So I'm back...
I'm back from our orientation in Budapest. It was really funn (even though our AFS activities were sucky), and it was great to talk to so many people again, and get to know new ones. I'm uploading pictures onto my site (shmooonie.myphotoalbum.com), so check 'em out. They're awesome.
So let me recount what we did...
Friday: Got up at 5 in the morning to get ready, left for the train station a little after 6, and got there around 6:15. Once there, I found Julia, Ildi (Julia's sister), Ádél (Dzsip's angel), and Isabel already there. Sandy, Dzsip, and Nati came soon after, and then our train got there. We loaded on, and then had some confusion finding seats, but ultimately just took a room for ourselves (me, Julia, Sandy, Isabel, Nati, and Dzsip). Sandy, Julia, and I relaxed and watched One Tree Hill (ohhh am I addicted now- it's so good!) on Sandy's portable DVD player. It was awesome. But she forgot the charger for the battery, so we couldn't watch it on the way back. We got to Budapest a little after 9, dropped our bags off at a place in the train station, and headed over to Mammut (a big mall). It wasn't that far, so we walked. It turns out the mall was 6 stories high and was TWO buildings. Julia, Sandy, and I managed to cover the whole thing in a mere 4 1/2 or 5 hours. I ended up getting a long sweater, a zip-up sweater, a belt, a bag, and a grey pull-over thing. On the way out, we decided to play a trick on Julia's sister. We gave ALL of our bags to Julia (mine, Sandy's, and Julia's all combined), and came out with the straightest faces possible. Ildi freaked out. It was hilarious. Julia got some good pictures of her face. We kept playing along until eveyone else showed up (Julia even showed and explained everything to Ildi), and then told them it was a joke. It was hilarious. After that, we went back to get our stuff from the train station, and then took two metros to the bus station to Dunaharaszti. Once there, we met AFS volunteers as well as other AFSers. We were the second group to get there, and gradually more people started arriving. Once everyone was there, we took a 4 o'clock bus to Dunaharaszti. We arrived at Dunaharaszti at about 5, and then we had free time until dinner, which was at 6. We got settled in our houses (they were little cabins, and were MUCH better than the first orientation). I was in a room with a girl from Ecuador (I can't remember her name), her host sister, Sandy, and Nati. Next door to us were Julia and Caitlin, so that was cool. We went down to dinner after sitting by the lake thing for a little while. The food was good (one again, better than last time). After dinner, we a little more free time, and then got into groups for AFS activities. My group was me, Sandy, Julia, Caitlin, Sigrun (from Iceland), Kelsey, and Rob (both from the U.S.). We drew shields (it was a stoopid activity), talked, and then had free time. Julia, Caitlin, Sandy, and I went off and found people to talk to (I can't exactly remembe who). We were up until probably 1 or so, and then went to bed, seeing how we'd been up for 20 hours straight.
Saturday: My alarm clock woke us up a little after 7. Got up, took a shower, got ready, and then we went outside. Saw Caitlin and Julia walking out of their cabin right next door, so that was good timing. We headed down for breakfast, had that, stole the extra bread in case we got hungry later (and we did, so it was a good move on our part), and then had a little free time before our AFS activities for the day began. We talked some more, and the divied up into our groups. In the groups, we acted out little host family situations (once again, stoopid and pointless), and discussed our families and things. Then we had lunch, and then had to get back into our groups. More stoopid and utterly pointless activites, which included literally sitting around talking about nothing for at least two hours. We did write letters to ourselves, though, and that was a good idea, but we were rushed at so mine turned out pretty stoopid, I think. Then we were told we had to do a skit about us at the end-of-stay orientation, so we came up with the idea to do a sort of stereo-type thing. We had two fat people (Julia and Rob), a spiritual person (Kelsey), a sophisticated person (Sigrun), a pregnant girl (Caitlin, as usual), and two language people (me and Sandy). All of the skits were really stoopid, including ours, and there was really no point at all to doing them. Then we were told that about 15 kids could walk to the Lidl (grocery store) and get food, so Caitlin, Sandy, Julia, Sigrun, and Thelma (from Iceland as well), decided to go. We went and got a BUNCH of junk food. Too much, actually, but what do you expect. Then we came back and had dinner, and then took the stuff to our room and ate a little before coming back to the restaurant to talk about optional AFS trips. At 7:15 that night, we all gathered in the restaurant (or at least all that were interested) to talk about the optional trips. There's going to be one in April for 9 days that goes to Germany, Belgium, Austria (I think), Paris, and London. I really, really, REALLY want to go on it, and it's not that expensive, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to convince my parents (in the U.S., of course) to let me go. I think Julia, Sandy, Thelma, and Sigrun are all going to try to go, too. There's also a trip in May that's either going to be to Transylvania or Greece, and I'm PRAYING it'll be to Greece, because I would DEFINITELY go on that. No question about it. Ohhh I can't wait. Plus, Caitlin said her family's going skiing in Austria in December, and she said I could probably come along. So I really want to do that, as well. I'm so excited now. :) Anyway, that night, we went out and found people. It seemed like almost everyone was inside, but we found some people outside and hung out with them. Julia corn-rowed Jorge's (from Venezuela) hair and it took forever, but by the end it looked awesome. In the mean time, Dario (from Colombia, and VERY good dancer) was teaching me and some other people how to dance. We learned salsa and other things I don't know the name of. It was really funn.. He was a seriously good dancer, though. It was amazing. I'm definitely going to South America to become fluent in Spanish and learn to dance now. I'm so convinced. Then a jerky AFS volunteer came and talked to us. After a while of that, some people walked by and he started to talk to them, so we took the opportunity to leave. We (me, Sandy, and Julia; it had been more, but others had left before, including Jorge and Dario) headed down to room 18 or 20 (not sure which), and hung out there for a while with the German girls and some other people. We ended up going to bed around 2 or maybe 2:30.
Sunday: Got up for breakfast (it was at 8), and then loaded onto the bus at 9 after taking group pictures. The bus took us to the AFS headquarters, where we promptly dropped off our bags and then headed to Hero's Square. We looked around there, and then took the metro to a park, where the Fountain of Danubius (I'm pretty sure that's what it's called) was, and then went on to other sights of interest, like St. Peter's Basilica, the Parliament, the U.S. Embassy (though we really just happened to be passing it), a Soviet monument, the Chain Bridge, and then the castle. The views were awesome. Then we headed back to the office to get our bags and go. We went to the train station and hung out until 5 for our train. The seats were really weird, so I ended up scrunching in with Julia and Sandy, even though we couldn't watch One Tree Hill. We got into the station around 7:45-ish, and I got home around 8. I was extremely tired, so I unpacked and then pretty much went straight to bed.
Yesterday was a blah day. Had Hungarian class, and we talked about the orientation and other AFS stuff. We get to organize whatever we want to do in December as a chapter, because the whole country doesn't have enough money to organize an event for all of us. That kind of sucks, but at least we can do whatever we want. Also, the mom of my newest angel, Ádám, is organizing a one-day trip up to Vienna for us. I think that's also some time in December. Then in February we have our one-week exchange to another part of the country. We're going to the Kiskunhalas chapter, and those people there are coming here. That's where Caitlin is, but she'll be gone by then (she came here for a semester), so that sucks too. Then April and May are the two trips. Looking forward to them. Hehe.
Today was pretty boring, as well. Had 4 classes, then went and bought some pens and a highlighter and a day calendar for 2006, and now I'm here, and have been for a while, uploading pictures and doing this thing while they're loading.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you had funn reading all of that! Now go look at my pictures, if you haven't already. :)
So let me recount what we did...
Friday: Got up at 5 in the morning to get ready, left for the train station a little after 6, and got there around 6:15. Once there, I found Julia, Ildi (Julia's sister), Ádél (Dzsip's angel), and Isabel already there. Sandy, Dzsip, and Nati came soon after, and then our train got there. We loaded on, and then had some confusion finding seats, but ultimately just took a room for ourselves (me, Julia, Sandy, Isabel, Nati, and Dzsip). Sandy, Julia, and I relaxed and watched One Tree Hill (ohhh am I addicted now- it's so good!) on Sandy's portable DVD player. It was awesome. But she forgot the charger for the battery, so we couldn't watch it on the way back. We got to Budapest a little after 9, dropped our bags off at a place in the train station, and headed over to Mammut (a big mall). It wasn't that far, so we walked. It turns out the mall was 6 stories high and was TWO buildings. Julia, Sandy, and I managed to cover the whole thing in a mere 4 1/2 or 5 hours. I ended up getting a long sweater, a zip-up sweater, a belt, a bag, and a grey pull-over thing. On the way out, we decided to play a trick on Julia's sister. We gave ALL of our bags to Julia (mine, Sandy's, and Julia's all combined), and came out with the straightest faces possible. Ildi freaked out. It was hilarious. Julia got some good pictures of her face. We kept playing along until eveyone else showed up (Julia even showed and explained everything to Ildi), and then told them it was a joke. It was hilarious. After that, we went back to get our stuff from the train station, and then took two metros to the bus station to Dunaharaszti. Once there, we met AFS volunteers as well as other AFSers. We were the second group to get there, and gradually more people started arriving. Once everyone was there, we took a 4 o'clock bus to Dunaharaszti. We arrived at Dunaharaszti at about 5, and then we had free time until dinner, which was at 6. We got settled in our houses (they were little cabins, and were MUCH better than the first orientation). I was in a room with a girl from Ecuador (I can't remember her name), her host sister, Sandy, and Nati. Next door to us were Julia and Caitlin, so that was cool. We went down to dinner after sitting by the lake thing for a little while. The food was good (one again, better than last time). After dinner, we a little more free time, and then got into groups for AFS activities. My group was me, Sandy, Julia, Caitlin, Sigrun (from Iceland), Kelsey, and Rob (both from the U.S.). We drew shields (it was a stoopid activity), talked, and then had free time. Julia, Caitlin, Sandy, and I went off and found people to talk to (I can't exactly remembe who). We were up until probably 1 or so, and then went to bed, seeing how we'd been up for 20 hours straight.
Saturday: My alarm clock woke us up a little after 7. Got up, took a shower, got ready, and then we went outside. Saw Caitlin and Julia walking out of their cabin right next door, so that was good timing. We headed down for breakfast, had that, stole the extra bread in case we got hungry later (and we did, so it was a good move on our part), and then had a little free time before our AFS activities for the day began. We talked some more, and the divied up into our groups. In the groups, we acted out little host family situations (once again, stoopid and pointless), and discussed our families and things. Then we had lunch, and then had to get back into our groups. More stoopid and utterly pointless activites, which included literally sitting around talking about nothing for at least two hours. We did write letters to ourselves, though, and that was a good idea, but we were rushed at so mine turned out pretty stoopid, I think. Then we were told we had to do a skit about us at the end-of-stay orientation, so we came up with the idea to do a sort of stereo-type thing. We had two fat people (Julia and Rob), a spiritual person (Kelsey), a sophisticated person (Sigrun), a pregnant girl (Caitlin, as usual), and two language people (me and Sandy). All of the skits were really stoopid, including ours, and there was really no point at all to doing them. Then we were told that about 15 kids could walk to the Lidl (grocery store) and get food, so Caitlin, Sandy, Julia, Sigrun, and Thelma (from Iceland as well), decided to go. We went and got a BUNCH of junk food. Too much, actually, but what do you expect. Then we came back and had dinner, and then took the stuff to our room and ate a little before coming back to the restaurant to talk about optional AFS trips. At 7:15 that night, we all gathered in the restaurant (or at least all that were interested) to talk about the optional trips. There's going to be one in April for 9 days that goes to Germany, Belgium, Austria (I think), Paris, and London. I really, really, REALLY want to go on it, and it's not that expensive, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to convince my parents (in the U.S., of course) to let me go. I think Julia, Sandy, Thelma, and Sigrun are all going to try to go, too. There's also a trip in May that's either going to be to Transylvania or Greece, and I'm PRAYING it'll be to Greece, because I would DEFINITELY go on that. No question about it. Ohhh I can't wait. Plus, Caitlin said her family's going skiing in Austria in December, and she said I could probably come along. So I really want to do that, as well. I'm so excited now. :) Anyway, that night, we went out and found people. It seemed like almost everyone was inside, but we found some people outside and hung out with them. Julia corn-rowed Jorge's (from Venezuela) hair and it took forever, but by the end it looked awesome. In the mean time, Dario (from Colombia, and VERY good dancer) was teaching me and some other people how to dance. We learned salsa and other things I don't know the name of. It was really funn.. He was a seriously good dancer, though. It was amazing. I'm definitely going to South America to become fluent in Spanish and learn to dance now. I'm so convinced. Then a jerky AFS volunteer came and talked to us. After a while of that, some people walked by and he started to talk to them, so we took the opportunity to leave. We (me, Sandy, and Julia; it had been more, but others had left before, including Jorge and Dario) headed down to room 18 or 20 (not sure which), and hung out there for a while with the German girls and some other people. We ended up going to bed around 2 or maybe 2:30.
Sunday: Got up for breakfast (it was at 8), and then loaded onto the bus at 9 after taking group pictures. The bus took us to the AFS headquarters, where we promptly dropped off our bags and then headed to Hero's Square. We looked around there, and then took the metro to a park, where the Fountain of Danubius (I'm pretty sure that's what it's called) was, and then went on to other sights of interest, like St. Peter's Basilica, the Parliament, the U.S. Embassy (though we really just happened to be passing it), a Soviet monument, the Chain Bridge, and then the castle. The views were awesome. Then we headed back to the office to get our bags and go. We went to the train station and hung out until 5 for our train. The seats were really weird, so I ended up scrunching in with Julia and Sandy, even though we couldn't watch One Tree Hill. We got into the station around 7:45-ish, and I got home around 8. I was extremely tired, so I unpacked and then pretty much went straight to bed.
Yesterday was a blah day. Had Hungarian class, and we talked about the orientation and other AFS stuff. We get to organize whatever we want to do in December as a chapter, because the whole country doesn't have enough money to organize an event for all of us. That kind of sucks, but at least we can do whatever we want. Also, the mom of my newest angel, Ádám, is organizing a one-day trip up to Vienna for us. I think that's also some time in December. Then in February we have our one-week exchange to another part of the country. We're going to the Kiskunhalas chapter, and those people there are coming here. That's where Caitlin is, but she'll be gone by then (she came here for a semester), so that sucks too. Then April and May are the two trips. Looking forward to them. Hehe.
Today was pretty boring, as well. Had 4 classes, then went and bought some pens and a highlighter and a day calendar for 2006, and now I'm here, and have been for a while, uploading pictures and doing this thing while they're loading.
Well, that's it for now. Hope you had funn reading all of that! Now go look at my pictures, if you haven't already. :)