First 24.

So I have official completed my first 24 hours in Budapest, and I must admit that they have been pretty intense. I intend to go through them with you, but first let's back up a little. Saying good bye to my friends, family, and boyfriend from back home was hard, very hard. It's weird to think about how long I'm going to be gone for... then I realize that in comparison to how long many other people (military, long distance, etc) have to be away from their loved for much longer that I have it pretty easy. Come the illogical moments when I'm taken over with emotion, this doesn't really help much, but during my calmer moments it makes me remember that I am strong and that I can get through being away from everyone for so long.

The flight was pretty uneventful except for the cancellation of my first planned flight causing me to leave a day later than expected. This actually worked out to my advantage though in that it gave me a first class ticket for my trip from Chicago to Munich, and I must admit, first class rocks. First class has such better food, seats, assistance from attendants, movie options, etc. It was a completely different experience on a plane than I've ever had before. However, even with the fancy seats and better food, I was only able to get a little over two hours of sleep on the flight. The flight from Munich to Budapest was short and unexciting.

Upon arriving in Budapest, I had expected to find someone waiting for me (with the cute little sign saying Chelsea Gans or BSM), but I did not. I waited for twenty minutes and then went to find a phone. After finding one, I realized that I couldn't figure out how to used it and decided to go back to the waiting area. There I finally found my ride, named Lorinc (pronounced Lawrence) and left the airport with him. I was so exhausted that my memory of the ride to my apartment and most of the next few hours is pretty hazy. What I do remember is getting to the apartment, unpacking a little, briefly meeting one of my roommates (Caroline) before she rushed off to London for the weekend, finding that my internet doesn't work, and then later meeting my second roommate (Sheri), and getting a brief tour around the block nearest my apartment. Within four blocks of my hours in any direction is pretty much everything I could ever need for survival. I have a grocery store, a mall, a currency exchange, many shops and restaurants, the metro station, etc. My school, on the other hand is a 20-30 train ride away.

After getting back to the apartment, settling in a little, and talking with my roommate some more, Sheri and I decided to go out grocery shopping and later out for dinner. I order goulash (spelling?) and potatoes. She ordered goulash with pasta. It was a huge portion for just about five US dollars (the same food in the US would have cost about 12). It was very good. By this time it was around seven o'clock. I went home, took a shower, and then attempted to fall asleep.

Sleep last night was very difficult. About twenty minutes after I laid down in bed everything hit me. I started getting dizzy and nauseous, my stomach started hurting really badly, how badly I missed Dante (my boyfriend) and my friends and family hit me, my mind kept reminding me how tired I was but my body insisted that I needed to stay away as if I were in danger. Because my internet wasn't working, I went and asked Sheri if I could use hers and she was very kind and let me. I sent both my mom and Dante a very stressed out email and then looked around on facebook and tried to skype Dante. Just being on the internet helped me feel connected back to the rest of the world and helped me calm down a lot. Within an hour or me sitting on the computer looking at picture with Sheri of Dante and her previous dance partners, I was feeling ready to go back to bed. Within thirty minutes of being in bed, I was out for the night... and a little bit more (I slept about 16 hours).

Sheri's gone now (to Prague to visit friends) and I'm home alone. I cooked myself a breakfast, got my internet set up and went to the store. I made a complete fool of myself in the store by spilling half my bottle of pop into my basket and all over the floor. Since I speak like no Hungarian, all I could say was sorry and “kosonom” or thank you in Hungarian. I definitely got a taste of the attitude that people give immigrants in the US. I kept feeling as if I was doing everything wrong and that I was annoying everyone. I have to head back out though to do more shopping, so I guess that that is just something that I'll have to get used to...

In retrospect, my first 24 here have been intense (and I was only really awake for 8 of them). It's been exciting, fun, and pretty enjoyable for most of the time, but the times of loneliness, anxiety, and sickness have left me feeling a little defeated right now. I'm gonna keep going though. Backing out is not an option, and I'm sure that after I've been here for a couple weeks that everything will fall into place and that I'll feel a lot better.