The Move East

My week in Budapest was great. I met some really cool people and good travel buddies. However, I was really excited to get to Nyírbátor and see where I would be living for the next year. All of the teachers from the program had to walk to a classroom where our contact people were waiting for us. The director of the program, Mary Rose, described this best by saying it’s like you’re an orphan going to meet you parents for the first time. As we walked in the room all of the contact people looked very excited and were coming up and greeting us. My contact person’s name is Olgi. She is really nice. She has three children around the same age as me and is one of the English teachers in my school. We drove from Budapest to Nyírbátor and it took about two and a half hours. When we got to town we dropped my stuff off at my new apartment, which is really nice much to my pleasant surprise, and went to dinner. It was a very nice restaurant and there were not many people there. Not much is open on the weekends here, so I’ll have to do my shopping on the weekdays. Olgi then took me to the supermarket and helped me out, so I’m a little spoiled so far. It was very similar to an Aldi’s. I spent most of my evening online which they already had set up for me! I enjoyed being on Skype and talking to family and friends.

I learned a little bit more about what I’ll be doing. I’m working in two different schools, one is about a block away and the other is supposed to be a 20 minute walk. I’ll be co-teaching with Hungarian English teachers who will be teaching grammar and I’ll be working on conversation skills. My young students will not speak English yet so it should be an experience. I’m excited to get started, but really nervous.

I have a staff meeting Monday morning and the headmaster wants me to introduce myself to everyone. Olgi told me that she will most likely be the one interpreting so she requested that I keep my English simple. I’m a little nervous about this as well since it will be their first impression of me, but hopefully everything translates well!