Cal-Mum 3

27th of September, Saturday

We woke up at 8:30, startled, because we thought we overslept our first program, but it turned out to start at just 10:30, so we still had time to be lazy.

  Our first program was Stokoe Farm, which is a farm with games for small children. There's a forest trail, slides, restaurant, hayride, cornmaze (which was really nostalgic, because my mom used to have one when I was in kindergarden), a bouncy house kind of thing and many animals. It's a place where people get their pumpkins from, so there were a lot of those too.

  We stayed there till 2. Afterwards we were supposed to bond with our host families, but ours was working. Almost everybody went to a "festival". It was kinda boring, it was for little kids too. We sat there and talked. Because there was a high school soccer game, we walked over to watch it, but really, we just continued doing nothing. At 5:30, we had dinner. The Carneys (Tabata's host family in Avon) have a catering business, so they made meat with corn and salad, and it was really delicious.

  Then the fun part of the day started! We rollerskated in the gym! It's a skate with four wheels like a car's, not after each other. It's what they use for indoors. Now that, is one difficult sport. There were minor injuries (Guillemette hurt her ankle, a lot of people their knees and butts), but we loved it. We went around in circles, listened to super loud music and danced while skating. I got quite good fast (I ice skated for 5 years, though it's really different). I could master going backwards and I learned how to moonwalk. 

  After everyone took their skates off, we played sports, everyone what they wanted. We made a group for volleyball, basketball, soccer and dodgeball. I played in almost all. By the end, we were really tired, and just sat down and talked. 

We got home at 10:30. Long and eventful day!

Cal-Mum 2

26th of September, Friday

We woke up early, and had breakfast at the one and only high school Cal-Mum has. We sat at round tables, and we played a group games. Our group always lost, but oh well.
  We then went to a hall in the school, and set up our presentations. We invited little children from the elementary school to listen to some things about our country. I presented our flag, some Rubik's cubes and chocolate from Herb and paprika. The kids weren't really interested most times, but there were some who asked questions. After 2 hours, we were really tired, and glad, that we didn't have to speak to first and second graders. It must be really tough being a teacher.
  We took a school bus to the Genesee Country Museum, and open air museum which demonstrates how Americans lived more than 150 years ago. It was interesting, and the weather was wonderful.
  Afterwards we went to the channel 13 studio! We met with Don Alhart, a local celebrity, long time Rotarian. He showed us around in the editor room, and finally the news studio. It was only a one hour tour he gave us, but it was fascinating.
  Then we went home, changed, had home made tacos at another host family with my girls, Lorenzo from Italy and Pedro from Brazil. We finished the day at the Cole's house, having a bonfire and talking. It was a lot of fun, we bonded better than ever. And that's what this weekend is all about. 

Cal-Mum 1

25th of September, Thursday

My sore back needed resting, so I didn't go to school today. Herb called the attendance office, and all was settled. I watched Switched at Birth on (I was alone in the house), and I let Ella, the 14 year old Pomeranian dog out. She's like a slow, orange fur ball. So I let her out in the front, as we always do. But I forgot to let her in! 40 minutes later, I realized I forgot about her and ran out, only to find the dog was missing! So I panicked, called Herb, who immediately came home, and we searched the neighborhood together. It was 11:30 then. After 90 minutes of searching and finding nothing, we gave up. I made some flyers to put up (LOST DOG, ELLA, if found please return her, …). And then I waited. At 3:15, Sun came home, and 15 minutes later, someone called, saying they found Ella! I was so happy! So we went up to the corner, where they brought her. Apparently they found the dog, and they knew about her being missing, but they kept her inside their house for hours (according to their neighbor). But I was just happy they gave Ella back.
  Then I packed for the Cal-Mum weekend. It's a Rotary event for the inbound students. Herb took me and Sun down to this little town where it's held. We met at the high school, and caught up with what's up, how everybody's doing. They're a really nice bunch of people, and the diversity is amazing! We were assigned to host families, a few students/family. I was staying with Pat and Jeff Mead, two wonderful people living in a beautiful house, and I was with Maria from Sweden and Tabata from Ecuador. They're really nice and funny. We had dinner, which was a delicious blend of vegetables, and afterwards we had a few of the other exchange students over for like 1 or 2 hours, because they live with the family next door. Varda from India, Anita from Bolivia, Tatty from Thailand and Gwen from the Netherlands. We had a lot of fun, having girly talks mixed with interesting multicultural discussions.
  They left at 10:40. Afterwards I bonded with Pat, who works at the local open air American history museum. She and her husband adopted two girls from Korea and India. I met the latter one, her name is Ania, and she's really nice. I feel I'm making friends really easily here. I'm happy to meet all these wonderful people.
  Because I don't have my laptop with me, I might have to keep the pictures till the end of the weekend when I get home, and I can upload them. I'm sure there's gonna be a lot!

I'M IN THE NEWSPAPER!

24th of September, Wednesday

Today we watched a video on AP Psych about memory, and there was this guy, who challenged himself to memorize the names of 20 tourists. One of them was called Balázs, which is a Hungarian name. The funny part was that they misspelled it, and no wonder I didn't recognize the name "Balag".
  We wrote a test on AP English on the Kite Runner. It was very similar to the kind of tests we do in Hungary in literature. After a history and a doubly study hall, Kim and Abby (Kim's daughter whom I've just met today) took me to the Rotary meeting. I felt at home, as always, taught them the word "bor", which is wine in Hungarian (truly important), and sang them "Boci, boci tarka" and "Csip csip csóka" as examples of children songs about mutilated animals. At least they laughed at my jokes!
  Judy showed me a copy of this week's Greece Post, and I'm in it! There's a whole page long article about my arrival. It's totally awesome. Even though not many people read newspaper anymore, I feel like a celebrity! Of course, it was all Judy's work. Tomorrow, I'm surely going to buy like 10 copies!
  Then Kim took me back to school, from where I took the schoolbus home (for the first time), and surprisingly, I was home in 10 minutes! There, immediately, we sat in front of the TV with Anne and watched Netflix. Due to my sore back, I couldn't go to practice, but we did watch several episodes of 'Switched at Birth'. It's a very funny series about two families, where their children were accidentally misplaced after their birth. And they only found out 17 years later. It's got really funny and awkward moments, we laughed and commented a lot on it with Anne. And we watched them till 9 pm.

Dictionaries

23rd of September, Tuesday

Today was the first official Rotary program, other than the luncheons on Wednesdays. The Rotary Club of Greece and the RC of Hilton worked together, to fund dictionaries for every 3rd grader in the region! That's a lot of kids!
  So when I heard that there's going to be a handout in Greece Christian (the school right next to mine, Herb's the principal), I immediately volunteered. After second block, I left the school and walked over.
  10 Rotarians came! And senator Robach also came. He's involved in Rotary, and he gave a nice speech to the kids. There were only 24 children in that grade (small school), but they enjoyed themselves very much. Bill Gormont did some magic tricks, which were really cute, and we handed out the dictionaries. I had to give a "presentation' sort of thing, it was more like a talk. I started telling things about Hungary, and Rotarians and kids asked questions. The children were adorable!
  After the event, I didn't want to go back to school, so when we found out, that I'm officially already off for the day, Tracy (Rotarian) took me home.
  I watched 2 Big Bang Theory, and 3 Under the Dome episodes. I felt life was good. At 2:30, Herb took me back to Athena, to leave for Fairport with the volleyball team for a game. We had  a lot of group meetings and motivational speeches, but we didn't win this one either. The busride back was really long and silent. I hate it, when these excellent people get dissapointed in themselves, because they "didn't do well" in  an hour of their lives. I wish they could see themselves for what they really are: truly great players. 

Froot Loops in study hall

22nd of September, Monday

School was kind of average today. It was a normal A day. The only special things were the free class on Creative Writing (because I finished my project the day before), and the Froot Loops in study hall.
  Almost every day, I have an empty block. And it's not just me, who's free for one hour, but a lot of students at different times. So for the time being, we're put in study hall.
   It's in the forum room, the old performing arts center. (Like a mini theatre, but in a bad shape). So today, after lunch, I had study hall. I didn't really have lunch, and anyways, it was early, so I decided to have my cereal in the forum room. (Froot Loops is a colourful kid's cereal). The weird about my plan was the fact, that I brought a bowl and a spoon and milk for my meal. I got a few strange looks, but I felt really smart.
  After school, we had a home game against the Webster Titans, which we unfortunately lost. The coach was really angry. Herb was doing JV concession today, so he watched the game, and then we went home together.
  We watched Dancing with the Stars. It's a reality TV show, where "celebrities" dance with professional dancers, and are voted for by the audience around the country. It's strange, but a lot of Americans watch it, so I'll have a taste of what their lives are. But maybe not too much reality TV.

After 1 month

21st of September, Sunday

1 month ago today, I landed in Rochester, and my exchange student life began. In one month I met so many amazing people, I can hardly believe it. It wasn't a busy month though, but it was just right to settle in. 

  Now I'm moved into a new home, I live with wonderful people and I feel like I found my second home. I miss my Hungarian life, but I concentrate on being here more. 

  It's been one month, and I haven't been in downtown Rochester. I haven't had a garbage plate. I haven't seen the High Falls. But all in good time.

Today, I skipped church. It's not such a sin for me, I never go at home, but this was the first time I didn't go with Herb and Anne. Instead, I watched the last two Doctor Who episodes. Then the parents and Sun came back with DJ and Xynan. We had lunch, and Xynan was mischievous. He went up to my room, locked himself in, and didn't open up! I had to pick the lock to get in. I found him siting ob my bed, my laptop in his lap, he's typing something, and he hid the T button from my keyboard! Now he has an ultimatum, he can't come in my room. Four year olds, right! I wasn't mad, kinda reminded me of my nephews. 

  I skyped with my parents for an hour, they were sweet. We went to the YMCA with Herb, Sun and DJ.  Herb and I ran for a solid 20 minutes (I completed 5,5 laps = 1,4 miles = 2,2 kilometers), then we went swimming in the pool, me for the first time! It was cold at first, I quickly got used to it. I didn't really swim laps, maybe a few. I felt more like diving. I held my breath and tried to reach the bottom of the depest end of the pool (success). The we went to the jakuzzi, which was too hot for my taste, and the sauna, ehoch was even hotter. We cooled off in another pool, and we left the gym at closing time. 

  At home, everybody sat around the bonfire they made, but I went upstairs and I wrote my essay for Creative Writing. It's topic was what I believed in, and I chose magic. If anybody wants to read it, shoot me an email. I put it together in 40 minutes, others in class had a week (I just lacked motivation until today). When I finished and printed it out, Herb proofread it.

  We went to Walmart to get some milk and cereal, we felt like party animals. (lol).

I finished the day with turning the TV on, for a few minutes. The Proposal was playing, one of my favourite movies, so I watched that until the end. 

So 1 month. I can barely believe it. 

Shopping with Anne

20th of September, Saturday

Well, I slept 11 hours. That's a first since I've been here! I woke up at 12, and went downstairs to have breakfast. I always have the same: instant oatmeal. We never eat anything like this at home, and it reminds me a little bit of my South African days. (Nothing close to the porridge I had there though).
  Sun and Herb left for a hike with Sun's school, and we watched Gravity Falls with Anne while I ate my breakfast, and Anne her lunch (Because it was 12:30 by that time).
  At 2, we met Dube at the library, to get my backpack, and from there, we went to a 7 eleven, and got some Slurpees (it's basicly crushed ice with fruit juice [jégkása szerű]).
  We went to a Five Below, my beloved cheap store, where everything is (duh), five dollars or below. I got I bunch of junk including nailpolish, earrings, a Darth.Vader shaped box and a Harry Potter chocholate frog! (I haven't opened it yet, so I don't know what it's like, but it seems kind of small and flat).
  We also went to Eastview mall. I did the shopping, Anne just followed me. This was our first official bonding day. In the plaza, very girly. I bought a pair of shoes I wanted at American Eagle (and it only took me 20 minutes to decide if I wanted a size 9 or 10, because both fit fine ... I got a 10). We met Herb and Sun, who were finished with their hike, and came to shop.
  We had late-late lunch at the food court. Anne and I got wok, Herb a cheesesteak (Sun was with her friend). Later in the mall, I bought a wallet, and got a pair of cool sunglasses with it for 1 cent. BJ's (a huge store, mostly for huge amounts of food [mint a Metro]) was just around the corner, so we did our food shopping for next week.
  When we got home, after 9, and I looked at the heaps of food we bought, and the fridge, and I decided I'll clean and reorganize the whole thing, so that we'll have space for everything. Little did I know, that this process would take me and Herb 2 hours. But we did it anyways. There were some nasty stuff in there, some stuff spilled, some expired years ago. So we cleaned it out, washed everything off, rethought and repacked it, and in the end, we had a beautifully nice fridge, well organized and we even had room to spare.
  By that time, it was 11:30. The parents went to sleep, I watched some TV, and did the same thing a little later. 

Double or nothing - second Brockport victory

19th of September, Friday

Today was a skinny day, I had every subject except for PE. I felt like I did well. I'm starting to enjoy classes more, because I know some people now, and I understand way more about everything. (I remember the first time we had to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance, I had no clue what was going on. Now I know it by heart.)
  After school we had an away game at Brockport with the volleyball team. Remember we already beat them once in Athena? We were sure they'd come back with an avenging spirit, this time, on their court. We recieved the warm-up jerseys we ordered back in August. They're white, really comfortable and, thankfully, warm. (picture below with Sam Dube) Plus they were free, so everyone was happy.
  We won the first 3 matches, thus winning the game. We were so quick, we finished before 9 pm. I don't remember that this ever happened before (games usually last till 9:15 or more, especially away games).
  We celebrated our victory at Friendly's. It's a cute and colourful diner. We had a good time, and Herb took me home at 10:45. My backpack was left in Michele's car, she gave me a ride to the restaurant. So I'll have to live without my phone for one night (not the one I can talk with, that's with me, so I'm callable.)
  I fell asleep with the happy thought, that I can finally sleep in the next morning.
(The pictures are taken with my new camera)

Me and Dube in our new warm-up sweatshirts

Alyssa and Brook before the game (coach Kelly in the back)

Sarah Bini and Sammi being cute, Michele in the back being Michele :D

The fabulous Sara Ciotti

The team

Warm-up

At Friendly's

Me and Lexi

History quiz

18th of September, Thursday

Today I had a 10 question history quiz. Nothing major, but it was still the first, and I didn't really know what to expect. I got 10/10, to which I was really proud of. On English, we learnt about the Middle-eastern social issues, and we watched a video about Malala Yousafzai, a 17 year old Pakistani girl, who fights against the Taliban by publicly protesting for education, women's rights and freedom. She was really inspirational. It made me wonder, how good I have it in this world, and millions of people suffer every day because they were born in the wrong country at the wrong time.
  At lunch, I sat with Brooke, Lexi, Kyle and Chris, really funny people. I ate the leftover chinese from yesterday, and I had a good time. My advisement is from now on with Mr. Gangarossa. I asked to be reassigned, because it's much easier to do my homework there, and I actually know people from that class.
  At volleyball, I was downright horrible. The coach made the people who messed up run, and I'm pretty sure I ran the most. I was so angry with myself, it was unbelievable. After the practice, Michele had a pasta party, which was fun. Her mom is an amazing cook, she made the best meatballs I had so far. Michele has a tiny white dog, that she describes as a psycho-dog. It really looks angry and cute at the same time. I was told it bites, so I was careful with it.
  At home, Carole dropped by. I did my "mon symbole" project for French. I basicly had to create a symbol, that describes my interests and put sentences about myself on it. I made a camera out of an old box and tape. It took me a long time to finish, but I'm done with it.
  Today my memory card and camera case arrived, so now I officially have a functioning camera! I'll use it tomorrow at the game.

Chinese food

17th of September, Wednesday

I don't understand schoolbus ladies ... They moved the pickup time ... by five minutes ... from 6:35 to 6:28. Yes, if you did the math, you did more, than my buslady.
  School was short today. I only had 4 classes, then Kim picked me up, to take me to the Rotary meeting. She gave me a vest from yesterday's Rotary Golf Tournament (I heard it was nice), and she gave me 2 pins (my collection is getting really heavy). The meeting was fun, as always. And I'm not saying that, because a lot of the members read the blog. I'm really having a good time there. I taught them the word "Szívesen!", which is You're welcome in Hungarian, and I offered my workforce to raise money to my Discover America trip. We were encouraged on the first orientation to announce it in our club. I can babysit, wash cars, clean, cook and bake, but I haven't thought of anything else so far. If you have any ideas, all are welcome!
  After Larry took me home, I rested for a while, then I went to volleyball. The coach made us run in the corridors, and I didn't find it fun. But at the end, we played a competition kind of game, and that was good. I can't explain the rules, because I'm still not sure. No wonder our team didn't win (sorry girls!)
  Anne picked me up with Sun and DJ (Anne's grandson). We went to have dinner at a cute asian place close to the house. It was really traditional. I got a Pad Thai, which was really good, but I had a lot of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.
  At home, we watched the finale of America's Got Talent. Matt Franco, a magician won. Then me and Herb watched the premier of a new series called Mysteries of Laura. It was really funny and entertaining. At home, I never watch TV, because it's in Hungarian obviously, and if it's not original, everything's dubbed, which I dislike. I have to download my episodes and movies. Here, the TV is in English, so I can watch my episodes there. Besides, I can't dowload here. 

Picture day

16th of September, Tuesday

I wanted to wake up earlier this morning, because it was picture day, and I wanted to be pretty. My intentions backfired, and I overslept. I could still do my make-up, but Herb took me to school.
  After AP Psychology and French came US History, in which the whole class went to the corridor of the Preforming Arts Center, which gets the most light. A whole photo studio was assembled there, with two big stations, both equipped with huge flash umbrellas and background canvases. There was another station, where the actual printing took place. There was a huge line. While I was waiting, I was handed a piece of paper I had to give to the woman taking my picture, to identify me.
  I talked to Mr. Gangarossa, my US History teacher, and found out he's a member of my Rotary club! I don't know wether it's a coincidence or not, but it's awesome that one of my teachers is involved with Rotary too.
  So I arrived to the beginning of the line. The woman told me how to stand, how to hold my head and she fixed my hair. She took a picture, and I didn't even care how it would turn out. It seemed so silly, being concerned about looks, when it's just a student ID picture.
  In a minute, my ID was printed. (Picture below). It isn't as funny as my friends' (Rosie made too ponytails on her forehead, and Kyle switched pictures with his friend), but it isn't that bad.
  At lunch, I met Chris from my Rotary club. He was an exchange student in Germany, and is now a member. He was there to advertise the program. He told me a couple of weeks ago he was gonna come, but it still surprised me to see him there. He was sitting at a table, a bunch of pamphlets in front of him, and he was waiting for students to be interested. So I sat with him for lunch, and tried to help him spread the word, but I couldn't sadly. I hope he had more success later on.
  Today's Creative writing class I didn't fall asleep. Nor at Advisement. I did my homework at Mr. Gangarossa's room, then I was supposed to go to volleyball practice. Only problem was, we had a game today. I got so mixed up with the dates, I didn't bring anything to it. So I had no uniform at all. I cheered though, and I took pictures with Courtney's dad's camera. The settings were difficult to handle, but once I got the hang of it, it was a piece of cake. I took over 300 pictures. I don't know how that happened, but I did. Some of them were actually pretty good. Unfortunately, we lost the game, but what would we learn from, if we'd win them all?

Sleepy

15th of September, Monday

I barely had any sleep again. Whoever says 5 hours of sleep/day is enough for them, you're lying! For weeks now I've been going to bed late and getting up early, and I can't take it anymore apparently. The whole day I had a headache. 

  We had our first official test on AP Psych. French was good, my classmates admire my pronounciation ... that sure never happened before. On AP English, we went to the library for a research, and one of the librarians recognised me. She's friends with Pierce, the guy who sat next to me on the plane from Boston to Rochester, so we took a picture to send to him. On PE, we started disk golfing. It's a tough sport.

  I fell asleep for a few minutes on Creative Writing. Rosie woke me up, I hope the teacher didn't notice. I dreamt about creative things though. I think ... 

  Then on top of my headache, I sang the air out of myself in Choir. So by that time my minor headache became a major one. I called the coach to tell him I'm not in the state to cheer for the team for 6 hours, and he let me off. I went over to Herb's school, and as soon as he was done, we went home. There, I knew I shouldn't sleep, because then I'll wake up at 3 am, and that's even worse. So I sat in front of the TV, and watched an episode of The Magic Schoolbus, my favourite show from my childhood. I've never seen it in English (the last time I saw an episode was when I was 6). And it made me strangely happy and nostalgic.

  Herb cooked dinner tonight: spaghetti with tomato sauce and peas. He had some hot peppers too, from which I ate 3 slices of, just for fun. It wasn't fun. Bad idea. I tried to keep it cool, but that's really hard when your mouth is on fire.

  After dinner, I could finally sleep. And I did. I needed sleep so much, that I didn't care about washing my hair for picture day the next day.

Volleyball Car Wash

14th of September,  Sunday

Today I got woken up to Herb encouraging Xynan (his grandson), to go upstairs and wake me up. At 9 o'clock!! Thankfully Xynan was a good kid and refused. But I got woken up anyways. At 10:30, we all went to church. I stood out with my baggy, used, ugly clothes from a crowd of well dresses people on a Sunday mass. I went upstairs to say hi to Nathan and DJ (Sun's brother), and Herb quickly took me to the Athena Car Wash.

It was just on the corner, in the parking lot of a flower shop, two minutes by car, but it was cold, and Herb insisted on taking me.

  We filled buckets with water and soap. Everybody brought one or two used towels and sponges. We formed groups of 5-6, and waited for the cars to come. Some people made signs and stood at the corner advertising the carwash.

  Finally a few parents came. There were mostly parents and grandparents who had their cars washed and made donations. But there were some random people too. It was work, but it was a lot of fun. The weather was chilly at first, but it got better soon. The sun was shining, the cars kept coming and coming, and everyone had a good time. Once, I went to hold the sign across the street with Lexi. We danced and jumped to keep ourselves entertained, and the drivers interested in getting their cars clean. We even got a 4 dollar donation.

  Alltogether, I think we got around four hundred bucks in 3 hours. At two, everyone was tired. We collected all our stuff and parents picked us up. At hone, I skyped my parents for 1,5 hours. First time in two weeks probably. It made me miss them a lot, but I was happy that things are going fairly well there. 

  When I finally came down, we decided to go to the YMCA for an hour. Herb, Sun, DJ (Herb's grandson) and I went together. Herb worked the machines, Sun swam, DJ played basketball, and I punched the boxing sack, did sit-ups, some light weights and ran 2 miles (=8 laps = 3.2 kilometers) in 30 minutes. I surprised myself too. In the gym, in front of the treadmills are TVs (just like in the movies), and The Prince of Persia was on. So while watching the movie, I forgot I was running, and accidentally drained all my energies out. (I was tired from the car wash anyways). I like running on a treadmill, but not outside. (picture below was taken after the big achievement)

  We made a quick stop at Wegman's, and went home. I needed to study for a psychology test for the next day, but didn't really. I listened to what the teacher was saying in class, so I figured I'm halfway there. I showed Herb funny videos, did my French homework. This wasn't a restful weekend, all the volleyball programs were quite energetic, but it certainly was fun.

Volleyball Team Bonding Day

13th of September, Saturday

Today was Volleyball Team Bonding day the whole day! It was a lot of fun.
We met at 10:30 at Athena. We were instructed to bring a complete set of change clothes, bathing suits and towels, but we didn't know where we would go, or what the plan was. This was the parent's surprise. The only problem was: it was pouring rain. Not quite the popular weather for outside activity. But we didn't mind.
  I sat in a car with Michelle (who's on my team, Varsity), Ryann and Nadine (JV), and Nadine's mom took us to an Adventure Park! It's the heaven of children, really. It's basicly an arcade with a lot of fun stuff. We started off with a minigolf tournament in groups of 3. I came second in our group, I was 1 point behind, but I didn't mind. I don't remember playing minigolf before, and it was a fun experience.
  After golf, we went to the WOW Factory! It's basicly a 2 story high ballpit with airguns, and the point is to hit each other with the ball (which are soft, so noone can get hurt). I got tired of minigolfing in the rain, so I didn't really run aroung. Teenagers got tired of the WOW Factory really quickly. Then we got 30 tokens each, to play in the arcade! I'm such a gambler! I played 15 of my tokens away at the first game I saw. Then another one ate 2 of my tokens and didn't print out the tickets you're supposed to get if you win. Lucky for me, the guy who works at the Adventure Park is in my English and Creative writing class, and Lexi's (volleyball friend's) boyfriend, so we're friends too. He gave me my tokens back and printed out extra tickets. I played my tokens away quite fast. I don't think they lasted more than 20 minutes. So we cashed in everything for gifts and candies. I got a ring pop, which is a candy on a ring, so you can put it on your finger, and be fabulous with it. I was skeptical at first, but realized it was only 60 calories (because it's really a small thing), so I ate it. It was good (not for my teeth though), and it lasted forever! All the way to Alyssa Umbrino's (JV) house, where we had lunch. All the Varsity, JV volleyball players and a lot of parents were there. We had pizza, and I was the weirdo in the group because I put ketchup on mine. I told them it was a Hungarian thing, but is it? Just get me some Hungarians to confirm that. Only Sara Ciotti liked it.
  From the Umbrino house, we went to the beach. The beach is fun ... in the summer. Today was not a sunny day. When we got there, the rain became more like a shower. With strong wind. The umbrella didn't help. So we went into one of the houses at the beach. This was like a private beach, 25 miles away, and the parents reserved a party house for the afternoon. It fit everyone in comfortably, and had a lot of tables and chairs and a fireplace. It was really cold and everyone was soaked when they got in.
  Ann Marie Leader, Sammi's mom instructed the games we played, like volleyball team Jeopardy (we had to guess our teammates from a short description of them), volleyball pong (like beerpong but with huge flowerpots and volleyballs and no beer ... but still fun). We played volleyball too outside, when the rain stopped. The grass was wet and therefore very slippery. Nobody dived for the ball.We tried to keep score, but just couldn't. We were having a lot of fun. Coach P's idea was, that we should hit the ball with our heads, so everyone tried to put the ball behind the net with their foreheads. Some attempts failed, some didn't, but all was hilarious.
  We had dinner at the beach too. Parents grilled, and brought salads and fruit. I brought my new camera. Herb let me borrow a memory card of his for today, so it works. The battery is certainly great, it still has a lot of juice in it. Me and Coach P tried to figure out how it works, and I think I got the basics (I still need some help). I took some pictures of the bonding at the beach, so you can see how they are.
  The parents made prizes for the winners of the games. I didn't win any, but there were 10 leftovers, so I got one of those. They were brown lunchbags filled with different stuff. I got a pair of Halloween socks, a headband, glowing bracelets and a water-pistol. Yay!
  The last stop of the Team Bonding was Courtney's house. It is such a beautiful place! Their kitchen is perfect, I got opsessed with it. It's exactly the kind of kitchen I'm going to have when I'm building my house. They also have a pool and a bar. We made 2 bonfires and sat around them, for it was really cold all days long. For some time, I danced with Niyana on Courtney's Wii, our favourite was the Indian dance, which was just as weird and fun as the title of the song: Bollywood Rainbow. After dancing, I sat in the parent's circle with some of the girls, and we talked about Halloween, the origin of Disney tales and animation / Lord of the Rings fun facts. The time went by really fast, and by the time I realized, it was 10 pm and Anne was picking me up. We went to Wegmans and made a quick late night shopping. We bought some baby bananas, which made me extremely happy, because my Mom loves them and I miss her. I miss my Dad too, and my pets. But I'm gonna miss them till next August, so I have to toughen up. I hope they do the same.

9/11

11th of September, Thursday

Today is the 13th anniversary of the tragic terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City. We remembered this event in some classes.
  The day started with French. Every day, in first period, we start by standing up, turning to the flag and saying the Pledge of Allegience. At first I thought we only did this because of the start of the schoolyear, but as it turns out, this happens every day. We don't do anything like this in Hungary, and I've never heard of other countries having a custom of this sort. I don't mind, but I can understand why Americans are even more patriotic than other countries: they were taught to be, day-to-day.
  After the pledge come the official announcments on the radio. Today, the pricipal made a short speech for the victims of the attacks and asked for a moment of silence.
  In French, the teacher gave me separate papers to work on, something we haven't learned yet at home, another future tense. In English, Mrs. Masters talked about 9/11 too. She has friends who lost family members that day. We listened to President Bush's speech 9 days after the events, and talked about it for a while. It surprised me, that the US History teacher didn't even mention 9/11. We just went on with the topic. Creative writing was cool, I made even more friends, with whome I sat with at lunch after that period. The Italian exchange student arrived today, so we met her at Creative writing. Her name is Alma, she got here on Tuesday, but today was her first time at Athena. She's from somewhere near Milan, and she lives with a host family as well. She's here for a year too, but she's not with Rotary. She must have been very overwhelmed, for she seemed shy, but she was interested in everything, and tried to understand us.
  Select choir after lunch was difficult. I didn't hear my voice from the crowd of kids singing all around me, so I had no idea if I was off key or not. Ms. Dyer didn't notice, so it musn't have been too bad. Choir was followed by a boring hour of Advisement, and then off I went to our usual meeting point at Ms. Dyer's office. Me, Dube, James, Mark and Olivia (all from choir) hung out at the practice room. The tiredness overtook me, and I fell asleep on the floor of the practice room. Then I continued my nap at the office itself. At 4 I had to wake up for volleyball. My serves are not good, but my hits are getting better. Sometimes (for some unexplainable reason), I hit with my left hand, like a lefty. I'm a right handed person. I surprise myself as well.
   Tonight's pasta party was at Sarah Bini's place. They have a beautiful huge house in a lovely neighbourhood. The mood was good, we had fun.
  When I finally got home at around 9, I had to tidy my room, because it was due several days ago. Now it's nice and organised. I listened to Eminem all day, and I was blasting it while I was cleaning. I really like some of his songs, because mostly I don't understand what he sings about, and that makes listening to it kinda fun. I want to learn his song called "Rap God". Do you think it's doable? Maybe with a lot of determination.

Details

10th of September, Wednesday

My Mom suggested to go into more detail in my blog, and I think it's a good idea. I'll try to write more about my discoveries here and what's different. I usually end up writing everything down between midnight and 1 am. Yeah, I'll need to work on bedtime hours too.
  So this morning all was going well, untill 6:35. That was the time my schoolbus was supposed to come. It didn't. I was standing on the corner of Rumson and Skycrest since 6:29, and nothing came. At 6:50, I walked back to ask Herb to take me. Fortunately there was no traffic, so I got in in time. As I found out later, the bus was 10-12 minutes early. ... No comment. I'll just let it go for the sake of the bus ladies. This was the second time in 3 days they messed up the pick-ups. Is that usual, or is it just my luck? There are no schoolbuses in Hungary, so I wouldn't know.
  AP Psych was good. The teacher's really kind, and he tells a lot of personal stories as examples. He actually cares about teaching us, and what he says is really interesting. AP English was good as well. I got my first grades! Our summer assignment was graded (you know, the ones I finished at 2:30). I got an 84%, but I can still bring it up to 92% by Friday. I got grades from History too, 10/10 ... even though I didn't finish the assignment. I'm not sure if the teachers are going easy on me, or they're going easy on everybody, because it's just September.
  At lunch, I sat with Sydney and her friends. They're the popular kids at school. Cheerleaders and football players. I hope I can fit in with the cool kids. :D
  After a double study hall, Roger Boily picked me up to take me to the Rotary meeting. I want to do this every Wednesday! I only had 3 classes!
  So, Rotary meetings are always fun. Everyone is happy to see me, talk to me. They're very interested in my American life. I get compliments on my blog often (Thanks guys!), which is always good to hear.
  I made a promise to teach the group a Hungarian word and to tell them a fun fact about Hungary/Budapest/Bori every time I'm there. So today, I taught them the word "Köszi!", which is Thank You!, and I told them about the difference between Buda and Pest.
  Larry Wills took me home. He gave me a bunch of pins for my Rotary blaser. It's getting really heavy, and it jingles if I put it on.
  In my free 2 hours, I took a nap. Practice started at 4 pm, I got there at 4:30 ... I overslept. But the coach wasn't angry, I got off easy. Practice started out badly, I couldn't serve properly. But my hits were slightly better afterwards, which is nice. We'll have a home game on Friday, but I won't play. I'm a good cheering person, so I can do that.
  At home we had dinner (the leftover chicken divine, and yes, I ate broccolies again, what's up with that?), and we watched some Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and America's Got Talent. These are all American reality and competition TV shows. Junk TV, but perfect after a long day when one doesn't want to think really. Then I went upstairs, and talked a lot with Sun, about all kinds of things. Did you know, that in Korea, high school is from 8 am till 10 pm? I'd die.
  I finally bought a memory card for my camera online, so I'll be able to take nice pictures from next week probably. I started listening to Eminem, I like his music. It's a schoolday tomorrow, I should sleep ... especially if I have to wake up early, the bus comes 10 minutes before schedule. 

Official Twinkie Tuesday

9th of September, Tuesday

The morning was great. I had enough time to do everything, so all went well. I didn't forget anything either. AP Psych was good, in French we agreed with the teacher that she'll help me not fall behind too much. Lilly, my friend from French and Select Choir, upon learning that I never had a Twinkie before, insisted she'll bring some. So today she showed up with one. I tried it in front of the class, it was pretty good. So today was declared the "Official Twinkie Tuesday". US History was average, in PE, we were assigned lockers in the locker room. Creative writing was great, as always, I made cheerleader friends!
  Today we didn't have Select Choir, but we hung out at Ms. Dyers office. I fell asleep on the fluffy chairs. I didn't do well at practice, but at least we didn't do any real hard work. We played crazy-volleyball, and the loser team had to do wheelbarrows. Luckily, it wasn't mine, but I did document the event. Then Nathan picked me up, and we hung out at the mall for 40 minutes, than he took me to the YMCA, where I met Herb and Sun. I kickboxed for about an hour, then did sit-ups and ran 1 mile (=1600 meters = 4 laps). I felt really proud. At home, we watched America's Got Talent.

Victory

8th of September, Monday

I thought Mondays are bad, but my day was actually pretty good. My schedule works really well on A days (which was today). AP Psych, French (I spoke to my teacher, she was very understanding), AP English (where there was a fire drill, everyone went out to the parking lot, waited for 15 minutes and headed back).
  At lunch, I sat with Dube and James, they were funny as always. Then I was invited to another table to meet Sydney Greenauer and her friends. It seems like Sydney and her family will host me for the second part of my exchange year. She's a cheerleader, and she's really pretty. Her friends were curious, but I liked that. They seem like fun people.
  Then an hour of study hall in the forum. I heard the news that Nathan was taken to a hospital, but he's fine. It seems that I get all the bad news in study halls, 2 out of 2 times so far. Then came Creative Writing, where I finished my first assignment and made a new friend. On Select Choir, we finally sang. Even though it was only some ah-ah-ah and oh-oh-oh, it was good. We waited an hour at Ms. Dyers' office with Dube, and we went to have our game!
  We were playing against the Hilton Cadets, a strong volleyball team. JV lost sadly, but we fought hard (I mean the girls did :D). We won the first match, they took the second. We barely lost. The scores were tight. Even in the 3rd match, we only won by two. But the 4th match! After the Cadets scored 10 points, they didn't have enough power to overcome us! We won by more than 10 points at the end!
  It's a huge win, the coach said, and I believe him. Everyone was happy, I personally felt proud of my team. They weren't sloppy, they were organized and they communicated well. Herb and Sun, who watched our huge victory, took me home, and we ate the delicious chicken devine Anne made (and yes, I was so hungry and happy, that I ate the broccolies too ... I mean most of them).

Rules

7th of September, Sunday

We went to church, it was nice. I went up to the balcony, where the electronic things are with Nathan, that was cool. At home, we sat together to finally talk trough the "first night questions". Because everything was going well so far, nothing really changed. 

I had so much homework, I couldn't do anything else today. But at least I finished my AP Psychology summer assignment, which is nice.

You'll see a lot more entries like this in the future. Short, brief, nothing really happening, just school and homework. But that's the life of a teenager in high school, right?