It's Already October!

It's hard to believe I've already been in Hungary for 41 days! I am finally getting into a rhythm with teaching, both my regular classes and the extra ones. I am not as comfortable in my town as I should be at this point, but I blame myself for not getting out and exploring more. That is something I need to work on, but I have the time so I'm not too worried.

Today was a great day as I got to visit the farm one of my private student's family owns. They have cows, horses, chickens, turkeys, and ostriches! The ostriches were cool, they always remind me of dinosaurs, especially their feet. I was a little wary of the birds as they are a lot taller than me and the males are very protective but it was fun to see them up close. I also got to pet the horses for awhile and I enjoyed it as taking horse back riding lessons was one of my favorite things in junior high.

My student's father made a traditional dish from the area that shepherds use to make while camped out with the sheep. It takes four hours to make! I need to get my student to write out the name for me because I'm not sure how to spell it, but it was delicious. Paprika, pasta, potatos and bacon = finom. It was also fun to get out of the flat and spend some time outside with other people. I can tend to be a bit reclusive and it's easy to fall back into that when in another country. But her parents were very nice and her mom gave me an (empty) ostrich egg to take home!

I'm off to type up situations for the English competition my school is having this weekend. Emily and Christian (two CETP teachers from Szolnok and Karcag) are coming to be judges so it should be a good time.

Sziasztok.

Drinking Juice Straight from the Carton

So I realize that I like living alone in that I can do things like drink out of the juice carton when I don't feel like washing the dishes, but the problem is that I'm a big ol' slob. I have worksheets, books and textbooks on pretty much every flat surface in the flat, including my bed.  I need to buckle down and spend an hour organizing all the teaching materials I have and find places for them, luckily I have a desk in my room. Not that I am in any way complaining about having a lot of material, as a first year teacher I spend a lot of time googling lesson plans and flipping through workbooks.

Unfortunately, the room cleaning will probably not happen tonight. I still need to finish planning my private student's lesson, which is an hour and a half so I need to make sure I have enough material. I also need to plan for my 8th grade conversation group. I absolutely love these guys they're hilarious and their english level is pretty high. We went through the material I had last week pretty quickly and I want to get them speaking to each other more and try to minimize TTT as much as possible. The last group I need to plan for is the grammar review I normally have right now. My contact teacher and I switched days because she has a presentation tomorrow so I'm taking the kids from 3:30-4:30 tomorrow.

Which brings me to the fun news for the week. I am taking Italian lessons! My contact teacher is starting the lessons with another Italian teacher and I thought it would be fun. I'll keep you updated.

Book is in Italian, Glossary is in Italian and Hungarian. This should be fun :)

Random picture from this weekend. 

Poutine from my kitchen, delicious.

These are right outside the building I live in, the students love hanging out here in between classes.

Statue of Szegedi István in the school courtyard.

Sziasztok.

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!

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.

Short Post While I Procrastinate Packing

More classes today; more exhaustion today. I am pretty much over jet lag but I never sleep as well in a new place and I won't be at the hostel long enough for it to feel like 'home.'

After classes we headed to Hősök Tere (Hero's square, sorry the Hungarian is in a different font. I have yet to figure out how to make the vowel with a double accent on my Mac, it's on the list) where Hajni explained some of the history behind the monument (that doesn't sound like a grand enough word for it, but it's all I have). I won't go into it now because there is no way I will do it justice, but if you like history read about the square and what it represents. I have to admit, one of the big draws for coming to Hungary was just how many years it's been around in some form or another. The historical background I need to catch up on is overwhelming but at the same time I'm fascinated by it.

I feel like I need to work on my transitions but you know what? Only friends are reading this so I am not terribly worried about my narrative voice, although I do need to recapture my Power of the Pen skills. Random topic changes are my downfall, at least everyone who knows me realizes that is just how my brain works.

Anyways, we ate at this restaurant -> www.bagolyvar.com and the food was amazing. I commented on the carved wooden owl decoration and one of the helpers, Jon, explained that bagoly is the Magyar word for owl and vár is the Magyar word for castle. So the name of the restaurant is basically the Owl Castle. We all got soup and I had the paprikás csirke (I am pretty sure I got that right). The meal was delicious and we even got dessert so it was a lovely farewell dinner for the program.

At dinner many of us new teachers got our first taste of pálinka, a Hungarian fruit brandy. Don't believe the Hungarians when they say you just taste the fruit, I could tell the first drink was pear but mostly it just burned, so after the first taste I just did it like a shot. It definitely has a kick and most Hungarians will tell you it's good for you because it kills germs! For the next drink we got málna (raspberry) and I actually just sipped it while eating my dessert. Jenna and Skye were across the table from me and made the best faces ever when trying the pálinka!

So that was our final night as a group in Budapest though I have a feeling all of us will be back at some point to see more of the city. Tomorrow morning we have to have moved out of our rooms and brought our bags down to the lobby by 9am. Our contact teachers come in for an info session with Hajni and Maria at 10am and then we all get together at noon before we scatter to the wind and our new cities/towns/villages. It is going to be strange to say goodbye to the group (for now) but I am excited to meet the teachers from my school and then get to see Mezőtur, my school and my apartment.

Jó éjszakát!

Friday

Yeah, my title isn't too creative but my brain is a little busy with teaching and Hungarian right now.

Today was like the other two days of class, except our first class went long so we were in class straight for about 3ish hours. It wasn't terrible because the classes were interesting but at the same time, that long in class and everything starts to blur together.

I wasn't feeling too great in the middle of the last class and so I didn't try and go to the bookstore Maria told us about. I'm disappointed but I didn't want to end up getting sick on the tram and I'm glad the people who went made it on time! (The store closed at 7 amd we got out of class around ten after 6) I thought bad thoughts towards the lunch we had but the stomach medicine I took worked so I ended up grabbing falafel with Kristen and Skye. We also got gelato (I got pistachio and chocolate) and then went to the bar close to our hostel with several of the returning teachers.

It was nice to talk to our 'veterans' about our schools and their schools and Hungary in general. It was a great night and I got to talk to Emily, a returning teacher I had emailed previously who was in a town close to mine, which was nice as I am pretty sure she is the closest CETP teacher to me.

I have to be awake in 7 hours for our last! day of classes so jó éjszakát.

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!