Summer Updates

Okay, so it’s been 6 bajillion days since I updated. Mini-recap of my life:

• Got better at teaching, easier after a few months of learning the kids strengths and weakness (mine too) and I owe the internet a lot for lesson ideas and fun activities to keep kids interested. 
• I downloaded an extra keyboard program to let me make this letter -> ő so that I could properly type the name of the town I live in finally!
• End of the year makes everyone crazy, interesting to see it from a teacher’s POV instead of a student’s.
• Wonderful visit from my mom! Spent a few days in Hungary (garden party in Mezőtúr, main sights in Budapest) and then time in Italy (Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Florence). I will always love Italy, the food, language and history contribute to an indescribable experience every time. I loved being able to read (mostly) the signs at various sights/museums in Italian. Very sad to see Mom go and there was definitely the urge to jump on the plane with her.
• Strand (pool complexes) visits in Gyoma with Sanyi, Erika and her family were great and I got a decent tan! It’s always nice to spend some time in other towns with good friends and I got some great Hungarian food too.
• The new flat is awesome and having a separate bedroom and living room again is nice. I feel like I have too much space almost but it's in a great location and I enjoy having my own place, even if I do need to get a little better about cleaning it.
• Workout wise I've been trying to follow the Insanity plan. I was good for two weeks but the last 4 days I haven't done anything so tomorrow I need to get back into it. It's a lot of work but I feel better when I work out and I can tell I'm losing weight so I need to stick to it.
• Craft wise, I made a fleece tie blanket (sometimes known as a no-sew blanket) in scarlet and grey. Go Bucks! The blanket is the perfect size to curl up in although I haven't been doing it right now as it's been hot.
• I finally got a used bike to get around town and I am loving how much easier it is. Especially since we’ve been having 90 degree weather pretty often, I only get half as hot and sweaty trying to get places.
• Still loving having Emily and Atilla in Mezőtúr. Their daughter Emma is blossoming as a new little bilingual kid and with my love for linguistics it’s endlessly fascinating to see her language evolution. Her grandmother speaks to her solely in Hungarian so Emma (at 20 months) ends up teaching me words quite often. I’m over at the Tóth’s at least a couple days a week these days. 
• Hungarian lessons with Judit have been a lifesaver (had a bit of a break but I swear I’ll get back to practicing soon). She’s a great teacher and I feel like I jumped up several levels in understanding after only a few lessons with her. I need to get braver about speaking and stop worrying about making a mistake! I tell my students that all the time so I need to practice what I preach :P I found a flash card program (Anki) for my computer and I’ve downloaded a Hungarian deck to start working through. I’ve also bought a beginner’s Hungarian-Spanish dictionary (for speakers of Hungarian wanting to learn Spanish) with lots of illustrations so that I get some double duty practice in to stretch my brain a little more. (Yes, I know I’m a giant nerd)
• I took a short trip to Bratislava in Slovakia with Wendy the week before she left for the states. We had a great time in the little city. I'd recommend the free tour if you go. Bratislava was nice but you can definitely see everything in 1-2 days. We ate at a pub that had great chicken wings and brewed their own, delicious beer. We had to move tables midway through the night and ended up sitting with a man and his son who spoke some English and wanted to practice with us. It was great to see Wendy before she left and now I've been to 11 countries!

And that brings us up to the present:

 Today was one of those days that reminds me why I love Hungary. I was invited to a mini-Topogo (not sure on the spelling there I think there is at least one accent over an o) party by friends who were cooking some topogo outside in a bogracs (cauldron) over a fire. Emily, Atilla, and Emma came and our hosts were Lajos and Szilvi and their 2 year old Dóri. We sat out in the garden and chatted in English and Hungarian while the dish cooked. Topogo is a delicious mixture of potatoes, bacon, and spices including paprika. Definitely one of my favorite Hungarian foods. After the food we played with the kids for a bit and had some lovely desserts before heading out. When we got back to Emily’s family’s house I hung out for a while before getting coffee at the czukrazda (café/confectionary) next door with Emily. 

I was about to head home when she invited me for a bike ride and we ran into Atilla coming home so we waited for him and then headed out. I definitely need some more practice with the bike so that I can confidently take at least one hand off to signal with, etc while riding without being worried about falling over. Atilla is completely at home on his bike and Emily and I were jealous to see him riding without holding either of the handlebars! We went down a street with lots of fruit trees along the side that are free for the picking. The plums weren’t quite ripe but I snagged a körte (pear) that was pretty firm but I prefer mine crispy so I enjoyed it anyway. Riding along Atilla stopped and motioned Emily and I over because he noticed a group of people in the middle of preparing a pig in their garden. He went up and rang their bell, explaining that Emily and I were Americans who hadn’t seen the process before and these complete strangers let us come into their yard to watch what was going on! 

The pig was already dead at this point (thankfully, I’m not sure I’m ready to see them actually kill it but I can handle an already dead one) and they had what basically amounts to a flame thrower going to burn the hair off the skin of the pig. The family who had let us in gave us some hazi pálinka so of course we toasted and downed the rather large shots. The alcohol was strong (like all good pálinka) but it didn’t burn too much and I still had enough food in my stomach to soak it up (at least a little bit). Atilla chatted to the people for a bit while explaining to Emily and I how they would clean the pig’s skin and then open it up and cut out all the meat for sausage, etc. We left while they were still washing the skin off with some cheerful waves and hearty “köszönjük szépen”s (we thank you very much) for letting us, as complete strangers, crash their party for a bit to experience something new. Mounting our bikes we headed out and after a short discussion we stopped by a restaurant for some drinks (beer, water, and Coke for Atilla, Emily, and I respectively), mushroom soup for Emily, and some great conversation . We ended up splitting another dessert (I had about 9000 calories today, whoops!) and then heading home. 

I'll add some more pictures from today/around town later/in the next post. 

[Insert Lame Apology for Not Blogging]

So, as a ton of things have happened since I last wrote, we are going to work in blurb form.

• Fall Break: Ireland. Dublin and Sligo County with Kristen. I love the energy the city of Dublin has, it's definitely a place I would return to. We did the touristy stuff and then headed to Tubbercurry where Kristen had cousins. Ireland is gorgeous beyond words and I think I left a little piece of my heart there when we left.
• Winter Break: Ridiculously awesome world wind tour of Europe with my friend Mike who is teaching with the JET program in Japan. We hit Munich for beer gardens and the Christmas Market at Marienplatz. In Venice we took a Gondola ride and saw Piazza San Marco. I have been taking Italian lessons and I could actually understand a good majority of the signs in the museum we went to. We were in Paris for about 36 hours but we managed to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower (great view, freezing cold), take pictures outside the Notre Dame, and spend a few hours in the Louvre [which I got into for free because I'm under 25 and a resident (temporary) of an EU country]. I bought a book on learning Middle Egyptian hieroglyph cause I'm a giant nerd. London was the last stop and probably my favorite (partly because I could speak English there). We drank in a pub, saw (sort of it was very crowded) the guard change at Buckingham palace, took pictures outside 221b Baker Street, rode the London Eye, saw the Cliffs of Dover, and we were on Westminster Bridge during the fireworks for New Year's which were spectacular. 
• Emily Tóth: Emily is an American who has been living in the Bay area in CA. She's married to a man from Mezőtúr and they have an adorable daughter Emma who is 15/16 months old. They decided to move to Hungary for a few years and it has been awesome having another American in town to speak English with and we also practice Hungarian sometimes!
• Hungarian: I am at times impressed and frustrated with my Hungarian skills. Another teacher has helped me a few times but I really need to get a steady 1-2 hour lesson at least once a week. I'm terrible at self-motivation mostly because I feel like I am not making any progress even though I'm now able to follow a super basic conversation if I'm really paying attention. There are just so many differences in the grammar and I am used to Spanish/French/Italian where I could pick it up decently well in a much shorter amount of time. I love the Hungarian language and I'm really trying to get better so I can speak to more people!
• Teaching: Teaching is going well overall. There are always more challenging classes and sometimes my lessons don't work because of communication error, too easy, too hard, etc. I really do enjoy teaching, more than I thought I would. There's definitely a lot of satisfaction in planning a lesson and seeing the students actually learning something. I have also just started a conversation table type group with several of the teachers who have expressed interest in learning more English. The meetings have been fun and I'm enjoying the chance to talk to more of my colleagues.
• Outside Teaching: My private student left for America, so my only outside lesson is an adult group that normally has one or two people. Both the students are enthusiastic and we manage to get around the language barrier most of the time with electronic or hard copy dictionaries. I really need to look into trying to find some private students for the summer or I am going to be bored beyond words. 
• CETP teachers: We've had a holiday party and a Super Bowl party in Hajdúszoboszló with a big group of teachers. It's great to get together and compare horror stories as well as lessons that have/have not worked in the classroom. It's also great to hear who has travelled where to pick up some tips for where to go and what to do. Lee and Emily are party planners of the highest calibre and so we always have delicious food and a great time. I also had two Thanksgivings, one in Szolnok with Emily Handler, her fiance and some friends and one at Jon and Franny's with several other CETP teachers. Both Thanksgivings had great food and it was nice to celebrate the holiday with others when I'm so far away from home. 
• Spring Break: We have April 5- 9 off (Thursday - Monday) and I am going to Barcelona with a couple other CETP teachers. I am excited to be in a Spanish speaking country even if I doubt I will be able to communicate with any skill. My main goal is to get some paella, yummmmmmm.
• New Flat: I will be moving on April 2nd into a new flat that's about a 15 minute walk from the school. It has a separate living room and bedroom, a balcony and I should have my own washer in the flat. I will also be getting a bike from the school to use so that will cut down on the commute time, though 15 minutes really isn't far at all. I'm looking forward to having to interact a bit more with the town and I'll be closer to the Lidl and Penny which I really haven't shopped at with the Spar so close. I'm excited about the separate living room/bed room and I think I will split my bed (it's two twin beds) and put one half in the living room against the wall as a couch. I'll have to purchase some cushions to use as back rests but it'll be nice to have some separation between my sleep and work areas. I'll just have to make sure I don't forget anything on the way to school now!
• International Women's Day: This was March 8th and I got 4 flowers from other teachers, the school and students. It was nice to have a day to celebrate the women in your life and I love getting flowers :D
• Things I need to purchase: With going to Barcelona soon I've been hesitant to spend money but when I get back I need a serrated knife to cut bread, another set of sheets, cushions, a muffin tin, a full length mirror, more pencils, and possibly a hand mixer. I also need to get the guitar I bought fixed but that's pretty far down the priority list.
• Yoga: I also need to buy a yoga mat and yoga blocks (or something to use as yoga blocks). "Do more yoga" was one of my New Year's Resolutions and I really haven't gotten into it until this weekend. I downloaded several free 20 minute yoga class podcasts from iTunes (yogajournal.com) and I've done a few of them. I really enjoy the ones I've gone through so I'm going to make it a goal to do them at least 4 times a week. ( I know it should be everyday but I'm being realistic about goal setting)
• Future Plans: I'm officially teaching at the school next year. I'm happy they liked me and wanted me to stay :D but that's the last year I can teach without having to pay Hungarian taxes. My new somewhat vague five year plan is to teach for the next few years (3-4) then try and get into a forensic linguistics grad program (there's one at Hofstra, which is the only one in the US currently). I'm not sure if that teaching will all be in Hungary or not. I'm looking into places in South American to teach as it'd be a different experience and I'm sure getting my Spanish up to speed will help in future job opportunities. Plus, I would have then lived on three continents, which is pretty cool. My main hesitancy in teaching longer in Hungary is that the renewal fee for each year is $750 and as that's about 16% of what I make teaching for a year here it's a big deal. My parents paid for my renewal fee for this coming year thankfully or I would be zeroing out my savings account to buy my ticket home in the fall. I'll be in the states for about two weeks, one week in Ohio including Kayleigh and Alex's wedding and one in New York/Connecticut to see Tim and Ash.  It'll be my first time home in 15 months so I'm looking forward to it. 
• My Next Sewing Project: There is a fabric store in Mezőtúr and whenever I get around to going I think my next project will be an apron. I'm a messy cook so it would definitely be useful. 

That's the last few months of my life summed up and I'll try and update more than once every 4 months fro here on out. 

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

Random Photos and Teacher Meeting

Here are some random pictures from around my flat!

This is microwave popcorn with instructions in 12 languages. It's cheesy popcorn and pretty delicious, and yes I know I am such a junk food junkie.

So many languages! and sorry I don't know how to flip this. 

This is a giant evil spider that was outside my window. I am not exaggerating the size, it was probably a half dollar, and now it'd disappeared which worries me...

That splotch is an evil, evil spider.

Raid plug-in to try and kill the evil mosquitos who ate me alive the first night.

Yay for mosquito killing!

These are the lovely flowers I got at the first teachers' meeting. There was lots of Hungarian where I got about one word in 100. Mostly mindenki (everyone) early and angoltanár (English teacher) once they got to introducing me. I just said a few words introducing myself and talking about how I was excited to be in Hungary and work with everyone. Also, that I was trying to learn Hungarian so everyone needed to be patient with me.

virágok (flowers)

These are some pictures around my flat.

Sink and coffee maker!

Toaster oven, hot plate, microwave and fridge.
Also the door into my flat is at the far right. 

This is to the right when coming into the room.
My dining table and TV (which has CNN in English!)

Big windows, my desk and bed.

My flowers in a Mezotur pottery vase.

My bathroom 

Breakfast of coffee and yogurt and cereal at my table!

Around noon I am going to go to lunch with the three teachers who picked me up in Budapest and I am making a list of questions to ask about the school and classes. 

Sziasztok! 

(I think that's the right spelling for goodbye plural. It is also a greeting, so you can start and end a conversation with szia, to one person, and sziasztok to multiple people, and I hope there are multiple people reading this!)

First day in Mezotur

I made it to Mezotur! Niki, Erika and Sándor picked me up in Budapest and Janos (I’m not sure I spelled that right) drove all of us and Emily, to Szolnok where we dropped Emily off and did some shopping. We came back and they showed me where I would be living, it’s an apartment inside the old dormitory. You can watch my video tour for more details.

I was given time to unpack a little and then I got to have dinner with the principal and Niki.  More delicious Hungarian food and some discussion about the school, Hungary and the town.  We had palacsinta, a Hungarian dessert that is a pancake/crepe, it had chocolate sauce and a walnut filling. Finom! (Hungarian for delicious) I’ll have more pictures of the town later when I wander around  by myself.

That evening I unpacked some and tired as I was still didn’t get to bed until late. The bed is pretty comfy and large, it’s the size of  two of my old bed put together. I slept alright but it’s always hard in a new place.

The next morning dawned BRIGHT and early. I have giant windows and the sun is very bright, so I won’t have any trouble waking up in the morning. My windows look out on Petrofi ut, named after a famous Hungarian poet!

Unfortunately, it seems a mosquito or two must have gotten into my room last night as I woke up with about ten bug bites (but I got mosquito repellent stuff when I went shopping today)

I spent a few hours finishing my unpacking and getting everything put away. It is a nice feeling to be able to decide where everything goes etcetera. I then had lunch with Niki where we talked more about the school and my lessons. She generously agreed to take me shopping as I was a bit intimidated by trying to figure out what everything is in Hungarian! I got food and some stuff for the apartment as well as a map of Mezotur and some brochures about Hungary. One of the brochures is in Hungarian and English (and German) so I can try and figure out some new vocabulary.

I also learned to ask for sliced bread at the bakery: Szeletelt kenyér,  and then fele kilo, which is half kilo or 1 pound. The bakery smells amazing and I think I will be visiting it often.

We then went to the school and she showed me the English teacher’s room and my desk as well as getting me the books the teacher from last year left. I’m going to go through them and organize all the information I got during orientation.

Some random thoughts about my apartment:

-Not so sure about not having a separate living room and bedroom but I have plenty of room overall

-It took me a while to figure out how to get hot water in the bath but I successfully figured it out!

- Church bells going off for 4ish minutes at certain hours are going to take some getting used to

- The pottery in my room is gorgeous and I really need to get down to the pottery museum here

- I am going to be cooking on a hot plate and in a toaster oven so that should be interesting but I’m excited to make dinner tonight :D

- My TV gets ~ 20 channels but several are repeats, I get CNN in English though!!

- I have a DVD player in the TV but I can’t get it to open right now… I’ll work on it later

- Wi-fi in my flat is an excellent connection!

- tap water here is not great but I did an experiment to see how good my 'filter as you drink' water bottle is

Tap water on the left, filtered water on the right. Go technology!

Ok the flat tour video is taking way too long to upload, I'm not sure what I can do about it but I will hopefully have it up later.

Classes Have Started...

... but just for us CETP teachers. Ha, got you there!

Tuesday night we had the welcome dinner at Dunacorso, a beautiful restaurant on the Danube (Duna in Magyarul, Magyarul is the Hungarian language). I had a goulash (gulyás) that was amazing. It was warm and well seasoned without being spicy.

Lindsey, Me, Kristen and Natalie at Dunacorso

The funny story from that day is slightly painful to remember. I got the gulyás dish and marveled at the delicious aroma and pleasing plating before digging in. I, of course, went straight for the gulyás and had a lovely little moment of 'Hungarian food rocks!'. Unfortunately, I next noticed what I thought was a green bell pepper on top (it's behind the parsley and tomato in the picture below). I happily crunched into it, only to have a five alarm fire spring up in my poor, unsuspecting mouth. Rudely spitting out the pepper, manners fall second to burning tongues, I grabbed a piece of the bread we had been given and tried to sooth my tortured mouth. A whole piece of bread and some of the Hungarian noodles (the round things on the left of the dish in the picture) later, I managed to take the flames down to a slow burn and was able to resume enjoying my meal, but I have definitely learned my lesson about making assumptions with regards to Hungarian peppers!

Gulyás! with an evil hidden pepper

We walked along the river for a bit to take pictures. This picture is random, I just laughed when I saw the name of the pub.

I thought I left Cbus

 We ended up going as a group to a bar area that was kind of like a little park. It was nice but I was too tired to want to drink anything so I just hung out talking for a bit. On the way back I wasn't paying attention while boarding the tram and smacked my knee on the edge of the step. When I got back to the hotel and pulled my pants up I realized I had a chunk out of my leg (through my jeans) luckily it doesn't really hurt and hasn't bruised too badly.

Me proving I am a klutz in any country.

 Wednesday and today (Thursday) were the first two full days of classes. CETP feeds us breakfast in the mornings (bread, butter, jam, fruit, coffee!, yogurt, etc). We then have culture class (which was actually practical suggestions the first day) at 10 am with the entire group of teachers. Next we split off and my group, the high school teachers, goes to the Teaching Tips class with Maria Santha. Maria (Maa-ria, like Maria in English but the a is longer/more open and the accent is on the first syllable like it is for every Hungarian word) is a wonderful teacher and I am taking a lot of notes in her classes. She is also the teacher for the morning culture class, and is helping us learn to navigate cultural differences and be aware of our Hungarian neighbors traditions. My group goes for lunch afer this and I have eaten in the cafeteria in our hostel both days. The food is pretty good and relatively cheap.

Thursday's lunch = 980 ft

Today I ordered the menü, which Maria had explained is the restaurant (or in this case cafeteria's special meal of the day type thing). It was a rice and pork? dish, I only put the question mark because I don't remember not because it was mystery meat. Also included was a cream of broccoli soup with these little round, almost crouton like additions that I wish there had been more of!

We had extra time between lunch and our next class so Bobby, Kellie and I headed down to the Spar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spar_(retailer)) which is a grocery store, to grab snacks. In Hungary you have to grab a basket when you go into the grocery store and you must put everything you are purchasing into it. No wandering around snagging snacks and just carrying them to the check out. Also, everyone brings bags or baskets to the store to put their purchases in after checking out because you have to buy bags in Hungary.

Pumpkin seeds, chocolate and dried mango to munch on.

After lunch my group has Hungarian lessons with a different teacher for an hour. The language teacher is nice but she speaks very quickly and I am sometimes afraid to speak up and ask her to repeat. I need to get better at that because I cannot expect my students to be brave when I am not. I am starting to get it a little. My roommate Kristen and I noticed that when we listen to Hungarian speakers it's becoming easier to hear the sounds and less like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon.

At five we all come back together into one big group for our "CETP practical suggestions" class that goes over a variety of things about Hungary, work, the bank, the store, etc. These classes are helpful and it was much better today because we were in an air conditioned room instead of the hot auditorium. It's just too easy to zone out when you are tired in a warm room.

Once classes are over for the day a group of us head out for dinner. Tonight it was Bobby, Kellie, Kristen, Jenna, Skye and I. We took a tram (where I got checked by Kontroll!) and the metro to get to a different part of the city and then we walked around for a bit.

Captivating architecture on our way to the Parliament building/food.

 We got to see the Parliament building, which has a crazy amount of spires and looks much cooler than the Capitol building (sorry America).

Parliament before we went to dinner.

 The restaurant we ate at had excellent service, cheapish beer and filling food. I had a Dreher beer and chicken breast (csirekemell) stuffed with camembert, apples and nuts. Our waiter was patient with our fumbling Hungarian and even helped us out with some pronunciations and took a picture of us at the end. I'll get the name of the restaurant from Bobby later (they gave us a card) and put it in, incase enquiring minds want to know.

Parliament after we got out of dinner.

The building was beautiful all lit up! The architecture is gorgeous on many of the buildings in both Buda and Pest. Our hostel is in Buda and the Parliament is in Pest. Apparently a good test of whether you are in Buda or Pest (separated East - Buda and West - Pest) is that if it is hilly, it's Buda!

Random communication note: Skype definitely works (thank you Ashley Howard) so if you want to chat we shall find times for that just let me know!

I have to go do homework now, and I thought I was done with that when I graduated in the Spring!


Viszlát!