:) Loving Life

I do not think I have every been happier! Right now I am living here in Hungary and enjoying each and every moment! Unfortuantly they pass very fast...... repülnek a napok. This means the days fly by, and just like in they US they say that here! My weeks are starting to get busier  and busier now that I added a Hungarian tutor to my schedual! I am really excited because we are going to meet twice a week, just she and I! I hope that I will begin to learn the language and its crazy difficult grammar better! On this past Friday I went to the movies! It was great because it felt like I was a normal teenage girl here in Hungary, and guess what... now I am! We saw Breaking dawn and it was in English with Hungarian subtitles. The movie theter was interesting because you baught your ticket out front, but you baught a specific seat! I went with three Hungarian girls we all of course got really excited when Jacob came on the screen!

Today my family and I celebrated my host moms Name Day. There is a day for persons name and on Thursday Emi had her names day. Lajos's mom and Emi's mom and dad came and we had a big lunch feast! It was kind of like a make up thanks giving, but I think with better food!! ha ha. Afterwards we started decorating for Christmas!! Yahoo!! :) We plan to continue putting up more and more things around the house as the holiday comes closer and closer! Happy Thanks Giving to everyone, hope it was a great one!! Lots of love <3 Maggs

Mountains?

     *For the first time, I had to think to myself- "is this really a mountain or is this just a little hill?-

Bükk hegység!

 On November 19, at 6 in the morning, I left Debrecen with a group of people all ages. We drove for two hours to the only Mountains in Hungary. I slept on the way there, woke up once, and looked out the window. To my suprize i saw snow on the ground! When we got to the 'mountains' there was no snow on the groud but lots and lots of ice/dust layer of something like snow everywhere! The first day we walked on a pavement trail for while and then went off on to a path. We ate lunch at what used to be a castle but I could not even tell! I guess all the trees and plans grew over it, and I was actually standing on top of it eating my lunch! We walked on some more and soon came to a cute little hotel/hostel place where we would spend the night. I shared a room with three girls that go to my school, but I was just meeting them for the first time. The next day was very strange weather for me! It was very cold and foggy and we could barily see. The ground, trees, and everything was covered in white ice/snow and was very pretty! It was a great trip, even though it was nothing like hiking in the US. I had lots of fun speaking just Hungarian and everyone was super kind :)

Best őszi-szünet EVER!

After my exciting halloween, I thought that I could not have anymore fun this break, but I was wrong! The next day, Wednesday I went to my friend Panni's house. She lives in Debrecen and we had tons of fun together! Her mom made us what they consider mexican food! It was a flour tortilla with chicken, corn, and whole beans in it. I have to say it was really good! Her mom also made us tomato soup from Italy and then the best dessert ever! I got chocolate muffins as a 'birthday cake' and then Tiramisu!! Then after lunch Panni and I played on the computer, just looking a pictures and then played Sims! Ha ha it is funny cause I used to play Sims back home! As a present she drew the most real looking picture of the two of us! She is so great at drawing. Then before I left we had grapes from Italy and they are so good, not to mention huge! I really had a great time with her and her family.

The next day was my birthday!! Yahoo and it was an amazing day! :) I woke up, not to early but early enough so I could fit a whole bunch of exciting things into my day! 

For breakfast I had lecho and eggs, which is my new favorite! Lecho is paprika (which are similar to bell peppers), onion, and tomatoes sautéed together for like 3 hours, just absorbing each-others flavors! Then you can do anything thing you want with it, and so I put it in my eggs! After that I opened my birthday cards and ever since one of them was amazing and made me so happy! Thanks for all of your birthday wishes! I spend my day hanging out with Emi and Lajos which was great! We cooked, watered flowers (I know crazy right! Watering flowers in November) and just enjoyed each-others company! Then they took me out to dinner! Before we left they gave me a bag! 

Inside was the sweetest gifts, that I knew they picked out just for me. I got a new journal and some pens (they think it is crazy how much I write), a beautiful scarf, a cute phone case,  some nail polish, and my favorite-a matching dress/shirt to the one Emi always wears! Hers is gray and mine is beautiful orange! We then went to this restaurant in town where there was a table waiting for use with flowers on it! They said Boldog Születésnapot Maggie! Then when the waiter came they pulled out the alcohol menu and asked me what I wanted! Ha ha, but then they told me to choose a drink I wanted and order it 'virgin'. We all got tropical, colorful drinks! Soon we ordered our food which turned out to be one of the best meals I have ever had! It is a tradition on birthdays in Hungary to have this huge firework type canals on birthday cakes and right when we finished our plates out arrived my birthday cake with fireworks coming out of it! It was the most beautiful cake I have ever seen with the American and Hungarian flag mixed between it! It was hillarias because the cook messed up and put 17 on the cake! 

Lajos and Emi freeked out, but I loved it because hey who does not want to be 17! Lajos and Emi remembered that I love vanilla cake and nuts so I got a vanilla, nuts, and cream layer birthday cake! By the time we went home we had eaten enough to make us full for a year, laughed so hard we cried, and I had, had the best birthday ever. But it was not over because right when I got home I called my parents on Skype! It was great getting to talk to them, and it felt like they were right here with me celebrating! After talking to them for over 4 hours it was 12:30 and I was pooped!

On Friday I had a party at my house. I invited 9 girls over. So before the party Emi and I made sandwiches, baked some treats, and got the house ready! All the girls arrived around 2! We ate and talked and then we started the project! I had us make paper mache balloons! It was very funny because they had never done anything like it and it got everywhere! While they were drying we ate delicious cake that Emi made and opened presents! I never thought I could get some many wonderful gifts, but did did! I think I got enough chocolate to last me FOREVER,which is OK because it is the best chocolate I have ever had. I also got some really unique things like a picture frame with a picture of my friend Fanni and I, hand made necklace and matching bracelet, a Hungarian history book, a Hungarian cook book, and New Moon in Hungarian! 

The best gift though was just being with them, laughing and having a great time! Unfortunately the time past fast and soon they all had to go home.
On Saturday I finally got to do some relaxing! I slept in late and then around 5 rode the bus into Debrecen. My friend, Elvira, was dancing before a music show and bought me a ticket to the show for my birthday! It was great because I got to watch her dance, and then listen to many different musicians and bands! Today I spend time with Lajos and Emi and just relaxed! Boy what a great week and an amazing birthday! The best present was not something that I can show you, or that you can see. It was that I feel like apart of the Máté and like Lajos and Emi really care about me! Nothing could ever top this! Or could it...... :)

My Hungarian Halloween!

One of my classmates, the girl on the far left Dori, invited me to her house to celebrate Halloween. She and her mom told all the neighbors to decorate their houses, buy candy, and have their kids go tricker-treating on Halloween. We Saturday afternoon two of my other class mates, Panni (the girl next to Dori) and another Dori (the girl next to me) rode the train to Nyíregyháza, a town about 40 minutes from Debrecen, where Dori lives. Dori and her family picked us up from the train station and then took us to have some fun! First we went to a go-cart track that was in a garage! It was tuns of fun and I LOVED going fast! Plus it was fun to drive again :) Then we went bowling. This was hilarious

because i do not think that any of the them had
Bowled before! They usually threw gutter-balls that went strait into the gutter with a thunk! It was interesting because the bowling alley was something similar to ours at home but only with five or six lanes. It was even the same brand as at the Back Bowl. The next day was... halloween!! Yahoo :) In the  morning Dori showed us around town. I think that it is a rather new town. They had lots of American things and a lot of the neighbor hoods and buildings were very modern. Then we went back to her house were we had lunch. We had a Romanian food which was meat in a spicy sauce mixed in with french fries and it was very good! After lunch Dori's little sister came home and she was SO cute! She was so curious about me and kept trying to talk to me. I could not understand her very well and she could not understand me at all, ha ha.

But we still had a lot of fun together. We all drew and then decorated Doris house with Halloween decorations. Once it got dark we started changing and getting ready for the night! I decided to be a farmer and Dori let me use some overalls that she had. The three of them wanted to be witches ha ha. It was a good choice because I think every girl in the US has been a witch for one halloween or another.
When it became dark all the neighbors showed up at our house. There were kids from the age of 3 to 20 and who were dressed as zombies, ghosts, and things that I do not even know what! We all walked around together from house to house! When we got to the first house where no one answered the door every one started chanting VC PAPIR!! Or in english TOLIT PAPER! I was so surprised, because that only happens in moves,
And I had never TPed a house before! But they thought that was part of the holiday so by the end of the night we used put 4 or 5 rolls of paper. We got lots and lots of yummy candy, but it is Hungarian candy and really different! There are no snickers, twirlers, or pixy sticks, but lots of yummy chocolates and lots of hard fruit candies. The neighbors did a great job decorating their houses, and a lot of them even carved pumpkins! I did not get to, but there is always next year! We stayed up really late laughing and talking and of course eating all the candy! The next day we were super tired and so just hung out around Doris house.
We watched TV with her sister who insisted we watch Sweet Life on Deck, and Phineas and Ferb! Then we watched the Ugly Truth in Hungarian :) HA HA. Even though it was not an american Halloween at all, it was still an amazing one and one I will defiantly never forget. Then before we left they had a little birthday suprise for me! We cake and then they gave me a present! It is a very beautiful blue shirt! They told me it is from them, and two other girls in my class! :)

Start to myőszi-szünet

:) Yahoo!! Starting after school of Friday was the beginning to a week long break!! It is called the őszi-szünet which means autumn break. To start it off I went to my home room teachers house on Saturday! It sounds we weird that I went to my teachers house, I know! She took me to a local pastry business and we had yummy sweets!! We spent the day mostly just talking and then cook and ate dinner! After dinner I got a big surprise! She made a Hungarian apple cake for my birthday! She lit a candle that said 16 and I then I blew it out and made a wish! She also gave me this really cute pillow case.
Then on Saturday I went with Dori, Emi, and Lajos to Lajos's moms house. She lives in a small town about 40 minutes away called Püspökladány. When we got to her house she gave us lots of baked treats and my favorite pogacsas! Then we all went to the Cemetery and visited their dead family. In Hungarian there is a holiday on November 1 called Halottak Napja which is a day to remember the dead. So for the few days before everyone goes to the cemetery and puts flowers lights candles. It was very pretty to me and I found it very interesting. It was similar to in the US but they had flat, tall, boxy graves instead of grave stones. When we finish we went back her house to have lunch. It was the biggest lunch I have ever had! First we had soup, next we had something similar to sautéed chicken on top of potatoes, then stuffed cabbage, then sausage and pasta, and then a dessert thing!! I do not know all of the names or how to describe it but it was a lot of food! A good start to the break so far and lots more exciting things to come!