Gotta get down on Friday!

This a beautiful city. To say that is a major understatement, but I don't know how else to phrase it. Everything is landscaped here. All the parks and gardens look perfect and even the concrete has precious statues and monuments that add to the asthetics. I wanted to reinforce that detail because I noticed today that it still surprises me every day. I walk the same route to the metro at least four times a day and I still find myself gazing around in complete awe. I wish the pictures captured my surroundings even half as well as my eyes do.

Today was our day in the Cardiac cath lab. The patient was an emergency admit who was actively having a heart attack and needed a few stints. Now, in the US, this procedure usually involves threading a catheter through the femoral artery. In this hospital, the doctors preferred the radial artery. (Femoral = thigh, radial = wrist). The preference stems from a lower risk of bleeding ad other complications, BUT it's a smaller artery, so it can be a bit tricky. The doctor started to thread the catheter when we realized that this particular patient has an abnormality that only a small percentage of the population shares. The way I understand it, her radial artery actually branches off into two segments. One is straight, but narrows significantly and does not lead directly to the heart. The other spins in a corkscrew around itself, making it exceedingly difficult to work with. He ended up switching to one femoral artery, and upon figuring out that the right was stenosed, tried the left femoral. Success! Arterial sticks are always weird anyway because there's blood everywhere publishing out, but when he punctured the femoral artery, there was a TON of blood. The procedure itself went very well, and the doctor resolved her extensive heart block through the placement of three or four stints. (We got pulled out for lunch before the procedure was finished).

After clinicals, we made our way to our favorite coffee shop for some coffee and tiramisu to snack on while we did homework. The barista is so sweet that he invited us to his birthday party where he's giving us FREE tiramisu. I love this place a little more every day. No, I love it a ton more. It was so relaxing to hang out in the upstairs and drink coffee for a few hours outside of the hostel.

After the cafe, upon Laura's request, we went to a craft/homemade goods market. Bye bye Hungarian money. It was nice to have you for that short time. I'm pretty sure I bought enough Hungarian made gifts to last a lifetime (and break the bank). But I still believe it's justifiable because when am I ever gonna come back here? Exactly. So, by that logic, I need to buy it all now.
Walking around with the group was just so refreshing. It's nice that our little quintet has become so close in such a short time. We can goof off and joke around with each other without wanting to tear each others throats out (most of the time). I think that once we're in the US, it'll be nice to have some personal space again, but for now, I like that we haven't fractured. We're a tiny little family and we watch each others backs. Michaela saved me from getting hit by a tram yesterday and Morgan kept Laura for getting hit by a biker. Even though we're together 24/7, we're still somewhat glued at the hip. I like it.
Sidenote: the drivers here are INSANE. Picture the Jersey turnpike on drugs. I have learned to tune out the sound of squealing tires or ambulances racing down the road with the sirens blasting. Those are two fairly constant sounds here in Pest. Sunday, Mo and I are wandering over to Buda, so it should be a bit more peaceful.
Now, however,it is time to SLEEP. It's been a long week, so I'm going to unwind and curl up in my bed until I'm no longer falling asleep standing up.
Goodnight!
Dreadfully weary








"This thing is gonna be like step brothers." "I'd be pissed if I died in a bunk bed!"
- Michaela

"In the first few minutes (of class) I thought I was going to sleep again!"
Dr. Hollòs

"I am a cow and I'm hungry. IN HUNGARY!"
Laura

"I don't understand! If the biker hits you, they're going to the hospital too! It's an inconvenience for everyone!"
Michaela

Cultural Differences

Day one of my declaration was a success! I had the MOST amazing French toast with a hazelnut spread at breakfast, followed by an incredible stir fry at dinner. I don't think what they fed us at lunch could even pass as edible, but I'm not quite sure I should expect from a hospital cafeteria. Oh! After dinner we went to the little get together at Cafe Torino, and I'm pretty sure none of us have felt that full and happy since getting here. The coffee and tiramisu is to DIE FOR, but in addition to our usual orders, the fed us a platter of homemade pizza and quiches along with little cakes and treats. It. Was. Delicious. Can I bring that little cafe home with me? I swear his tiramisu alone would make him a millionaire. Who's that Good Eats guy? Yeah. Lets call him.
I don't really have much to say about clinicals because we didnt do much but want around the hospital on yet another tour. I will bring this little fact though. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but I'm too lazy to got back and check so here goes. Instead of having individual rooms for most of their patients. They have them either in longs wards, separated but curtains, or multiple beds to a room. They're huge rooms, so whatever you're picturing is probably a million times worse than how it actually looks. And while we were walking around I was chatting with a Hungarian student and we were discussing generalized differences between healthcare and culture in Hungary and the USA. (Please note that I'm doing my best to keep my political opinions out of this, so if you're looking for politics, this is not the place to be). First of all, the Euoropeans themselves are a LOT more chill about privacy. As in, by American standards, there is none. Co-Ed changing rooms are surprisingly common and no one seems concerned about changing clothes in front of each other. PDA is rampant everywhere, and the women don't seem to mind... Err... Being slightly less conservative than what I'm used to. So in a culture that open, I'm not particularly surprised that they're totally down with sharing hospital rooms with others. Now, throw in the fact that their nurse/patient ratio is off the charts (13-26 patients per nurse minimum), and that their nurses barely get to spend time with their patients. Also, the Hungarian medical staff also mentioned that they don't have the same issues with patient loneliness and depression that we do in the USA. I'm not saying that its a perfect solution or anything, but it does make me wonder if patients that have roommates also have decreased rates of hospital associated depression, especially if they don't have family that is able to be with them. For all it's faults, the Hungarian medical culture very much seems to believe that patients heal better either at home or with their family, which I'm sure does wonders for patient moral. That being said, I know that there are some people reading this that are flabbergasted that I would even propose such a concept, but it's also worth noting that the Hungarians have grown up with this method of thinking. If you were to put a Hungarian patient in their own room, they would think that they are dying. Isolation for them is a way of telling them that they are way too sick.
Just a little food for thought as I sit here on my bunk bed in a room of four. Tomorrow's agenda is as follows: clinicals, free time, coffee, dinner, dessert at the crepes place, the famous thermal baths, and maybe a massage. Maybe I'll have a few more adventures to report tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
A comfortable Budapest student

Cheese and Trauma

NO MORE CHEESE. I'm declaring this now. I'm boycotting cheese once I'm home. How do the vegetarians here not have serious health issues from all this cheese!? Don't get me wrong, they make GOOD food, and it's the best cheese I've ever had, but cheese for three meals a day over the past 12 days is kinda dragging. I'm wishing our meals weren't preordered, but given that the Uni here pays for the food, I'm not sure that I should be disgruntled. Luckily, it's almost the weekend, and that means that I get to order my own food!!!  Morgan and I have found several precious cafes that we want to try, so I'll keep you posted on our food adventures.
As for today, it was a bit of a roller coaster. I started off my clinical day getting attacked by the elevator at the hospital. Confused? The elevator doors in Europe don't mess around. There's no sticking your hand in front of the closing doors to make them start to open again. These suckers slam shut like a guillotine and yeah, they'll bounce open again, but not before you acquire significant bruising. Now, don't go scolding me and thinking that I was sticking my bad arm out in front of those doors. No, when the elevator doors opened in front of the ICU, I stepped out and got slammed into with, I'm sure, a couple hundred pounds of metal on my minimally protected, broken arm. That sucked. I'll be honest and let you know that I did not pay attention at all during class following that. I propped my arm up on a bag and put my head down while my arm throbbed. I spent the rest of the day bolting through doors if I had no other option than to use the elevators. Those things are scary.
However, lest you be concerned that I let my traumatizing experience ruin my day (and yes I know that I'm a tad dramatic), I cheered myself up by getting in on an emergency trauma surgery. Only in the medical field would that be considered fun. Ha. Well my patient was a 19 year old male who was in the passenger seat of the car that was hit. His seatbelt, though it kept him alive, lacerated his spleen and liver and completely cut his intestines in half. Now that he's in stable condition and his prognosis looks good, I can honestly say that it was an AWESOME surgery. They managed to repair the liver and spleen and perform a reanastomosis to piece his intestines back together. He's gonna be in a world of hurt when he gets all the anesthesia out of his system, but I'll be keeping an eye on him in the ICU tomorrow. The driver of the car was getting an exploratory laparotomy right after his buddy was stabilized but other than some wicked nasty scrapes and bruising on both sides of his hip, he looked to be in a lot better shape. I didn't get to watch the rest of the laparotomy, because Annita pulled us out for lunch, but I was still thrilled with what I got to see.
We did see Norbi again today! He was still wearing his makeshift name badge today and seemed genuinely thrilled that we're gonna be back in the ICU again tomorrow. It's nice to have friends on staff there, like Norbi, Annita, and Dora. They're all such wonderful people to work with that I wish I didn't have to leave them in a few weeks. I've got a few emails so I can keep in touch, but I'll still miss seeing them in action.
We seem to have settled into a pretty sweet routine over the past few days. Following clinicals, we head back to the hostel to drop our bags and change, then we go for a cup of coffee and some tiramisu at the local cafe which is owned by an awesome Italian guy who speaks English and seems to have welcomed us completely. Hey- it's guaranteed business for him til the end of May, and we get great coffee. (Forget Starbucks, this is real coffee). We watched his baker making some sort of dessert, which was awesome. I love little homey coffee shops where you can see your food being prepared in front of you. He's a very skilled baker and it was fascinating to watch him bake without measuring cups. He set the bowl on scale and poured ingredients in until he was satisfied and then he started on a new bowl. It was all very methodical, and I could tell that he was 'in the zone'. I would assume that I'm the same way with my nursing skills, or equestrian, but I've never watched myself, so I don't know.
After our coffee we took the tram to the Central Market in Liberty Square, where I added 3 new scarves to my collection. (I'm up to 11 now. My roommates are about to stage an intervention.) We did some casual shopping for a few hours and I successfully haggled for the first time ever! I saved a few hundred fts on a few things, which I thought was pretty good for my first time. Baby steps, right?
That pretty much it for exciting happenings today. We got new sheets and towels, so shout out to LB for helping me make my bed, but right now we're all just chilling out in our room (plus David) while we reorganize and finish homework. Tomorrow we're going to a party at Cage Torino (the Italian cafe) after dinner and Friday we're galavanting the city in search of hazelnut Nutella crepes.
This week has flown by, and I would definitely like for it to slow down just a bit, so that I have a little more time here before I get on a plane to Frankfurt, New Jersey, and, finally, Atlanta. That being said, I'm starting to get excited to be home too. I'm not homesick yet, but I do miss my shower and my bedroom. Ok, and maybe I miss my family and my dog. ;)
Goodnight America! I'll see you soon!
Sincerely,
No more cheese please


"Professor Dever just made a music video of me! It's on her iPhone!"
-David

"But you should understand that I am not crazy."
-Dr. Hollòs

Heart Surgery

"Nurses are the most important part of the hospital-not doctors. Doctors are at home, playing golf, not with patients. Well trained nurses are the most important part."
 - Dr. Kiss



I saw two open heart surgeries today. I SAW BEATING HEARTS. That pretty much tops anything else that happened, and I have no idea how to explain it, but I will try.
Once we got to the hospital this morning and finished our lecture in door to OR times for Intra aortic balloon pumps (yes, that is as fascinating as it sounds), Annita, one of the head nurses, brought us paper SURGICAL SCRUBS to change into! Of course, the smallest they had were mediums, so Morgan and I were swimming in them, but we were getting the opportunity to set foot in the OR, so I was not about to voice any complaints. After suiting up in scrubs, hair nets, shoe covers, and masks, we trekked to the third floor and were buzzed into the surgical suites. Now, let me start off by saying that I have no intentions of ever being a scrub nurse. I never have, and, despite the amazing stuff I saw today, my life goals remain unchanged. I added a possible CRNA certification/degree to my list, but no scrub nursing for me, thank you. That being said, today freaking rocked. Crippled arm or no, when they asked which student wanted to see an open heart surgery, my hand shot straight up. Thanks to our quick reaction times, Melissa and I were chosen to observe an ascending aorta repair. It was AWESOME. By the time we got in there, the surgeon was sewing the tissues replacement into the aorta, and preparing to take the patient off bypass. Even so, it was so cool to watch, and the surgeon was wonderful at answering any questions that we had. When the surgery was completed, he thanked us for being there and explained which cardio thoracic procedures were going on in each room. We were then excused to pick which surgery we wanted to watch. We then stood by the door for several minutes trying to figure out which button opened the door. The surgical team found our confusion hilarious and watched us struggle for a few moments before the anesthesiologist walked over to let us out.
Then began the real fun. Please remember that we are in a country in which the predominant language is HUNGARIAN and very few people speak any English, let alone fluent English.  So we didn't want to walk into a random OR and be unable to explain who we are or why we were there, which is why we began to walk up and down the hall , looking for someone, anyone, that we recognized or anyone that spoke English and could help us. I've never felt so awkward in my life, but I was very grateful that I was not alone, and instead, had Melissa to walk with me.
After about 15 minutes of complete confusion, we saw Dr. Hollòs walking down the hall. We literally started yelling for him fanatically.
I love how his face lights up when he sees us. Michaela calls him Abuelo because he acts so sweet (and he's the spitting image of her grandfather). He rushed over and took us to see a CABG and aortic valve replacement, where we met up with Morgan! This is when we got to see the patient's heart resume beating. It's a good thing I had a mask on, because my jaw just about hit the floor. That is by far, the coolest day I've had in a long time.
I want to throw in a sidenote here about something before I scamper off to bed. The cardiologist who taught class today mentioned the people in Hungary see, to be just as resistant to lifestyle changes following heart attacks and open heart surgery as they are in the US. This blows my mind for many reasons, but rather then contemplating why people make such choices, I wanted to mention how thrilled I am that my father has been such a wonderful role model when it comes to that. For those of you who don't know, and I hope he's ok with me bringing it up, he had some pretty serious heart complications when he was in his early 30's. I was still pretty young, so I had no idea how serious it was at the time, but I distinctly remember that after he came home from the hospital, we made some serious lifestyle changes. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it was for him to give up his favorite foods in favor of vegetables and healthier habits. We starting taking the dogs on long walks around the neighborhood, and he worked hard to make sure that I understood why I didn't get to eat pop tarts or bagel bites anymore. (In my defense, I was a kid, so it was a complete tragedy from my point of view). Now, around a decade later, I am finally able understand what this process involved for him, and I'm so proud of him, and I'm definitely glad he's still around today.
Rather than being resistant to change, he recognized what he needed to fix and did it. Now, I'm sure it's been a rough road for him at times, but the fact that he did it is incredibly impressive. So here's a shout out to you dad. Thank you for being an inspiration to me and helping drive my passion for nursing and patient education. :)

Peace out world, I've gotta get some sleep so that I don't fall at the operating table tomorrow!
Love,
Your overly introspective munchkin nurse



Also, you know you're destined for the medical field when you're staring at a patients open thoracic cavity, and all you can think about is how good lunch is going to taste.


"Jessica! For the next week I don't want to deal with ascites, so you're not gonna take more Tylenol!" -David

"I mean, you're halfway to being iron man, or WOLVERINE!'
-Laura on my metal arm

Week number two

Hey everyone!
This is gonna be a short one because I'm having arm related problems. (Nothing to worry about- I've just been overusing it so my arm is letting me know that I need to slow down.... Via stabbing pain).
My day today actually started around 0430 this morning. I woke up due to allergies/crazy dreams, and apparently a bunch of others did too. Morgan, Megan, and David fessed up at breakfast that they'd woken up at the same time, and had also found themselves unable to sleep. We have no idea, and have so far just brushed it off as a coincidence. Tonight I'm taking no chances, and am downing some benedryl to head off any allergies that may decide to surface again tonight.
I will admit that I have had zero appetite today. I think it was a combination of arm and food that wasnt particularly appetizing. Dinner was just a salad, so I didn't really have the usual wonderful smells enticing me to dig in.
Most of my day was spent working in the hospital and in class, so I guess I'll fill you in there. Unfortunately, I didn't get to be in the CICU again today, but it was still a pretty interesting day in the Multidisciplinary ICU. My patient was actually a stab victim and had a large laceration to the abdomen with a wound vac and multiple surgeries to repair the damage. He was intubated (had a tube in his throat to help him breathe) but was awake and oriented. I'm positive that he had no idea what I was saying, but we still managed to communicate through gestures. He had a pretty high fever and wanted to flip the washcloth on his head over to the cooler side constantly, and after I'd done this for him a few times, he grabbed my hand and brought it to his mouth a few times. I was racking my brain to figure out what he was asking as he repeated the motion when Laura walked over and said "Jessica! He's trying to kiss your hand to thank you!" It was one of the sweetest things I've ever experienced. These patients have been so kind and patient as we attempt to communicate with them and help them in any way they can. I could see the gratitude in his face, and it warmed my heart to be able to make him feel even the slightest bit better.
Needless to say, I loved my patient, but I had a few other patients that were pretty interesting.
Patient B was a man who had been enjoying a picnic and was slightly drunk when he backed into a pot of boiling goulash and received extensive burns all over his back and legs. I'm bringing him up because he renewed my interest in doing my senior practicum at the Grady Burn ICU. Burn patients are some of the most fragile both physically and emotionally. They are susceptible to so many infections during the emergent and acute phase that they require so much special care. After the acute phase, burn patients need help adjusting to their new self identities and any physical limitations. I don't know if I would be a good burn ICU nurse, but I want to try my hand at it and see if it fits.
My third patient was a patient who has been in the ICU for almost a year. Last summer, he dove into shallow water and fractured his C4 and C5 vertebrae, leaving him entirely paralyzed from the neck down, meaning that he cannot be without mechanical ventilation for more than 2 hours at a time. This man has a 5 month old son that he cannot even hold but he is reported to be one of the most cheerful and delightful patients to work with. What strikes me as incredible, is how hard the nursing staff has worked to include the patient and his family in the unit. They secured him a private room (which is usually reserved for infectious patients), bring him his favorite foods, and make sure to take him outside for an hour or two every day no matter what. They have pictures of his wife and son all over the room, and they treat him with the utmost respect. To see how much they care about this patient and how far they have gone out of their way to make him comfortable when they are constantly short of staff and supplies was a truly humbling experience. Working in America, I am lucky enough to have constant access to gloves and linens. We always have enough staff, and though we may complain about having two or three ICU patients per shift, they may have more than 8 critically ill patients. These nurses are absolutely incredible. To see what they work through every day makes me even more excited to learn from them over the next few weeks. Language barrier or not, my experiences here have only just begun and I cannot wait.

It's time to start resting so that I will be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow in the OR.

Wish me luck!
Jess


"It's more important to know what sort of person this disease has than what sort of disease this person has. "

"Where is presenter?" "... We lost him..." Dr. Hòllos and the tech guy

"Flexibility, I not." Dr. Hòllos

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! It's weird that I'm multiple time zones and an ocean away from my family today, as I would usually spend today having lunch with my wonderful mother and calling my relatives. Instead, I had a chill day in Budapest so I had a lot of time to reflect on how important this day is to me. If you're reading this solely for tales of my adventures, skip down to the last paragraph. Otherwise, please continue on.
Let me just start by saying how wonderfully blessedI feel today. I have a WONDERFUL mother whom I am extremely close to, and I wouldn't trade that for the world. I have no way to repay her for the YEARS of care, advice, and unconditional love that she has given me. There are some days when I was a complete terror, and I'm sure she was ready to tear her hair out, but she never did. She blames me for a couple 'grey hairs' that have supposedly appeared throughout my lifetime, but I remain skeptical. In all seriousness, my mother is an incredibly strong women who patiently answered millions of my questions about how things worked or why they were a certain way. She carted me around to church, school, and afterschool activities for years without so much as a single complaint to me. When I broke my arm a few weeks ago, I called her in the middle of a workday and she met me in the ER, AND proceeded to take care of me during the post-op fun, all while preparing me to leave the country. See? My mom rocks. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface on how much she means to me and all of the things she's seen me through. ((Super shout out to mom for giving me my best friend for 12 years, Sandy, who I can't imagine my childhood without)).
However, my mom has also been wonderful enough to ensure that I am close to my fantastic stepmother and my two grandmothers, so I'm going to brag about them for a little while too. I'm not sure how many people get the chance to be so close to their stepmothers, but Evelyn has, ever since she married my dad, made sure to include me in EVERYTHING and making me really feel like a part of the family. She and mom have always made sure that I get the chance to be very involved in my sisters' lives as they grow up, and I love my sisters more than anything else. Evelyn has been there to teach me German, fix me macaroni and cheese countless times, and just sit and chat whenever I needed it. I have grown up with both a wonderful mother and stepmother to lean on whenever I need it. I feel so lucky and blessed, not to mention grateful! These two women have helped shape who I am today, and I can't thank them enough.
In addition, I have two caring, supportive, and overall wonderful grandmothers that have been so involved in my life from day one. Granny and Nana have always given wonderful advice and never fail to be there when I need a shoulder to lean on. I have spent many summer vacations at their respective houses going to church or watching fireworks with Granny, or learning the details of gardening and exploring colonial Williamsburg with Nana. I have so many memories of both of them that I treasure and hold close. I won the lottery of awesome Grandparents, and I am grateful for them every day.
Moral of the story? The Sutton and McPherson clans are the BEST. End of discussion. You won't find any better women than these.

Can you tell I miss my family? I feel like I could live in Budapest forever, but only if I could have my family here with me. I would seriously love to show mom around this city, but alas, I will have to bring her back here another time.

So this is the part where I tell you about my day. It's still weird that I'm eating lunch while everyone back home is still fast asleep. On days like today where I'm not in the hospital until 4, I seriously spent a good while trying to figure out why I hadn't heard from anyone back home until I realized that it was still 6 am EST. Whoops. Anyway, as I may or may not have mentioned in earlier posts, this weekend is FREE TIME. We got to pick what we wanted to do for TWO WHOLE DAYS. I can't stress how amazing that was. We got to decide when and where to eat, when to wake up, and where to go for 48 hours. AH! Today was rather cold, so other than going to the craft fair and leaving to eat lunch and dinner, we actually stayed in the hostel for the most part, reading books, and doing laundry.
Lest you be concerned that I did not have a cultural experience today, I shall assure you that I definitely did. If it hadn't been so cold and gloomy today, we were supposed to wander back to the city park today, but we used the weather as an excuse to relax. However, even relaxed people get hungry eventually, so we did emerge from the hostel for lunch around 1400. The first thing I noticed was that most stores, except the touristy ones, are closed on Sundays. Back home, everything is open pretty much 24/7, so this was a little bit of a change for me, but I really liked it. Sundays here are more of a family day where you go to the park or church instead of scattering to the four winds to run errands. Also worth noting is the fact that the language barrier has gotten a bit easier, because I know enough basic words to feel comfortable navigating and communicating in a basic manner with the locals. "Please, thank you, and hello", go a lot farther than you might think they would. But even if we don't share a common language, gestures and smiles seem to be a common ground. I have communicated with a good many people this way lately.
We did eat lunch at the Anna Cafe, next to Liberty Bridge today, overlooking the Danube River. I am LOVING this little square. It's always so pretty, and now I found  a vegetarian friendly cafe that tastes SUPERB. And, of course, I mean that their sandwiches were delicious, not the building itself. I had a goat cheese, roccula (arugla), and tomato sandwich that was to die for! Great food with and even better view! I don't think I could have asked for anything more wonderful today.
In conclusion, happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there, and I promise to keep you posted on my adventures in the military hospital tomorrow!
Love always,
Jessica

PS (Do I get any bonus points for posting this early for once instead of an hour late? ;) )

Also, one last shout out to Mom, our song!

                                   http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd9zYKLepCw                                                                    

Free Day!

Why is it that I always end up typing this at the last second? I suppose that's a good sign that I'm super busy and thoroughly enjoying my days here, but it's kind of a bummer that I never feel like I have enough time to say everything I want to. I'm trying to keep every posted, but you are barely getting the tip of the iceberg. However, once again, I am dying to get some sleep, so I'll give you the highlights and then roll over and shut my eyes. So let me start by telling you what was SUPPOSED to happen today. 1000 breakfast 1015-1240 central market with LB, Mo, David, and Michaela 1245 michaela and I wander back to the hostel instead of going to parliament 1300-1500 laundry time and downtime 1500- exploration and random stuff with the group Instead, we first decided to go to the craft fair/festival before they went on the Parliament trip. I can't even begin to describe how perfect of an idea that turned out to be. It was SO much fun! I have a ton of pictures, of course. I was mildly reminiscent of the Duluth Fall Festival with aLOT more homemade wares and vendors. It was on the steps of the National Museum and in the surrounding park, and the vendors completely encircled the outside of the building. There were traditional dances and artifacts. It was almost entirely Hungarian, so I definitely felt like a little bit of an outsider when watching the children putting on plays and the people milling around to different areas, but everything was so beautiful! I got my fabric finally! That's been a major goal of mine since this whole trip since I'm enlisting the help of the talented Megan Trussell to make me a Budapest quilt! I'm not describing the other fantastic things I found so that I don't spoil surprises for everyone back home,but I'll be posting pictures when I get back home. But back to the story! So we went back to the hostel to drop off our goodies and relax for a little while before Mo, LB, Bilal, and David went to Parliament. I felt like I hadn't spent enough time at the craft fair, so I wanted to go peruse some stalls with the professors and pick up a few knick nacks before starting my laundry. We made it halfway down the main road to the museum and Ildi came rushing down the street to tell us that the Parliament trip had been canceled, so that entire plan for the day got thrown upside down at the last second. I took off to get to the hostel before the musketeers started towards the building. I didn't want them to find out after they traveled all the way there, and I caught them literally right as they exited the hostel. New plan was to go pick up a few more goodies from the craft fair and then head to the House of Terror, which is a holocaust museum in Pest. The House of Terrors was a little rough for me. I have a hard time watching those videos from the concentration camps and hearing the survivors tell their stories. It breaks my heart that the holocaust ever even happened, and I hate that it's still happening in some countries around the world. The first couple rooms were hard to deal with, and I almost had to leave because I felt so sick in the pit of my stomach, but the museum started to focus on an aspect of the Second World War that I had never heard about. Hungary was positioned between the German and Russian regimes, so Hungary was thrown between the two for decades, and the Hungarian citizens were punished for the1940's, 50's, and 60's, They were technically still a communist state until 1991, I believe. So, as the history geek that I am, I actually loved learning those facts about the country whose perspective I had never heard. If you've never gotten to focus on the history of Budapest from 1943-1976, it's worth a read. After that we headed to Hero Square and the city park. It was so beautiful and so expansive that we didn't even come close to exploring even the front of the park. We did, however, find a woman who HAND EMBROIDERED these stunning tablecloths and sold them for only 6,000 fts (about $30, so super cheap for the quality)! She spoke such little english, but she tried so hard to communicate with us and tell us all about these cloths. We nearly bought her out because they were so beautiful. Right inside the castle gates, (Is this real life? Did I really just say that so casually?), there was a man spray painting on paper. The finished paintings he had off to the side, and it was so obvious that he was incredibly talented! With only spray paint and newspaper, he created oceans, planets, and ships with intricate details. I watched him with my jaw on the ground, and, as soon as he finished his painting, requested to purchase it. I took pictures of the whole process, but I can't even describe how wonderful it was to watch hime paint those mindblowing scenes. He has such amazing talent, and I would like to go back and see if he is there again tomorrow. That's the current plan, anyway. I'll keep you posted on what happens tomorrow, but it may actually turn into a rainy day where I end up working on homework.
 Ciya! Jes

 "Well I don't want to go to the latin service because I wouldnt know what they were saying!" "... If it's not in latin, it would be in Hungarian.." "Oh... they wouldnt be in english?"' - Laura and Bilal Nicknames: Laura- LB, loop loop, peanut butter Morgan- Mo, Momo, Twin David- Dave, Dah-veed Bilal- Buster, Joey (friends reference)