Sunday, July 13, 2008
I have been home about 2 weeks now and for the past 10 days I have been working at the Calgary Stampede, which means that I have had no time to put my pictures together. I leave for the Shuswap in 2 days and I will have more than ample time to post lots and lots of pictures of my travels for you all to see. Please stay tuned, my adventures haven't been wrapped up quite yet....
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Travel Pictures
I have been so insanely busy with my travels during the past few months that I haven't had any time to update my blog. I just returned from my 3 week long Euro Tour, and I have a ton of pictures to share. Euro Tour was absolutely amazing and I am really sad that it is over. I can't believe how many beautiful places I got to visit in such a short amount of time. Expect pictues soon!
I have finally uploaded the pictures from my backpacking trip through Italy, and my Greece photos will follow soon. If you want to check out my pictures, just follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eevbuck
I have finally uploaded the pictures from my backpacking trip through Italy, and my Greece photos will follow soon. If you want to check out my pictures, just follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eevbuck
Friday, May 23, 2008
Whoops!
I have been taking Piano lessons since the end of March and today I played in my very first recital. Let me tell you, the kids that played after me should thank their lucky stars because I took all the pressure off of them by screwing up so badly. I "played" 2 songs and they both went much worse than I had hoped, but the best part is that I'm not at all embarassed. My next recital can only be better than today's (I hope!) If not, then I can always fall back on my winning smile, I guess.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Poland
From April 11th to 13th, Rotary Hungary took all of the exchange students to Krakow to meet with the Polish exchange students and to visit Auschwitz. Unfortunately, none of the Canadian exchange students in Poland were able to come to meet with us in Krakow, but I did get to meet many other students, and I will be going on the Polish Euro Tour so I will have my chance to do some Canuck bonding at that time.
Krakow's city centre was absolutley gorgous. One of the things I like most about European cities is that almost all of them have a great big square in the middle of the city where only pedestrians are allowed. The main square in Krakow has a big building in the middle which was orginally a carpet market, but now sells tourist knick knacks. Both days in Poland were spent outside of the city of Krakow visiting Auschwitz and a salt mine, so I only got to see Krakow during the night, but I will be going back to the city just before my Euro Tour starts so I will get to see the city during the day.
The salt mine we went to was not really that interesting, so I don't feel compelled to share with you. Auschwitz, on the other hand, was a very powerful experience. Auschwitz was the biggest of the Nazi concentration camps. I had the privelege of seeing Elie Wiesel, novelist and Auschwitz survivor, when he came to give a lecture in Calgary last year. Elie wrote the novel 'Night' which is a memoir of his holocaust imprisonment. I studied this novel in school last year, and having Elie Wiesel's story in my head already made the experience that much more powerful.
Below is a picture of the main gates into Auschwitz I. The words above say 'work sets you free.'
Krakow's city centre was absolutley gorgous. One of the things I like most about European cities is that almost all of them have a great big square in the middle of the city where only pedestrians are allowed. The main square in Krakow has a big building in the middle which was orginally a carpet market, but now sells tourist knick knacks. Both days in Poland were spent outside of the city of Krakow visiting Auschwitz and a salt mine, so I only got to see Krakow during the night, but I will be going back to the city just before my Euro Tour starts so I will get to see the city during the day.
The salt mine we went to was not really that interesting, so I don't feel compelled to share with you. Auschwitz, on the other hand, was a very powerful experience. Auschwitz was the biggest of the Nazi concentration camps. I had the privelege of seeing Elie Wiesel, novelist and Auschwitz survivor, when he came to give a lecture in Calgary last year. Elie wrote the novel 'Night' which is a memoir of his holocaust imprisonment. I studied this novel in school last year, and having Elie Wiesel's story in my head already made the experience that much more powerful.
Below is a picture of the main gates into Auschwitz I. The words above say 'work sets you free.'
Rotary Club of Calgary Newsletter
I wrote an update to my Rotary Club in Calgary which has been published in their weekly newsletter. If you would like to read the online version of the update, click here: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/5360/942/HTML/33868/Cog%20for%20website%20dated%20April%208.pdf
(I am on the last page.)
(I am on the last page.)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
New Adventure
I am currently writing to you from a dark, smoky internet cafe in Athens filled with boys playing geeky computer games. Of course, I am the only girl here, and of course I chose today to be the day to wear my bright green mini dress. You might be interested to know that as the language changes from country to country, so do the cat calls:
Hungary= honking or whistles
Italy= 'Ciao bella' or 'Hey baby/girlfriend/sexy' if easily identifiable as a tourist.
Greece= Tongue clicking
Is it fortunate or unfortunate to have experienced all of the above? I haven't decided yet.
So, yes, I am in Greece. My friend Skyla and I decided that we had a gap in our travel schedules, so went on a planning rampage and put together a backpacking trip through Italy and Greece in only 5 days. On Monday the 21st we flew out of Budapest to Rome, where we stayed for 2 days. From Rome we travelled to Naples for an afternoon, then to Sorrento for the evening and following day. From Sorrento to Florence, Florence to Milan then a flight from Milan to Athens, where we arrived yesterday. This afternoon we will be travelling to a port just outside of Athens where we will board our student CRUISE BOAT (!!) and travel through the greek islands for 10 days. After the cruise we will stay in Athens for another two days, then fly back to Budapest on the 10th.
It has been a whirlwind so far, as we have tried to cram as much into our itinerary as possible. We basically hit up one city a day in Italy, which means that we unfortunately only got a taste for each city and I would love to go back to fully absorb the character of each city. There are wonderfully cheap flights all throughout Europe, so we have taken full advantage of those discounts, then travelled from city to city by train. We are staying in hostels in all of the cities we visit (except those that we will visit during our cruise). The hostel experience means that we are often sharing rooms with other people from all around the world, and I have met some really cool people. I expected to have to kind of close my eyes to the accomodations that we would recieve during our hostel stays, but I have been pleasantly suprised to find that everywhere we have stayed so far has been clean, comfortable, and in great locations. The weather here is gorgeous and SPF 30 is my best friend.
I will make sure to give you many more details about my trip as soon as I arrive back in Hungary, and you will get to see lots of photos.
I am so blessed to be able to have these amazing opportunities, and I am ecstatic to be where I am. AMAZING!
Much love to you all,
Em
P.S. Look what I can do with my keyboard: ε΅ςρθΘπΠσΣδΔφΦγΓξΞλΛψΨωΩ
Hungary= honking or whistles
Italy= 'Ciao bella' or 'Hey baby/girlfriend/sexy' if easily identifiable as a tourist.
Greece= Tongue clicking
Is it fortunate or unfortunate to have experienced all of the above? I haven't decided yet.
So, yes, I am in Greece. My friend Skyla and I decided that we had a gap in our travel schedules, so went on a planning rampage and put together a backpacking trip through Italy and Greece in only 5 days. On Monday the 21st we flew out of Budapest to Rome, where we stayed for 2 days. From Rome we travelled to Naples for an afternoon, then to Sorrento for the evening and following day. From Sorrento to Florence, Florence to Milan then a flight from Milan to Athens, where we arrived yesterday. This afternoon we will be travelling to a port just outside of Athens where we will board our student CRUISE BOAT (!!) and travel through the greek islands for 10 days. After the cruise we will stay in Athens for another two days, then fly back to Budapest on the 10th.
It has been a whirlwind so far, as we have tried to cram as much into our itinerary as possible. We basically hit up one city a day in Italy, which means that we unfortunately only got a taste for each city and I would love to go back to fully absorb the character of each city. There are wonderfully cheap flights all throughout Europe, so we have taken full advantage of those discounts, then travelled from city to city by train. We are staying in hostels in all of the cities we visit (except those that we will visit during our cruise). The hostel experience means that we are often sharing rooms with other people from all around the world, and I have met some really cool people. I expected to have to kind of close my eyes to the accomodations that we would recieve during our hostel stays, but I have been pleasantly suprised to find that everywhere we have stayed so far has been clean, comfortable, and in great locations. The weather here is gorgeous and SPF 30 is my best friend.
I will make sure to give you many more details about my trip as soon as I arrive back in Hungary, and you will get to see lots of photos.
I am so blessed to be able to have these amazing opportunities, and I am ecstatic to be where I am. AMAZING!
Much love to you all,
Em
P.S. Look what I can do with my keyboard: ε΅ςρθΘπΠσΣδΔφΦγΓξΞλΛψΨωΩ
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Silly Doggy
Last Saturday I moved in with my third and final host family-- the Martinovszkys. Erika and István are my host parents, and my host brother, also István, lives in Budapest, while my host sister, Fruzsina, is on exchange in Brazil. I am now the only child living at home and, while I miss having siblings, I have a huge bedroom to myself, which is certainly a perk.The funniest member of my family, by far, is Maszat, the family dog.
The name Maszat is almost the equivalent of dust bunny, and Maszat sticks true to his name by picking up tons of dirt and twigs in his crazy, dreadlocked coat. Maszat is a Hungarian Puli and I think he is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Pulis are shepherding dogs and are famous for their coats which wind themselves into tight dreadlocks. Because Maszat's coat is so thick and hard to clean, he is strictly an outside dog. I give him the most attention out of any of the other family members, so everytime I come home from school he runs in front of me, lies down so I almost step on him (ironic, since he looks like a bathroom floor mat), and then he proceeds to lick my feet as I unlock the front door. Maszat and I are two of a kind with our crazy curly hair, so I have uploaded some pictures for you to check us out.
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