back to hungary... my other home :)
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
megyek haza (i'm going home)
i haven't been in my own country since august 2008. other people have been away from their homes longer, i know, but this has been a long time for me. i can't wait to see my family and friends and bed and car and hometown(s) and favorite places and foods.
pray for my safe arrival, people. i'm coming home!
pray for my safe arrival, people. i'm coming home!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
private students
it's normal for language teachers around here to have private students. so i, being a native english speaker, am often approached to be a private teacher. i've also been working in a language school for six months, so that's private lessons too. i have seven- no, SIX!- private students right now. allow me to introduce them.
lily: high school student in none of the schools i've taught in, i was recommended to her by a ZIG colleague. she wrote a book in hungarian and wanted to translate it into english. she speaks english very well - especially considering how long she's been learning (2 years max)- but she needed a native english speaker to make the book sound native and fluent and up to date. we've been meeting since september on monday afternoons and all day fridays. i mean like 4-5 hours monday afternoon and 6-10 hours on fridays every week. it's a long book (360 pages in hungarian, 263 in english) but it's finally complete.
we meet in her parents' workplace, a wholesaling warehouse that buys used clothes from england and sells them to other used english clothes stores in town. there are mountains of clothes, then mountains and rows and aisles of bagggggggs of clothes. i can't explain it or capture it in pictures, but it's like truckloads and truckloads and truckloads of clothes. once i sat on the mountain in the front... just because i had never sat on a mountain of clothes.
gábor: a taxi driver. i called for a taxi once and he picked me up. i forgot the word for "ginger ale" and tried to explain what it was in hungarian. he looked confused. then i said it in english and his eyes lit up. "you speak english!?" i told him i was american and the lektor in ZIG. he asked to be my private student and we started meeting periodically throughout the year. now i've known him for about a year. he's very funny, very smart, and charming. husband, father of two, taxi driver and shop owner, he's very determined to learn and improve his english. no one is more proud of himself than gábor when he says a sentence or word correctly. he makes me love my job. (VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST)
this summer when i was here with no income, i went to a language school for a job. i basically said, "hi, i'm american. do you have any students who want to practice speaking with a native english speaker?" one of the people assigned to me was..
roland: an accountant for Michelin (there is a branch in town). he's very serious but witty. he pretty much just tolerates me, i think. he went to kossuth, the school where i currently live and work. he lives with his girlfriend, they don't have kids yet, but want some, though not too soon as he attends university and is earning a law degree. he has five years to go since he only goes on weekends. he collects paintings, loves reading, history, and politics. it's a wonder he puts up with me at all.
józsef/attila: michelin workers józsef and attila. there is a famous hungarian poet named "józsef attila" so we have a nice laugh when i call them that.
józsef (left) was an assistant principal of a high school for many years before retiring, then getting bored, starting work at michelin, and deciding to take on english. he's SO sweet, a romantic, a family guy. so, so sweet.
attila (right) is some kind of floor manager at michelin. he and his wife have two kids... or his wife has three. he's so silly and jokes a lot. his english isn't as good as his classmate's, but he tries very hard. the weirdest thing about these guys is that they have done a coursebook based on mechanics and production techniques so they know words like "fire extinguisher" and don't know words like "food."
olga: she's my newest private student as she's just interested in preparing for job interviews. we talk about everything under the sun and she's great at going off on tangents. she's also fluent in german and sometimes substitutes german words for english words she doesn't know. maybe she thinks that will help me...? i'd prefer the hungarian word, to be sure. mother of two girls, madly in love with her husband, former professor, happy, well-educated, silly. tons of fun.
i love working with these people. i can't believe i get paid. :D
lily: high school student in none of the schools i've taught in, i was recommended to her by a ZIG colleague. she wrote a book in hungarian and wanted to translate it into english. she speaks english very well - especially considering how long she's been learning (2 years max)- but she needed a native english speaker to make the book sound native and fluent and up to date. we've been meeting since september on monday afternoons and all day fridays. i mean like 4-5 hours monday afternoon and 6-10 hours on fridays every week. it's a long book (360 pages in hungarian, 263 in english) but it's finally complete.
we meet in her parents' workplace, a wholesaling warehouse that buys used clothes from england and sells them to other used english clothes stores in town. there are mountains of clothes, then mountains and rows and aisles of bagggggggs of clothes. i can't explain it or capture it in pictures, but it's like truckloads and truckloads and truckloads of clothes. once i sat on the mountain in the front... just because i had never sat on a mountain of clothes.
lily and an employee's son on the clothes mountain
gábor: a taxi driver. i called for a taxi once and he picked me up. i forgot the word for "ginger ale" and tried to explain what it was in hungarian. he looked confused. then i said it in english and his eyes lit up. "you speak english!?" i told him i was american and the lektor in ZIG. he asked to be my private student and we started meeting periodically throughout the year. now i've known him for about a year. he's very funny, very smart, and charming. husband, father of two, taxi driver and shop owner, he's very determined to learn and improve his english. no one is more proud of himself than gábor when he says a sentence or word correctly. he makes me love my job. (VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST)
he drives me anywhere in town for $2
this summer when i was here with no income, i went to a language school for a job. i basically said, "hi, i'm american. do you have any students who want to practice speaking with a native english speaker?" one of the people assigned to me was..roland: an accountant for Michelin (there is a branch in town). he's very serious but witty. he pretty much just tolerates me, i think. he went to kossuth, the school where i currently live and work. he lives with his girlfriend, they don't have kids yet, but want some, though not too soon as he attends university and is earning a law degree. he has five years to go since he only goes on weekends. he collects paintings, loves reading, history, and politics. it's a wonder he puts up with me at all.
i forced him to smile :)
józsef/attila: michelin workers józsef and attila. there is a famous hungarian poet named "józsef attila" so we have a nice laugh when i call them that.józsef (left) was an assistant principal of a high school for many years before retiring, then getting bored, starting work at michelin, and deciding to take on english. he's SO sweet, a romantic, a family guy. so, so sweet.
attila (right) is some kind of floor manager at michelin. he and his wife have two kids... or his wife has three. he's so silly and jokes a lot. his english isn't as good as his classmate's, but he tries very hard. the weirdest thing about these guys is that they have done a coursebook based on mechanics and production techniques so they know words like "fire extinguisher" and don't know words like "food."
my thursday afternoon entertainers
olga: she's my newest private student as she's just interested in preparing for job interviews. we talk about everything under the sun and she's great at going off on tangents. she's also fluent in german and sometimes substitutes german words for english words she doesn't know. maybe she thinks that will help me...? i'd prefer the hungarian word, to be sure. mother of two girls, madly in love with her husband, former professor, happy, well-educated, silly. tons of fun.dictionary-aholic
i love working with these people. i can't believe i get paid. :D
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
birthday weekend
on saturday, december 5th, i headed over to my favorite little family's house: annamari, eszter, dani, zoli, and mama. they prepared a lovely lunch of baked chicken, bacon-wrapped liver, fried potatoes, and a vegetable medley for us. then they surprised me with a great hungarian culinary book (with recipes, stories, legends, and insights), some candy, and then a sparkling cake.
a friend of mine gave me a bunch of children's books in english so i could pass them on to this family. eszter and i read about half of them together. there were some really cute ones, some strange ones, and one that played the chorus of 'deck the halls'. i hate that book... eszter loved it (perhaps the two are connected).
afterward we decided to make some makeshift puppy chow. there is no chex mix in hungary, so we improvised and used something called millet balls. they're bland like checks, but round and not quite tasty enough (in my opinion). cereal would be better, but who cares.
until it looked and smelled greaaaat
we put it in a ziploc bag (provided by liz) and shook and mushed it around
we laid it out to dry, powder sugared it, and nibbled on it for a bit as we played in the house.
later, the lektor from a nearby town, KIM, came to town to help me celebrate. i got a call to meet up with one of my former students, rudi, who was in town for the weekend. so the three of us went to the city center. first we walked around the christmas market (POST TO FOLLOW), then had dinner at a restaurant on the pedestrian street in the center. kim has only been here a month, so she's tasting hungarian food for the first time. how fun!
and rudi with his first peanut brittle ever (idk why it's twisted into a pretzel, but it tasted like what i'm used to in regards to peanut brittle)
here i am with my favorite soup! continued happy birthday to me!
later, after rudi went home, kim and i went to another place to have a drink and relax with some live music. the band was a couple, a man and woman, who sang well and spoke english. we made some requests, sang along loudly (as there was only one other occupied table in the big restaurant, and had a great time.
when the guy took his break we invited him over to our table. we chatted with him for a while and he was soooo sweet. isn't he cute?
we went to mcd's for breakfast in the morning, since kim doesn't have one in her town. then we hit the shops, the streets, and even a pizza place in late afternoon. it was a great weekend.
thanks to all who made it all it was. life is gooooood.
see?
a friend of mine gave me a bunch of children's books in english so i could pass them on to this family. eszter and i read about half of them together. there were some really cute ones, some strange ones, and one that played the chorus of 'deck the halls'. i hate that book... eszter loved it (perhaps the two are connected).afterward we decided to make some makeshift puppy chow. there is no chex mix in hungary, so we improvised and used something called millet balls. they're bland like checks, but round and not quite tasty enough (in my opinion). cereal would be better, but who cares.
we melted chocolate (bar, not chips) and peanut butter ($7 a jar!)
until it looked and smelled greaaaat
we put it in a ziploc bag (provided by liz) and shook and mushed it around
we laid it out to dry, powder sugared it, and nibbled on it for a bit as we played in the house.
later, the lektor from a nearby town, KIM, came to town to help me celebrate. i got a call to meet up with one of my former students, rudi, who was in town for the weekend. so the three of us went to the city center. first we walked around the christmas market (POST TO FOLLOW), then had dinner at a restaurant on the pedestrian street in the center. kim has only been here a month, so she's tasting hungarian food for the first time. how fun!here she is with her first goulash ever
and rudi with his first peanut brittle ever (idk why it's twisted into a pretzel, but it tasted like what i'm used to in regards to peanut brittle)
here i am with my favorite soup! continued happy birthday to me!
later, after rudi went home, kim and i went to another place to have a drink and relax with some live music. the band was a couple, a man and woman, who sang well and spoke english. we made some requests, sang along loudly (as there was only one other occupied table in the big restaurant, and had a great time.
when the guy took his break we invited him over to our table. we chatted with him for a while and he was soooo sweet. isn't he cute?
we went to mcd's for breakfast in the morning, since kim doesn't have one in her town. then we hit the shops, the streets, and even a pizza place in late afternoon. it was a great weekend.thanks to all who made it all it was. life is gooooood.
Friday, December 04, 2009
birthday week
this week i was a bit under the weather, but once i got better the week really got going.
i spent the big day well, i think. in the morning i had a private lesson with olga (post to follow on private students). it was her birthday last week and her husband surprised her with a trip to the opera house in budapest. so we talked about birthdays past and other random things. it was enjoyable though we were both a bit distracted for some reason or another.
i spent the big day well, i think. in the morning i had a private lesson with olga (post to follow on private students). it was her birthday last week and her husband surprised her with a trip to the opera house in budapest. so we talked about birthdays past and other random things. it was enjoyable though we were both a bit distracted for some reason or another.
then i was whisked away to lily's parents' workplace to help her with the book (post to follow). we finished translating it today!! that's a huge accomplishment, as it has taken about three months of meeting twice a week for hours on end. lily's family and their coworkers gave me a nice welcome when i walked in today. first they all sang to me in english! that was truly unexpected as none of them speak english. then we celebrated with cherry palinka (fruit brandy). it's very strong and doesn't taste much like fruit to me (more like a cleaner of some kind) but i politely asked for half a glass and downed it in a few gulps. 
then there was a selection of cakes, cookies, and fruit. i partook in a little chocolate covered jam filled cookie pair. such as this:
there were also cream cakes... YUM! but i restrained myself.
lily gave me some fun presents too: a bath wash/lotion/soap pack, a marzipan hat cookie (?), some delicious smelling perfume and body splash (La Senza... love it!), and a pink stuffed bear with a hat, pearls, and a ribbon. when you squeeze its hand it sings - and i mean its lips move -L is for the way you look tonight...
after lily and i FINISHED THE BOOK, they took me home where not long after aniko came to pick me up. she treated me to a lovely dinner at a new restaurant in town. i ordered a bowl of broccoli cream soup.
i was glad i did, too... 'cause we had to wait a lonnnng time for the food.
here i am with my lasagne and green beans (my choice to put them together)
aniko, afraid of cameras, posed with her turkey and grilled veggies
(another view of my memorable lasagne)
we were so stuffed that we decided to walk around the city center for a while...
we even headed to tesco to do some grocery shopping. sadly, this is the best picture of her from the night...
she gave me something i had been wanting for a long time for my birthday. a new clothes drying rack! the one i have is very lame, a bit broken, wooden and prone to giving my clothes splinters... and i hate it. this one will change my world; i'm sure of it!
i have an online friend, michelle, who also helped me celebrate today by mailing me real english chocolate and a sweet card. it was such a welcome thing: mail and chocolate? can't beat that.
the festivities aren't over just yet, but even if they were i'd say i had a great 27th birthday.
my friends and family, even people i haven't heard from in ages, sent birthday wishes on facebook. the internet is cool for so many reasons... and that's certainly one of them.
and plus...(look what ashlee did.)
then there was a selection of cakes, cookies, and fruit. i partook in a little chocolate covered jam filled cookie pair. such as this:there were also cream cakes... YUM! but i restrained myself.lily gave me some fun presents too: a bath wash/lotion/soap pack, a marzipan hat cookie (?), some delicious smelling perfume and body splash (La Senza... love it!), and a pink stuffed bear with a hat, pearls, and a ribbon. when you squeeze its hand it sings - and i mean its lips move -L is for the way you look tonight...
after lily and i FINISHED THE BOOK, they took me home where not long after aniko came to pick me up. she treated me to a lovely dinner at a new restaurant in town. i ordered a bowl of broccoli cream soup.i was glad i did, too... 'cause we had to wait a lonnnng time for the food.here i am with my lasagne and green beans (my choice to put them together)
aniko, afraid of cameras, posed with her turkey and grilled veggies(another view of my memorable lasagne)
we were so stuffed that we decided to walk around the city center for a while...
we even headed to tesco to do some grocery shopping. sadly, this is the best picture of her from the night...
she gave me something i had been wanting for a long time for my birthday. a new clothes drying rack! the one i have is very lame, a bit broken, wooden and prone to giving my clothes splinters... and i hate it. this one will change my world; i'm sure of it!
i have an online friend, michelle, who also helped me celebrate today by mailing me real english chocolate and a sweet card. it was such a welcome thing: mail and chocolate? can't beat that.
the festivities aren't over just yet, but even if they were i'd say i had a great 27th birthday.
my friends and family, even people i haven't heard from in ages, sent birthday wishes on facebook. the internet is cool for so many reasons... and that's certainly one of them.
and plus...(look what ashlee did.)
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