Poland!!

On April 13 the Rotary exchange students got together and we had a trip to Poland. The night before on Thursday I slept over at my best friend Fanni's house and it was so much fun :) She came on the trip with us, which was great and it is crazy cause she came with us on the Venice trip and that is how I got to know her. We spent all of Friday driving to Poland but it was so beautiful! We had to drive through Slovenia and it was beautiful. Where we drove through, used to be Hungary. Late at night we arrived to Krakow and we had about an hour or two to see the city. It was so beautiful and full of

parks, open space, and people who are having a great time! It was such a beautiful city and there were huge churches everywhere. There is also a river flowing through the city and there is a castle! The castle is huge and was very beautiful. Of course I did not get to see everything cause we just had a few hours. We woke up early on Saturday and started traveling to Auswits. We arrived actually went to the camp that is next to Auswits, Birkenau. This is the place where all the trains came and where most of the people died. Lots of it was just ruins because they destroyed everything, but there was still some things remaining. It was really amazing to be there and I do not thing amazing is the right word

but it gave me a real feeling of what it was like. You know that I read lost of books back home about the Holocaust but this was something completely different. It was so big you could not even see all of it and there were so many gas chambers and crematories it was insane. We had a guide who took us on a tour and we got to see the remains of the old buildings that were destroyed and the ones the remained we could go into. There was a very strange silence there, and everyone was very quite, it was very interesting. Then we went to Auswits and that was a complexity different story. This was a lot smaller place and was not really a working camp where

you need lots of space. It was more just a place where there were lots of buildings that were used for different things. Inside of all these buildings they have remodeled them and made it into a museum. To me this was horrible and I really did not like it. I do not know why they did not just build a new building next to this place if they really needed a museum. It did not feel real and like it was a long time ago, but from the out side it still looked similar. There was still a gas chamber that was there and we got to go inside. I cannot explain the feel that where I was, was here in every minute of years people were dyeing constantly. Also there was a courtyard where they

Tortured the people. On the wall, like in this picture, you can see that there is still a remaining blood splatter. After this we went to Wieliczka which was a salt mine. Once they finished mining all the salt from it, they made it into a museum or a place where people can go! Everywhere there are sculptures made of salt and there are beautiful designs and picture carved into the walls. It was so big and very interesting! We arrived again to Krakow in the night and had time to go around the city. It was so beautiful and I spent time with the other exchange students. For the first time I really felt a connection with them and loved speaking with the American students. We talked about all the little things that I had forgotten about at home like pop-tarts or just how we speak! It was super and for the first time I really enjoyed speaking english! On this trip it was really awesome because I got to meet with two kids from Hungary that are coming to Colorado next year! We had two districts in Colorado and Pal is coming to our district and to the Denver district is going the Hungarian girl. We took a

Colorado is awesome picture. The girl on the right with the blond hair is the other girl from Colorado who is in Hungary right now! The trip was really good and I would love to go back to Poland some time!

Easter!!

On Wednesday the 4th, after school I moved back to Hajduszoboszlo. It is nice to be back with my family, but now I am realizing how much I love the Zatik family! They are so amazing, kind, funny and like a real family to me! On Thursday we did not have school because we had a break from Thursday to monday because of Easter. I stayed home with the family and we had a great time catching up!! Then on Friday I went to a concert at my school where one of my classmates sang and he was very good! On Saturday was the start of the Easter Festival. In the morning I went and learned how to paint hungarian eggs. For an hour you need to boil the peel of red onions and then boil the eggs in that. When they have taken a red-brown color you need to fill a bowl with viniger and then with the tip of a tooth pick dip it in the viniger. Then you can draw on the egg cause it will take the color off of the egg. Saturday after noon I went to Debrecen back to the Zatik family :) We also painted eggs and it was lots of fun. I was also just really happy to be back with my family! We got up early on Sunday and went to

Church. My grand father is the pope and they are Greek Catholic. They have a special tradition around Easter that they fill a basket with foods like stuffed meat, boiled eggs, bread, wine or palinka and ham. They bring it to the church where then the pope blesses it with water and then again with steam. The church was very beautiful and so were his cloths!! After that we went to the grand parents house to have breakfast. We ate from the basket and it was very good. Then after that we had lots of sweets, cake and ice-cream. I spent the day with them and we enjoyed each-others company and it was fun to be with the grand parents. Then later I came back home to Hajduszoboszlo. Sunday night

We cooked and baked a lot, to prepare for Monday. On Monday woke up to find that the easter bunny had been here and left lots of candy and chocolate! It also left me a big bunny stuffed animal. We set the table and laid out all of the foods that we cooked and waited the water boys! In Hungary it is tradition that the men and boys come to the girls and water them with perfume! So through out the day my dad came and grandpa and watered me. They memorized a poem and then asked if they could water me and then sprayed me. To thank them I gave them an egg that I painted and then chocolate. They then ate the food that we made for them. So Easter here is a 2 day holiday and is a very important day that everyone celebrates. Kellemes husveti unnepeket kivanok!!

new things come with spring

Wow!! Here it is warm warm warm! 82! Almost to warm! ha ha but things are good. Last weekend on March 31 I went with the collage here to Slovenia hiking! Yahoo a new country for me! It was really pretty and was similar to the climate at home and that was a nice surprise! But it was wetter than in Colorado. Where we were was a very interesting place because we got to hike on the high top of the valley and then on the way back, in the valley next to the river! Next to the river we crossed lots of bridges and there were steps made into the rocks everywhere and it was very interesting and made it a lot more exciting! I had a really good time, and when I got home my family was waiting for me :) On Sunday the first we celebrated my grandpa's birthday and host sisters. Plus we kind of had last big meal/get together with me. It was really good to be with my family and wow I have really grown to love them :) My grandparents have even grown to love me and told me they were very sad that I am going and to always come back! Then on Tuesday one of my friends invited me to go to another pig killing! I was so happy 

And excited! So remember when I went to Hajduhathaz, and met all of the cute old ladies, that then invited me to Tokaj to drink the wine, well one of them invited me to go to her pig killing. I got there in the morning around 9 and that is when the work started! I could not go to the killing because it was on the farm where the pig lived :( but then they brought the pig to the house and together we started working! We cut the pig just like in Romania but there was just five of us and that went that I got to do a lot of work! My favorite part was when we had to scrape all of the poop and stuff out the intestines and to make sure we did not rip them we had to blow them up like a balloon!

But also we did not have a machine that would stuff them with the meat and with the mixture of heart, liver, and these things we had to stuff it will our hands! This was amazing because I go to feel what everything felt like! There were also some differences because this was a family tradition to do right before Ester so they have good food. So after they killed the pig, they collected the blood you know, and before they started cutting the pig they made breakfast which was onion blood! It was really good :) ha ha and then for lunch we had fresh meat and fat cooked! It was so good. I am sure that I have never had better meat cause it was so fresh, just hour before this it was living!! wow :)

Plus when we made the blood horka, we did not cook it as much before we added the fat, and so it was more liquidly than before. It was really good. Then we cooked them and had them for dinner! It was very good! Plus it was a more traditional place because they used tradition pots, pans, and tools. Oh and we were in a very traditional little village. Everyone that walked my said good work! Good work! It was a really good feeling and I had a lot of fun! But then the next day, on Wednesday after school everyone moved. I really love my family and it was hard to say good by to them. But now I truly believe that I will go back and see them lots because they live really close to the school! When 

I said good my host parents told me how proud they are of me and how much I have done this year! And my host brother would not let me go when I gave him a hug and told me I have to come back. We drove together to Hajduszoboszlo and wow it was so great to see my parents here too! They were so excited to see me and right away called me their baby and we talked talked talked. Now I have been here for two days and I feel so at home. I know it sounds funny but I know I am at home cause my host mom invited me to go shopping! And it was great cause I loving going grocery shopping with my mom back home! :) Things are going good here!

Romaniaban vagyok!

I am writing from Romania!! So on last thursday my host mom drove me to a city called Nagyvarad which is in Romania, to spend a long week with the families friend. They have a son right now in Texas as an exchange student. But guess what... so you know they live in Romania but they are actually Hungarian! So because along time ago Hungary used to be really big, and then other countries took over the area, the hungarians stayed where they where they were living. So here a bunch of Hungarians live and they all still speak hungarian and live their hungarian lives! Ha ha and so half of the city is Romanians and the other half is Hungarians who speak hungarian and romanian!

I also learned that not only is this in Romania but this is also in lots of Hungarian's neighboring countries. So on Thursday my host mom drove me to Nagyvarad which is about one and half hours from Debrecen. In Nagyvarad lives her friends that invited me to spend a long weekend with them. They are a family of five, two parents, one son in the US right now, a daughter who is in 8th grade and a four year old daughter. On Friday I went to the disznotor that I wrote about in the previous post. Then on Friday night I went into town with Tekla the daughter and we hung out with her friends. It was really fun we just went and hung out in a cafe, and they said that is what they do here.

Then on Saturday we hung out all day at the house and then for dinner we went to their businesses party. That is why we made all of the food on Friday so that they would have fresh food for the party. They own 3 BMW car dealerships and have alot of money! After we had dinner and ate tepertu, kolbasz, and horka Tekla and I went bowling with one of her friends! On Sunday the whole family took me a cave about an hour and a half way. It was SO beautiful and there were so many different colors in it and so many different kinds of rock formations! On Monday I went to school with her... and wow!! So she actually goes to a Hungarian school, so everyone there speaks Hungarian but it is a Romanian school. So they have all of their classes in Hungarian but then at the end of the year when they take tests it is the sam test that the rest of the kids in the country takes in Romanian. Plus in school they learn Romanian and can speak it like they mother language. It was really fun to go to another school cause I really got to see and feel that everywhere in the world the schools are different! While i was there Tekla had an english class and when the teacher found out that I was from America she got really quite and told everyone in Hungarian that they can spend the class doing what ever and they will continue the next day. And the class told me that she I a very strict teacher and that she always speaks english only in the class and so we think she was afraid!! It was a really great long weekend and on Monday night I came back home to my loving family!!

Disznotor!!!!

In the Hungarian people have a special Hungarian tradition called a Disznotor. This is a tradition where 

they kill a pig. So they do this because along time ago they would need to have food for them self’s. So what happens is about 3 times in the winter. They wake up really early in the morning at like 4 and around 5 maybe they kill the pig. They usually cut a slice on the bottom of its throat and then the blood flows into a bucket. I really wanted to see this, but I did not get the chance. So I will start with what I did get to do. Right now people do not usually kill the pigs because it is to warm. They usually do them in the beginning of November, before Christmas so that Christmas will have really good-fresh food, and then maybe at the end of January early February. I thought I was not going to get to be in one, but then my host mom called on of her friends and it just so happened that her company was going to have one. Turns out that her friend lives in Romania where Hungary used to be. It is a Romanian city, and everyone here speaks Romanian but there are lots and lots of Hungarians still here. Not just in Nagyvarad, but all over the country. So their company is going to have a party and so they will have a 

Disznotor before it so there will be really good food. But unfortunately they would not let me go to the actually killing of the pig. The pig was killed in a little village out side of the city, cause you cannot really kill a pig in the city, and then they borough it here. When they brought the pig here the first thing they did with it is burned of the hair. They had this machine that was like a hose but instead of water coming out, fire came out. So then the hair burned off and they pushed all the burnt hair of off the pig with a shovel. Then after that they burned the skin. So then the whole pig was black, and then they peeled off, or scrapped off the black layer of skin and once again the pig was white. The next step 

was cutting open the pig and taking out all of the things from it. So what happens is that they use almost all of the parts of the pig. They put the intestines in on bucket, the head in a pot for cooking, the heart and liver in the same for cooking, and then brought the rest of the pig inside. We were in a cold room cause you have to have the meet stay cold, just like as if they would be doing it on a cold winter day. There they cut everything in to groups so the meet, the fat and these things. Then from all the fat, we peeled of the skin and made a separate pile, because we eat this skin here to. Since it was cooked from the fire, it is not soft is kind of hard and crunchy and we put salt 

on it and then just eat it like that. They would not really like me help cut the pig I was more just watching. While the men were sorting all the parts the women cooked the intestine, liver, heart, lungs, fat and these parts in big pots or big tin buckets over the fire. But with the intestine they took out all of the parts from inside of the tub like things and then put the tub like things that we empty in water, they were kind of like long balloons. Then we started to make KOLBASZ. What you need for this is fat, meat, lots of salt and pepper and a hungian red pepper spice. But you have to ground the meat and the fat and then you mix everything together. Then we put the ground mixture into a 

matching that on one end we put the intestine tube 

on, and then turned the handle of the machine and the mixture went into the tube!! You can eat the kolbasz just like this but you can also cook it or smoke it. For me I think I like it smoked the best, and then it is hard like beef jerky. Then we made the HORKA. There are two kinds of horka, bloody and liver. The liver horka is made with all of the broiled intestine, liver, heart, and fat. This is ground and then mixed with tons of cooked rice, salt and pepper. You do the same process as the kolbasz but you only eat it raw or cooked. Then the bloody horka is called bloody cause guess what it is really 

bloody! Yeah I know crazy, but you remember when I said that when they cut the pig’s neck and put the blood in a bucket, yeah with then after it hardened a little they put it in boiling water and then it because something like a sold and we ground that with fat. With this ground mixture we added salt and pepper and the same thing as the other horka. It is so crazy I think because they do this as a normal thing that way they can it, cause if they do not do it they will not have good food in the winter. We also made something else called teperto which is fried fat and we had this fresh and delicious!!

One day here the next day there!

BEAUTIFUL HUNGARY!! On Saturday the 25th I got up early and went to the train station with a few people from my school. We were about a group of six, two students and four teachers and we traveled to the Bükk Hegység. This time we could actually see where we were and the weather was amazing! We hiked around in just sweatshirts and sun tanned. We hiked past one really old castle and we could barley tell that it was a castle cause it was so old that the earth grow over it!! Then on the next day I went on a trip with some of my friends. But ha ha not just any of my friends but about 40 friend of mine that are older than 60! I ended up going on this trip because when I was on one of

My other trips I met a few ladies who then invited me on this trip cause they enjoyed being with me. So when I got on the bus all of the old people said PALINKA! POGACSA! You know palinka is their famous alcohol drink and pogacsa is their famous pastry! It was really funny and we drank and ate and started our journey to Tokaj which is a big hill in the middle of flat Hungary! They grow really amazing wine here and it is said to be world famous. I tried two kinds, the sweet and the not sweet one but only the sweet one I liked. It was really fun and we spend the day trying wines and learning how the different people make their wines here. After all the traveling around I rested for two days and then on Wednesday the 29..... LEAP

DAY... I went back to Hajduszoboszlo and had the most amazing time ever. It was so great to be back with my first family and I really feel like they are my family :) We talked alot and laughed even more and packed for a big trip to Budapest! We made lots of snacks and of course POGACSAS!! Then the next day, on Thursday we got up early in the morning and Lajos and I drove to Budapest. Lajos works with the Tourist department of the town and we were on our way to Hungary's traveling convention. Here people for other countries and people from cities and villages in Hungary could come and present their country or town. Lots of travel agencies also were their presenting what

Kind of trips they offer. The towns showed what kinds of traditions they have their, they build structures that looked like the buildings in their town and some even had food to offer. I got to try fish sausage, a famous hungarian soup, lots of foods I do not know the name of, and my new favorite....... FAT!!! Ha ha yes I know it sounds very gross and weird but fat. So when I came to Hungary I though we I am going to go the whole year without eating this but six months after being here it did not sounds grows any more and I wanted to try it!! So there are many ways they prepare it and you can eat lots of different kinds. For example pig fat they prepare by frying it and then it is very crispy but what what I ate here was goose fat and it was fried but just until it was soft!! They also make something like a cream or a spread out of fat and we often eat this on bread!! I know I sound crazy but I AM FINALY HUNGARIAN!! :)

Gyorsan megy a napok

Ahh!! Do not say already that it is the 24th of February! I do not believe. Last week, on the 14th, I moved families.  Right now my host parents are traveling to South America where they are spending a month traveling with their son who is an exchange student in Argentina. Rotary told me that I need to have a new family for this month, and found me a new family. My new family has four kids and one of them was an exchange student in Taiwan last year. I have a brother and sister that go to collage in Budapest and two brothers who live at home who are 19 years old and 10. It has been one week and a half and I already feel at home! It is so interesting because when I moved families for the

first time it was so so hard but this was rather easy
And I fit right in. It seems like I am always playing games with my little brother and we are always joking around. I am also teaching him english and helping him with his english homework. My mom does not work and is always at home :) and my host dad has a company and is often working. Things are going by so fast and unfortunately I just had to get my plane tickets home :( and am leaving July 15.... So anyway today we did not have school so I invited two of my friends over and we cooked cooked cooked!! My friend Laura who is in the middle of the picture here, is going to Mexico next year as an exchange student. My friends had never had Mexico food before, so I decided we

Would cook some! We made chicken enchiladas! It was a lot of work because we do not have a lot of the sauces that we do in America so first we made chicken soup and then enchilada sauces. But if we were going to be making everything from scratch that means the tortilla too!! I had never made any of these things before and here we had different measurements so it was a big experiment! But guess what! Everything worked out amazing and was super super yummy :)