I LOVE Eastern Europe

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all so much and I cannot believe you are half way across the world! My time here has been amazing so far and so much has happened. Sorry for not writing sooner, there was a computer at the hostel we stayed at in Budapest but it was quite competitive to get a few minutes to check one's e-mail. I arrived in Budapest after an insanely long flight and trudged up the stairs of an unlikely looking building with a night club downstairs and no obvious sign of a hostel. Once I got to the third floor I was in a clean, humble lobby and the ower was handing a key to me saying "Anything for you my darling" in a heavy Hungarian accent. I got to my room, which I was sharing with 8 other people and was immedialy invited out to lunch by one of the girls in my program. We met her freind from school, a native Hungarian and he took us to this itty bitty restaurant that served three course meals for the equivalent of 5 dollars in forunts (Hungarian currency). I got back to the hostel and met the rest of the people from my program. I must say, we all kind of clicked immediatly and even though I was only with these 12 people for a few days I already trust them with my life. Everyone is just so genuinly nice. They are all just good people.

My new friend Megan and I then went to St. Stephen's Basilica which was literally two blocks away from our hostel. We saw the famous relic, the preserved hand of St. Stephens. It was like Disneyworld meets the Vatican, because you have to put coins in this slot machine in order to light up the glass case the decaying hand is preserved in. It was morbiid, powerful, and a bit inspiring to see such a fantascally beautiful church. We went out to a beautiful restaurant that night with our entire program and our beloved in country cordinator Kinga. It was called the citadel and it was literally in an ancient fortress on the top of a very tall hill in Budapest with a sweet view of the entire city. It was wonderful. That night, despute our mutaul jet lag, we all decided to sample a bit of Budapests famous night life. It was so much fun to be with the whole group. Also, I got to witness the really hilarious Budapest phenomenon of everyone riding their bikes to go out to clubs.

The next day we woke up early and went through a teaching workshop. Then we walked aound Buda Castle, which is just stunning. We didn't have too much time their which was sad because it was really impressive. After lunch at this faboulous Greek hummus plate, my two friends and I decided to walk to the famous Hungarian Market Place. It was about a mile or so from our hostel and we decided to walk it. As I walked with these two girls I had met a little over 24 hours ago, our conversation fel like that of old friends. It was amazing how close we have become. The market place is truly hard to describe. There were hundreds of booths nestled in a massive warehouse. The bottom floor was filled with food: strudels and backlavas glistening with sugar, ripe pears peaches and some other mysterious fruits, and huge slabs of meat. Upstairs, there were booths with every type of touristy gift in the woirld. I bought Caitie a sweet present there. On our way our I bought a pear and it was so incredibly fresh as I stood outside eating it bite by bite. We walked back, and hung out a bit until dinner. For dinner we went to this Italian sort of restaurant where this tragic trumpet player was serrounading the entire restaurant. It was such unbelivable ambience, but we had to hustle back to make the Chili-Spain world cup game. Football is a huge deal here and I have watched a ton of soccer since I've came. In a park three blocks away from our hostel, they were showing the world cup game on a massive screen. Hundreds of people were squished into this pack, laughing, screaming, and cheering like no tomorrow. There is no open container law in Hungary, so everyone had beers out and was happily drinking. It was a bit strange to witness almost, but really fun. After the game, we went out to celebrate our country cordinator's birthday at her favorite bar. Our group got super lost on the walk there and we walked for a soild 45 minutes, just laughing and chatting. The bar was very cool and hip, we had a ton of fun.

The next day, we woke up a tiny bit later and headed out to a park for another teaching seminar. Afterwards, we went to the biggest and most famous thermal water bathhouse in Budapest. It was fantastic, there were a million pools of different temperatures, both inside and outside, as well as saunas galore. The highlight was definaly the massive swimming pool with fountains outside which was very hot. It felt like you were taking a bath with about 200 hundred other people. There also was this hectic whirl pool that whipped you around in a circle at a dizzying speed. We happened to run into the group of Irish backpackers we had met while out the night beofre and hung out with them for a while at the baths. After we left, with our Irish friends, we decided to check out the random Rob Stuart concert going on in the park where the baths were. It was pretty wild and the crowd was huge. We weren't lucky enough to get a glimpse of the legend, as some Hungarian artist was jamming out. We left, and agreed to meet up with our friends to watch the US v. Ghana game and eat dinner. We frantically got dressed and made the game. It was pretty thrilling and my friend Eli kept jumping up and screaming during our dinner to the surprise of the other people in the cafe. Then we very quickly got gelato and ran to another telivison. Every open air cafe on our street had a TV out with the game on, so it wasn't too hard to find one. After that, we went to our hostel, finished packing, and hung out with the group. Despite our promises to stay in, my friends and I were pulled in by the horrifically bad DJ blasting music at the night club below our hostel. The music can only be described as what you would play at a very bad wedding reception, but we danced and danced, each one of us trying to out silly the other. It was a great moment, all five of us in a cirle, dancing our hearts out to "Baby you can drive my car" and "Tainted Love".

The next morning we woke up early to catch our train to Oradea, Romania, where all our host families were coming to meet us. I was so excited and nervous. When my host mother and sister came runnign uip to me it was a really great moment. They are just the nicest people ever. My host mom speaks English very well, so we chatted for a while. She specifically made me bean soup and polenta with cheese, as well as a million Hungarian pastries. I am definatly not going to lose weight here. Her daughter, Dora, is adorable. She's ten and super cute. She doesn't speak much English but I really like her. I feel like I won the lottery with my hos family, they are just really great. I am so happy to be here, to start teaching, to start fulfilling the whole purpose of this program. I start teaching tomorrow and i can't wait!

I love you all so much!

Emma