Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Pictures
I have pictures posted from Istanbul, Slovenia, and daily life on Facebook. I'll add the links to the left and maybe eventually write a new post.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The most wonderful time of the year!
Well, after many weeks of being badgered I decided I could write another blog entry, maybe two. I’ve experienced the holiday season in Hungary, travelling internationally at Christmas, and getting sick in Hungary.
First, the holidays in Hungary, similar to home, the Christmas celebrations begin shortly after Thanksgiving time (though obviously this is not a time marker for most Hungarians). December 6th is St. Mikulás (St. Nicholas, St. Nick, a.k.a Santa Claus) Day. The children leave out their “boots” and if they were good Mikulás leaves them candy. If they weren’t good, Santa’s helper, which I loosely interpreted as the devil, leaves behind a wooden switch. The younger grades had a relay competition to celebrate this day in which they all dressed up like this devil character, complete with horns. At the end, of course, Mikulás came and left presents for the classes. Apparently, I was good this year too, because I also received some candy. With several of the older classes we learned two songs and sang them at the Christmas program, Silent Night and Auld Lang Syne. We practiced quite a bit; I’ll just say I’m glad I don’t have to hear the songs till next year. ;) Christmas time made me quite home sick, especially for Mom’s peanut brittle. I know the holidays can be an overwhelming time and most stores look like Christmas threw up, but when all of the craziness isn’t going on you miss it.
I left Budapest airport to go home on the 23rd, cutting it a little close I know. Shortly after arrived at the airport they delayed my flight to London for the first time. Now if you watched the news at all you know that London Heathrow wasn’t exactly operating smoothly that week. After I was all checked in and already nervous about making my connection the flight was delayed for a second time. I had no idea what state Heathrow was in at this point and officially started to freak out. I would just like to point out at this time that I never did actually break down into tears, though I easily could have. I mean was I going to have to spend Christmas in an airport?
When we finally got to Heathrow I had missed my flight to Chicago by about 2 hours. This means I got to stand in lovely sized line (or queue as the British say). After waiting about an hour and a half an extremely nice lady helped me. She got me on the flight to New York JFK the next morning after she did some finagling. I will forever love this woman who was way too nice to be working in customer service, or are the British really that nice?
A flight the next morning meant I got to stay in London for the night. So what exciting things did I do you may ask? Well, I got to see the Heathrow Renaissance (pronounced Re-nay-sance hehe). I woke up early the next morning and arrived a little late to the airport due to the shuttle and had to cut in line. As I was checking in the British Airways employee got his call back about my seat number. He looked up at me and said, “Madame, you’ve been upgraded to business class, is that all right?” Uh, let me think about this, YEAH!!!!
I got to actually sleep and stretch out on my 7 hour flight. It was great!! I’ve learned that I love British Airways, being offered champagne, newspapers, full breakfast and being called Madame in a British accent.
Once I finally arrived in Chicago, speaking English and in my newly found British accent, my Dad picked me up at the airport. He took me to a lovely welcome home dinner! A Wendy’s cheeseburger has never tasted so good! We had quite the drive in front of us. It took us five hours to get home from O’Hare in the snow, usually a 3 ½ hour drive. I had a wonderful time at home getting to spend time with my family and friends!!
My trip back to Hungary was much smoother than the one home, thankfully. Jet lag really got to me when I got back and I slept what felt like the whole week. I was getting back into the swing of things and then I woke up one morning feeling less than stellar. I ended up getting sick with some kind of flu bug. It was awful. This also meant I got to experience Hungarian health care. All I have to say is thank God for Olgi! I would have had no idea what to do at the doctor’s without her. The doctor was an older lady and Olgi translated for us. I was in and out after like 5 minutes.
It was strange for me. I had no appointment but we walked into the building and then waited outside of this door. I have no idea how you know which door to go to, but there we were. We waited for what seemed like forever. I then walked through the door (one was marked for women to enter the other for men, but apparently they don’t use this system anymore because everyone entered through the men’s door). Olgi told the doctor what was wrong with me and of course that I didn’t speak Hungarian. The doctor poked and prodded. She then wrote me a prescription and that was it! It seemed to move very quickly once we were through the door. Olgi and I then walked to the pharmacy which is in the hospital and they gave me my medicine. Though you have to have a prescription the drugs are already packaged just like over the counter drugs. Thankfully I bounced back quickly! There is flu outbreak in Hungary right now, which is becoming more evident by the number of students missing in class. I’ll just pray that I don’t get that and can remain healthy, because being sick is the worst!
First, the holidays in Hungary, similar to home, the Christmas celebrations begin shortly after Thanksgiving time (though obviously this is not a time marker for most Hungarians). December 6th is St. Mikulás (St. Nicholas, St. Nick, a.k.a Santa Claus) Day. The children leave out their “boots” and if they were good Mikulás leaves them candy. If they weren’t good, Santa’s helper, which I loosely interpreted as the devil, leaves behind a wooden switch. The younger grades had a relay competition to celebrate this day in which they all dressed up like this devil character, complete with horns. At the end, of course, Mikulás came and left presents for the classes. Apparently, I was good this year too, because I also received some candy. With several of the older classes we learned two songs and sang them at the Christmas program, Silent Night and Auld Lang Syne. We practiced quite a bit; I’ll just say I’m glad I don’t have to hear the songs till next year. ;) Christmas time made me quite home sick, especially for Mom’s peanut brittle. I know the holidays can be an overwhelming time and most stores look like Christmas threw up, but when all of the craziness isn’t going on you miss it.
I left Budapest airport to go home on the 23rd, cutting it a little close I know. Shortly after arrived at the airport they delayed my flight to London for the first time. Now if you watched the news at all you know that London Heathrow wasn’t exactly operating smoothly that week. After I was all checked in and already nervous about making my connection the flight was delayed for a second time. I had no idea what state Heathrow was in at this point and officially started to freak out. I would just like to point out at this time that I never did actually break down into tears, though I easily could have. I mean was I going to have to spend Christmas in an airport?
When we finally got to Heathrow I had missed my flight to Chicago by about 2 hours. This means I got to stand in lovely sized line (or queue as the British say). After waiting about an hour and a half an extremely nice lady helped me. She got me on the flight to New York JFK the next morning after she did some finagling. I will forever love this woman who was way too nice to be working in customer service, or are the British really that nice?
A flight the next morning meant I got to stay in London for the night. So what exciting things did I do you may ask? Well, I got to see the Heathrow Renaissance (pronounced Re-nay-sance hehe). I woke up early the next morning and arrived a little late to the airport due to the shuttle and had to cut in line. As I was checking in the British Airways employee got his call back about my seat number. He looked up at me and said, “Madame, you’ve been upgraded to business class, is that all right?” Uh, let me think about this, YEAH!!!!
I got to actually sleep and stretch out on my 7 hour flight. It was great!! I’ve learned that I love British Airways, being offered champagne, newspapers, full breakfast and being called Madame in a British accent.
Once I finally arrived in Chicago, speaking English and in my newly found British accent, my Dad picked me up at the airport. He took me to a lovely welcome home dinner! A Wendy’s cheeseburger has never tasted so good! We had quite the drive in front of us. It took us five hours to get home from O’Hare in the snow, usually a 3 ½ hour drive. I had a wonderful time at home getting to spend time with my family and friends!!
My trip back to Hungary was much smoother than the one home, thankfully. Jet lag really got to me when I got back and I slept what felt like the whole week. I was getting back into the swing of things and then I woke up one morning feeling less than stellar. I ended up getting sick with some kind of flu bug. It was awful. This also meant I got to experience Hungarian health care. All I have to say is thank God for Olgi! I would have had no idea what to do at the doctor’s without her. The doctor was an older lady and Olgi translated for us. I was in and out after like 5 minutes.
It was strange for me. I had no appointment but we walked into the building and then waited outside of this door. I have no idea how you know which door to go to, but there we were. We waited for what seemed like forever. I then walked through the door (one was marked for women to enter the other for men, but apparently they don’t use this system anymore because everyone entered through the men’s door). Olgi told the doctor what was wrong with me and of course that I didn’t speak Hungarian. The doctor poked and prodded. She then wrote me a prescription and that was it! It seemed to move very quickly once we were through the door. Olgi and I then walked to the pharmacy which is in the hospital and they gave me my medicine. Though you have to have a prescription the drugs are already packaged just like over the counter drugs. Thankfully I bounced back quickly! There is flu outbreak in Hungary right now, which is becoming more evident by the number of students missing in class. I’ll just pray that I don’t get that and can remain healthy, because being sick is the worst!
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