The way home

26th and 27th of December, Friday and Saturday, mushed together

I woke up relatively early, to make sure I got everything packed. I skyped my whole family, yes relatives too. They were having their Christmas extended family gathering at my sister's apartment. I would say, that I missed that Christmas food, but luckily, Judie saved me on the 18th! 

Larry came to pick me up at 1, with her daughter and son-in-law. By then, I was completely packed, ready to go. The luggage was 3 pounds overweight, but the nice check-in ladies let it go. However nice the very end of the trip is, I dislike flying very much. I need to learn how to teleport. 

Herb and Sun came with us to the airport, where we met Al and Dan from Rotary, who came to see me off. We sat in the lounge for an hour, just talking. I was actually pretty sad to leave. But at one point, we had to say goodbye. 

  I got on the second tiniest plane I've been on, from Rochester to Toronto. I sat next to the emergency exit. It was a quick flight. The time between the transfers was long though. The Toronto airport is one of the best I've ever been to. There are Ipads with seats and chargers everywhere. Free of charge, one can play, surf the net and relax. Pretty awesome. I've made some friends too. Three Canadian people came to my table and started talking, and I kind of joined the conversation. They were two parents, on their way to a dance competition in Vienna, and their instuctor, who's and author. We chatted for some while. Canadian, always so nice!

  The 8 hour flight from Toronto to Munich was horrible. It smelled really bad, the person in front of me stole my pillow, and after I asked and he gave it back, he revenged it by leaning his chair back. While I was sleeping on the tray. On my head. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. I watched the end of The Giver (lousy movie, didn't like it), and Arthur Christmas (which is actually pretty good), but the rest of the movies were either not interesting, or I've seen them before.

  My flight from Munich was delayed by half an hour. Germans are very nice too, they were all kind and smiling. I sat in the emergency exit row too, alone by the window. Like a first class seat! My Dad would have loved it, he's really tall so he needs a lot of leg-space. I landed at 1 pm.

  Seeing my parents again was undiscribably joyful! It all seemed surreal, that we were in the same car. We were all so happy! 

My dog went crazy with joy, but the cat ran away when I wanted to pet it. We had some Hungarian bean soup, that my Dad made. It was so good! We exchanged some Christmas gifts too, as a late Christmas.

  I fell asleep at 3 pm, and I woke up at midnight. I think I was tired from not sleeping for 24 hours. 

  Being in my home country was weird. I've been away for so long, that I felt like a foreigner. I was very happy though, to see the things I was used to again.

  It was all just so good to be true! I want to thank every Rotarian, who helped me get here! You made my family so happy!

Christmas

25th of December, Thursday

A real traditional American Christmas! I got up at 8:30, and everyone came down to the livin room. We were anxious to open presents! I skyped my family in Hungary. My sister and her family was at our house, so I talked with them too. I got a package from her, from Brussels, which was a furry bracelet. My sister gives me the weirdest and funniest presents! I got a package from my parents too, full of personal gifts and candy. Lots of candy. I didn't cry this time. I got a bunch of gifts from Herb, Anne and Sun. Like an awesome bracelet, pyjama pants, a hoodie, parfume, keychain, and a stocking full of candy (I definitely left something out, because there was so much). I opened a package from Kim Masiello, full of art supplies (yay!), and I got an envelope from Al, who generously added to my bus tour savings.

  I spent the rest of the morning packing. At 4, the extended family came, and everyone was giving each other presents. I got some gift cards and candy again. We ate some Christmas food in the basement. It was very lovely. Unfortunately, I still had a lot of packing to do.

  At 10 pm, Herbie, Jackie, Dj, Sun, two of Herbie's cousins and I, we went to the cinema! Weird, the last time I went to the movie theatre on Christmas, I was 6. We watched Unbroken, a film directed by Angelina Jolie. It was very impressive, amazingly done and beautifully filmed. It's a true story about a WWII veteran Olympicon, who survived a plane crash, 1,5 months drifting in the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat, and being captured and held in a Japanese concentrational camp. The Japanese are so cruelly illustrated, that this movie is banned in Japan. It was a very powerful film, and a long one too. It was 1 am when we got back home. I finished packing by 3 am.

Christmas Eve

24th of December, Wednesday

Yay, this is the 100th blog entry!
In Hungary, this would be the first day of Christmas. We celebrate the close-family Christmas on the day and evening of the 24th. The day is spent with decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping presents and cooking Christmas dinner. Then, at 7 o'clock, everybody comes down to the living room, nicely dressed, and we have our Christmas dinner (which is usually either orange-duck or plums wrapped in turkey breast). This year, my family at home had fish for some reason. Then when we're finished, we get up, take some Christmas pictures, maybe sing a song and light up some sparkles. Then we finally give each other presents. One of the things, that I always get, is DVDs. My mom is kind of a collector. We spend the rest of the day with watching a movie I got for Christmas.
  When I was smaller, I would spend the day at my Grandma's apartment, and we'd go home late in the afternoon. I'd find, that the Christmas tree was decorated by the "angels", and "baby Jesus" placed gifts underneath it.
  This year though, I was trying to organize my catastrophicly messy room. It seems silly, but whoever would have seen the state of this room, would have agreed, that the situation is merely impossible. Nonetheless, I tried.
  At 5 o'clock, we went to church, for a 1 hour service. When we got back at 6:30, everyone got back to packing, wrapping, cooking. The big Christmas Eve dinner was chilli. It's understandable, American's don't celebrate Christmas just yet. We decided to give each other presents the next day.
  This year, I've gotten several scary, heart-jumping emails from my parents, emails full of bad news. The worst one was the news about my Grandmother's passing, the second worst, was when she got a stroke in October, and today was the third. A candle burnt down our dining room at home. Luckily, my Mom fell asleep on the couch (that's what she does, if she's too tired to go upstairs to bed), and she woke up to some strange sounds. I can't even imagine, what she felt, when she saw the flames eating on the dining room table and three other chairs. She was probably shocked, and full of adrenaline at the same time. She put out the flames with buckets of water. By the time my Dad got downstairs, there was only a puddle, and the sad remains of our living room furniture left. Must have been horrible. It all happened at 2 am, Budapest time. We skyped with my parents at 3 am. They were still up (no wonder, the adrenaline stays for a longer time), and they showed me the damage. Looks like we're starting the new year with some new furniture. I can't believe, how lucky it was, that the flames didn't spread towards the drapes, and my Mom was right there to be heroic and put the fire out.
  This will be a memorable Christmas for my family, a Christmas of firsts. First time I'm away, first time something burnt down in our house (ever), and the first Christmas without my Grandma, both for me and my Mom. I remember, whenever she gave someone a gift, she always used to say: "Strength, health and lots of love to you!". It's better for her to spend this Christmas in Heaven, than to spend it in a hospital.
  Everybody says, that Christmas is the most critical time in the exchange student's life, because the homesickness is the worst. I don't know if it's the fact, that I'm going home 2 days later, or that I skyped with my parents twice today, but I don't feel homesick at all. I'm just enjoying a regular American Christmas. Which starts tomorrow.

Beginning of the Christmas holiday

20th-23rd of December, Sat-Tue

The days before the holidays are always a blur. Not just for me, but for everybody in the world. Last minute present shopping, party planning, decorating. Plus I have to pack. Pack to go back home on Friday, and pack to move host families. This is my last week with the Parkers.
  On Saturday, me, Herb and Sun, we went to a 2 hour church Christmas choir concert rehearsal. This was my first rehearsal, for I have missed the previous ones. I didn't really feel comfortable presenting 5 new songs the next day, so I gave up the church choir. Instead, I had a sleepover at Alma's. We stayed up til 4 am between Saturday and Sunday. We watched like 4 movies, and ate pizza. My happiness was complete!
  On Monday, Herb took me and Sun to Hobby Lobby, a hobby store in Webster. We had lunch at the Dinosaur BBQ place downtown. It's a smoky half bar, half restaurant establishment, with limited lighting, cool decorations and delicious BBQ. I had a salad, but I couldn't finish it, the portions were so big. Should be used to it by now, American restaurant portion are crazy.
  In the evening, I went over to the Masiello's for a mini-dinner-party. I met Zach, Kim's son, who lives in Seattle and just came over for the holidays. He works at Microsoft. He's such a geek (and I say this in the best way possible, because I consider myself one too, although, I'm clearly an illiterate person in terms of computers compared to him), and he reminds me of my friends at home, who are also geeks. As it happened, Larry Wills and a few Masiello family members came over, and we had mac-n-cheese, salad and ham. Yummy, as usual at the Masiello house.
  My Tuesday was unproductively awesome. I can't honestly say, that I got out of bed, or changed my pyjamas. These are the best days, I'm telling you. 

Last day of school 2014 - Pyjama day

19th of December, Friday

Finally, this day has arrived. The last day before Christmas holiday. And today, one of my childhood dreams came true: I went to school in my pyjamas.

At 6:16, I got up. I would have been running late, but I just got out of bed, and walked down, in my pyjamas. (Ok, before I went to bed, I put on a pair of leggings under my pyjama pants). At school almost everybody was wearing their sleepwear. Some even got blankets, pillows and teddy bears with them. The classes, as it is usual before Christmas, were really easy. In some, we watched movies, in some, we did nothing. In Choir, I found out the cast list for Anything Goes: I made the show! Even though I'm just an ensemble, that counts as a mini-accomplishment. 1/3 of the kids didn't even make the show. So from January, rehearsals are going to start, can't wait!

  At home, I discovered new things about my laptop, which is super cool. The speakers work, thank God, and everything else seems to be fine too. Windows 8 needs some getting-used-to, but I'll be alright.

Hungarian Christmas dinner at Judie's

18th of December, Thursday

School was kind of interesting today. We watched the Grinch in Creative Writing, and we celebrated Christmas at the Select Choir and music department Christmas party. We had some chicken wings as lunch, and we gave each other presents, for Secret Santa. You basically put your name in a jar with everyone, pull out 1 name, and you have to give that person a present. I got a girl, I only know her by face, so I couldn't really give her anything cool. She got a huge mug and some spices for tea or hot cocoa. My secret Santa was Mrs. Dearstyne, our pianist. She got me some Swiss hot chocolate, a mug, a pair of socks and nail polish. Funny thing, she gave me red, white and green nail polish, which are the colors of the Hungarian flag, but she unintentionally gave them, she only thought about the holiday colors. In Advisement, I joined the book club. It's a small group of girls, who meet about once every month, and they read the same book and discuss it. However uncool this may seem for the popular kids, I find it very fun. The cast list for Anything Goes was promised for today, but I didn't see it. I'll look for it tomorrow.

  When I got home, I just lay in bed, and fell asleep. At 5:16, Anne's shout woke me up. I thought that I was late for school (again). Then she added, that Larry was here, which confused me. Why would Larry be here in the morning. Finally, I realized, that it was still in the afternoon, and we had plans to have dinner at Judie's house. When I went down, my new computer was waiting for me. But I didn't have time to play with it, we had to go.

  We arrived at 6:10, fashionably 10 minutes late, at the same time as Tracy. Judie lives in a cute house in Hilton. She has two cats, a huge Santa Claus collection, and she cooks amazing food. She challenged herself to cook a traditional Hungarian Christmas meal, and she went even beyond that. She made some amazing goulash, and stuffed cabbage, with beigli and sweet kifli, two famous Hungarian Christmas desserts. Everything was phenomenal. It was truly perfect. We had so much fun. We gave each other presents too, although I wouldn't have thought, that I'd get something, but I got a lot of gifts again. I got some homemade jam, pictures, a scarf and two cute bags. Not to mention the extra food I brought home. This dinner was absolutely perfect. Thank you  so much, for all three of you!! 

Greece Rotary Christmas

17th of December, Wednesday

In the Rotary meeting today, we celebrated Christmas, because this was the last meeting of 2014. A lot of people came, more than usually. Must have been the news about the special holiday food they were serving for this occasion (:D).
  I feel so comfortable in the club, but also very spoiled. They gave me Christmas presents, and lots of them! The boots were put on the windowsill, full of gifts (like candy, awesome hat and gloves, Rotary teddy bear, pillow, Christmas ornaments and more candy), a poem was written for me, which is super cool, and the biggest surprise was, that the club, in a matter of one week, gathered so much money, that it covers my airfare back to Budapest. When I found out, I was truly speechless (which doesn't happen to me a lot). This is so incredible, it only happens in movies, and there I was, standing in front of 55 people, almost crying, being completely overwhelmed. It was just so emotional. I can never express my and my family's gratitude with words. What the Rotary has done for me this year is beyond describable. I just feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many great people, and I mean that with all my heart! Thank you guys, for a wonderful experience and for all the support!
  I gave my Christmas presents to the members too. I made little magnet out of perler beads, in the shape and colors of the Hungarian flag, and I glued a piece of magnet on it. It wasn't much, but it was made with love.
  After the Rotary Christmas meeting, Larry took me to the place he works at, where they also had a Christmas party. We just stuck our heads in, and I was introduced to a bunch of people. I also met Larry's mom, who lives in a beautiful nursing home. I mean, I've visited many Hungarian nursing homes this summer (which are in horrible conditions, and are very depressing), but this place was just perfect. Larry's mom is a very nice, king lady. She's very tiny, but she talked a lot. We didn't stay very long, but I was glad I got to meet her.
  When I got home, I immediately skyped my parents, to tell them about what happened today, and they were very moved too. They are very grateful too.

Athena Christmas Concert

16th of December, Tuesday

Ever since we started the school year, the Athena Select Choir has been preparing for the Christmas concert. It's an annual tradition, where all the music groups in the school perform a few songs. This night, we started the gig at 6:30.
  Beforehand, we prepared ourselves, put on our gowns, makeup and hair pieces (my friends helped me with the last one). We practiced for a little while, then we gracefully, almost tripping, walked up on stage, on the risers. I was standing in the 4th row. The theatre was 3/4 packed, a lot of friends and families came. For me, that was Herb and Anne, and from the Rotary, Kim, Larry, Tracy and Mike.
  Ms. Dyer conducted the choir, many times, I would read the lyrics off of her lips, when I forgot. We started with Beethoven's Halleluja, then Betelemehemu, a Nigerian Christmas songs, Bashana Haba'a, a Hebrew song, Shepherd's Chorus and Silent night. I think it all went well. We practiced a lot. By the end, my mouth was dry and my feet in the character shoes were killing me, but I was content with our performance. I didn't get a stagefever, or anything. I wasn't anxious at all.
  Afterwards, I stayed to watch the symphonic band play. They were really good too.

CPR training

15th of December, Monday

This is the last week of school in 2014. It's supposedly a winter Spirit week in Athena, but not a lot of people dressed in white today, as the theme of the first day. 

  We had CPR training in gym class. Many firefighters came, to educate us about it. It was hands-only CPR, and we could practice it on dolls after a short briefing presentation. I've learned a lot of interesting things. In Hungary, CPR training is not obligatory for graduation. You need to get this sort of training when 

you're doing your driver's licence. So this was very new for me. I also need to mention, that probably less people die of cardiac arrest in Hungary, than in the US. I think we all know why that is.

  We wrote tall tales in Creative Writing. For quite some time now, I've been playing with the idea to be a writer, and every day, I get a sign, that I should be. The meaning of life is a long searched theory, but not all people realize, that there's an explanation is within everyone. Because everyone's leading a different life, we all have our own interpretations of it. For me, it's all about the stories. The stories we live, hear, see, tell and write. My life is all about making a better story. Funny, how much one can philosophize in Creative Writing.

  The rest of the day was nothing extra special. I skyped my best friend in Hungary, heard what's happening with my friends at home. Seems like I'm missing out a lot, but still: this year counts as a better story. 

Skating in Manhattam Square

13th of December, Saturday

I woke up at the Masiello house, with around 4 emails from my Dad. He bought me tickets to Hungary. I'm leaving on the 26th and I'm coming back on the 9th of January. 

  I helped make meatballs, we moved a TV and wrapped presents with Kim. I skyped my parents in the afternoon. I had a really fun time, pretending to he the Masiello's exchange student. They'd be great host parents.

At 5, Mike Taylor and his family picked me up. We went ice skating on the Manhattan Square open air ice rink. It's completely in downtown Rochester. I had an amazing time getting to know the Taylor family. Mike's wife is called Kim too (just like the Masiellos), and they have two sons. I skated, without falling. Afterwards, we had dinner at Wimpy's. It was a fun outing, I got home at 9 o'clock.

Callbacks and sleepover at Kim's

13th of December, Friday

I would like to thank everyone, who expressed their condolences. I've recieved so many emails from my Rotary club, it's overwhelming. I've spent my Thursday hiding in my room, then Kim Masiello took me out for a walk in the mall. I was planning on staying at home for Friday too, but Ms Dyer, the music teacher and director wrote me an email, that I got called back for the part of the mother in Anything Goes. So I had to rush in to school ( Kim took me), because there's a rule in the schooldistrict, that in order to participate in any afterschool activities ( including callbacks), the student has to be in school for at least half a day. 

  So I got my script, I memorized them, and when the time came, I played an old lady. The callbacks for me were over at 4:15, when Kim picked me up. The plan was to sleep over at their house.

We were invited over for dinner at Kim and Mike's friends' house. I had a wonderful time getting to know them. We had dinner and we watched the midseason finale of How to get away with Murder. 

We left at around 11 o'clock. 

 

My grandmother

10th of December, Wednesday

Sometimes, when the most horrible things happen to us, we feel them coming. But most times, it's just a normal, regular day. Like today.
  I didn't go to school, me and Anne, we went to a Rotary Christmas event, that the Greece Rotary Club hosted for special needs children. A cute little celebration with Santa and presents. When I got home, I shoveled the driveway for 2 hours. There was so much snow, and by the time I finished, 2 inches of snow fell on the freshly shoveled concrete.
  At 4:30, I was finally inside, with a well deserved hot cocoa, wrapped in a blanket, watching The Little Mermaid.
  I got a short email from my Mom, that my grandma has passed away. I skyped my parents right away. She died at around 11 pm, Budapest time. She had severe dementia for years. My parents and I agree, that she's in a better place now. I still feel very sad, but I'm also happy for her. If somebody deserves to go to heaven, she definitely does.
  She was nurse, and she was very proud of it. She was already retired, when I was born. I remember, when she took me home from kindergarten, she always used to say, we were gonna take the legbus (aka we're gonna walk). She used to let me watch TV and make me honey sandwiches and cocoa. She never wanted to sit down, when she came over to our house. We always had to persuade her, to sit on the couch. She used to take the trolley to the supermarket. She had 3 husbands, but the third one was her truest love. I never met him, but she used to talk about him.
  She died at the age of 85. She was the only grandparent I ever met, and I'm glad I did. She was a kind soul, and a great mom-grandma. I'm going to miss her. She deserves to be remembered as the great person she was.

Anything Goes auditions

9th of December, Tuesday

Today is my dear Emma Bergh's birthday, my South African host-sister, who was in Hungary with me, exactly a year ago. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met!

  After a Monday night of practicing on the freezing porch in a coat, a heater and two blankets, playing the piano and singing my heart out, I thought I was ready for auditions today. I was so proud of myself, for the first time ever, I could play the piano and sing simultaneously.
  At two o'clock the following day, I was faced with another problem: I didn't know if I should wear my shorter blue dress or my longer violet one. Ms. Dyer asked for era-appropriate clothing, so I chose the violet one. I kinda looked like a grandma in it. That with Anne's super uncomfortable shoes, I could pass as a 30 year old. We gathered in the APAC, everybody got a number (I was 62), and we sat down, to see the auditions. Alma decided to accompany me, and to listen to all 70 kids sing. First, those, who had to hurry sang, then all the girls practiced. We had to sing 2 songs from the musical Anything Goes. The main song (Anything Goes) was everybody's first performance. Then the boys, the soprano girls, the bass and tenor boys, and finally, the alto girls. Each group had separate songs from the play, ours, the alto girls' was "I get a kick out of you". Mrs. Dearsteyn, the pianist lined up as many people as she could on the stage, and the person singing had to come forward to the middle.
  My goal was to sing loudly. Ms. Dyer was sitting further back, so if I wanted to make an impression, I needed to be heard. I figured, with all the practice that I put in these songs, I'm bound to be on key. But as I walked up to the front of the stage, and said my name and number, the whole performing started so quickly, I didn't even think it through. I forgot all my moves, and all my internal warnings about the tricky part. I woke up around halfway through, where I decided, that even if my singing was lousy, I'd go out with a BANG!. So I tried my best, and walked back to my place, when it was over. I was just glad, that I was done with the first, more difficult song. The second one was much easier, because we had to go from the APAC to the Forum room, which is much smaller and cozier.
  The whole thing ended at 6 o'clock for me, it took 4 hours to get through both songs of every 70 kids'. Due to communication difficulties, Herb got us at 7. We took Alma home, and I finally had a chicken wrap to eat, after a day of starving.
  It's interesting, how auditions can tire one out. I know I feel like I ran 5 kilometers. I couldn't really move, once I got home.

Holiday Brunch in Victor

7th of December, Sunday

Kim and Mike Masiello picked me up at 11 o'clock, to take me to the annual Rotary Holiday Brunch, that the Victor-Farmington Rotary Club hosts. I met all the inbound exchange students, and the outbounds too, for the first time. For some reason, no one's going to Hungary from this district next year. But the kids were very nice, nonetheless.
  The country club was very fancy, and the food was good too. We sang some Christmas songs, and even Santa Claus payed us a visit. We had to tell him, where we were from, and how we say Merry Christmas in our language. As a Christmas present, we got T-Shirts with everyone's name and country printed on it. For the rest of the time, the DJ tried to get the kids to the dance floor, but he didn't have much luck with his music, other than the Makarena dance. We chatted in the meanwhile, caught up on how everybody's doing. The party was cut short for me, we went back to Greece at 3.
   Back home, I skyped my parents, and I thanked them personally for the package.
(pictures of the brunch will come later, when I get my hands on them)

Santa Claus Day

6th of December, Saturday

On the 6th of December, the children of Hungary wake up all excitedly, because Santa Claus dropped by at night, leaving candy and gifts behind on the windowsill or in the boots they put outside the door in the evening. The candy is mostly Santa Claus shaped chocolate, and (kids under 7: don't read the next sentence!), the parents are behind this conspiracy. That's one of the many reasons why Hungary is a cool country, we have 2 Christmases. (And on Christmas Eve, Baby Jesus brings the presents [also the parents really, just to clarify]).
  Today, I woke up at 10, and when I opened my door two packages waited for me. One was from Herb and Anne, the other one was from Hungary! I couldn't believe my parents sent me stuff for Santa Claus day! Christmas, I'd understand, but today! I was so happy.
   After skillfully placing Herb's and Anne's Santa Claus Day presents in their rooms (they didn't see me, they saw someone else, like a ghost or something), I came down, and we opened my package from my parents.
There were so many stuff inside. Popping candy, chocolate, spices, instant milkrice (something I joked about with my parents on Skype, how much I miss, but I didn't think they would actually send it), zizi, french dragees, Danube rocks (all three are Hungarian candies), lottery tickets (neither of them won, but they were still fun to scratch off), sweetener, letter from my parents and soup cubes with my Mom's special soup recipe, that I miss a lot. I broke down, and cried. I was so moved and overwhelmed, I couldn't hold it in. I was truly so happy and homesick. Anything that reminds me of home I love, and anything from my parents is deeply cherished.
I decided to make my Mom's soup, and we went shopping to get the ingredients. It took me around 1,5 hours in the evening to make, but it was finally done, and I didn't burn anything. Herbie and his girlfriend Jackie came over for around 30 minutes, just in time for the soup. I served it to everybody, then I tasted it myself. I started crying again a little bit too, because it was just like my Mom's. The pasta and the cheese were different, but the general taste, was very near to right. Of course, no one can perfectly replicate the soup, other than my Mom. But it was very good indeed. So good, that everyone ate it to the last drop, even Jackie, who doesn't like soup.
  Today was a very emotional Santa Claus Day. I got something from my parents, then I made something, which reminded me of them. I miss them so much. This is the hardest part of the exchange, any exchange student can tell you. The holidays season is tough to get through without the people you love most. But even though we're half the world apart, we can still make each other feel happy. That's the best thing about family.

Skating and Dance auditions

4th of December, Thursday
In Hungary, we celebrate name days. All the days in the calendar are assigned to one or two names, and the name and the day go together. This is an old tradition, in Hungary anyways. Today was my name day. I don't celebrate it personally, but some people, like my parents, do. It's customary to wish the person happy name day on that day, and sometimes they get flowers too.
  I didn't go to my school this morning. I went to school with Herb. On Tuesday, I found out, that he was taking two of his classes on a field trip to ice skate. So after a day of begging to take me too, he gave in, and this morning, at nine o'clock I was on the bus on the way to Bill Gray's Iceplex with two buses worth of 5th and 8th graders. I met a South African girl today, whom Herb was telling me a lot about. She's 17 years old, and she just her teaching practice for her diploma at Greece Christian. She was home-schooled, so she finished high school very early.
  It's funny, according to the laws of big numbers, there are 1000 people, who look just like you. I don't know how many people there are, who ARE just like me, but I found one today. Sarah and I share so many things, likes and dislikes, we barely believed us meeting was real. We hit it off right away, and the similarities just kept piling up. In the matter of 3 hours, we knew so much about each other. Other people had a hard time believing we only just met today. While we were talking and skating, we helped out the children, who were adorable. Many of them never skated before, but we got through the day without any major injuries. By 1 o'clock we were all really tired, and we went back to the school. It was a really fun field trip. Me and Sarah just kept amazing each other. We're both super tall blonds (although she's 1 inch taller), we love South Africa, we love the same TV shows, similar music, reading, books, movies, sports. I have a feeling I'm going to write a lot about this girl in the blog.
  At 2, I walked over to Athena for auditions. We're doing Anything Goes this year, for our big high school musical. Athena is one of the best schools in Rochester for drama and music education. It has a brand new preforming arts center, what I'd call a theater really. There were 63 kids. For the first hour, we went through the two songs everyone has to present on next Tuesday for the vocal auditions. Then the dance teacher arrived, and we jumped right into tap-dancing. It really surprised me how many people tap. I took lessons for 2 years, but the choreography was super difficult, and I had bad shoes. I didn't do really well, a minute long dance learned in 1 hour is not easy to present well. I'm more relying on the vocal auditions now.
  Me and Alma stayed behind from 5 to 6:30 at the school, to wait for a presentation. I skyped my parents for a little time, because I had my name day. The presentation by an MCC representative was about applying to colleges and financial aid, but we didn't learn anything useful to us, because he talked about federal grants, to which international student aren't eligible for.
  Devan took me home, I was so tired. Such a long and eventful day!

First of December

1st of December, Monday

It's unbelievable, that it's already December! The holiday season is  officially here! I skyped my parents yesterday, and they lit up the first   Advent candle. It's a tradition of ours, to light up a candle every Sunday, starting four weeks from Christmas.

  The Thanksgiving break just ended. The only thing on the students' and teachers' mind, is that in 3 weeks, we'll have a two week Christmas break! Yay!

  Anne bought me an Advent calendar! It's so nice of her, to remember about this other tradition.

  In the afternoon, me and Anne went looking for winter boots, and I found a nice pair, but I didn't buy them yet. We met Herbie, who wanted a new phone, so while he and Anne were making a deal with Best Buy, and later Sprint, I hung out in the mall. It was around 9, when we finally got home. I ordered a choir gown online, that I was actually supposed to weeks ago. I just hope it arrives before our Christmas concert.

  

Skyzone and Garden Factory

29th of November, Saturday

We were supposed to go to Niagara Falls with an Australian girl and the Gormonts, but the girl didn't come, so the trip was off. Instead, I went to Skyzone, with my volleyball team. Coach P wanted one last event to celebrate the season.
   Skyzone was the first place I was told to go to, when I asked, what I should do in Greece NY. It's an indoor trampoline park. The whole place is covered in trampolines, even the walls. There are different courts, for the first part of our one hour pass, we played dodgeball in our own private court against each other. Although I've never been to anything like Skyzone, we do play a lot of dodgeball in Hungary. Every fun PE class is spent playing different variations of the game.
  The jumping was amazing. We got cute orange socks with sticky squares on them, and took our places on the court. I love trampolines, it was so much fun. I got tired though, quite soon. All that jumping takes a lot of energy.  Before I knew it, 50 minutes have passed, playing dodgeball, and our 1 hour pass was almost up. I explored other parts of the trampoline park too, like Sky Slam, which is trampoline-basketball (I was really bad at it, so I gave that up), and also a place, where you ca jump into a huge pit full of foam cubes. However comfortable it is, to do a flip off the trampoline into a sea of softness, getting out of it was quite difficult. Dube got a blurry picture of me doing a flip. Skyzone is not a safe place though. At least one injury a day happens. So it did, when we were there. A little girl was taken away by the ambulance.
  After the one hour, I left Skyzone exhausted, like a 5 year old after running around the whole day. This place is heaven for kids with ADHD. My feet were so tired, they hurt. I might have sore legs tomorrow. But it was so much fun, I don't care. A good workout and a lot of excitement.
  After grabbing a bite at 3 at home (because I didn't dare eat before going on the trampolines), we went to the Garden Factory with Herb, Anne, Sun and Xynan. It's a big store where you can buy Christmas-y stuff and Christmas trees. Also, there are a lot of attractions for kids, like a petting zoo, slides, games, toy train and a merry-go-round. We got there around 30 minutes before closing time, so we only had time to visit Santa and take a picture with him. We chose a tree and as soon as it was tied to the top of the car, we were off. We also visited this expensive store, where you could buy fancy Christmas ornaments and gifts. Herb wanted me to choose an ornament, to put on the new tree, so me and Sun both got one.

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

27th of November, Thursday
My very first Thanksgiving! This is the most American holiday, not just because of the history (the concurers and the Indians making peace for one feast), but also because it involves a lot of food. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe (I've been asked this question a lot lately), but I'm glad I can finally experience this too, I've only seen this tradition in movies before.
  Alma left at 10, and Herb and Anne worked in the kitchen since the morning. The guests arrived at 3 pm. Two of Anne's sisters came with their families, Herbie, Carol, Bevin and her sons DJ and Xynan. There were a lot of people in the basement, we barely fit. I just loved the ambiance of the house today. Everyone was happy, there was a lot of chattering, laughing, having fun. And the dinner was absolutely delicious. We had two turkeys, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, everything you need for a traditional Thanksgiving feast.
   And some other exciting news: I bought a laptop. I ordered a refurbished Lenovo u430 online. I'm really happy about it!
  Black Friday shopping is nowadays on Thanksgiving day. All the best deals are available on Thursday. So me, Bevin, DJ, Sun, Erin and Merci (Bevin's best friend and her daughter), we went out shopping. We went to Walmart first. We spent around 30 minutes outside, waiting in line in the freezing cold. When we got in, everything was crazy. Tense employees, trying to fight their way through the crowd, trying to listen to the 5 different customers' questions. I got a 1T external hard drive, earphones, gloves, stockings and a huge 28 piece Sharpie set. It took us hours to get all our stuff and check out.
  Our next stop was the mall. The first store I went to was Charlotte Rousse, where I bought two knit cardigans. I got a lot of clothes at Old Navy, and a ring and necklace at Claire's. We also went to Target, but I didn't buy anything there. Although I've saved a lot of money, I spent a lot too. But I guess that's what Black Friday is all about. I could experience every bit of it. The waiting in line, the pushing, the rush and the getting home at 1 o'clock with so many bags that I could barely fit the door. It was a lot of fun though.
  Thanksgiving is about appreciating the people and things in your life. So today, I thought of everything I;m grateful for. I'm most grateful for having the best parents ever. They're really awesome, I know I wouldn't be who I am today, if it weren't for them. I'm thankful for this year, that I can spend it here in America. Although Rochester is a very cold city, the people in it brighten my days. I'm grateful for my friends at home, who still keep in touch with me, even though we are an ocean away. I'm thankful for my new friends from my new school, and from Rotary. The Rotary club is like a second home to me, thank you, for making my experience so wonderful! I just feel so lucky, to be surrounded by so much love and opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Decorations

26th of November, Wednesday

The day before Thanksgiving, first day of Thanksgiving break. NO SCHOOL!
  I had a Rotary meeting, which was really interesting. I invited Alma, so she got to meet the club, and could see a little bit about my weekly routine. She liked it a lot. There weren't many people, because of the holidays. For weeks, I prepared to sing Hungarian folk-songs, and today I did. Because there was no speaker at the meeting today, I took my time, and sung 11 songs I collected. They represented the major themes in Hungarian songs, like love songs, soldier songs or children songs. The Rotarians seemed to like it. Or even if they didn't they acted really grateful and congratulated me. It felt good, I was surrounded by friends, who care about one another.
  On the way home, Kim took me and Alma to AC Moore, then back home. We organized the basement for Thanksgiving. We are expecting 20 something people. Herb and Sun took tables from the church, and we set up the 4 giant tables downstairs, filling the entire room. We hid the storage parts of the basement, and organized everything. Me and Alma, we grabbed some pieces of paper, and markers, and made a bunch of decorations for the empty walls. We drew leaves and eventually, we made turkey themed drawings, cut the birds and plants out, and taped them on the wall. It took us several hours, but we had fun just being artsy. Now the basement has a happy Thanksgiving theme.
  In the evening, Herb took me and Alma for a last minute pre-Thanksgiving shopping to Sam's club, where Alma got crazy. She kept jumping on the shopping kart, she was hilarious, because she looked like a five year old trapped in a grown up body. When we found some awesome giant Grumpy Cat plushes, she calmed down a little bit.
  When we got back, we continued our artwork until midnight. We planned on watching a movie, but we just ended up talking until 1:30.

Broken laptop

24th and 25th of November, Monday - Tuesday

These two days have been the only schooldays this week. Two easy skinny days. But they weren't emotionally easy. My laptop broke, and it didn't work when I restarted it. That means, the situation is bad. Very bad.
  I gave it to Mr. Doty on Monday to take a look at it. He's a computer science teacher at Athena, but he gave it back on Tuesday with some bad news. The problem is probably with the hard drive. Which means, all the pictures, schoolwork, everything is lost.
  On top of my cyber misery, my bus left me behind at the end of the day. Not like that's uncommon, my buslady is a very impatient woman. So Herb picked me up, and he wanted to cheer me up, so we went to McDonald's, for the first time. I've been joking about the fact that I haven't been there yet, because McDonalds seems like a really typical American thing, but now I can cross this off my bucket list.
  I only ordered a cheeseburger, no wonder they gave me a McChicken. First McDonald's experience in the US, and they messed up my order. It's quite funny, luckily, the new sandwich is actually "healthier" and more expensive than we paid, so I didn't complain.
  After lunch, we went to a computer specialist, to ask him about my laptop, but his deal was way too expensive to fix it.
  At 5, Kim picked me up, and took me to their house. I was invited earlier the day for dinner, to say goodbye to Abbey, who's moving to NYC on the weekend. We chatted and had some delicious chicken. I always love going to the Masiello's. They have great food and I always learn something new. 

Mockingjay part 1

23rd of November, Sunday

We saw the Hilton High School's musical yesterday, The Sound of Music. That's the only thing that happened on Saturday.

  Sunday started off sadly. My laptop of 9 years broke, and I think sonething's wrong with the hard drive. It made a funny noise, and it doesn't do anything, it just repeats the same text over and over again. If anybody knows a key combination or something I can use to at least enter the BIOS settings, I'd be very happy. (I have an ancient Lenovo N500, which has grown to be my daily companion).

  After talking to my parents, Herb took me to the mall, where I met Alma. We went shopping for hours. My primary object to hunt was a pair of good winter boots, but I haven't found any. All there was was a few fall boots, that weren't even waterproof.

  So after windowshopping for 3 hours (which was enough time for Alma to buy 2 sweaters, a ring, a pair of Converses and stockings), we sat in the movie theatre to watch The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. It's the first half of the book Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (which I've read), and the third part if the movie sequel The Hunger Games. My parents saw it yesterday in Hungary.

I don't want to spoil anything but it was AWESOME!!! I loved it so much. The beginning was a little slow, but it got faster after the first 30 minutes.

  The only distraction was Alma. She kept commenting on everything and kept asking questions. Who's that? What's he doing? What's in the box? I don't know what's in the box, I haven't seen this movie either! But she shouted anyways. I was surprised we weren't sent out. Italians are loud, especially in the cinema. :D

The picture is of me, skypeing with my dog.

Report card

21st of November, Friday

Another schoolweek has come to an end. Finished with a skinny day, where nothing really happened. Except for Creative Writing, which is always fun. We moved on to 5 word horror stories. Spooky! But the stories weren't necessarily scary, they could be about personal horrors. Here are some of the best from today:

WiFi is slow. No Facebook!

Hiding on tree. Branch snaps.

Went to school without pants.

Drowning in my own blood.

Pushed, not jumped. Survived, silent.

I need a new arm.

and my personal favourite:

Student loans and gas prices.

After school, I took a long nap. Yay! I got woken up by Herb and Sun getting home. We decided to go out to this Greek place 7 minutes away.
  The Greece Family Restaurant. It wasn't very Greek, but they had a Macedonian waitress, who kept hugging and kissing us. She was very sweet. I had a gyros (also known as kebab), which is a Greek-Turkish dish. It's meat with salad and vegetables (often with tzatziki), wrapped in a thicker pastry. Absolutely delicious. Because of the many Turkish immigrants in Hungary, Budapest is full of kebab delis. Gyros is a cheap and quick food a Hungarian can eat when hungry (hehehe, still not funny). So even though it's not Hungarian, our people embraced it in their culture recently.
  I kind of missed it, and this one (though a little bit different than usual), was very yummy! It was a nice experience, and a lovely dinner.
  Another interesting thing that happened, my report card arrived today. It's a document, that tell parents about their kids' first quarter grades. They're sent out in the mail at the end of every quarter year. Turns out, almost everything I told you about my grades is right, except for PE, where my average is 91%. Don't ask me how that happened.
  Altogether, I have a 92% average.

Dinner at Davinci with Judy, Tracy and Larry

20th of November, Thursday

When I stepped outside today, our street was beautiful. Everything was covered in deep, white snow. It was so pretty. And because I was so impressed by the surroundings, I didn't notice the cold. I took out my ski jacket, my warmest coat already, plus I wore the Russian hat my sister gave me, which can protect one from a winter in Moscow. And it's just November. Still, this much snow is nothing compared to what's west of here in Buffalo. It snowed 7 ft in the last few days there, and everything stopped working. Traffic, transportation, work. Everybody's just trying to get rid of all the snow.
  In Creative Writing today, our topic was flash fiction. It's the short version of short stories. They often have a word limit, which in today's example was 6. We had to write a six word story in a few minutes in class, and everyone cam eup with something great. Often sad or funny, but sometimes inspirational or deep.
  Once I started thinking in 6 word stories, I couldn't stop. I kept writing them untill I got home, 3 hours later. These are some of the best ones I came up with today:

Promised he'd love forever. He lied.

Cake gone. Diabetic roommate. Calling police.

There are no unicorns. Feeling depressed.

Santa is actually my parents? What?

Died but her heart lived on.

My mute child says "Hi Mom!"

Left your knife in my back.

Last man alive hears a scream.

One short of Guiness World Record.

No makeup hides the ugly within.

I'm a murderer, not a vegetarian.

Too cool for school. Failed grade.

But I wrote like 50 more. Even at the concert in Select Choir, I couldn't stop. A college orchestra visited us, and they gave us a 1,5 hour long show. The whole music department was there. I listened to their music, and wrote my stories. After the concert, we were free to go home.
  Larry picked me up at 5:30. We went to this Italian place called Davinci. It's a very nice restaurant, real Italian, with no pizza. We had some pasta while we talked. Such a merry company. We joked around the whole time. It's always funny to hang out with them, they have a great sense of humor. It was hard to believe we only spent 2 hours there, time flies fast if you're having fun. Thank you, Judy, Tracy and Larry for the dinner, it was really awesome, I enjoyed it a lot!!! <3
 

Snow falling outside of school, like a fairy tale.

Concert in the Athena Performing Arts Center (aka APAC)

On the way home from school in my Russian hat

Most of the snow melted by the afternoon on our street

Channel 8 tour

19th of November, Wednesday

I woke up at 10 am today, and I had a hunch, that I might have been late for school. This might be one of the worst cases of oversleeping. Roger Boily picked me up for the Rotary meeting. I brought the pastry I baked the day before. 

  This Rotary meeting was extra special. We inducted four new members in the club, which is a lot! We learned some things about the new members, and they were given the Rotary pin. The people were a little hype, and the whole room was filled with an elevated feeling. 

  I would like to thank the Rotarians for their generous donations. All this goes to my "Discover America Bus Trip" jar. Thank You!! 

 Today, I had a chance to visit the Channel 8 news studio. I organized it with the help of Rita with Wendy Halik, who is an executive news producer. Anne took me there, and she came with me on the tour. 

  Wendy greeted us in the lobby at 3:30, and our Wednesday afternoon adventure began. She took us in the producers' room first, where they prepare the news. Everyone was very busy, getting ready for the 4 o'clock news. She took us to the studio next. The image you see on TV is just a tiny part of the room, in which the recording happens. It's a huge place with different stations, a lot of monitors, wires, and huge cameras, and it also has a small auditorium. I had a chance to talk to Kevin Doran (he's the managing editor and a news anchor) and Scott Hitsko (who's the chief meteorologist), who were recording. 

  We also went to the control room, where I met the director and the producer of the news too. They were very busy, what they did seemed extremely complicated. They were calling on things, talking really fast, and pushing a lot of buttons while looking at several screens at once. I was glad I could watch them in action. 

  Then we went back, and me and Anne, we sat down at the auditorium, and watched the 4 o'clock news, LIVE! There was little red light, that lit up when the camera was rolling. Rachel Barnhart was the anchor and Scott did the weather too. Other than them, there were only 2 cameramen in the studio. The funny thing that we picked up, is that the two anchors were having a conversation, and (because the recording stopped and started again occasionally) when they had to say something to the camera, they did, and the moment it was off, they carried on their conversation, like they didn't even pause. 

  Honestly, I felt overwhelmed. I felt really lucky, that I could see such a big machine work, and I wanted to take it all in. I loved the athmosphere of the studio. And on top of all the experience, I felt confused a bit too, because everything was so complicated. It seemed so difficult to learn all these stuff, and here they were, professionals in their field. I admire all the energy they put in this. 

  On the way home, we talked about the stuff we saw in the Channel 8 studio, and this was her first time in a TV studio, and she like it too. I have a feeling, that I could work in a place like this. Not as an operator or an editor, but like a reporter or an anchor. It must be fun, every day is different, yet, it's somewhat the same. 

  It was very kind and awesome of Wendy to have given us the tour. I liked the place and the people a lot! 

Americans don't want European blood

18th of November

I was so excited to finally give blood! In Hungary, Red Cross doesn't come to the school, I'm not even sure if one can donate blood under 18. So I signed up, and I was sitting in the APAC in second block, I drank a bottle of water I was given, a nurse did all these tests, which proved that I'm healthy,  but at the end of the survey about past illnesses (no, I neve r had malaria, nor AIDS, I didn't take drugs. etc), BUT, I lived more than 5 years in Europe. This doesn't make me eligable to give blood in the US. If I was from India for example, I could, but from Europe, nope. Well, there was nothing I could do. I got a free, cool T-shirt though. 

  In PE, we started kickboxing. I was so happy! I miss my team and our workouts from home, even if most of the time I was the one getting beaten up. My joy lasted so far, when I realized that we were hoing to do cardio kickbox, which is the girly useless version of kickbox. Also, I soon found out I can hit harder than the student teacher. 

  After school, Anne and me, we went to Aldi. I love that place, we go to Aldi all the time in Hungary with my Mom, of course, the stuff are different in this store. 

  Late afternoon, I organized the kitchen cupboards, now it looks really neat. In the evening, I baked a Hungarian speciality for tomorrow's Rotary meeting. It was so difficult, it lasted till almost 2 with the cleanup.

Hanging out with Joycelyn

17th of November, Monday

After a weekend of staying at home, I started my week with an early morning start of school. Like that's unusual! The only interesting thing that happened in school was that I signed up for tomorrow's blood drive. Red Cross is going to come to our school, and a lot of people are going to donate blood, hopefully I'll be one of them.
  After school, at 3 o'clock, Joycelyn (Nathan's mom, Sun's brother's hostmom) picked me up. She called me on Sunday, and she told me how much she thinks about me, and how we should hang out. It totally made my day. So today, she took me to Applebee's, and we had late lunch-early dinner. We talked non-stop. It's interesting, how you meet a person, who's so interesting, and has so much to say, and you two can't stop talking. So while we ate our food (I had some sweet potato with dip, which was super delicious), we discussed all sorts of things. I think she's amazing, she has such a great love towards humanity.
  After Applebee's we went to Starbucks, which I haven't yet done since I arrived to America, but we didn't actually drink coffee, we just looked at the amazing selection of artsy gift cards, and I got some too. We got home at around 6. I had a lot of fun.

End of the first quarter

14th of November, Friday

Today was the end of the first quarter at school. That means, we completed quarter of our year, and our grades for this time period have been closed. For me, that means 99-100% from Creative Writing, 96% US History, 93% French, 91% AP Psych, 90% Select Choir, 86% AP English, 78% PE. I guess that's pretty good, I don't really study here.
  We also had to give in our senior quotes today. I spent all my free time emailing my parents, asking classmates, what I should do. I had like 10 quotes, each awesome. It was 1:47, when I finally completed the form, and handed it in. I went with "Adventure is out there!" from UP. I know, the villain of the movie says this, but it's true. And it applies to my exchange student year too. I'm having an adventure.
  Of course, sometimes that adventure can be very cold. Today, it snowed a lot. And it was veryvery cold. Good thing I stayed inside most of the time. I think that all people in Rochester should develop hibernation skills for the winter, I'd definitely join this revolution.
  So a quarter of my year is already up. It's hard to believe. So many things happened, and so many more are to come. I'm satisfied with most things here. School's easy, but at least I get good grades, people are nice, weather is miserable (this is the winter weather in Hungary, but it's just the middle of November!), homesickness is even worse. But those are the things I have to live with. I've learnt many thing about myself, I'm figuring myself and my future out.
  I think the happiest part of my day was, when I skyped my parents. I sent a package home with the professor I met a week ago, and they got it today. They were so excited, they couldn't wait to open it. It was just a bunch of letters and pictures, but I wanted to send them something, that reminds them how much I love them. We ended up skyping an hour. It was nice to see them, as it always is.

Joseph musical from Broadway

11th of November, Tuesday

Today was veterans day. On this day, the Americans honor their veterans and they thank them for thei services. The schoolkids celebrate this day by not going to school. So I took advantage of this situation, and slept till 11.
  My day actually started, when Abbey picked me up at 2. We went over to their house, talked and watched Criminal Minds until Kim got home from work. Abbey is really in the middle of apartment hunting in NYC, which I find exciting. I mean, it's the dream, to live in NYC, and one of my friends is actually going to live it!
  Kim, Abbey and me, we went on a walk. We walked about 3 miles around their neighborhood (which is a really nice neighborhood). The weather was wonderful. This was probably the last nice day of 2014 here. Our walk wasn't just a casual walk, I almost had to jog, to keep up with Kim and Abbey. After we've got back, we made dinner, which was a delicious salad with an amazing corn chowder.
  After dinner, we went to the theatre! My birthday present from Rotary (other than the flowers, the cake, the wonderful surprise singing and the card, like I'm not spoiled already :D), was a ticket to a Broadway show, which came to Rochester: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The theatre was huge! We sat on the balcony with Abbey, Kim and Mike were on the ground floor.
  The show was amazing! The actors were singing and dancing nonstop, every situation was sung, and there were barely any dialogues. So it was really like a spectacle. The costumes were great, the whole sight gave a modernized feeling to the show. They certainly used a lot of effects like lights and projectors. The director rethought a lot of scenes and characters in a modern way (like the Pharaoh was an Elvis imitator), which I liked. Funny thing, the narrator girl and Joseph are in real life married, and they were both on American Idol, but they didn't meet there.
  I had a really fun time, I love the theatre, and watching a Broadway musical had always been on my bucket list.
  I got home at 10, and untill 12:30, I was shopping on a site my Mom sent me, that had a 50% clearence. I bought so many things, it's ridiculous!

Zoo and pizza parties

9th of November, Sunday

I started my day with Skypeing my parents quickly, before Herb drove me to the zoo.
  I was invited by Alma, to come with her and her fellow AFS exchange students to the zoo, so I could meet them. So I went there at noon today. The exchange students were really nice (of course, we are all nice). There were about 10-15 kids there today, but there are almost 30 in the area with AFS. There are a lot of kids from Italy and Germany here, but I've met one or two from Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, Tunesia, even New Zealand. No one from Hungary.
  So we spent a lovely (and cold) time at the zoo. The most interesting animals were the orangutans (because there was a tiny baby), the polar bear, who had a wild night of partying before, and the elephants. This zoo was smaller than the Toronto zoo. We spent two hours there.
  Most of the group went to Devan's house afterwards. We had pizza and a good time. At 3:45, Herb, Anne and Sun came for me, and we went to Brad and Sandy Shea's house for yet another pizza party, to meet my next host family, the Greenauers. Other than us four, Brad, Sandy, Kim and Syd, Kim Masiello, Mike, Abbey and Larry came too. I had a wonderful time talking to all of them, and getting to know more about the people I'm going to live with from January.

High Falls & Public Market

8th of November, Saturday

I got home at 10 am, Devan and Alma dropped me off. I had a lot of fun with them yesterday, and we made more plans for Sunday too.
  At noon, Herb, Sun and me, we went to the Public Market. On the way there, we stopped at High Falls, which is a waterfall in the heart of Rochester. The river there was used to produce flour, more than 50 years ago. There is a museum we quickly visited, about Rochester and High Falls. The weather was really cold today.
  The Public Market is this awesome place, where you can buy home grown fruits and vegetables for quarter of the price Wegman's wants. We had some lunch at a Spanish fast food place, and we were done with the shopping in 15 minutes. Everything was efficient, and we didn't even have to try to bargain, the sellers wanted to sell everything before closing, so we got the best deals.
  But after we've finished, shopping wasn't over for me. We went to Wegman's with Anne. I did my own shopping this time. I promised I'd make something for tomorrow, so I got the ingredients. It took a long tme till we found everything we needed.
  Herb, Anne and Sun went to a basketball game, so I had the whole house for myself. I made a delicious dessert, that I thought was Hungarian, but after googleing, it turned out to be Swedish. Oh well, it still turned out pretty well. 

Big Hero 6

7th of November, Friday

This morning, I literally got up at 6:23. And by some miracle, I caught the bus at 6:28. Don't ask, I still don't know how I did it. But I didn't have breakfast or lunch, so the first thing I ate today were homemade tacos when I got back at 2:30 (they were awesome, tacos are the best).

  We made plans with Alma, that we were going to see a movie at the mall and after a small misunderstanding with Anne ( totally my fault), Herb took me there at 5. Apparently, kids under 19 can't be in the mall after 4 pm without supervision, but the security guards didn't even look at us. Funny thing, we met Bevin, Dj and Xynan at the mall. 

   The movie started at 7, Big Hero 6. It's a Marvel comic book made into animation by Disney. The movie theatre was almost full, mostly with children. The story is about a boy, who builds robots in a San Feansisco-Tokyo  mashup city (San Fransokyo), and fights evil with his genious nerd friends. And it was awesome!!! It was the perfect combination of emotions. Afterwards, me and Alma, we just satt there, and couldn't get over how cool this movie was. Disney, you proved yourself once again. I don't have any problems with Frozen, but Big Hero 6 is a 1000 times better! So the first movie theatre experience here was really positive. 

  Devan, Alma's host mom picked us up, and we asked Herb for me to stay over. We watched the Breakfast Club together, but I fell asleep on the couch, and so did alma. It was 2:30 when we woke up and went upstairs to bed.

A package in Pittsford

6th of November, Thursday

I got a 94% on my US History Unit Exam. That was the big event in the school. After school though, that was a mini-adventure.
  My parents told me on my birthday, that a friend of theirs, who is a professor at Nazareth College is going to travel there from Hungary, and they're sending a package for me through him. So I talked to him, and we set the meeting date for today. Herb drove us out, it's a 30-45 minute ride. I've never been to Pittsford, or Nazareth College. Thankfully, we found each other, and I got the package. It was a small envelope, a little heavier than I thought. Me and Herb, we were both curious, what was in it, but I wanted to open it with my parents.
  While we were in Pittsford, we went shopping to Trader Joe's, which is a really healthy and organic supermarket. Everything looks and smells amazing, but of course, edible health comes with a price. We bought some stuff for one of Herb's employees' birthday, and some organic nacho chips. We opened the bag right away (yes, without dipping), and it was really delicious. After Trader Joe's, we went to Wegman's, which we have here in Greece too, but not nearly as fancy as there. It had a huge foodcourt, and lots of fun decorations. We just got some almondmilk for me (that stuff is delicious).
  By the time we picked up Sun, it was already 5 o'clock, and I was afraid I'd miss skyping my parents, because they'd be sleeping by the time we got home. So I talked to my Mom (who was still awake) from the car, from Herb's phone. We opened the package, and it was full of collectible magnets, something really European (I'm guessing because Herb was like "Whaaaaaat?").
  It was so nice to see my Mom. She was so happy today, and to finally see her this joyful, really made me glad. She has such a great sense of humor, these magnets are inside jokes too, kind of. We didn't talk for a long time, but it really made my day, seeing her. I hope my Dad won't be mad that I opened the package without him, but I would like to thank both my parents! I love the belated birthday present! And thanks to the professor too! 

Banquet

5th of November, Wednesday

I told you guys, if nothing happens, I won't write about it. Monday and Tuesday (3rd and 4th) I stayed at home, catching up on schoolwork. But on Wednesday, I had to go to school.
  Everything went normal, until the Rotary Club meeting. My routine presentation went a little off course, when the projector decided to take a break, but I managed to hold my stuff together somehow. I cover my embarassment with humor.
  In the afternoon, I got ready for the banquet. It's our final official volleyball event. It was a dinner at the Brook House. I prepared, I was told to be pretty, with a dress and everything. So I did.
  Kim and Larry came with me, everyone's parents and siblings came, so thankfully I wasn't alone. We rented a big room to ourselves, there were decorations on the wall, pictures and posters. Everyone was gorgeous, we took a lot of pictures with each other. We had dinner, which was jello (I tried it, didn't like it), fruits, cooked veggies, fried chicken and olives for me.
  After everyone was done, Coach P made speeches. He and Marchaesi gave out the certificates, one for each player, with a small personal comment about them (I was outgoing apparently). Seniors got blankets too, with our names and the Athena Volleyball logo on them. Then both coaches thanked everyone for helping out this season, they reviewed what happened, what we accomplished.
  The coaches made a really embarassing, and hilarious video of us, doing silly stuff. Me and Dube, we sang "Circle of life" from the Lion King, it was a cathastrophe, but it was funny. Everything was edited to look like it was in a reality TV show, like the Voice, Britain's Got Talent, and Ellen. That video certainly lightened up the mood. Then we watched a video that Brooke's mom put together, the best pictures that were made this season. We also got them printed out and on a CD. We got a framed picture too, so many gifts.
  After those videos, the banquet was over. Every player got another blanket too, I got a blue one, name and logo on this one too. I needed Kim and Larry's help to get all the presents carried out.
  It was sad. We knew we would see each other in the hallways in school, but it wasn't the same. Volleyball season was over, and we wished it wouldn't have ended. I came here, and everything was new. Now things start to end already.