Friday, 7 August 2015

Meet the Chillens







Vince aka Little Monkey:

This boy is a clever, cute, crazy, exhausting, and amusing child. He likes to incorporate the word, “ketchup” into everything he says. I used to go by the name “Alexa”, but my official name is now “Ketchup”. He is such a fun and exciting little boy. I gave him the nickname, “Little Monkey”, which he now goes by none other. He is King of the Animals. He may like to pinch my neck, call me random names of condiments, crawl all over me like I am his personal jungle gym, and give me wet puppy dog kisses all over my face, but I think I have fallen in love with this wild boy. He can be so sweet at times. When he wraps his tiny, but strong, arms around my neck and tells me he loves me, that’s when my heart melts and I am complete putty in his small hands.



Zsofi:

This little girl is so beautiful. She and I love to bake muffins and cookies of all sorts. She is a great help. She can be impatient at times, but is very ambitious. This little lady is quite independent, smart, and talented. Games, such as Uno, The Frozen Board Game, and English – Magyar Memory could never possibly be tiring to her. Have I ever mentioned that she can sing both of Meghan Trainor’s songs, “All About That Bass” and “Lips Are Movin’” all the way through in English? Zsofi can be so much fun. She’s like the little sister I never had. 



I love my little Hungarian chillens <3






Thursday, 11 June 2015

Alex's Declassified Hungarian Survival Guide


When I first knew I was going to be going abroad to nanny, of course I was aware that there were going to be culture differences. But never did I prepare myself for some of the things I'm about to share with you all. I have created a list of some of the experiences and run-ins I have had so far while living in the beautiful, yet strangely weird, country of Hungary. This is just the beginning list of my survival guide to Hungary.

1. The center lines of the streets are white. As are the double lanes. As well as the side of the road lines (the shoulder). What is what, and where is where? How do these people know if they are on a one way, or a two way? Questions that rack my mind at night.

2. The speed limit may say 100 km/hr, but that is only a suggestion in all cases. If you are going 100 km/hr, everyone will pass you. And I'm talking about everyone! I think that the preferred speed is about 140 km/hr and up.

3. Now, in Hungary, we don't like to throw out the inner parts of the animal, because that is the best part! Or... at least they seem to think so. The heart, stomach, and liver, of an animal are said, by most, to be the most delicious portions to eat. I beg to differ. I tried em', I gagged a bit on em', and I gave up on em'. I'll stick to just the meat please.

4. Prepare your eyes when walking into a women's locker room/ change room. These ladies are quite proud of their bodies and are not even in the slightest afraid to show what they got from their mommas. Shower stalls do not have a door or even a curtain to cover you while you shower. My first exposure to the gym's change room was quite alarming for me, as I've always been one to shy away from undressing in front of others. I literally ran to a bathroom stall to change. I also dashed to the farthest shower stall where few eyes could catch a glimpse. There I had the shortest shower in the history of showers in the world. Later I found out there were two showers in that whole gigantic locker room that had doors, specifically for people like me. #Praise!  I was able to shower without fear of the lady next to me catching a glimpse of my bottom.

5. If you are one of those choice few, in the adult population, that still take immense delight in a well made kid's meal, then prepare for a food coma, cause' your belly won't be able to handle what Hungary has to offer you. Small amounts are not their specialty. You like eating tiny little meals multiple times throughout the day? Hmm... that just will not due. Two meals are usually served throughout the day here. And when I say meals, I mean please do not fill yourself up on the first thing they put on your plate, because there are three more 'meals' coming after that! 3-4 courses in one meal is a 'normal' thing here. I am officially known as the Tamagotchi around here. I am constantly needing  small feedings every few hours, or I might just wither and die.

6. Oh! Let's go back to animals real quick. Did you know that you can buy a bag of bones right in the grocery store? Like who goes grocery shopping and says, "hmm, I sure would like to buy a bag of bones right now.." And no, these are not bones for the average dog to chew on! These are actual bones to use in meals! And on top of that, you can buy a package of chicken hearts. Nothing else. Just a good ole' bloody bag of hearts. Mmhmm delish.

So these are just a few of the culture differences that I have gotten to experience while living here for the past four weeks. I'm sure there will be much more that I will share in the coming months. But let it be known that aside from the weird things that I am exposed to, I love it here. I love the people and how welcome they have made me feel. This truly is an amazing opportunity that I wish all could experience.

Until next time,
Puszi!



Wednesday, 20 May 2015

"Failure is the Condiment That Gives Success it's Flavor" - Truman Capote

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Words that were taught to me, when I was a young girl, in a reading class. Until this very moment, I believed that these words had come originally from the mouth of my teacher herself, but alas, it was from the author W.E. Hickson. Either way, those words can be applied to many different aspects of life, rather than just reading.
I have finally made it! My journey began, once again, in Calgary. This time I was on a flight to Amsterdam where I was surprisingly given no troubles at all. The only question asked of me was if I was carrying maple syrup in my bags. Once I entered the Hungarian airport, anxiety started to make an appearance. I picked up my bags, from the baggage claim, and made my way outside the arrivals doors to see no border officers to be found. I immediately saw Anett and all of my fears vanished. I had finally reached my destination.
Hungary is the most szép (Hungarian word for beautiful) country. I absolutely love it here! The city of Budapest has such fascinating architecture and exciting life that exudes the streets. I could walk around Budapest for hours and enjoy every single minute of it. I live in a beautiful town outside of Budapest called Balatonfüred, right on the Lake Balaton.
My host family are the most wonderful people I have ever encountered. They are so welcoming and kind and are willing to do anything for me. They have eagerly brought me into their home and made me a part of their family. They spoil me with ice cream and treats on the daily! That alone makes me love them! There is a high chance that I will be coming back wearing jeans five sizes bigger than my original jean size. Stay tuned for that image...
Sophie and Vincent are literally the sweetest little chillens you will ever meet! They are so happy and full of life. And when I say, 'full of life', I mean they can be quite wild at times, but I absolutely love it. They are so much fun to play with. Our favourite things to do are to play Jenga (building many castles and fortresses) and enjoying a good round of the Frozen board game, where Sophie seems to dominate every time we play. I also can’t forget to add that their favourite songs to constantly listen to are: "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainer, as well as, “Gangnam Style" by that random Korean guy (forgive me for my laziness in searching for his actual name.. but does anyone actually know his name in the first place? my bet is no).
We then have Ava and Istvan. Both are family members of Anett and Lorand. Ava is such a kind woman. She does not speak much English, but she is absolutely a sweetheart. She always seems to think that I am cold, but the weather here is already intensely warm for me, so no jackets ever accompany my outfits. Ava also is a wonderful cook! If I had a bigger stomach, I would eat her food in dubiously large amounts! Istvan speaks pretty well when it comes to his English. Our friendship consists of me saying stuff and him laughing at me. I am under the impression that he thinks I'm quite the odd duck. For instance, he finds it hilarious when I say, "yes please", when they ask if I would like to go somewhere with them. He also likes to laugh at the fact that I cannot drive a manual car and I also eat small little meals about 5 times a day instead of two big meals a day like they do in Hungary. I feel like a comedian, it is rather quite funny!
So where do I start in describing my first full week in Hungary? I don't even know where to begin! My first day I was able to go sightseeing with Anett and her brother, Istvan. I instantly fell in love with the city of Budapest. I was able to tour around the Castle and see many alluring streets and sites within the city. Throughout the week I got to spend time with my precious host family, as well as walk around Balatonfüred and get to know my new home. My favourite thing to do is to spend time sitting along Lake Balaton as I watch my little friends, the ducks, swim and swarm by my feet. Oh yeah... and eat ice cream. The kind ice cream boy always likes to give me more gelato than the rest of the customers... it's probably because I'm his most loyal customer, or perhaps he pities me for the fact that no one in the shops along the street understand me when I speak. One or the other, I'm getting extra ice cream, and that's good enough for me.
Now let's get off the topic of ice cream, because I know that I am probably making all of you, at home, drool over your keyboards. So to update you all, my first week in Hungary was a success. I ended up with the best host family I could ever ask for and I cannot wait to get to know everyone even better. And maybe understand what they are saying a little better as well..

Here are a few pictures to satisfy your taste buds.

                                                               Buda Castle
                                                              Balatonfüred 

       
            Vince                                             Sophie


Sunday, 19 April 2015

A Glimpse Into Detainment

Part 1
Detained in an airport for 7 hours. Sounds like the perfect addition after having zero night’s sleep and a long two flights, I would say. I childishly thought that I could travel half way across the world and be a nanny for a beautiful family and have no problems whatsoever. About $750 in the hole and a passport that will now never let me into a country without a detainment or questioning, I am living the dream. Not. I am now into my second round of detainment, but little Alex is no longer in Frankfurt anymore, she is in the UK. Dear world, please give this wee tinge of ginge a break. Has she really done something so wrong as to be stuck in a room with people yelling at her for 7 hours telling her she’s a liar, to stop talking, stop crying, and to put her feet flat on the floor?
At this very moment I am sitting with a bunch of other culturally diverse people in front of the UK border waiting upon the verdict whether I will be let into the country of Budapest or not. I have been up for about 48 hours. Tears are unable to fall from my eyes at this point, and I am literally done travelling. Honestly, I do not want to see another airport for a very very long time. And I probably won’t be allowed to anyways because of that stupid stamp that those stupid German’s decided to press into my beloved and well-used passport.
Now, shall we get to the very beginning? Ya know, like how it all started? Well, it all started when I decided not to lie to the airport police official. I was asked why I was traveling to Budapest and I simply said that I was going to nanny for 5 months. She then asked for my visa, which I could not provide. I instantly was taken back to the federal internationals police office where my detainment began. They hardly spoke English. They spoke so fast and so harshly. I sat there and waited for them to talk to me. I asked if I could call someone and they said I could call when I was taken in for my questioning.
I was so confused at this point in time, not understanding why I was being held in this confined office space. I sat there for about a half hour with tears pushing through my eyes before I thought to turn on my phone and text my mother and Anett (my Hungarian host) about my current situation. Anett instantly called me and asked to speak to one of the police holding me. I asked the man to speak to her and handed the phone to him. He began to refuse, but I pushed the phone towards him further and told him that I needed him to talk to her. He took the phone angrily and started to talk to Anett. Throughout the conversation he repeatedly called me a liar telling them I knew the reason very well why I was there, but honestly I did not. By the end of the conversation, he hung up and began yelling at me. “You are a liar! You know why you are here!” I snapped back, which I shouldn’t have, but at the time I was so frustrated I could not hold my anger. I said, “Know I don’t, I do not understand you.” He began to accuse me saying that I fully understood him as he was speaking correct English, but I further informed him that it was not his English, but it was that I did not understand the situation. Once more, I was yelled at for being a liar and to keep seated until my translator came.
I bunched myself into a little ball on the chair of the office to hide the tears streaming down my face as I huddled it into my knees. Five minutes later I was yelled at to put my feet flat on the floor as I was being disrespectful to the chairs (they were ugly crappy chairs btw). So placing my feet flat on the floor and wiping my face I was faced to look through the glass windows towards the masses of people passing the revealing office doors. Many getting a good look at my red and puffy distraught face.
One officer bitterly told me to stop crying as this was procedure and I had no reason to cry. She grabbed a small tissue for my tears and walked over to me, harshly whipped it in front of me and once again told me to stop crying.
Soon my translator made it to the airport after an hour of me waiting in the main office. I was then taken back into a much smaller personal office area. Three officers escorted me into the room and sat me down. The questioning began. One hour passed. Then another. Then five hours passed. Throughout this time the phone was ringing off the hook, on the other end was my host family (Anett and Lorand) and an immigration lawyer that they had gotten from Hungary and another from Germany itself. I had so many people trying their hardest to get me out, but things were not progressing to get better in anyway. They finally came to the conclusion upon the sixth hour that I was either to be sent home, back to Canada, or if my host family were willing, I could get a ticket to London and then fly from London to Budapest (this being because of certain visa rules that could be slid past by going this route). As soon as Anett heard this she had already gotten me another ticket from Frankfurt to London and then from London to Budapest. I told the officers which they then said it was impossible for me to get on that flight because the flight was too early and they were not done questioning me. I had apparently misunderstood them when they had said I needed a flight to London and Budapest before 1 pm. They really meant that I needed a flight confirmed before 1 pm, but not a flight to leave before 1 p.m. The German airport officers had a flight back to Canada set up for me to leave at 1:30. I then tried to change my recently purchased ticket from Anett to a later flight, but they would not let me leave the office and would not take such things into consideration until 5 minutes before that specific flight was lifting off the ground. Once the flight was gone, Anett so kindly bought me another ticket from Frankfurt to London for 2:35 pm. She sent the officers an e-ticket confirming the flights, but they could not find the tickets in her email, but it was more like they were un willing to scroll down the email to find it, after I told them multiple times to scroll down. Three emails later, I convinced them to scroll down and they then found the ticket and its confirmation. We then waited upon the next ticket confirmation from London to Budapest, as they would not let me go until that ticket was confirmed and ready to be printed off. They told me that if they did not receive that ticket before 1 pm they would be sending me off on the plane to Canada. It was 12:54 and the ticket had not come in yet. I started texting both Anett and my mother, trying so hard to get the ticket confirmed. We finally received the ticket confirmation at 12:58.  But the ticket was not a printable one through the email yet. Luckily they waited for 10 more minutes. By 1:06, the ticket was in and we printed them all off.
Throughout the questioning I had to sign many documents and give multiple statements that were then read word for word, over and over again after each round of questions. I even received mug shots for their system.  What a shame that I do not get to share those horrifying pictures with you.     
With little time to spare, I was rushed to get my luggage changed over and my ticket checked in. Then we rushed to my terminal, skipping past security and passport checks. I was taken to the front of the line to get on the plane and was left with the plane stewardess to wait until the plane was ready for boarding.
Once in London, I got in the line for the UK boarder, knowing I needed to pick up one of my suitcases at the baggage claim (the other being lost at this point in time). Once I got to the front of the line and handed my passport and ticket to the lady, she flipped through my stamped pages to find a stamp left by the German airport police. It was a stamp indicating that I was denied entrance into their country. I was asked for reason as to why I had such a stamp, but my explanation was not good enough to get past. I was then put in a roped off box to sit and wait for questioning. 

20 minutes in and they finally decided to come get me.


                               

                             



Part 2
Picture a white walled room. There is a payphone in the corner by the door that only allows incoming calls but no outgoing. There is a girls, boys and family bathroom. Each all small little cubicle stalls. There is a small bookshelf on one wall with novels of sorts. Next to the bookshelf is a desk which contains a container of biscuits (really just packages of cookies) and a bowl of oranges and apples. The room is filled with rows upon rows of black plastic chairs. Two of the walls in the room were full windows so officers could sit and watch and monitor anything and anyone in the room. This was my home for the next 24 hours.
Prior to being put in this room, I was questioned, fingerprinted, got mugshots, and was once again officially interviewed. The officers here were not as harsh as the German police officers, but still were not very kind. After my interview I was taken to get my luggage. Everything I owned was searched. My clothes were gone through and my journal was read. Nothing was left untouched. I then was taken to the detainment room where I was to put my belongings in a room to be held. I was body searched and then placed in the white walled room to sit and wait. I was allowed no cell phone as it had a camera on it. Before entering the room I sent a quick text to my mother of the number in which she could reach me on the pay phone.
I received calls from my mother, father, Anett, and a British cop in London who was family to Anett and Lorand.  I had so many people trying their hardest to get me out, but all efforts seemed to be ineffective at this point.
Kindly enough, I was fed by the kind officers who worked in the detainment center. They may have only had rice and chicken sauce frozen meals and packaged sandwiches, but it was better than what the German’s offered me, which was literally nothing! I was so scared of the German officers that I didn’t even want to ask for a drink of water.
Sitting in the detainment center, I was able to make friends with two girls, who were in the same sort of visa situation as myself. Dominique from Oregon, and Nicky from Toronto. We bonded over our stories and made the best of the situation we were all in.
Later the officer who was on my case came to get me. She brought me into the office to break the news that I would be sent home the next day in the evening at 6:30.
That night I showered my body with the baby wipes that I found in the family washroom and slept on a lounge chair next to Dominique. We were provided with a cotton blanket that felt more like a curtain for your windows and a flattened pillow used by many heads before us. At this point in time, I could care less what I was using. I was so emotionally broken down that the germaphobe in me was lost for the time being. If you don’t believe me, let me also tell you about how I sat on a public toilet for the first time since I was a child. Appalling. I know.
I slept a total of maybe 3 hours fully. We all were awake around 6 am as some people in the detainment room were getting ready for their early morning flights. I was then given a packaged sandwich for breakfast, as it was my top choice between that and rice and chicken.
Around 11 I was informed that my flight was no longer possible with British Airways, as I had originally been with Air Canada. I was then taken to an international phone where I made multiple calls to the company I bought my plane ticket from as well as my airline, trying to change my flight for that day. Nothing was working. I was then taken back to my detainment room where all my friends that I had made the day before had left on their flights, leaving me alone with a new batch of people. I curled up on a chair and let the tears well up in my eyes. The fear of being transferred to immigration or the embassy in England, after my 24 hours were up, filled my thoughts.  You never really appreciate the ability to freely call your family until you are unable to. I stared at the phone waiting for my mom to call, hoping she would be awake in the middle of the night and think to call me.
An hour later, the immigration officer who was working on my flights came in and told me that I would just stick with the same flight from British Airways at 6:30.
5 o’clock came around and one of the nice officers who worked in detainment the day before was back and got me to get my luggage all ready for my flight. I left at 5:30 for my security and luggage check. I was then taken on a personal shuttle to my plane. I was able to walk on to the plane before anyone else. I sat in my seat and waited for boarding.
After a 9 hour flight, we finally landed in Calgary. The fears of passing the border and showing my infected passport began to bubble up into my thoughts again. Once at the border entrance, I was again questioned, but in a much kinder manner. I explained my predicament and was on my way. But was it all over? Ha! Not with the luck that I seemed to carry with me! I handed an officer my claim of goods card and was sent to the luggage search, this being because of my claim of $0.00. There my things were gone through one more time. I was again questioned one last time and then sent on my way. I sped walked out of the airport and to the arrivals entrance and into my mother’s arms where I began to drench her shirt in my tears.
After a full 33 hours of detainment, it was over.
I came out of my expected adventurous trip with only an emotionally and physically broken down body, a denied entrance into country stamp on my passport and a package of biscuits I smuggled from the detainment center in London.
In the words of Anett, given to me by my mother when I was held in Germany, “When bad things happen, you come out better in the end.”

Monday, 13 April 2015

"In Every Job That Must Be Done There Is An Element Of Fun"

In my desperate desire to travel, I created a profile to be an au pair abroad. I did some investigating, searching through many different programs and organizations, until I found the right one for me. A week into the process, families from all over the world started to message me on my page's profile. I aimed to find a wonderful family in Holland, but gained no luck. Two months into the process a certain family contacted me with great interest, but were not from Holland as I had wished. A few messages were sent back and forth between us. Soon our Skype addresses were exchanged and we were video chatting from across the world. 
It did not take long for me to gain a love for the two children and their parents. They are a beautiful family who I can not wait to meet. It came to my attention that this was the family for me during my second Skype call with them.
It has been almost 8 months since I first started communicating with my new Hungarian family. They are so wonderful, and I cannot wait to start my new life's journey with them.
I plan to blog all of the exciting adventures that Sophie (age 6), Vincent (age 5) and I go on. It's going to be a hoot of a time, if I do say so myself!