Does this require a title?

I didn’t go to school all last week because Barbi was sick and I didn’t want to go alone. Plus I had Visa stuff to do. I went to Budapest for a Rotary Presentation on Tuesday night. The presentation went well, and Budapest is gorgeous. I now know why Katy Perry chose it for her firework video. So beautiful, and no picture could do it justice. Anyways, I did my visa thing in Eger (nearby city) and the people said they couldn’t give me my visa because I don’t speak Hungarian- and then my host mom had me give them the speech I gave in Budapest the previous night (in Hungarian) and apparently that didn’t do it for them (I secretly think they were impressed though) and so they gave me a residence permit. Don’t know if this is okay- let’s hope!! The rest of the week was pretty- blah. The only thing of importance I did was join a gym- so I don’t go a lardy dough ball. I went to my host dads on Friday and that was fun. I explained baseball to him, because he didn’t understand the point. So of course I had to make him understand the American Past time! It was a little weird for me because at home everyone knows and most have played baseball. This reminds me of when my foreign exchange student, Priscila, (from Brazil) came home and told us her class played baseball in gym class but she didn’t know how to play so she hit the ball and just stood there and then her teammates all were yelling for her to run… hahahaha. It just seems strange but I guess it isn’t as common in other countries. So on Sunday we went to Budapest and saw Colombiana (in English!) which I would definitely recommend. Today at school I talked Noella, (mentioned in early posts) and we made official plans to hangout (before they were like sketches of plans) and she told me her Grandpa lived in the USA for 20 years and would like to talk to me, so that’s exciting. Lastly I just want to give some advice (if you want to call it that) or things I have learned.

1.       1.  When someone is visibly upset, don’t ask them why. If they are like me they are probably trying to forget about why they are upset. So asking will make them remember. Also, they probably don’t want people to notice and by commenting you obviously noticed.

2.     2.    I finally learned what “to miss” means. It’s not “oh I haven’t seen you in a week because you were up north and I’ll see you when we hangout tomorrow but I miss you”. No. To miss someone is like a physical thing. It’s like you would pay money to talk face to face or hug that person.

3.       3. Be nice to the exchange students. Invite them to hangout. What I didn’t expect  coming  here is the longing for people to hang out with. I expected the missing everyone, missing English, and missing food. I didn’t think it would be hard making friends. I didn’t think about the fact that the students already have close friends and that it would be hard because you have to “infiltrate” the group.

4.       Also, for future exchange students reading this. The best piece(s)  of advice I can give you is

A.      Enjoy your time at home!!!! I cannot stress this enough.

B.      My good friend Marisa told me this and I think about it whenever I’m homesick. Whenever you are homesick remember every day you survive you are one day closer to see everybody again.

And finally a quote I read on facebook.

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”
— Marcel Pagnol

Ps. The end of this might have been slightly depressing. I assure you my host family is great and I’m having a good time. J

Ps #2. I have enabled comments so you can comment if you wish. 

Budapest :) 

Budapest at night