KOSÁRLABDA

Yahoo :) On Wednesday the 26th I got to play in my schools first basketball game of the 'season'. I do not really know if they have seasons here and I did not even know that my school was going to have basketball games! I think that we will play the other schools in Debrecen. The game of basketball is a lot different here. It is way less aggressive and played at a noticeably slower pace. The sides of the 3 second box are also not strait they are kind of diagonal!! Plus after the second free-through you can enter the box once the ball leaves her hands!! So the game was held at our school and we hosted a school called Reformatus. We had ten girls and they had ten girls. We played 4 ten minute courters and for the first half of the game we played in a man on man and second half we played zone. We destroyed them, and the final score was 75 to 23 us!! Ha ha. When the game was over we shook hands the same way we do in the US. It was really fun and ha ha a different experience to play with girls that just get out to have fun instead of working hard to become good. In hungary it is more about just getting out and being active, which for me is a new way to look at sports!! :)

VENICE

              

   

 AHHHHH!!!!!!! :) Ok so Friday I went to Budapest meet up with everyone going to Venice for the weekend. I got there about an hour early so I got to see some of the City again. It is so beautiful and I love it! When I was waiting in the lobby of the mall in Budapest, some girls came up to me. They were Hungarian and recognized me because they go to my school. We talked and they were also going to Venice. We found everyone else and loaded the bus. I sat next to one of the girls that I just met and we spoke Hungarian together for a while, although I do not know how much I understood! At about 4 or 5 we arrived to Lake Balaton on the western side of Hungary. The lake was very beautiful and I hope I visit it during the summer when it is not so cold! Then we went to a restaurant and had dinner before loading the bus and heading to Italy!  I stepped into the ground of the third country I have every been in at about 8 in the morning! We took a motor boat into the city and it was awesome! They used this boat like a 'bus' transportation system and so people were going to and from work on it! Once we arrived in the Saint Mark’s Square we were told we could do what ever we wanted and to meet back here at 6:30! So with my new 6 or 7 Hungarian friends and an exchange student from Germany walked the city! I am in love the with architecture and the old buildings! The statues and sea was so beautiful too! When you are in Venice you walk in-between the buildings which are not very far part. You often walk on bridges because the water is flowing in canals through the city! There are bakeries, clothing stores, souvenir shops, mask shops, art shops, restaurants, and tons more kinds of stores! Every inch of the food shops where filled with sweets, chocolates and fresh baked goods! The most common thing I saw was beautiful masks, that they were for the Carnival that is in February! For lunch we stopped at a restaurant where I had my first 'real' Italian pizza! It had a very thin crust but was very good! Also they put olive-oil on the top and it makes it taste delicious! Then we went to a part of the city call Rialto and this was my favorite part of the trip! I got to bee surrounded by the old, beautiful buildings, while being a part of the culture here! There was an open air market where fresh vegetables, fruit and fish were being sold! I loved seeing how the same food changes from place to place, because the grapes here were very big!! The fish was beautiful, and kind of scary at the same time! A lot of the fish were still alive and moving around!! Then we went to a bakery and got some sweets! I do not know how to describe it other than absolutely AMAZING! Before we left I also got some gelato and man it was good! My day was absolutely amazing and Venice was beautiful! I do not think that I stopped smiling the whole day! We had a long bus ride home but safely arrived back into Debrecen around 9 Sunday morning.  

Exciting Weekend!!

On Saturday, October first, I went with Rotary to Hortobágy. This is the large plane, that is not far from Hajdúszoboszló. Only a few members went on the trip, and the other four exchange students went as well! This time I got to see the other side of the plane, which is actually a swampy area. We went to lots of animal parks where they are preserving the animals and their habitats. It is not like a zoo because they do not interact with the animals. The animals actually migrate to Africa during the winters! I got to see a Hungarian Eagle, lots of special birds, some Hungarian wolfs, Hungarian cats, and learn about lions and other animals that are no long alive.

 
That was fun but nothing compared to my Sunday! So earlier this week my Friend Anita the runner was telling me about a run that was going to happen in BudaPest. It was a marathon. You could run a 1/2 or a full, by yourself or with a team. And then right before the weekend, I she called and told me that one of the members of her team dropped out, and so she invited me! So our team, The Pink Panthers, was made of up four women in collage and me!!

  
We left Debrecen at 6 in the morning and the race began at 10. It started in Pest and the first girl ran 12.5k. Then I ran across the Arpad Bridge on to Buda. Then I ran along the Danube River for a total of 10k. Then Anita ran 6.1 k, the next girl ran 4.6 and the last girl ran 9k. We came in .001 seconds behind the team in 4th place, making us fifth! We did really well and I had a lot of fun :) I did not get to see much of the city, just when we were walking to and from the starting points, but even after seeing that much I REALLY want to go back because it was beautiful! I also made friends with lots of people this trip and have already grown to LOVE HUNGARY!

Check out the website of this race at http://www.futas.net/futoverseny/marathon/budapest-maraton.php

Time is flying by!

Time is going by and I am busy busy! Every weekend I feel like I have had something big and exciting going on which is amazing :)
*So on Friday the 23 I met with the of the girl that won the race as in Hajdúszoboszló. Her name is Anita and she is very nice! She took me to meet her friends and then I got to run with them! They invited me to run with them every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have only gone to one but I plan to go to more!
*The next day on Saturday my school had a celebration called a Szalagtűző. This is a pre graduation ceremony for the 12th graders. Every student was presented with a pin and then every class danced. They all had different dances that they have been practicing since the beginning of school (earlier when I went with my friend to her school dance class, this is what they were practicing for). Every class danced dances from different places so their was a pirate dance,waltz, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian and so on. It was very interesting and fun!

*Then on Sunday I ran in a short run at the huge mall in Debrecen. It was a little less than a mile and I got third place!
*Between all of this I have been having a great time in school! My friends are amazing and so kind! Some girls get together after school and play basketball and I have made lots of friends that way as well! I am doing pretty well learning Hungarian and love speaking it!! All is well and life is good :)