Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Recent Happenings


So I know it has been to long since I updated this- but to me this life is normal now so writing this doesn't seem as important. Anyways - I've been living in Budapest for awhile now and I loveee it! I always thought I would like living in the city but it is so much better than I imagined. There is always something to do and even when you can't think of anything you can just walk around and seeing the beauty never gets old!! Budapest is truely like the most beautiful city (maybe I'm just biased) but I haven't gotten over it. The Danube is such a beautiful color and all the buildings along it make so much cooler. Everytime I ride one of the trams to Pest from Buda or vice versa we go over one of the bridges and staring out I always think about how lucky and grateful I am to have this year. And to be living here; in the capital! I feel so blessed. I can't imagine that in just 2 months I have to leave. I can't make myself think about it- it is too hard. The people I've met this year have been some of the most amazing people I've ever met and they have completely changed me (in a good way of course) and the fact that I leave them to breaks my heart. Like I've always said- there is no bond like an exchange student bond! I know going to Midland will be good because I'll see my bestfriends again and my pets and my family and my American lifestyle but I think it will be beyond difficult. I will miss Budapest and the city life and my host family and my best friends here and having no school work and public transportation!!! God, I will miss public transportation. I think the only negative part of being an exchange student- you get to live an amazing life full of new things, new people, new food, new places, lots of traveling, and experiences up the wazzoo but it is only for a year. If someone gave me the option to stay another year living my same life I do now- no doubt I would take it. But since I know I have to leave I am very happy I was born into the generation of Internet users. Lucky that it is so easy to stay connected.

But enough about that! I figured I could update you on what I've been doing! So spring break I spent in another city (Győr) visiting my friends and hanging out with them- lots of fun! Then I had a Hungarian Easter- very similar to ours except not as much candy. Then the day after the have a "sprinkling" day. Basically the boys and men spray perfume and water on the women for good fertility. My host dad just sprayed me with perfume- I got off easy. Some of my friends were woken up by having water dumped on them and others just got attacked by squirt guns. Then came the Poland trip! 
The rotary took us to Poland for a weekend. Friday was all driving and then that night we went into Krakow and explored and had a good time. Saturday we visited Auschwitz (concentration camp). I cannot describe that experience. It was the worst place I've ever been. Just knowing that you are standing at the very pits of humanity and where the very worst type of human suffering happened. It was numbing. Some people cried; others (like myself) were just numb and silent. I felt nauseous the whole time. By the time we finished birkenau i was ready to leave. Birkenau was the work part (part 2) and there was a labor area and then Auschwitz part 1 was the worst part. This is where the experiements were held; the "hospital" that you didnt want to ever end up at; the sterilizations; the Gestapo held the "court cases" and then executed the "criminals" by gunshot on the death wall; ect, ect. We went inside the barracks where people slept 5 to a bunk
On a bed of wet straw filled with ticks and other nastiness. In one building slept about 700 women. 700!!! This might not be as appalling to you because I cannot think of a way to make you understand how small the barracks were. By far the saddest part was walking down "death road". After the cattle cars arrived at Birkenau men and women were separated and the "doctors" would sort the people- those who could work to the right; those who couldn't (all childen under the age of 13 and their mothers, elderly, overweight) to the left. On the left is a long dirt road. That dirt road was the last road most people who went to Auschwitz walked. At the end of it were the gas chambers. And 2 hours after the walk all those people were just ashes. By the ruins of the gas chambers (the Nazis destroyed them once they knew the Russians were coming) there are pits in the ground that were filled with all the peoples ashes. (They aren't now). But a friend of mine asked if we could walk around the other side the field (not along the path) and the tour guide said no because you would be walking on ashes. A field full of ashes!! The way it is set up now is that Birkenau has been left pretty much the way it was evacutated. The polish government burned down most of the barracks and the Nazis burnt lots of things so they wouldn't been implicated and the barracks have obviously been cleaned and changed so people can go through them and there are signs that give historical information but besides that it is very quiet and eerie and undisturbed. Auschwitz part 1 has been changed to more of a museum. They have display cases filled with tons of Jewish possessions; glasses, luggage, clothes, shoes, hairbrushes, shoe polish- and the worst- human hair. There is a case filled with human hair and experts think the collection was taken from about 140,000 people. I learned Hungary lost tons of Jews - at one point in 1944 German forces were sending 8,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz daily. Daily! So it was a very intense experience. 
Then we left and went to a famous polish salt mine then back to krakow and went into the city again. then sunday we drove home. 
Then on 4/20 I went to another city (Szeged) to see my friends for my birthday. I came home on my birthday and then celebrated with my Budapest friends
I have been very busy or I would be blogging more. Everyday is an adventure and I'm loving it!  

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