Pictures

I have pictures posted from Istanbul, Slovenia, and daily life on Facebook. I'll add the links to the left and maybe eventually write a new post.

The most wonderful time of the year!

Well, after many weeks of being badgered I decided I could write another blog entry, maybe two. I’ve experienced the holiday season in Hungary, travelling internationally at Christmas, and getting sick in Hungary.

First, the holidays in Hungary, similar to home, the Christmas celebrations begin shortly after Thanksgiving time (though obviously this is not a time marker for most Hungarians). December 6th is St. Mikulás (St. Nicholas, St. Nick, a.k.a Santa Claus) Day. The children leave out their “boots” and if they were good Mikulás leaves them candy. If they weren’t good, Santa’s helper, which I loosely interpreted as the devil, leaves behind a wooden switch. The younger grades had a relay competition to celebrate this day in which they all dressed up like this devil character, complete with horns. At the end, of course, Mikulás came and left presents for the classes. Apparently, I was good this year too, because I also received some candy. With several of the older classes we learned two songs and sang them at the Christmas program, Silent Night and Auld Lang Syne. We practiced quite a bit; I’ll just say I’m glad I don’t have to hear the songs till next year. ;) Christmas time made me quite home sick, especially for Mom’s peanut brittle. I know the holidays can be an overwhelming time and most stores look like Christmas threw up, but when all of the craziness isn’t going on you miss it.

I left Budapest airport to go home on the 23rd, cutting it a little close I know. Shortly after arrived at the airport they delayed my flight to London for the first time. Now if you watched the news at all you know that London Heathrow wasn’t exactly operating smoothly that week. After I was all checked in and already nervous about making my connection the flight was delayed for a second time. I had no idea what state Heathrow was in at this point and officially started to freak out. I would just like to point out at this time that I never did actually break down into tears, though I easily could have. I mean was I going to have to spend Christmas in an airport?

When we finally got to Heathrow I had missed my flight to Chicago by about 2 hours. This means I got to stand in lovely sized line (or queue as the British say). After waiting about an hour and a half an extremely nice lady helped me. She got me on the flight to New York JFK the next morning after she did some finagling. I will forever love this woman who was way too nice to be working in customer service, or are the British really that nice?

A flight the next morning meant I got to stay in London for the night. So what exciting things did I do you may ask? Well, I got to see the Heathrow Renaissance (pronounced Re-nay-sance hehe). I woke up early the next morning and arrived a little late to the airport due to the shuttle and had to cut in line. As I was checking in the British Airways employee got his call back about my seat number. He looked up at me and said, “Madame, you’ve been upgraded to business class, is that all right?” Uh, let me think about this, YEAH!!!!

I got to actually sleep and stretch out on my 7 hour flight. It was great!! I’ve learned that I love British Airways, being offered champagne, newspapers, full breakfast and being called Madame in a British accent.
Once I finally arrived in Chicago, speaking English and in my newly found British accent, my Dad picked me up at the airport. He took me to a lovely welcome home dinner! A Wendy’s cheeseburger has never tasted so good! We had quite the drive in front of us. It took us five hours to get home from O’Hare in the snow, usually a 3 ½ hour drive. I had a wonderful time at home getting to spend time with my family and friends!!

My trip back to Hungary was much smoother than the one home, thankfully. Jet lag really got to me when I got back and I slept what felt like the whole week. I was getting back into the swing of things and then I woke up one morning feeling less than stellar. I ended up getting sick with some kind of flu bug. It was awful. This also meant I got to experience Hungarian health care. All I have to say is thank God for Olgi! I would have had no idea what to do at the doctor’s without her. The doctor was an older lady and Olgi translated for us. I was in and out after like 5 minutes.

It was strange for me. I had no appointment but we walked into the building and then waited outside of this door. I have no idea how you know which door to go to, but there we were. We waited for what seemed like forever. I then walked through the door (one was marked for women to enter the other for men, but apparently they don’t use this system anymore because everyone entered through the men’s door). Olgi told the doctor what was wrong with me and of course that I didn’t speak Hungarian. The doctor poked and prodded. She then wrote me a prescription and that was it! It seemed to move very quickly once we were through the door. Olgi and I then walked to the pharmacy which is in the hospital and they gave me my medicine. Though you have to have a prescription the drugs are already packaged just like over the counter drugs. Thankfully I bounced back quickly! There is flu outbreak in Hungary right now, which is becoming more evident by the number of students missing in class. I’ll just pray that I don’t get that and can remain healthy, because being sick is the worst!

Thanksgiving in Europe?

Last week I spent my first Thanksgiving away from home. Seven American and one Canadian teachers got together in Gyor, Hungary (west of Budapest) to celebrate a holiday with food! We did our best to make dishes from home. There was no turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. We did have homemade noodles (thanks to me), mashed potatoes, stuffing and apple pie! I know we all missed our families but we had a great time being with good friends and stuffing ourselves full of the most American meal any of us have had in months! We even went around the table and gave thanks; it was mostly that we had each other!

I attempted to make homemade noodles for the first time according to Grandma Rosie’s recipe. There was flour everywhere and I traveled 4 hours by train with noodles for twelve, haha! Though they weren’t as good as either of my grandma’s ever made them, or Uncle Milton, they weren’t bad for my first time at the rodeo (I don’t think I cooked them in enough broth). People ate them and even took seconds so they couldn’t have been terrible. None of them had ever had noodles like this before, which is a completely foreign idea to me, I mean what is Thanksgiving without noodles? Also, as I was leaving to catch my train the mail man came with a package for me. Who was it from and what could it be? I had mentioned how I missed pumpkin flavored things in an e-mail to Aunt Sharon about a month ago and apparently she felt my pain. She sent me pumpkin fudge and the timing was impeccable. It was a perfect addition to our Thanksgiving meal.

Wednesday night I stayed in Budapest in route to Gyor. I got to meet up with Amy Atwood, close family friend, in the city for dinner! It was so good seeing her, as it had been quite some time, and really cool that we could meet up in Budapest of all places! She is traveling with a friend’s family. I enjoyed a great meal with them and really enjoyed getting to see someone from home, even if only for a couple of hours! I stayed with my friend Celia in the city and we headed to Thanksgiving together the next day.

On Friday Celia and I headed back to Budapest. Due to late trains and missed connections I ended up staying in Budapest on Friday instead of heading back to Nyírbátor. We decided to head to the Christmas market and I’m glad we did! There were stalls set up in the square with food, hot wine, crafts, hats, etc. and it felt like Christmas! We walked around for a while and got food, but mostly just enjoyed the generally merriment! That night we watched Home Alone, more Christmas spirit, and went to one of Celia’s friend’s place. It snowed in Budapest on Friday, the first snow, and it was quite a first snow. I’d say there was probably an inch or two on the ground. It was good packing snow, so we had a little snowball fight.

Saturday I made my way back to Nyírbátor and got ready for the teacher’s ball. It was retro themed so there were many bouffant hair-dos in the room. We had been practicing for a little more than a month to do a dance and I think it went brilliantly! I had so much fun at the ball. The atmosphere was much like a wedding reception, without the bride and groom. We danced away the night to retro Hungarian music, let’s just say my feet hurt a little bit today!

I posted new pictures under the "Life as a Magyar" link!

Sör, Pivo, Bier, Beer

Last Sunday I arrived back in Nyírbátor after a week of traveling. The school was on fall break as it fell over a holiday, All Saints Day. After a difficult journey home, due to missed connections at the train station, I crashed! Monday morning I difficultly got up to teach. Vacation was over.

I traveled to Prague and Munich with fellow CETP teachers (aka English speaking). The Czech Republic is known for its beer and Munich for its beer halls. We of course tried the beer in each of these places. ;) Also, staying in hostels in both cities allowed us to meet young people from all over the world. We met people from France, Spain, Brazil, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Norway, and obviously from Germany and the Czech Republic. It was really interesting to hear why they were there and intimidating at the same time because most of them spoke at least two languages fluently, usually three.

They are both extremely beautiful cities. Prague was on my to-do list, so check. Everything is older that you can even imagine. It makes you want to go back in time and walk on the cobblestone streets wearing boots, bloomers and most likely a girdle. We didn’t really go on tours or anything like that in either city we just walked around and enjoyed the cities, often stopping somewhere to enjoy the view or the people watching.

In Prague we walked on Charles Bridge (which was finished in the 15th century), went to the top of the hill to see the castle and changing of the guards, and Old Town square and the clock tower (famous astronomical clock, apparently the designer’s eyes were cut out so it could not be replicated). Prague was filled with tourists; I can’t even imagine what it’s like during peak traveling season.
Our first night in Prague we ate a traditional Czech meal. I had a beef roast covered in mushroom gravy with bread dumplings, it was delicious. We also ate at a Mexican restaurant one night, it wasn’t too bad. We went to The Pub our last night which had the beer tap in the middle of the table. A computer kept track of how much beer was poured and each table competed to see who could drink the most.

When we arrived in Munich it was quite the time to actually get to the city. The bus dropped us off at a bus station outside the city with no ATMs and hardly any people. It was quite the adventure; we walked for a while through an industrial part of town getting strange looks with our luggage in tow. That night we went to a beer hall and had a traditional German dinner and of course German beer, fabulous! The next day we went to Dachau, which was the first concentration camp under Nazi rule. It started as political prisoners, mostly communists and Catholic priests. We were there for almost five hours.

That evening we went to the famous and original Hofbrauhaus. This beer hall opened in the 1500s. We drank our liter beers and ate homemade pretzels as we listened to the band (wearing lederhosen) play good German drinking songs. Apparently German men come here three days a week for around (can’t remember exact amount) 15 years. They then get their own locker for their beer stein and their name posted, it’s a pretty big deal and of course the whole time they’re wearing lederhosen. If you ask me that’s dedication.

As you can see this trip had a lot of beer in it, which is why I titled this entry beer in Hungarian, Czech, German, and English. We got to see some very cool places. I believe Prague is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was also really interesting to see so many people from different races, something that is very rare in Hungary. You have the Hungarians and the Roma (gypsies). I had so much fun and got to meet a lot of really interesting people. Now it’s back to work and teaching not American, but British English. I added another link for pictures as well.

I’ll end with a couple of interesting anecdotes from school this week. I sang the little Indian song with my fourth graders, it was in their book (one little, two little, three little Indians). It was part of learning how to count! Also, on Friday while I was with second graders the fire alarm went off. I had no idea what was going on or what I should do. It was just a false alarm. Needless to say my lesson was pretty much a wash from that point on. I had to calm down two girls who were crying, I think they thought the school was going to burn down, and try to get the students not to watch the firefighters from the window. Ah what a day!

Birthday cake!

Last week I turned 23. It’s not really very exciting, just another year older. Though I believe I can still say I’m in my early twenties, I know I won’t be able to for long. On my birthday I was really excited to share it with my students, I brought candy and magazines and pictures from home. I ended up only teaching 3 classes that day instead of 6. My first class of 8th graders went to Budapest and no one told me till I went to the class and there was no one there. So, I sat in the staff room for an hour during the first lesson slightly perturbed mostly because I could have slept in for another hour, oh well. Another class I only observed because they got a new (Hungarian) English teacher and during my last class of the day (also 8th graders) I went to the bank with Olgi to get my bank card.

The other classes did their work and then I gave them candy and we looked at the magazines and pictures from home. I found it very interesting how fascinated the students were with my friends of different races. Hungarian is generally a homogenous state as far as race goes, but they have a considerable gypsy population. It was like these students had never seen someone of a different race or maybe they were just really surprised that I would be friends with someone of a different race than myself. The gypsy population is still largely segregated here and it is only recently that they have been integrated into the school system. Many Hungarians have negative feelings about the gypsy population, who rely heavily on government assistance, and they are not afraid to show these feelings.

The day after my birthday I had my 1st and 2nd graders. They sang to me and all made me cards, some even gifts (chocolate!). It was really sweet and made for a great day! That night I had some friends come in to town to have a low key weekend and to be with others who speak English. We walked around the great city of Nyírbátor. Ate at the pizzeria, saw both historically churches (which are covered in scaffolding while being reinvaded), baked a birthday cake, and had Chinese. The cake baking was quite an experience with no measuring cups, trying to figure out what baking powder is in Hungarian, and lighting my gas stove without blowing up my apartment. The cake turned out pretty good, though it tasted more like a sweet pancake, and the icing was delicious. I’ve added pictures. We also discovered a Chinese buffet, which is amazing! I went back again later in the week. No it’s not run by Chinese people and yes they only speak Hungarian, but the food is cheap and really good.

Last week Olgi told me that at a meeting the staff decided that they want me to do a cultural presentation on America. I was really excited to hear about this and started thinking about all the differences between Hungarian and American culture. Olgi then told me I have till January to make said presentation… well ok! I think I’ll probably explain greatly about the racial and cultural differences in America that have formed American culture. Part of this will also explaining what it means to be political correct, PC. Also, I wanted to present on American sports culture since soccer is not as popular as it is here. I’ll spend some time on football and explaining the awesomeness that is college football, which after yesterday I’m slightly jaded!! If anyone has some great suggestions for this presentation please let me know, I mean I have till January!

This weekend I was supposed to go to Budapest. On Friday I woke up with a cold and after 6 hours with 6 and 7 year olds I decided I should probably stay home and rest this weekend. I think it was probably for the best as I woke up on Saturday feeling worse. After some day/night quil therapy and some sleep I feel much better. Drinking this apple cinnamon tea I just bought helps too. Although it makes me miss the apple cider and pumpkin flavored treats that everyone at home gets to enjoy right now!

Every day is an experience!

It has been quite a while since I updated this thing, but at the request of many here ya go! I have taught many lessons, some have gone well and others not so much, and also traveled to Szeged since my last update.

I’m getting used to feeling prepared for a lesson and it going straight out the window. It’s hard to gauge how they are moving along. Often I’m told to go over something different right before I go to the class. This is slowly getting better as well all get more acclimated with our schedules. I’ve learned that the best survival tip for a teacher is to always have many different activities stored up to use if all else fails. You never know what to expect.

I have this class of 7th graders and they are not the most pleasurable class. They sure are a rambunctious group! Also, they’re about two years behind of where they are “supposed to be” in the book and these are the higher achieving students. This proves to be very difficult at times. I think they will know something (since my other students their age do) and they have no idea what I’m talking about. It can often be long 45 minutes.

One day in my 6th grade class a student was late that was supposed to go with the other English teacher and he couldn’t find them so he stayed in my class. I later find out that he is 16 and still in the 6th grade. One of my students (the one with the asthma) looked at me and said, “He is not very clever.” All I could do was say ok because I think he may have had a point (this student is very clever however, probably the brightest in the class). Towards the end of the class this 16 year old 6th grader totally hit on me, of course in Hungarian. It was obviously the highlight of my day, haha just kidding.

I was talking to my mom this week about how many students in my schools are either gypsies or orphans and she tried to trade me for thugs. Haha. I told her I would stick with the gypsies and orphans because they might steal from me, but at least they won’t shoot me. I love totally un-politically correct things like that because no one cares here.

Last weekend I went to Szeged. Unfortunately I only have about 5 pictures because my camera died. Oh well, I will upload them later. It was a gorgeous city and I had a ton of fun being with my teacher friends. I also had quite the experience getting there. One of my trains was late so I missed my connection. I finally broke down and asked the lady I had sat next to if she spoke English and she did. I asked if I needed to buy a new ticket, she said only if I wanted a reserved seat. I went to the booth and tried to buy a seat, but the lady tried to tell me I didn’t need one. I went back again after sitting and worrying about it, still told me I was fine (of course this was all in sign language and broken Hungarian). I get on the train and had to pay for my seat, haha. Oh well, I made it to Szeged in one piece. On the way back I got off the train at Debrecen to make my connection only to realize that I was supposed to stay in my seat because my car was just switching engines. That was kind of embarrassing when I went back to my seat, silly Americans.

This week I went to Nyiregyhaza which about 45 minutes from Nyírbátor. It’s the county seat of my county. Olgi had a meeting to go to and asked if I wanted to come with. I said yes, because why not? I got to walk around the town and people watch quite a bit. It’s a pretty city and there was lots of good people watching in the town center with elections coming up. I know a couple of teachers in Nyiregyhaza so I am looking forward to visiting there again. I also met another English teacher from Nyírbátor, whom I don’t teach with, and her name is Zusa (pronounce zusha). She is younger and speaks English very well, having lived in London for 3 years. I was excited for this new acquaintance and hope I get to know her better.

Friday night I went to a concert. Varnus Xaver is a famous organist. That’s right I said organist. He was born in Canada, but is Hungarian. He played classical music and several of the songs were accompanied by a horn section. I really enjoyed it and it was nice to go to something and run into people I knew, teachers and students. As I sat there listening to the music I was reminded of my Grandma Rosie because it was exactly like the concerts she used to take us to at Kirkland when we were little girls and I know she would have loved every minute of it, whistling along with the songs (well her version of whistling that is!).

I turn another year older this Thursday. I guess I’m excitedish haha. I’m going to buy candy so my students can celebrate with me! Also, several of my friends are coming to Nyírbátor this weekend to celebrate. I think we’re going to try to bake a cake in my scary gas stove that I needs a thermometer.

Staying Fit!

Last Wednesday I went to Debrecen with Oncika from the school office. We went to get my residence permit. She spoke little English and I speak little Hungarian. We tried to communicate as much as possible through our language barrier and laughed quite a bit at not understanding one another. It took about an hour by car to get there. We got lost once we arrived in Debrecen. The immigration office was quite hard to find as it was located in between all of these old commi style apartment buildings. When we finally got there and got inside I thought it was going to take forever. The “guard” helped us out to figure what we needed and it wasn’t very long before they called our number. The immigration officer (if that’s what you call him) spoke perfect English with a great accent. Though I’m sure that is a requirement for working there. I told him I had applied for my visa with the embassy before leaving and he seemed pleasantly surprised. He went to the back and before I knew it he was coming back with a sticker type thing in his hand. He then put it in my passport and started stamping and signing things and then I signed some things and Voila I’m a legal resident of Hungary! Onci was so perplexed that that was all it took! She had brought so much paperwork with her and most of it was not needed. Apparently it has something to do with me being American. So woohoo America!!

This weekend I went to Budapest to visit some friends. For my traveling I was really quite spoiled. Olgi picked me up and took me to the train station and helped me buy my ticket. Also, her daughter goes to university in Budapest and came home for the weekend. Olgi and her husband drove her back on Sunday and picked me up. So I didn’t take a train home, which is pretty awesome! We had a really good time this weekend, partially because we could speak fluid English without having to worry about the other person understanding what you are saying. We walked all over the city, went to some pubs, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company. While we were out at a pub we met some particularly interesting British and Irish people. Apparently, it is very popular for men from the British Isles to go there for their bachelor parties, or as they say for their stag. They dress up in crazy costumes, wearing leotards and wigs! It is quite the sight to see.

I think I’m slowly starting to get the hang of this teaching thing. I think my biggest challenge will be the little ones, in keeping myself and them interested in what we’re doing. I’m also slowly figuring out the role that each teacher I’m working with wants me to play. I only have the students who had either an A or B in English last year, besides grades 1 and 2 in which I have the whole class. I’m starting to notice some interesting things as well. I tend to have a lot more boys as students, which I find a bit odd since usually there are larger amounts of high achieving girls. Also the attitude towards the Roma children (gypsies) is interesting. They typically are the low achieving students and are treated as such. The teachers seem to question them more about cheating. It is acceptable here, but I assure you there would probably be some lawsuits in America. =)
Yesterday at school in the staff room Olgi was given flowers. She has been teaching for 30 years. This was at the Hunyadi school (the one that is a block away). I like this school a little better so far. I think because it is much smaller so I feel more comfortable.
On Tuesday I had my 6th grade class that consists of 6 boys. They are kind of mischievous but mostly just a lot of fun. We were reviewing the rooms in a house and one of the boys started coughing. The boys told me he had allergies and I said “OK” thinking nothing of it. Then he couldn’t stop and he got up. They were trying to tell me that he has asthma (is what I eventually understood). I was really freaking out for a second. He got his inhaler and he was fine. Phew! It was a little stressful. Thankfully the other boys seemed to know what to do if he would have had a full blown attack. So that was kind of a close call and hopefully the closest I come to a crisis in the classroom, though I’m sure it’s not. Language skill probably would have been useful here!
People seem to be quite active here. Olgi for example looks amazing, especially for her age. She said she went on a 20 km bike ride this weekend. Some of the staff and friends get together every Tuesday to play volleyball and Olgi invited me to join them. So I did because why not? Mind you that the majority of these people were over the age of 45 but most of them were really good. I couldn’t understand most of the things that were said but enjoyed myself despite having jammed my thumb with the ball (which was fine because we scored a point!). Also, last night I went to the pool with Olgi. She picked me up and we went out to the pool. First we sat in the thermal springs (which are natural and all over the country) and then the sauna. Then I went to a water aerobics class with Olgi. It was really good, even if I was the youngest person there by quite a few years! I enjoyed the work out and relaxing in the thermal spas beforehand. I’ve learned that the Hungarians love their water!

This morning apparently I turned off my alarm in my sleep. I woke up about 10 minutes before I was to leave. Thankfully, I had already showered. I got ready and walked very quickly. I was not late but I did feel quite rushed. I used this opportunity to teach the word rushed to my students. I must have been tired from my water aerobics class last night!

It has been a little bit sad as football season starts and my friends are moving back on campus. I was excited to hear my Buckeyes beat those Hurricanes though!! It smelled like fall last night here, that crisp in the air and something burning. Anyways, enjoy a wienie roast for me!! Also a Happy Birthday to my Grandpa Howie who turned 80 on Sunday!! Love and miss you all!