How I sat in a flying metal box for a day and ended up in Europe, and what ensued.

I find air travel literally incredible. I look out the window when I'm on an airplane, in sheer disbelief that this thing can actually fly—with people inside, even. I tried reading the Wikipedia page on lift, and it just made me more confused. (By the way: the thing about air having to take the same amount of time to pass over both top and bottom of the wing—that's incorrect.) It amazes me that I can start off in Chicago, and just eight hours later end up in Frankfurt, Germany, without even having to walk. (My connecting flight was in Frankfurt.)

The Frankfurt connection happened without a hitch. In the airport there, I had only to have my passport stamped by some German guy. I'm not sure whether that counted as customs. I guess I didn't need the three hours layover after all, but one can never be too careful. From there, it was a two-hour flight to Budapest, Hungary, where I would be living for the next four months. (Customs at Budapest's airport, if it existed at all, was nearly undetectable; I went up to some officer who just waved me through without even checking my passport.)

Budapest is famous for its paprika. For dinner on the first day of our visit, my two roommates and I found a restaurant called "Paprika", about a third of a block from our apartment. I had chicken with paprika, and it was really good. Earlier that day, we had had lunch at a Chinese fast-food place, which was not memorable. It is amusing, though, that my first meal in Budapest was Chinese food.

It was hard, not knowing where stuff is. Our apartment wasn't destined to have internet until three days after we arrived, and we needed internet in order to contact our parents and check for important emails from Budapest people. So we had to wander around the city and look for internet at cafés or bars (or internet cafés, which are apparently not just cafés that have internet). This was really nerve-wracking to have to do while jet-lagged on my first day in a country where I didn't speak the language and I didn't know how anything works or where stuff is. We walked into many a locale, only to have unintelligible conversations with Hungarians and walk out in shame.

We also got lost more often than things that happen several times a day happen. After my first day in Budapest, I was really nervous and scared and uncomfortable. Fortunately, things quickly got better, as I became acclimated to the city. It turns out that getting lost is a good way to learn one's way around.

From reading a Budapest guidebook, I found a restaurant that serves stunningly delicious pancakes at dirt-cheap prices. Although they are called "pancakes" on the restaurant's English-language menu, they were actually crêpes. I got one with bananas and honey. It was like heaven, but easy to get to (just take the metro to the other side of the Danube). By the way, the Hungarian word for pancake/crêpe is "palacsinta", pronounced "PA-la-chin-ta".

Coming up next: the study-abroad program that I'm in, Hungary's money system, and the Hungarian language.