Tisza-Tó

This past weekend I went to Lake Tisza (Tisza Tó) with my host parents and a few other families. The house is this old run down little building that they all go to once a year to spend time, coming from all parts of Hungary. There were cracks in the walls, parts of the ceiling had fallen and there are no stairs to the second floor; just a built in latter. The house didn't matter once you were in there tough, there were some many people catching up with one another and so much food, you could barely have time enough to think. (I won't remember what hungry feels like when I get back home).
The homes in the town near the lake, the town is Sarud, are all like this. Some are kept up a lot more by those who use them as full time summer homes. The weather here has been 100 degrees everyday for the past week and I believe I counted 15 raindrops. It's extremely dry.
The days were filled with time spent eating and being at the beach, the nights were filled with a lot of drunken songs (I sat from afar and watched). Their campfire songs are very amusing. Especially after midnight and "Memory" from Cats has made it into their playlist for the night (all songs sung with a Hungarian accent are amusing anyway). I believe the first night they stayed up until 5 in the morning singing. The younger people all went to bed long before that though.
The lake is 40 km by 10 km as I've been told, and is fed by the Tisza River. Because the land is so flat I am able to stand in the middle. I think it's deepest part is about to my neck (and I'm only 5'2"!). The lake is filled with all sorts of aquatic grasses which hide hundreds of birds. When we went closer by boat, it sounded almost like a roaring crowd in a stadium. The grasses grow very high and in various places in the lake so it splits the lake into multiple parts. When you're on ground level, you cant see the other side because of it. Some of the plants in the water produce a spiked seed which makes everyone have to wear some sort of water shoe. I found one to take a picture of and they really are incredibly sharp.

This evening my host parents took me to the last night of the Debreceni Jazznapok. It was mostly composed of American standards, but the scat-off they had in one band was really impressive. They translated a bit for me and Debrecen is the "city of the saxophone". Music and arts are a huge part of their culture here. The bands which played were the Melódia Big Band, Debrecen Dixieland Jazz Band (who have toured world-wide as I've been told), and Jazz Steps. -left handed trombone player- It took me a bit to finally realize why something looked odd to me.

This week I will start floorball and rock climbing in the evenings. I was asked to play by a couple classmates and my host father so I'm going to try it out. Sports here aren't a part of the school but the buildings are used. They are also a bit less important and practices take place three times a week. I didn't exactly know what it was but as I've read, it's similar to field hockey and ice hockey only a little less violent than both. The rock climbing will be indoors on Thursday and should be fun also.