Sick...

Once again I have let my blogging slip, and I apologize. My trip last weekend to Budapest was lovely. I was adequately sunburned and it was great being able to shoot the breeze with other CETP people. It does your psyche wonders to just have a simple change of scenery. As an added bonus, this past weekend was the National Gallop which is a relatively new Hungarian festival that is put on to recognize the brilliant horsemanship that characterized the early Magyars. Being a horse-lover myself, this event was a dose of familiarity that was also highly appreciated.

When I returned to Koszeg on Sunday, I was pretty wiped. I realized I didn't have too much planning to do for the next day and I got to bed pretty early. But the next day, I felt unusually tired. You know that feeling where your body is trying to fight something and you just want to stay in bed? Well this was it. Monday and Tuesday I felt fine, but I knew something was coming if I wasn't careful. Well I did my best, vitamin C, lots of water and sleep, but sure enough Wednesday brought an achy feeling with it. Great. Thursday I still felt worse, but went to school anyway. Friday I could feel the flood gates opening. I called my contact teacher at 6:45 that morning and said it was probably in everyone's best interest if I stayed home since I was coughing and such. This was no problem, but in the next hour I had about four different teachers calling me offering to take me to the doctor. I so appreciated their concern, but you know I have a cold, it's certainly not pretty but I'm not gonna die. I know from going to the doctor at home that there's nothing that can be done for a cold since most likely it is viral. Well apparently things are different in Hungary. Everyone goes to the doctor if they feel under the weather. It is even required if you call in sick! So as I result, it seems I will be going on Monday! Lucky me haha. I'm feeling rather bad right now, and what makes it worse is that Koszeg's Harvest Festival is going on this weekend, and I feel too gross to get off my couch and walk down there. Even just walking across the street this morning to buy provisions felt like an immense effort. Once again, Hungary gets the better of me (lol).

But on the bright side of all of this, I felt that this was an excellent indicator of a growing positive relationship between myself and my colleagues. I feel very comforted that if anything was REALLY wrong, I would be well taken care of. I think they are starting to see by now that I am not a raving lunatic, and they really want to help me which is fabulous. I think word of this fact is actually slowly making it's way around town too. I've had a few positive encounters at a couple of stores as well as the bank, that has shown me a virtual turn around in peoples' attitudes toward me. In my broken Hungarian, I am able to tell them I'm American, and instantly their eyes light up and the ask if I am the English teacher over at the high school. Now don't be too proud of me, my Hungarian is not that good, but I am able to hear the words for "English teacher" and the name of my school, and I can pretty well guess what they are asking me. It feels great that people are starting to make more of an effort to talk to me using some version of Hung-lish (my broken Hungarian and their broken English/German). It is starting to feel more like home around here!