Weekend Festivals and I Survived My First Train Rides

Train travel seems a bit less scary on this side of the 3 train trips (5 trains total) and Hungary seems a bit less intimidating after finding out fellow teachers were running into the same kinds of problems as I am.

The weekend started when my contact teacher drove me to the train station, and thank goodness for that. I probably could have managed my ticket with what she had written down for me before but there was a possibility of a different train and I would never have been able to understand that exchange without her. Once I found my platform we said our goodbyes and I headed out on my First European Train Ride. The capitals were for emphasis but really everything went smoothly. I made it to Szolnok, switched trains and got to Hajdúszoboszló (which I can finally say, most of the time anyway) at exactly the same time as Skye's train which was coming from the other direction. Seeing Jenna and Skye was nice although both Skye and I were jealous of her and Lee's apartments (mainly Lee's).

Random Tangent:

I had a weird fixation on being envious that Jenna had a shower curtain and I think that is because I am such a privacy freak normally. I am that person that locks the bathroom door to shower when home alone in an already locked apartment. Hungary is extremely lacking in shower curtains, which leads to uncomfortable showers as well as the constant threat of flooding the bathroom floor.
Aside from my shower curtain envy, I also was jealous of the fact that Jenna has Lee and Emma (a returning CETP teacher) to talk to. I am much younger than the other teachers and I am already having trouble with students not willing to listen to a teacher only a few years older than them so I don't really have someone close to talk to in Mezotur. It was amazing to be able to prattle on in English, and not have anyone beg me to slow down.

End Random Tangent.

Jenna, Skye, Emma and I checked out the wine festival in the town and Skye decided to face her fears by approaching one of the (admittedly gigantic) cows that were part of the atmosphere. I got a lovely magnet souvenir pictured below. After Emma left to go to aerobics class, the rest of us found ourselves hungry and wandered to find something to tide us over until dinner. What we found was a delicious potato pancake about 8 inches across and topped with cheese. Not only was the food good, but the people in the stall helped us with our pronunciation when we ordered. We also sampled some wine relatively cheaply, 200 ft (~1$) for what we estimated to be 3-4 oz of wine.

First souvenir purchase!

 Later we met back up with Emma and grabbed dinner. I had turkey stuffed with fruit and mashed potatoes. We also got pálinka (either on the house or as a gift from a teacher Emma works with who saw us there, we aren't entirely sure). It was sour cherry pálinka and had a good fruity taste once you got past the bite from the alcohol. Sitting across from Skye and Jenna I was once again treated to their hilarious faces when downing the drink, thanks guys!

We went to the train station to meet Dan, and to make a long story short the poor guy has a series of unfortunate events that led to him being phone-less and arriving on the last train in two hours after we expected him. Needless to say, when we spotted him waiting to climb off the train there was cheering. We stopped in at Emma's (talk about apartment envy she not only has a separate living room and bed room, she also has a guest room!) and chatted until it was time to grab some sleep before our train to Szolnok in the morning.

These are actually the train tickets (with kontrol's marks) from Szolnok
back to Mezotur on Saturday. The one on the right is the extra
ticket necessary for an Intercity (faster) train.

I had a super Harry Potter nerdy moment on the train in the morning when we got on and it was like the Hogwarts train with separate compartments. Unfortunately no wizards in sight, but we did run into Joe, who we had planned to meet up with in Szolnok and he just happened to be on the same train as our group. Christian got on in Karcag and I discovered that he also teaches at a Calvinist school. We had a small laugh at our similar experiences with the Calvinist greeting "Grace and Peace" that is used between teacher's and students and becomes an unending cycle when passing a group of kids. One kid says it to you, you repeat it back, the kid behind repeats it because they heard you say it and on and on and on ad nauseam.

Emma on the Hogwarts train :P

Emily met us at the train station and thankfully let us dump our bags in her and her boyfriend's flat so we didn't have to lug them around the festival. We got to see a little bit of Szolnok as we walked to where the festival was and it was nice to see a city with (relatively) tall buildings. Living in Columbus for almost 4 straight years has made me a bit of a city dweller and Mezotur is a small town by any standards.

The goulash festival was fun (if lacking in public bathrooms) and we ate and drank the entire afternoon and into the evening. We ended up at a bar nearby before we all had to head back to the train station. It was great to hang out with the other CETP teachers and share stories about our towns, contact teachers, students, schools and apartments. Commiserating about shared experiences was cathartic and reminded me that I wasn't the only first year teacher in the program who was finding syllabi and lesson planning somewhat stressful.

Here are some pictures from around Szolnok:

Jenna is probably the best photog of the group, I steal her photos sometimes :P

A really cool fountain by Emily's flat

Pedestrian bridge. We could already smell the goulash before we crossed it.

The main street at the festival.

Enjoying our goulash.

My goulash = finom

Soproni Narancs = a fruity beer of awesomness

Sunday was full of laundry, syllabi and lesson plans as well as a much needed nap. Monday went well in some classes and so-so in others but I found out I will be going to Szolnok on Friday to file the paperwork for my residence permit so I will finally be legal :) Speaking of lesson plans, that is what I should be doing now!

sziaszotk

First Full Week of Teaching

I have now met all the students in my 10 classes and have a general idea of their varying levels of English. There are definitely some classes that are going to be more challenging for me than others (because of level of energy, age, etc) but I am a little more confident in my ability to teach now than I was last week. I have to be careful in certain classes because when there is a stronger speaker the class often lets them speak whenever possible and/or I will give directions and instead of listening they wait for the stronger speaker to translate. One way I am trying to avoid the second part is slowing down and asking if they understand so hopefully that will help me judge their comprehension and not force the stronger students to spend time translating everything for the rest of the class.

While I will be traveling this weekend, (more on that later) I will also be getting some work done on my syllabi. We have to make syllabi for each class that lists what we are doing each week, topic, vocabulary, and any grammar points and they are due September 12th. This doesn't sound too hard at first but it's a bit overwhelming to plan for the whole year when I've had 45 minutes with each class! Luckily, the other English teachers are all wonderfully helpful and most have either given me, or helped me pick out books that are appropriate for each class' level. I have 2 classes using one book and 3 classes using another book, 2 graded readers (stories that have been modified for certain levels of English ability), 1 class doing Civilization/Culture that I will be doing handouts for and then 2 that I don't have a specific book for but I can borrow from a couple sources to create lessons. I am going to spend Sunday doing some laundry so I plan to take my laptop and hopefully finish up the syllabi while I wait for the washing machine to finish (I am using the school's washing machine on the weekends so I don't bother anyone).

On to more fun things, I will be traveling by train to Hajdúszoboszló, to visit Jenna (you can read her blog here.). Skye is also coming down from Sátoraljaújhely and should be getting into the train station around the same time as I am (hopefully 3:13 like the site says, or actually 15:13, Hungary uses the 24 hour clock). In preparation I had Niki write down these phrases for me. Szeretnék egy jegyet Hajdúszoboszlóra, means 'I would like a ticket to Hajdúszoboszló' and csak odaút! which means I only want a one way ticket not a return. I am taking the paper she wrote in on as well as the paper I wrote the time and train numbers of both trains. It will only be one ticket but I have to change trains in Szolnok.


Right now the plan is consists of visiting Jenna Friday afternoon/evening and staying over. Then we will go as a group to Szolnok (picking up some other CETP teachers on the way and/or meeting them when we get there) Saturday morning for the goulash festival. I am very excited and I plan to eat as much goulash as I can stomach, it's my favorite Hungarian dish! Also, seeing everyone will be fun and much better than sitting around all weekend like I did last weekend. With my Fridays free, I plan to travel and visit people as many times as I can afford to which will depend on train prices. The trip to Jenna should be about 3000 ft and I'll have to get a ticket back to Szolnok and then one from Szolnok to Mezőtúr, as you can see the prices add up. The train from Szolnok back here isn't nearly as expensive but I am trying to be fiscally responsible.


Speaking of fiscal responsibility, I got paid today!! I did not expect to be paid until my paperwork went through and I have not even filed it yet so I was completely surprised when Niki took me to the woman in charge of payroll this afternoon. I did not get my full pay for the month but I got most of it, I think it was possible because the school I teach at is a religious school so I am being paid by the school and not the government like my fellow teacher's at public schools. Anyway, I decided to make up a budget for myself which consists of Food, Travel, Savings and Misc, where Misc covers clothes, things for the apartment and school supplies. Travel got the biggest percentage as I know once I get the hang of the trains here I am going to be running around the country whenever possible to see friends and learn more about Hungary!

I just had to get up and close my windows because a storm is coming and it's cold in my apartment now. Fortunately, it seems like the storm isn't going to continue past tonight, as I am walking about 2 km to the train station tomorrow morning and I don't want to walk in the rain. 

The black dot in the lower right corner is me, the train station is circled in blue at the top.

Sziasztok!