Dear Diary,

Things are quite lively here and it is never a dull moment in this house. I don't get to see Mr. HRE that much as he is out most of the time trying to conquer other nations and working hard to rebuild the legendary Roman Empire. When he is out, Mr. Edelstein takes care of affairs around here, seems to be like Mr. HRE's second-in-command.

Ah, I guess I should explain more of Mr. Edelstein, since you probably have not heard of him. Before Mr. HRE took me under his wing, I used to live a carefree, nomadic life in the plains of southeast Europe. At one point I was taken under the care of Mr. Ottoman Empire, but that was time was quite short. I am a little embarrassed to say that I used to pick on Mr. Edelstein when we were kids. Now that I think on it, I used to pick on a lot of the kids at the time. I remember that during the 10th century, I went on numerous raids across Europe and I can still hear the cries and prayers of the kids to 'save us from the arrows of Hungary!' I believed I mentioned that I am quite skilled at archery. Ah, those were really great times for me when I used to have all of southeastern Europe for myself.

Anyways, one day, I went on a raid and I was about to fight Mr. Edelstein, but I stopped. He told me that I was not my enemy and that Romania, to the south of me was. After that realization, we started becoming good friends and I concentrated my raids on Romania and around the Russian borders instead. Romania, when he living with Ottoman Empire, tried to force me to join, but since the Great Schism of the Church broke out, my King at the time decided that we would be a Western European Christian nation. To this day, I still dislike Romania and we fight more often that I used to with Mr. Edelstein.

Since that time, the smile which I so very much adored disappeared from Mr. Edelstein. He never talked much about what was bothering him, but.....I can tell that he is. I can see it on his face.

During the 1300s, we did not see each other but now I finally do! I had finished up my chores for the day and went to Mr. Edelstein's room to bring him his afternoon tea. I apologized to him if we had gotten off to a bad start, and asked again why did he not seem excited when he saw me. He asked me my name again, and when I replied that my name was Hungary, he seemed quite shocked. He stammered a reply and apologized that he did not recognize me at the time. I set down the tray and asked him how did he not recognize the kid that used to bully him so often. He explained, with his face just the slightest hint of pink that he thought I was a boy at the time.

He stood up from his desk and bowed to apologize to me. I felt my face flush a little as well, and I giggled and said that it was alright. I told him that, to my embarrassment, I myself thought I was a boy until I hit puberty. At that moment, I thought I saw him smile, the first in a long time. I wanted to talk to him more, but he said he had to get back to work. He was currently going over restructuring orders and letters, mainly from angry or disgruntled diplomats of the recently conquered areas.

I feel bad for him, having to work so hard. It is tough enough to manage your own country's affairs and deal with whoever is in charge, but to have to manage many another nation's affairs on top of your own must be tough. I wish I could help him more. He invited me to sit down and drink some tea with him which I happily accepted despite my position, but he said it was for old time's sake. The mood was much better after the tea. It is getting late and I have to get up early again for my duties. Perhaps I can talk about the other tenants in this manor tomorrow because I think they are quite exciting!

-Elizabeth