My last three days in America (for now)

Well, the title says it, folks.  Three days.  Three days and I will be on a plane to Europe.  It's weird, scary, and wonderful.  I haven't blogged much yet, mostly because my wild summer adventure has not yet begun, but also because my life in Minnesota has been overwhelming too.  Overwhelming in the sense that my family threw a huge shindig for my sister's high school graduation last weekend and preparing for *that* was an ordeal in itself, appointments to the dentist, doctor, optometrist, and physical therapist were scheduled and attended, currency was changed, supplies bought, and sanity maintained.  (Well, that one's debatable).  Today, I also reformatted and submitted my undergraduate thesis to NDSU at the request of the English department following a conference I attended there this spring.  (More on that later).

At any rate, I'm looking forward to my program.  I received my host placement information, and I will be teaching in Transylvania for much of the summer.  How many people get to say that they've lived in Dracula's favorite hideout?  Considering my obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this will be awesome.

The one drawback about my placement is that I will not be teaching in Croatia, as I had originally expected.  My mom's side of the family is Croatian and I love my Balkan heritage; I've been sporadically studying the language for awhile now, so I was a little sad to open my placement email and learn that I wasn't placed in Croatia at all.  But, the unexpected is what this summer experience is supposed to be about, isn't it?  I can plan and anticipate as much as I want, but if I am going to grow and stretch and deepen into who I'm meant to be, I have to embrace the opportunities I'm given.  That being said, I think an appropriate mantra for this summer is He must increase, I must decrease. 

I quickly got over my initial disappointment, especially after contacting my host families.  I will be spending the first half of the program in Mădăraș with a family of five: two parents and three teenagers.  My second placement is in Odorheiu Secuiesc where I'll also be with a family of five, although this family consists of two parents, two grandparents, and an adorable nine-year-old girl who will be known on this blog as Buttercup (the English translation of her name).  Buttercup has been incredibly welcoming in her emails and her English is quite good, which is a relief to me since I have virtually no background in Hungarian.

Ah, that Hungarian language.  In college, (it's weird referring to college as a thing of the past since I only graduated a month ago) a friend of mine was trying to learn Hungarian, and I could never understand what had possessed him to try it.  As a Finno-Ugric language, Hungarian has no semblance to Germanic, Slavic, or Romance languages.  It's really its own monster.  Not to mention, it has at least 15 grammatical cases...yikes.  I, who considered my friend to be off his rocker for attempting something so difficult a few months ago, now find myself doing the same thing.  (Thank God for Pimsleur language programs, and thank God for efficient and well-stocked public libraries).  To my surprise, I kind of like Hungarian.  Sure, it's hard and sure, I only really have time to learn the basics like greetings and directions, but it's growing on me.  The real test will be when I actually have to use it, although technically I'm not required to know Hungarian in order to teach English to Hungarian speakers.  (American exceptionalism?  Maybe).

Well.  I'm pleased that I cranked out a long-ish blog post.  I will definitely follow this one with pictures of my packing endeavors when *that* happens.  Until next time, viszontlátásra!