I'm Going to Get Diabetes

Please read this after "Camping in Ópusztasze". My wifi has been bad and my last post wasn't published until after this one... Ugh.
I am now with my host family. They're awesome, to ay the least. My host parents are sweet and lovely and kind. I haven't figured out their names yet and I feel weird asking so I've resorted to simply calling them 'Anya' (mom) and 'Apa' (dad). I have a host brother Dávid, who's leaving for Indonesia on exchange in only a few days, and a little host sister, Csenge (pronounced Chengeh) who's ten. They are also lovely. Unfortunately, Dávid is the only one who speaks much English and since he's leaving soon, I fear I'll be swimming in deep water when it comes to communicating for a while.
I got here yesterday, and settled in. I'm mostly unpacked, I'm just waiting on Anya for my load of laundry. She's said that she will do all my laundry, which is an unusual feeling. I do all of my own laundry at home.
Once I was settled, Dávid, Csenge and I went and got ice cream. (I picked one at random, being unable to read, and ended up with Nutella ice cream). Then, Anya, Apa, Csenge and I took the dogs for a walk. Did I mention? They have two extremely rambunctious golden retrievers and two golden puppies which I think are the most precious things I have ever seen.

I will post more pictures later, this is just what I have now.Today, I woke up at 5:30 am. We had to be on the road by 6:30 to get to where we were going. I'm still not entirely sure where we went but I'm fairly certain it was somewhere on the other side of Budapest. It poured rain all last night and this morning. We drove for about three hours to a town, like I said, I don't know where we were or what the town was called, mostly since I slept the whole way. I wasn't sure what we were even doing there until it was happening. We climbed down a long set of stairs and down until we reached these beautiful caves. A river ran through the caves and we went on a boast tour along the river. I would have taken pictures except that I ended up paddling mine and Dávid's boat while he - ever the gentleman - lounged in the back. These weren't canoes either, I could have handled that. These were rowboats, and sometimes the passage was so narrow that I couldn't paddle, we just had to push ourselves along the side..
After that came another drive that I slept through to another town that I don't know what was called. Again, there's me with no idea what was happening. We came to a palace. It was beautiful, the furnishings inside looked like they might be from the 1800s. Except, for some reason, for the bathtubs. Those looked modern, oddly enough. They had converted the palace into a museum.

It was quite neat.
Afterwards we hopped back in the car. I had eaten very little breakfast at this point. I had what appeared to be a miniature cinnamon bun and a very salty cheese scone.
That is also a thing here too. They like salt. And butter. And food. And ice cream.
At this point I was well rested from the long car naps but starving. We came to a house and an older couple came out. "Relatives," Dávid explains to me at this point. I just nod. They fed us a Hungarian staple: chicken and boiled potatoes. I swear, they eat more potatoes than the Irish.
Then, we went for a walk. This town I do know the name of. It was very touristy and the name was plastered onto fridge magnets everywhere I turned. It's called Tihany, and if you hike up to the top of the hill where it's situated, you get an excellent view of Lake Balaton, 'The Hungarian Sea'. It's not an actual sea, but it is big enough that I could only barely make out the other side of it.
I had been told already that we would be getting more ice cream. Anya makes a gesture that appears to indicate that we will be eating two feet of ice cream. This too, appears to be a Hungarian staple, since this is at least the fourth time since arriving that I have eaten ice cream. We were actually taught at language camp specifically how to order ice cream, and were given examples of what flavours we might be able to order.
I wanted to order a milkshake at the shop, but was overruled and was ordered a five scoop sundae with fruit and whip cream. It was delicious, but I was barely able to finish it. Finish it I did, though and we were off, walking again. Anya bought me a little ceramic bunny that I picked out simply because I know how to say bunny in Hungarian (nyuszi). She insisted that if there was anything else I wanted that she would buy it for me, but I didn't pick out anything else, not even one of the pretty infinity scarves.
Then it happened, and this is where the diabetes comes in. We went to another ice cream shop and Anya and Csenge ordered three more scoops of ice cream. In case you weren't counting that's eight scoops of ice cream. They even had the nerve to seem surprised when I didn't want ice cream. I don't think I could have fit that much ice cream in me. I would have died. Literally.

 

 By the time we hit the road it was probably seven o'clock. We stopped at 8 pm at KFC in Budapest for dinner. This time I didn't sleep in the car. I couldn't have. Dávid and Csenge are a typical brother and sister, which means they don't know the meaning of sitting still with their hands to themselves. They play-fought, tickled each other, and played games on the ride home. It reminded me a bit of my childhood, however they never dissolved into childish squabbles.

They also attempted to teach me Hungarian. At the time, it was going well, though now I don't remember anything of what they taught me except that owl is 'bagoly' (BAH-goy).

Anyways, this has been  ridiculously long post, but I probably won't post again until the first day of school (September the first) so until then my cicák (kittens)!

Moira