Its about 3 pm on sunday here thinking back about the first week or so of the trip and it has been a blast. There couldnt have been a better group of people for this trip. Nobody really knew each other before this but now everyone is really good friends and im sure it will continue when we get back to the states.  Last night we stayed up till about 5am watching the usa-mexico soccer game but they lost 4-2. It was still fun though, we found a great quality live stream online. Yesterday during the day we also went to the pool but it was closed because there was a water polo tournament going on.  We could have gone to an other pool but since it wasnt too hot (mid 70s and a nice breeze) we decided to just go up to the top of the little hill by the pool and watch the games.  It was very fun to watch.  Someone said that Hungary is known for their water polo and always do well in the olympics.  Friday night me, Aaron, Dave, Nick, Annalisa, and Hannah went to Cerrano which is a dance club about 15 minutes away.  When we got there we were basically the only ones there dancing because it was still "early" over here but they were playing American songs and we were all dancing and singing to all the songs.  It was so much fun we did it for about 3 hours.  I also got gelato over here for the first time.  It was very very good.  When you walk around the square here there are so many people eating gelato and it seems like there is a stand or shop every 100 yards. Thursday/Friday was a small disappointment however because we were planning on going to Croatia, we already had found an apartment like house but we couldnt find a bus to drive us and stay with us all weekend.  Probably because we started planning it on Thursday and were trying to leave in about 24 hours haha.  But it all worked out and everybody had a lot of fun here this weekend.  Plus we're now going to Croatia this coming weekend and we're staying in this place for pretty cheap. So thats something to look forward to..but every day over here is so fun that i look forward to every day. Till next time

Brian

ok so it has been a couple days since I have bloged last so I figure it's about time.  So last Friday we went to the community pool and it was very fun.  It was 600 forints....which is about 3+ dollars which is a great deal.  The girls and guys were wearing very little for the most part which is good and also was very bad haha.  On saturday we went on a walking tour of the city and i got some good pictures from it.  This city is very historical, way more than I thought.  I definitely want to go back and see more of all the religous buildings.  There were a couple mosque's and cathedrals that i would love to go to.  Yesterday Nick Frank and I adventured off my ourselves and found this pizza/gyros/burritos place that was very very good.  We were talking to an English speaking bartender and he actually had three friends in the US and one was from Cleveland.  We have also been going to the wine festival which is basically a way more classier rockin on the river.  There are about 20 or so wines set up at these many different wine tents..or buildings.  Today we went to this incredible wine tasting place where they have very old, good and expensive wines. The room was full of about 50 people and it had the best wines i have ever tasted.  The owner was speaking with us between every wine and  he knew a lot about the wine.  On the bus ride back there was an Hungarian girl trying to encourage all of the americans to sing.  She was also trying to get us to sing an American song that everybody knows but we could not think of one.  I hope to write again soon.

Brian

First update

So far this trip has been very fun.  We had a layover in NYC that was long enough that we were able to go to Times Square and Central Park.  It was my first time in New York and it was a lot to take in.  It was a last minute idea and we didn't have more than 3 or so hours but it was a great time.  The flight to Budapest was 8 hours long.  I had a window seat but I still couldn't sleep that well.  We arrived in Budapest at around 9 am local time and then we got on a bus to take us to Pecs (pronounced like Paige).  The bus ride was not all that great.  It was about 3 hours long but it was fun driving through Hungary and seeing the landscape.  I think all 18 of us fell asleep during the bus ride.  The driver couldn't speak english but he was listening to a radio station that played a lot of american music.  It had Hungarian DJ's and played some Hungarian songs as well.  The first thing we did when we arrived in Pecs was go to the store and by drinks and some food.  Three or four of the people have been here before so its great having them around so they can show us the ropes.  One of the things I found out that is very different from America is the crosswalks.  Some times there will be no cars coming in either directions but the Hungarians will not cross until it says to.  They also have a countdown of when you can walk and most of them start at 70 or 80 and you only have 8 seconds to cross.  Pecs is a beautiful city with many walking streets with different shops lining them.  The architecture in the downtown area is also very beautiful.  I will upload pictures whenever I can and when I figure out where to upload them to.  We have a wonderful apartment complex that we are the only people living at.  It has a great courtyard area with chairs and tables to sit out at.  The breeze when you're sitting outside feels great.  It gets pretty hot here.  We did to buy a fan for our room because this morning when the sun was shining in it got very hot.  The people seem to be very nice and I would say most people I have interacted with can speak at least some english.  Sorry if this post is all over the place, its my first one so I'll try to do better next time.

Brian