Sunday chilling

31st of August, Sunday

Today, nothing much happened. I woke up,watched the remaining Under the Dome episodes, read the Kite Runner for my AP English summer assignment. In the evening, we decided to watch a movie, and our decision fell on the 2009 movie Mr. Nobody starring Jared Leto. It's a complicated movie, hard to get, but all-in-all good. I'd like to think I understood it.
  I wore my pyjamas all day.

Living room

30th of August, Saturday

I can feel the things slowing down. Today everything was calm. I had practice from 9 to 10 (no running, loved it), then Herb picked me up, we dropped by the library (which was closed) and the post office (where we didn't buy anything).
  In the afternoon, Herbie came over. He's the son of Herb and Anne, my host-brother, so to speak, he doesn't live here anymore. He helped move a bunch of things in the living room. The blue piano went to the porch, and the blue chair from the porch came to the living room. We spent a bunch of time thinking about how we want the chairs and sofas to be. In the end, it all worked out. There's much more space without the piano (not so much on the porch).
  For dinner, we went to Hose 22. It's a restaurant made out of an old firehouse. It looks really cool. After dinner, we went to Abbott's and walked the dinner off at the pier, at the side of the lake. In the dark, even the lake looks like an ocean. As I said, everything was calm.
  I'm gonna finish the day off with the new Doctor Who episode. Tomorrow will be much more eventful. 

Baseball

29th of August, Friday

I've been in America for over a week. It's crazy how many things happened, and how fast this first week went away. Obviously I feel the homesickness, but I try to numb it. It's not good for anybody. I try to concentrate hard on being an American teenager.
  From 9 to 12, volleyball practice. The volleyball part, I love. But the track .... I'm really not a good runner.
  Then Herb picked me up, and we grabbed lunch at Ricce's imports. We heard a marching band somewhere nearby, so we hopped into the car to try and find it, but we didn't. Instead, we stopped at a garage sale! At 57 Keymar Drive, a cute family was doing a garage sale on baby equipment and all sorts of fun stuff. We didn't buy anything, we just chatted a little while. Then we went home, and I took a nap. I don't sleep a lot here. Since I've arrived, there hasn't been one night when I slept more than 7 hours! Turns out Anne fell asleep as well.
  After our nap, we went to a baseball game! One of the last games of the season. Herb got us free tickets. The Rochester Redwings were playing against the Buffalo Bisons. The one and only time I've been to a baseball game before was in 2012, a Phillys vs Reds game in Philadelphia with the Diacik family. That was a huge stadium. This one is smaller, but there were still a lot of programs and tons of entertainment! We had amazing seats, right at the rail, so we could watch the people going by, and the game perfectly. The Redwings have two mascots, Spikes and Mittsy. I think Spikes is an eagle and Mittsy's a chicken. There were a bunch of balls flying into the audience, and many interesting games (like a leafblower contest). Everyone was having fun. It was a 3 hour program. At the end, the Redwings won! Most of the fans were Redwings supporters, so there was a lot of celebration going on. The event ended with a fireworkshow.

Final schedule

28th of August, Thursday

I slept 5,5 hours tonight. I can't say that it helped with the concussion test in the morning. No, I'm perfectly healthy! I did a concussion test in order to have something to compare an unhealthy concussion test to. The whole volleyball team did it. It was kind of stupid and annoying, but it's mandatory. It kept reasking questions, and I had a very sensitive mouse, so every twitch of my finger was recorded as a wrong answer. Oh well.
  The test only too like 1 hour. After that, I asked Dube, I girl from volleyball to take me down to see Ms Dyer, the choir leader. I sang her a Bruno Mars and a Keira Knightly song, and she put me into select choir! Wow! The only downside to it was, that I had to change my schedule, and Outside gym sadly didn't fit in. Maybe next semester! I got my locker number and my locker code, but the locker doesn't really want to open for me (It always opened for Dube, it likes her). We finalized my schedule, here it is if someone's interested.

  By the time I was finished,I still had 2 hours till my meeting with Kim and Larry. I walked over to Herb's school, which is literally 2 minutes from Athena. I waited till noon in the library, then Larry gave me a ride to M&T Bank. We did some financial stuff, which are way over my level of expertise. After almost finishing at the bank, we went to Bruegger's, a cute little bagel place, and ate bagel sandwiches. For the first time here! It was delicious. We finished the bank business and Larry gave me a ride home.
  At home, Ella (the Parker's dog) left me a surprise in the living room. When Herb arrived, we went to the Brown family, to pick up a bike for me. Such a lovely family! They gave me Rosa's (previous exchange student's) bike with a fix-up and a helmet. It's an awesome bike, so I can go individually to places. I hope I'll have the motivation to do so. We went to Best Buy as well, to ask a few things about my camera (which I already love, even though I don't have a memory card to actually take pictures), then Five Below (it made me happy, but I didn't buy anything - so many memories!), and Little Ceasar's for a pizza for dinner. The goal was to go to bed at a decent time tonight, I guess it's not going to happen. It's already half past 11. 

Greece Rotary

27th of August, Wednesday

Last night I went to sleep at 2 am, so getting up at 7:30 was quite difficult. I was so disorganized, I forgot a bunch of stuff. Like apples for the girls and my Rotary blaser. I would have needed to grab those, because I had a tight schedule in the morning.
  We had an appointment at 8 am at the counselor to set up my schedule for school. I was 15 minutes late because I overslept. After 1 hour of trying to get my wishlist together, I still had so many questions.
  For now my subjects are the following:
AP English
AP Psychology
Creative writing
US history
French
Outside gym
Chorus

I could have Communication or Marketing too, but then I'd have to drop Outside gym and take Personal fitness. It's a tough decision. For now, we stayed with Outside gym. I'll have to say my final answer tomorrow. And I can change in the next week or so, if it really doesn't work out. If anybody has some useful advice for me, I'd gladly hear them out!
  After leaving the counselor's office with Kim Masiello, she gave me a ride to Gates-Chili, where our volleyball tournament was. I put on a uniform, but I didn't play. When I got there, the team already won a game. They played another one, but that wasn't as successful at the points. We lost by only 1 point! The girls were amazing, I admire their skills a lot. They're really professional, and they take everything seriously, but at the same time, they enjoy the team spirit and the game. Our team did seem more cheerful than the other teams I saw. After that game, the coach said a motivational speech about the strengths and the weaknesses of the group, which was true and simple. We sat around for some time, but I didn't see any more games, because it was time for my first Rotary meeting!

Mike Taylor gave me a lift to Ridgemont Country Club where the Rotary club of Greece meets.
I felt so happy meeting all these new people. A lot of them I already met before, so it was nice to see faces I knew, that gave me a sense of security I think. As it turns out, my blog became popular, so that was an instant recognition as well. The meeting started with the Rotary bell of course, the oath, some singing and a prayer. Then everybody grabbed a plate, and sprinted to the luch table where there was salad with different toppings, ham and cheese and soup. It was good. While eating, we socialized. As soon as everyone finished, our president, Al Meilutis introduced me and gave me the microphone. It's funny that I didn't feel the usual inhibition one feels when speaking publicly. After the first laugh, I just felt free to talk. So I tried to express how greatful I was for being there, but what I actually said, didn't even scratch the surface. I gave everybody who was there matches, that I brought from Hungary, with hungarian inventions on them. It was in hungarian, and I was asked to translate some. I gave my host club my sponsoring club's flag, and gave my present to Kim Masiello for organizing my trip here. It was a confident speech, but a disorganized one. I forgot to tell my idea of sharing fun facts about Hungary with my club, so I had to go up there again. It felt a little bit like I was stealing the show.
  After I sat down, our guest speaker, a hypnotist talked about hypnosis. It was really interesting. He showed us some examples of imagination and relaxation. I found it really interesting. Turns out you can't make a person do stuff they wouldn't want to do otherwise while under hypnosis. And 70% of the time, we're under natural hypnosis, we just don't realise!
 When the meeting ended, we took a couple of pictures with the flag and outside. Tony Pierleoni, who is a photographer and our club's fine master took some amazing shots. He told me about light, reflection, and why we shouldn't use too much flash.

 Larry Wills gave me a ride home. I was alone for a few hours. I wanted to be useful, but did something I haven't done since I've been here: I took a nap. I've barely slept the past week, so I needed those 3 hours. When I woke up, it was already 6 o'clock and Herb and Anne were home. We had dinner, and we went to Best Buy with Herb, just to look at cameras. I mentioned to him that my early birthday present should be a camera. So we go in, and see, that the camera I was thinking of getting was on sale, and therefore especially cheap. I texted my dad, where it was 3 am, and he got up and texted a permission back to buy that last cheap camera (I'm sorry Dad, I hope you could go back to sleep!).
  So we bought it! I have a camera. I still have to buy a memory card, batteries and a case. If anybody's wondering, it's a Canon PowerShot SX510. I'm very happy with it so far, I'll see what sort of pictures it takes. So I think I'll play with it untill I fall asleep today.

Pasta party

26th of August, Tuesday

I woke up with horribly sore muscles. Volleyball practice was tiresome today. I felt I did better this time. The girls were encouraging me of course.
  Then at 3 pm, the pasta party started at Sammi Leader's house. I was an hour late, but I still had plenty time to decorate my volleyball. It's not an actual volleyball, it's a huge paper one, that is going to be put out on the gym wall. Everyone made one. I guess it's tradition. While being very artistic, we talked and chatted.
  The pasta party, of course, can't go without pasta. It was delicious. After everyone finished, we went back to the basement, and carried on with our decorating.
  Kim Masiello picked me up at 6:30. It was very nice meeting her. We went to a frozen yoghurt place, and talked a lot. Mostly about school, and the subjects I want to take. It's such a hard decision! I have time to think about it till tomorrow morning. Then Kim brought me home, and I carried on decorating my volleyball. It's still not finished, as you can see. Maybe tomorrow.

The first 5 days

The thing about foreign exchange is you think you have time. You think because you left your old life behind, and you're creating a new one, you suddenly have time. The truth is, you don't. In fact, the only thing you don't have is time. You want to take in everything, and when you realise, the day is gone, you're in bed, laying there at 2 in the morning, and thinking, "Oh, shoot, I forgot to share what I did today with the world."

So today, I start my blog. I arrived on the 21st of August, and my first entry will be about the first 5 days of my American life.

21st of August, Thursday

After 20 hours of hell, I finally arrived to Rochester. Thanks to Delta and Air France, I experinced what it's like to have your flight delayed, connections changed, nail ripped off, yelled at for no reason (by a cross-eyed Delta employee) and luggage lost. I'm sorry, both luggages lost.
  So I finally arrived to Rochester. Being through all that stuff for a day and putting up with everything, it was nice to be greeted by my host family (Herb and Anne Parker), and four members of my Rotary club.
  I filed a claim for my baggages, then went home. By the time I fell asleep, it was already 2 am, which would have been 8 am at home. 25 hours awake.

22nd of August, Friday

The only good thing there was in not having luggages, was not having to pack out.
In the morning, we went to Greece Athena to register. I finally saw my school, the one that I was fantasizing about for half a year. It was big, wealthy and very empty. I wondered what it's like in schooltime. I guess I'll see in 2 weeks.
  After registration, we had lunch at Olympia restaurant. It's a cute little place in Greece, very american. I decided to have a salad, I wanted something light. When the huge bowl the size of a bucket full of lettuce and ham was served, I didn't believe my eyes! SUCH BIG PORTIONS! I could barely eat half of it. I took the rest home, and never finished it.
  Went to visit Charlotte lighthouse and the pier later in the afternoon. We went on a merry-go-round with Herb, it was a lot of fun.
Then we popped by at Wegmans to buy a few things. It's a pretty awesome place, but I find it a bit more expensive than a grocery store at home.
  At 10 pm, we went to the airport. Sun, a south korean exchange student was supposed to come, my host family also took on hosting her this year. We waited for 1,5 hours, but she just never got off the plane. Her brother will also be here on exchange, his host family waited at the airport as well. After 1,5 hours, we decided it wasn't worth waiting around anymore. Turns out, she had some problems in Korea with the paperwork, so they're due to arrive next weekend. Communtication has never been a strong suit of that family (we tried to make contact but she just didn't reply).
  But - at least - my black suitcase was at the airport, so we could take that home.
We also saw a soldier come home. It was very moving to see all his family and friends greeting him.

23rd of August, Saturday

Rotary orientation in the morning.  I met all the inbound students, they're all so nice and sweet. I can see how excited everybody is. The pin exchange went down, but I couldn't give anybody any, because they were in my other suitcase. I made a promise to give them next time.
  We took an English test (piece of cake, although I did misread one), and listened to a presentation about the rules of this year. We finished the whole thing off with a delicious lunch.
  Herb took me to her aunt and uncle (technically his mom's cousins), who are 87 and 89 years old. We had a cute little conversation. On the way home, we had a debate on evolution.
  In the afternoon we went shopping a lot. Wegmans, Sam's club, Aldi .... We went to the mall to have some taco dinnet at Taco Bell. Despite it's reputation, I found it good.
   We placed an order for a cookie cake for the next day. My other luggage arrived thankfully.

24th of August, Sunday

Sunday morning, we went to church. Herb and Anne are protestants. Herb is the principal of the Greece Christian, a school right next door to Athena. American church and mass is nothing like European. First, there is no altar, there's a stage. The first thing you see is a huge FREEDOM sign on the stage, and a projector counting down to the start of the mass. Funky lights, light pop music. It's much more entertaining than I'm used to. Then when mass starts, the first 30 minutes are just singing. But not the usual 'alleluja! or Kyrie ... . Christian pop songs, with a keyboard, guitar, drums, the whole package. Everyone's clapping and randomly shouting 'Yeah', 'Thank You God' and 'You're awesome Jesus'! I have to admit it was very hip.
  Then everyone sat down, and a young guy talked about how christians should teach muslims to believe in Jesus rather than Allah. He talked a lot about false religion and the examples were of course muslim, hinduism and buddhism. I personally found it a little too much, but that's just me.
  After church, we got ready for the party. Anne's and Carol's (their daughter's) birthday was coming up, so we had to celebrate. I baked muffins and made some corn salad. I met two of Anne's sisters, Carole and Ellen, their husbands, Mary, a sweet elderly woman Ellen and her husband are taking care of. I met Xynan and DJ, my host parent's grandsons, and their mom Bevin. It was a fun party with way more food than needed. We eat some of the cookie cake, which turned out to be very yummy. Even some Rotary club members dropped by, but sadly they didn't stay long.
  I gave my presents to my host parents today. Some Rubik's cubes, paprika, chocholate. All the usual Hungarian souvenirs. I gave Xynan and DJ Kinder surprise eggs. Xynan was thrilled, Dj, not so much. Just before I went to bed, we all watched the season finale of The Last Ship together.

25th of August, Monday

My mom's birthday! I thought a lot about her today. I miss my family a lot. We celebrated a bit before I came here, but today was the actual day. As chance has it, Anne's birthday is on this day as well. They were born on the same day, 7 years apart.
  From 8:30 to 12, I had volleyball practice. The first official school program with Athena. The girls were really nice to me. I was told I should make friends with the volleyball girls, because they're very good guys, and everyone was right. We had picture day and we were given our uniforms. I'M NUMBER 10!!
  After two horrible laps on the court, we finally played volleyball. The girls are pros! They tried to make me feel better, but I knew the truth. I appreciated it though. I'm gonna get better, that's sure. My lower arm hurt after 30 minutes, but I kept going. It would have been embarassing to quit on the first practice. I served a lot.   At 12, the practice was over. Herb took me home. We had lunch, and I was left alone in the house while the host parents worked. When they came back, we had a small dinner, and we watched the Emmy's in the evening. It was a lot of fun. I was suprised how many people I knew! It seems I'm really updated on American pop culture, Herb says he never knew anybody who knew so much about movies and tv series. I count that as a very nice compliment. A lot of my favourites won, so I was happy for them.