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. 

The National Gallop

So I've been terrible about blogging and I was going to make up for it by posting a backlog but well I'm lazy. The most interesting thing I did was my trip last weekend to Budapest. I met up with Kristen at the train station (Keleti is cool by the way) and we headed to the hostel to drop our stuff off. We grabbed gyros which have become my new fast food love here in Hungary at a little shop a couple streets down. The people were very kind and spoke enough English I ended up using that instead of the little Hungarian I know. (Does anyone else have that problem? I know enough to have a very basic conversation in certain situations but if they speak English I cop out and just switch to my native language.) We then met up with Molly and Laura and got beers at a bar that Laura knew. We got carded walking in because the bouncer heard us speaking English, it was a bit annoying but I'm sure it's typical in the city which gets a lot of tourists. The bar decor was eclectic to say the least, and I wouldn't advise anyone who is afraid of bunnies to go there. The main room has a tree with rabbit figures strung around it, and there were some Lewis Carroll -esque drawings above one of the bars. I want to go back when I'm less exhausted so I can enjoy it more. 

Our beds in the 12 person room, pre-loud obnoxious people. 

 The above picture is in the cheap 12 person room we thought would be fine (though we noticed when we first dropped our stuff off the other occupants were probably male from the clothes), well we thought wrong. We got back at 2:30am and everything was quiet. About an hour or so later people came back, flipped the overhead lights on (I was on the top bunk about 3 feet from the light) and started talking, loudly. Anyone who knows me knows that if I woke up from it, the volume level and movement had to be ridiculous. This continued for a long time and eventually Kristen got frustrated and went down to get us a double room.

Our new room.

We got to the new room at quarter to 6:00am (the sun was actually coming up already) and managed to grab a few hours of sleep before we had to get up again. In the morning we wandered down to Heroes Square where the National Gallop was being held. We met up with Molly, Laura, and Sue and later in the afternoon Annie and Tom joined us. Wandering through the stalls and seeing the horse races was a fun time. It was hot and sunny and we probably should have drank more liquid but it was a nice slice of Hungary. Here are some pictures of the area and the National Gallop.

These people on stilts were hilarious! I was a little jealous, stilt walking is fun :)

Laura became our tour guide, she went to Central European University for the last two years so she can not only tell us the history of some building but also the best dessert places. We had cake and ate at a Hummus bar, which had really good falafel. 

Delicious cake that was 300ft (~1.50$)

I plan to try and read this by the end of the school year, hopefully.

Budapest-Keleti train station.

Sunday we had breakfast at the hostel and headed out to McDonald's to get free wi-fi, after checking train times and getting tickets using the write-it-down-and-show-it method we headed back to a different McDonald's to get back on wi-fi. I was tired (this was when I started getting my cold I think) and Kristen had a bad sunburn so we were feeling lazy. Wi-fi and air conditioning is nothing to sneeze at and we had fun looking for more places to visit on future trips.

This week has been busier, I am trying to get all the extra hours I am working sorted. I have 2 conversation groups with students, 1 grammar review, 2 private students, 1 adult conversation group and a business English group. I will also be taking Italian lessons from my contact teacher after school hours. The extra stuff will be good to give me something to do but it's going to mean a lot more lesson planning. I think that's the worst thing about being a first year teacher. I have the ability to google and find lessons and such but I don't have the experience to know what works, what doesn't, etc. I am going to try this weekend to start typing up and organizing all the notes and possible plans or activities I have. That way if/when I teach next year I will have notes to go through and hopefully make my life easier.

Sziasztok

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.