The sunset wins this round

Ok so this post may not be online by 6 pm EST on the dot... I would apologize, but trust, me it was worth it.
I shall start at the beginning and continue until I fall asleep, which could be anywhere from an hour to 5 minutes. (I'm about to break down and buy a Hungarian coffee maker and coffee so that life will be just a little bit more bearable in the mornings.)
Breakfast this morning was bread with butter, cucumbers, cheese, and very sweet homemade jam that tasted heavenly and paired with waffles. I was honestly too afraid to ask if they made a special veggie plate because I don't like to put them out any even though the mozzarella is to die for. Maybe I'll start asking in a week or two. Either way, the breakfast was delicious, and I am truly looking forward to it again tomorrow. Will I ever get tired of this food? I hope not.
Our 'program' today was orientation to the military hospital where we will be doing clinicals for a few weeks. the walk there was absolutely dreadful. Atlanta rain has nothing on Budapest storms. The weather here is so bipolar that I have experienced uncomfortably cold downpours and stunningly beautiful shorts weather (complete with sunburn and all) within 8 hours of each other. I walked to the hospital in the rain and in my giant white lab coat. Can you say conspicuous? I've gotten kinda used to people staring when we're in a group of 14, but usually they avert their eyes after a few seconds. When we were traveling in our large group AND were in lab coats, people were staring at us with their jaws on the floor. I hate standing out, so that was definitely a rough commute. Thank goodness David has a giant umbrella that I could sneak under to stay dry. It's hard to hold that and maneuver my stuff with one good hand.
The entrance to the hospital itself looked like a mall or train station. There were little stores on the inside just like in the DC and NYC metros. I would not have know it was a hospital if the nurse manager in white scrubs with LT rank hadn't walked up to us. She seemed very nice but she knew very little English, so communication was all through Dr. Hollòs, who spoke broken English himself. Language barriers aside, we were ushered up to a conference room on the second or third floor to begin our first of many lectures and presentations. The man who first began to tell us about the hospital was the chief of medicine and he very much resembled Colonel Potter from MASH with slightly more snow white hair. His English was pretty decent, so understanding him wasn't as difficult as it could have been. The hospital itself is derived from the merging of 4 different hospitals into a centralized hospital with close to 2,000 beds. I guess, for Budapest this is a big hospital, and no matter the size, it was genuinely beautiful complete with and accurate waiting room computer screen that reflected the wait times and diagnostic tests for the various patients. That was a pretty sweet idea, and hope it gets to be popular in America.
Another presenter was a LTC  surgeon with the Hungarian defense force that has a ton of front line experience to share with us. His stories were great, but I feel the need to remind all my army friends that wearing your helmet at all times while overseas is crucial. Do it, or suffer my wrath. His presentation could have gone on for another hour and I would have been just as fascinated.
Following the lectures, and a lunch consisting of cheese and rice. We toured the entire hospital from the helicopter pad that had a stellar view of the city, to the triage rooms. It was also close to 85  degrees and sunny at this point and I was in jeans, a shirt, a cardigan, and the lab coat. That, combined with the lack of air conditioning meant that I was literally cooking in my clothes! Lesson learned, for sure. Weather reports are not only a lie, but they are also used as methods of torture here in Hungary. The day this thing finally warns me about rain when it is actually going to happen is the day that I will stop walking miles in soaking wet toms. Ick. Lemme tell you how neat this hospitals technology was. Everyone from back home seemed to be thinking that I would be taking a massive step back in time when I went on this trip. I can dispel most of those beliefs with one simple sentence. They use robots to deliver food carts and other supplies throughout the hospital. Robots. I'm talking Wall-E clones that navigated themselves through the hospitals, used their own special elevators to get to destinations, asked people to move out of the way, and, oh yeah, moved hundreds of pounds of food and supplies to wherever they were needed. ROBOTS. R2D2 of the medical world. You catching my drift? They were, hands down, the coolest things I've seen so far on this trip. I have pictures that I will actually post at some point. The tour itself was pretty cool and there were definitely some major differences between Hungarian and American hospitals that I will go into detail at a later point in time, presumably when I have more than a few hours of sleep under my belt.
David and I trekked across the city to Sammelweis University's main campus in search of a stethoscope. (He left his at home and wanted one from a country other than the USA). While there I also managed to snag a Sammelweis hoodie that I will treasure for a long time. For those of you that don't know, I wear hoodies like I don't own actual shirts. They're perfect for lounging around the apartment or if I feel like slumming it to class.
A small group of us, Laura, Morgan, David, Michaela, and myself, went in search of an antique bookstore/the central market after dinner. We went out to the Main Street and started wandering in and out of shops looking at clothes and handbags. By the time we reached the area near the New York Cafe (for you map oriented people), David had figured that we were actually a ten or fifteen minute walk from the Market and were going in the exact wrong direction. Que us booking it towards the Danube river, which was supposed to be near the central market. When were only a few blocks away according to David's map, I got completely sidetracked by the beginning of a sunset and what looked like a good vantage point over the Danube. Our little group detoured in that direction and it was magnificent. Every day I am surprised by the beauty of this city, but watching the sun set behind Buda Castle stole my breath and a little of my heart. The pictures don't even come close to how incredible it was, but they are not too shabby and I have no words that could even come close to describing what I saw.
Morgan came running across the bridge at me and it finally hit us that we're actually here in Budapest for a whole month! I could watch that sunset every day and, for the next few weeks, I probably will. We may walk across the river tomorrow and watch the sunset from the top of Buda, to get a different view and a different skyline.
If we do, I will attempt to take as many pictures as I can, so that I may attempt to show you the beauty of this bustling Eastern European city.
For now, I have to try and sleep so that class isn't impossible to sleep .... Err... Stay awake through tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Sweet dreams,
An amazed tourist