I Survived the First Week!

Granted it was only one class that was admittedly not a stellar one on my part but more on that later.

It's hard to believe I have only been in Hungary for a little less than two weeks. The amount of information I've had to assimilate these past weeks has fried my brain a bit and I am not ashamed to admit I spent a hour  looking at Garfield comics online to give my head a break. Don't get me wrong, the experience has already been amazing and all of that information has been helpful and appreciated. I just don't think I realized how physically exhausting it would be to constantly hear and see a language I've barely scratched the surface of and I definitely do not understand when it flies rapid fire between two native speakers who are trying to figure out how to get the hapless American teacher what she needs.

I do NOT want to sound ungrateful at all, the teachers here have been supportive above and beyond what is required and I am constantly getting apologized to before they switch back to their native language to more easily deal with the matter at hand. It motivates me to learn more Hungarian as soon as possible at the same time it frustrates me to not understand.

First of all, I should say that I am deeply thankful to all those who made my schedule, I have 4 classes Mondays and Tuesdays and 1 class Wednesdays and Thursdays. I will also be co-teaching a Business English class for adults one evening a week, but overall it's not an overwhelming schedule and I am happy to be eased into the world of teaching.

So my only class on Thursday was 9a, I had a basic lesson plan of introductions and some partner work and I spent the morning running around getting more paperwork signed, more keys (bringing me up to 9 including the one I will get sometime next week) and being introduced to the canteen staff as well as the woman in charge of the laundry (I am going to use the washing machine on the weekends when there isn't anyone around). I didn't have much time to get nervous but I did as soon as I realized that the kids had not yet been split into the two groups they would be in for the rest of the year. This meant my lesson plan was worthless as it would only really work with the smaller groups. Their main English teacher gave me a few points to speak on and then I was up in front of a class of freshmen without a real clue what I was doing. I talked for a bit about my family and asked them questions and then talked about American education system to blank stares. I finally started getting a response when we shifted to music and so the class ended on a good note but I was frustrated that it hadn't gone as well as I would have wished. I firmly believe next week will be better when I am a little better prepared and I have a smaller class size.

Most of my keys, minus one I haven't gotten yet.

My desk in the English teacher's workroom.

Niki, my contact teacher in pink and Sáni (I think that's how you spell his nickname)

Friday dawned bright and early as breakfast is served from 6:30-7:30am or half-past six as everyone says because they are accustomed to British English, I admit I had a moment of confusion the first time someone said the time that way before I realized what they meant. Breakfast consisted of meat, cucumbers, butter, bread and a rather delicious tea. There were only a few students in the canteen and another teacher who spoke Hungarian and German (another language I really need to learn) so we only could exchange szia!s and my much improved Sajnos, amerikai vagyok. One great thing about the canteen is that at breakfast I get a snack, juice and a pastry, for "elevensies" a British thing that I love as it has brought me some of the best apple and peach juice as well as a kakaós csiga (literally chocolatey snail but in reality a spiral pastry with chocolate) and a cheesy pastry I don't know the name of. I will definitely not starve if the canteen workers have any say in it. Later I had lunch with Niki, my contact teacher and we talked about the Business English class as well as a possible film club I could lead for students. I want to try and get involved as much as possible so hopefully these all work out!

At some point on Friday, Anita (the lady in charge of the laundry), got me some plants for my flat! I'm excited to have some more decoration and I hope I can keep them alive.

Plant 1 

             

         Plant 2

A minor mix up Friday night, with me not remembering that there is no Friday night dinner and also my key not working to get into the building with the canteen and more importantly the laundry was cleared up with the help of Niki and her husband. It was nice to know they really were willing to help out when I needed but I was a bit embarrassed to have brought them over for nothing as the problem with the key ended up being that the door handle has to be lifted before putting the key in to unlock certain doors. I'm never very good at asking for help and I dislike inconveniencing people but I think I am going to have to get used to it until my Hungarian gets good enough I can communicate with more people.

The view from the hall outside my flat, this is the courtyard of the school

I did not get as much done on Friday as I would have liked, a nap and falling into the detective novel I'm in the middle of hindered my plans to finish typing up my notes from our orientation. I have almost 15 pages of notes that cover everything from lesson plans to Hungarian grammar and I need to get them more organized. I meant to rectify that by waking up early on Saturday but moving to another country hasn't erased my weekend laziness and reset my alarm several times. I ended up eating lunch, reading some more and finally making it to the Spar down the street. While I was walking I realized there was a wedding procession heading to the town hall. People were dressed up and I saw the bride's dress as well as several cars parked on the street with white ribbons on the mirrors. It was a nice moment and made me a little less anxious about my first solo trip to the store. I survived and didn't even have to use my fall back of apologizing for being American. I do need to pay more attention to when stores are open because I was thinking about stopping at the book store on the main square but the sign said zárva (closed), although I am not sure if that's normal or if it had something to do with the wedding. I should have stopped to look at the hours, but it was on the way back and my bag was heavier than I had anticipated. I'll be here for a year so I have plenty of time to check back in.

Snacks from the Spar

New section of the blog a.k.a My goals for the foreseeable future:
- learn Hungarian definite/indefinite endings so I can actually conjugate the handful of verbs I know appropriately
- finish typing up my notes from orientation and work on lesson plans for the year
- do some yoga in the perfect yoga-sized space between my bed and the TV
- remember to take my camera with me to take pictures of Kossuth L. tér (the main square right by me)

sziasztok