good’ as a starting point. We have so many words that are better than ‘good’. We use ‘awesome’, ‘great’, and ‘amazing’. We only use ‘good’ when it could have been better, but wasn’t bad.

In Hungary, the best word to use in every situation is jó (good). There are translations for nagyszerű (great) and csodálatos (wonderful), but these words are seldom used. They are saved for things that are actually great, I always come back from these Rotary trips and have a hard time telling my host family that it was ‘good’. I always want to say more. In Hungary, ‘good’ has a stronger meaning than it does in America. I also have a hard time expressing when something was “good, but not great”. That’s what I would say in English, but then it would be understood as better than it was because ‘good’ means more in Hungary.

This has a lot to do with Hungarian culture. In America, “Everything is awesome” and our language is changing quickly. ‘Awesome’ used to mean “extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring awe”. Words like rad, dope, sweet, groovy, and hip came in (and out) of style. We feel like we need to exaggerate everything and that says a lot about our culture

The Hungarian culture is much more calm and reserved. Hungary has been conquered and oppressed throughout its entire history. Hungarians are always waiting for the other shoe to drop and they take good news and bad news the same way: calm and reserved. In one of my English classes, we had to do a short review of Romeo and Juliet. I asked the teacher if the language of the translation was difficult to read. She said no, the translation sounds like contemporary Hungarian because the language hasn’t changed.

In America, we are taught in school to write strong adjectives. Don’t say ‘very good’, say ‘amazing’ Don’t say ‘very big’, say ‘gigantic’. In everyday speech, I’ve heard nagyon jó (very good) ten times more than I’ve heard nagyserű (great). Hungarians opt for the ‘very’ form instead of using strong adjectives like American students are taught.

I think this study of language gives us valuable insight into the cultures that use it. Americans move quickly and we’ve escalated to saying thing are ‘the best’ when Hungarians can say that something was simply good.

Hungarians also ask negative questions. Instead of asking “are you hungry?” (éhes vagy?) they ask “aren’t you hungry?” (nem vagy éhes?) A lot of questions are framed like this: aren’t you . . . don’t you want . . . You could say that Hungarians have a negative mindset, but could you really blame them?

I thought I’d write this study of language and culture in honor of language camp (coming up this week). Expect another post early next month on that subject. I am so excited for language camp!

-Alina

School Days

I thought I should post something to honor my halfway point. 5 months down, 5 to go. I’ve been thinking about this one a lot and I want to write about the differences between school here and school in America. Everyone should know that I have never gone to a “normal American school” so this is my observations compared to my school experience. Each paragraph will be about a different topic. Enjoy!

I go to Garay János Gimnázium, which has around 300 students and my worst enemy: stairs. It is so different from what I’ve experienced in American and it makes it hard to answer a question that I get all the time: “How is school different in America?” In truth, I don’t know. My entire graduating class was 40 people. My class here, 12A, is a little over 30 people. I don’t know how to explain that my entire school could fit into 2 or 3 classes here.

One of the first things I noticed was that everyone here uses pens. Only pens. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve always used a mechanical pencil for all my written homework. My host brother looked at my mechanical pencil like he’d never seen one before. Is this a European thing? Are Americans too afraid of commitment to use pens?

Everything, everything is hand written. Homework, tests, essays, everything. A lot of students have low typing skills, something that would be detrimental to an American student. A lot of families don’t own a printer (mine included) and I have only seen one or two typed assignments. When you come from a school that encouraged you to type everything, it is a bit of a shock to suddenly go to the polar opposite.

Most of my classes are in one classroom, but I move around for biology, English 3, and P.E. For most classes, the students hang out in the classroom until the bell rings. The teacher usually doesn’t come in until a few minutes later and when he or she does, everyone is instantly silent and stands up. Then, one person from the class goes to the front and tells the teacher the date and who is absent. The teacher writes down the names and tells everyone to sit down before beginning the lesson. Some teachers are really strict about this and some walk into the classroom saying “sit down” and casually ask who is missing.

Something I find hilarious is the juxtaposition of the blackboards with the chalk right next to the smartboards that hook up to the computer and have a pen you can use to interact with it. Not every classroom has smartboards, but most do and it’s really funny to see which teachers know how to use it and which ones just ask the students to deal with it.

Some teachers are really strict while others are super chill. During the more relaxed classes, students usually end up talking among themselves.  To get attention back, teachers knock on the desk.

I was a little nervous to go to the cafeteria here. I’d never gone to a cafeteria before and I was wondering how it would compare to the horror stories of American cafeteria food. I was surprised to find out that the cafeteria wasn’t on the campus. In fact, the cafeteria doesn’t belong to the school at all, it belongs to the city. The cafeteria serves anyone in the city. You can buy tickets from the school that you can use at the cafeteria. Every day after school, we make our way across the city to have lunch. Students stand in line with the unfortunate adults who are trying to get lunch at the time school gets out.

Please keep in mind that these observations are compared to my “alternative” school experiences. I’ve been in three different home schools since 5^th grade, so my school experiences here might be a lot closer to American high school than I think. I really wouldn’t know.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Here’s to another great 5 months!

-Alina

Holidays in Hungary

New year? Time for a blog post! I had a wonderful holiday season in Hungary. The holidays are a little different, though, especially Christmas. Santa Clause, called Mikulas (Mee-koo-losh) in Hungarian, visits the children on December 6^th. He leaves gifts like chocolate in the shoes of the kids for them to find in the morning, kind of like the stockings we have in America. On the 6^th of December, I was in Győr, in northern Hungary with the other exchange students. We had a great time playing laser tag, ice skating, and touring the Audi factory. Győr was a beautiful city and it became one of my favorite cities in Hungary in only one weekend.

The town hall

I came home and felt that something was missing. In Hungary, they usually don’t get a Christmas tree until Christmas Eve and it comes down January first. When I told my family about how early we usually put up the tree, they were surprised. One day, around the 15^th, I came home from school and there was a Christmas tree! I helped decorate it with my host mom and the whole time, I was so grateful to have a host family that would get a tree early for their exchange student.

Christmas lasts for three days here in Hungary. Usually, Christmas Eve is for decorating the tree and preparing any cooking things for the next day. Christmas day is when gifts are exchanged within the immediate family and the day after Christmas is for visiting with relatives. Our Christmas wasn’t the usual, however because there was a huge party on Christmas day. So, we just did everything on Christmas Eve. We visited with family in the morning until the late afternoon and came home to exchange gifts. I got a super cozy sweatshirt.

It was snowing!

I didn’t want to hang around for the giant party, so I visited an exchange student friend a few hours away. We made cookies and pancakes together. It was so much fun to just hang out and make some American food.

Thanks Cecilia!

Haha, we decided to make a waffle cookie with the last of the dough

For New Years, there was another big party, but this time, I stuck around. There were fireworks and dancing and by then, I was super tired so I went to bed.

This is the last day before we all go back to school, but it was an amazing break, full of culture and learning. Happy Holidays everyone!

-Alina

What I Miss About America

After 100 days in Hungary, I’ve started to miss things that I never thought I would. I’m not talking about Doritos and Netflix, though I do miss them dearly. I’m talking about the deep stuff. Here are three things that I miss about America.

1.    1.  Diversity

There is diversity among the Hungarian people; it’s not like they all look the same, but being here has really opened my eyes about the diversity I took for granted. I’m used to hearing last names from all over the world and seeing people from different ethnic backgrounds. Here, when you see someone who obviously isn’t Hungarian, they stand out. Note: I am in a small town away from the capital. In Budapest, there is some more diversity, but still not much.

2.    2.   The Competitive Spirit

Growing up with three siblings makes it nearly impossible to not be competitive. At least, in America. I play a car racing game with my 10 year old host brother and every time his car passes mine, he apologizes. He even apologizes when I crash (I’m not that bad) and offers to restart the game. He’s not the only one with this attitude. I feel like no one really wants to win or maybe, they just want to have a fun, fair competition. Another similar thing I’ve noticed is that there is less cheating here. I was playing a game with my classmates and I remember thinking “this would never work back home. It would be too easy to cheat.” While I don’t miss the cheating, I do miss a good competition without an apology for winning.

And the thing I miss the most about America is . . .

3.    3.   More freedom of gender expression

Hungary seems a bit old school to me gender wise. Mostly, the men drive and do the hard labor and the women do the cooking and house work (though there is some variation). I am okay with that. The problem I’m having is with the younger generation. I am the only girl in the school with hair too short to pull into a ponytail. 90% of the girls have either nail polish or fake nails, and they always dress fashionably. No girls ever just wear just jeans and a t-shirt, (which is all I brought). The girls here are girly and I’m having a hard time fitting in. In America, not doing these things doesn’t have as much of an impact – it just means you’re a little tomboyish. Here, that isn’t an option. You are either a girl or a boy and I’m not girly enough to fit into the girl category. I’m not even talking about more extreme gender issues, I’m just talking about being a little tomboyish.

This list is not meant to bash Hungary or their ideas. I just feel so grateful that I was raised in a place where thing like diversity and gender expression are the way they are. Maybe we can learn a little something about competition, though.

-Alina