Sick in Budapest

I can't believe its already been another week. It really doesn't feel like I've been in Hungary 17 days already!! I still feel very much a foreigner to Budapest. I do feel like I know my way around riding the metro just fine. I counted 9 metro stops that I have to pass through on the way to language class. Riding the metro that much has made me feel experienced towards the metro in that respect.

Now I have just one more day of language class left. I don't feel like know very much Hungarian, and I'm able to correctly pronounce even less than that. Even so there are certain conversations that I could have in Hungarian, though given the pace that local speakers speak the language I'd probably still be confused even I was hearing the words I was expecting to hear. The class was mostly focused on speaking the language and certainly has taught me quite a bit. Even so, sitting in class 7 hours a day wasn't the most enjoyable thing and it will be nice to be done. I'm pretty excited for next week when the semester begins and I will be taking math classes. That was the main focus about why I came here.

Last week I missed language school on Thursday and Friday because I had the flu. That was a rather unpleasant experience. I was basically restricted to lying in bed from Wednesday night until Sunday, and I wasn't able to eat a full meal during that time. It was a bit scary getting sick and being alone in a foreign country where I can't speak the language. I was able to communicate to my host family that I was sick, but I was never really able to tell them much about what was really wrong with me. The host family was very good about this, I am very glad I am staying with a host family. They gave me just the right food to eat (dry cereal, crackers and tea) and even called a doctor in to see me on Friday. Seeing the Hungarian doctor was an interesting experience. She knew a few English words, but not enough for me to explain to her what was going on, and I was unable to understand what she was telling me I needed to do. I was given some pills that I need to take, I understood that much, but that's about it. Something must have worked though because by Sunday evening I felt all better and I was able to go to language school on Monday. Overall being sick was not a very fun experience, but things could have been a lot so it really wasn't too bad. I feel quite blessed that things were able to work out the way they did.