Home again
The reason there have been no posts on my blog for the last week or so is that I have been attending the Internacia Junulara Kongreso in Szombathely, Hungary. I have had such an amazing time that I hardly know where to start with blogging about it – I think it will take me the entire week to do everything justice, and there are several reasons why I don’t have the time or inclination to write a mammoth blog entry today. I have in fact just had some appallingly bad news about the health of a family member – news so terrible that it hasn’t sunk in yet and I don’t know what to do except cry. But before that, I was happier this morning than I have been for a very, very long time. That was partly because I’ve had such a fantastic time, and partly because of a conversation I had with a certain someone yesterday.
It may sound strange but I was totally dreading the IJK. It sounded like it was going to be absolute hell for me. For a start I’m not a very sociable person and so the thought of having to spend my holiday surrounded by others, even those I consider friends, did not appeal. I thought it would be terribly claustrophobic. Secondly, I like having freedom on holiday and so being part of some sort of organised arrangement where I had to eat at set times and do certain things was something I thought would frustrate me terribly. Thirdly, I thought I would probably be bored as I knew it was going to be totally unlike the way I normally spend my holidays. Fourthly, I thought I would probably be lonely as I imagined my boyfriend would be so busy catching up with his other friends that I would hardly see him all week at all. Fifthly, I was actually incredibly scared. I’m a very shy sort of person and so the idea of spending a whole week talking to complete strangers in a language I’m not very good at was highly intimidating.
In the end, however, I surprised myself and managed to cope with it much better than I expected. Yes, there were moments when I wanted to cry or scream, but they were relatively few and far between. I managed to relax reasonably well and was actually quite confident by my standards. It cost me a lot at the start of the week, but by the end it was becoming more natural, and I had a lot of experiences which were quite liberating.
There were a lot of firsts for me actually. The first time I’d been in a pedal boat. The first time I’d swum in a lake. The first time I’d tried red wine. The first time I’d been in a rowing boat. The first time I’d been to Eastern Europe. The first time I’d worn a bikini. The first time I’d stayed up drinking until 4am. Probably a tonne more which I can’t think of right now…
I don’t know. I’m too upset to be coherent at the moment but it was a magical week and I’ll give it the write-up it deserves another day 
Tags: Esperanto, IJK, Szombathely