And so it begins...

I got a call yesterday afternoon telling me that I have a contract offer to play with a team in Hungary. I will be the first American placed in Hungary that they know of, and the first time they have done anything with this team. Of course, I accepted...haha

So, I leave Dec 26, fly into Rome, say goodbye to my family (who is continuing on to Sicily) spend the day in Rome on Dec 27 and then fly that night into Budapest, Hungary and drive 2.5 hours to Bekescsaba (south east Hungary near the Romanian border). The team's name is Békéscsabai Röplabda Sportegyesület (BRSE - www.brse.hu). The site is all in Hungarian, so its nearly impossible to figure out. The team is in the first league in Hungary, finished 6th last year, trying to make it into the final 4 this year. My contract is from Jan 1-April 30, 2011.

In attempts to improve my Hungarian knowledge base, I researched the alphabet: 44 letters, 15 of them are vowels. Its really disheartening when I read that there are multiple letters that make the same sound. Why the redundancy, you may ask....God only knows, but I felt the need to provide some examples:

I, i - i as in machine
Í, í - i as in machine
Ü, ü - i as in machine (with lips protruded as if to whistle)

E, e - e as in set
Ö, ö - e as in let (with lips protruded as if to whistle)

J, j - y as in yes
Ly, ly - y as in yes (l is silent)

So, yeah that's all I've got so far, but pretty exciting...there will be many more posts coming up.