Quick Update

So I've been a little (read: really) bad at updating this.

The problem is, there's too many great things going on.

Since I've been here, I've spent about 40 hours taking the intensive language course, which is, not too surprisingly quite intense. I've been able to learn a significant amount of Hungarian. When I say things, people usually (but not always) know what I mean, which is a decent step forward, given how hard the pronunciation is. I can usually understand what people want, through a combination of my limited vocabulary, lots of pointing. The Hungarians are always very impressed when a foreigner knows any of their language, as few know more than how to order a beer.

I've also been working on the whole living situation. We've now successfully cooked a few meals, but cooking is a lot harder here, since buying things for a meal requires going to a market, and everything has to be done from scractch, there are very few shortcuts. To make matters worse, many of the seasonings I'm used to having available at home are nearly impossible to find. However, the food is very cheap, and the quality of the goods at the market ranges from good to excellent.

Last weekend we visited Siófok, a medium sized town on Lake Balaton, which is the biggest lake in Hungary. It was extremely touristy, and everything was very expensive. I'm not quite sure why people from Budapest choose to vacation there, rather than some other part of the lake, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much more if we had gone someplace else on the lake.

Budapest is an absolutely amazing city. There is never a shortage of things to do, and I think that even if I never left the city the entire time I was here, I would never be truly bored.