This is Christie

Things I'll Miss About Hungary

2011-06-24T14:41:00.003+02:00

i'm leaving hungary very soon. while there are a few things i certainly won't miss about hungary, there are many many things i will. for example....

*statues

*parks

*statue parks

*kávézók (cafes)

*flowers!!

*80s and 90s music being played more often than current music

*folk music :D

*thermal baths

*csúnya szavak (bad words)

*magyar nyelv tanulás (studying hungarian)

*izé (the word hungarians say when they can't think of what they want to say)

*nénik meg bácsik (old ladies and old men)

*parasztok!!! (country people/rednecks)

*hungarian accents (i vant to leeave in oosha.)

*old school/traditional mentality

*vanity/immodesty

*kid-centered families

*people being proud of their sneakiness

*namedays!

*women's day

*teacher's day

*patriotism

*farsang! (dress up in costumes to scare away winter in february)

*people asking me if i'm cold all the time

*overdressed children/star children (children so bundled they can't move, they look like stars)

*overt staring

*churches!!

*so many umbrellas

*everyone always having tissues and using them as loudly as possible

*fagyi!!! ohh, the ice cream.

*cute little villages

*outrageous clothes

*super high heels (even in SNOW!) she's fine as long as she has pantyhose

*emo kids

*festivals every other week

*funny looks for singing along to my iPod

*megasztar (hungarian american idol)

*puszi (cheek kisses)

*ballagás (hungarian graduation ceremony)

*szalagavató (hungarian prom)

*JEGESKÁVÉ!!!! (iced coffee with ice cream and whipped cream and chocolate sauce)

*szamorodni wine :) and tokaj and eger (wine and wine regions)

*fanny packs, lol

*nicknames for most nouns, not just people(uborka = ubi = cucumber, paradicsom = pari = tomato, iskola = suli = school, zsepi = zsebkendő = tissue, meki = McDonalds, stb.)

*sandwiches everyday, everyone, everywhere

*keys, keys, keys

*compliments on my language skills (i'm sure i'll miss hearing them when i'm in china stumbling through chinese)

****most of all: i will miss my beloved hungarian friends. so many people have made me feel loved and welcomed and special and important and valued and relevant. i've been invited to people's homes, to their celebrations, and into their lives. i've been hugged and kissed and given flowers on more occasions than i can count. i've cried on friends' shoulders, laughed with them, swum and danced, drunk and eaten, cooked bacon fat on an open flame, ridden buses to far away cities with colleagues, gotten naked with them at the baths, learned and taught, shared and absorbed culture, language, and the human spirit. i'll miss hungary a lot, and quite especially my

favorite city, Nyíregyháza.

you betta check yo-self

2011-06-21T01:32:00.000+02:00

thanksgiving dinner

2010-12-21T18:39:00.003+01:00

i thought i should document the thanksgiving dinner we cooked this year. i'm not in the pics, though. sorry!

glazed carrots: hungarians don't get this. they think carrots are only good if they're salted or buttered. a won a few of them over, though. ;)

my first ever batch of dressing... left half was made by a hungarian and has liver and sausage in it. the other half was my half and was just simple stuffing minus the celery (cause we didn't buy it)

gravy! this is a foreign thing here but was well-received. someone even asked for the recipe! haha

the birds!

we didn't have the energy to make a real apple pie, so i just did the filling and served it like that. no complaints.

(not pictured: green beans, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob)

there were like 15 - 18 people there, 2 americans and a bunch of hungarians. we ate and drank (palinka) and were merry. there were also cakes made by the receptionist and stuffed cabbage brought by the matriarch of the magic house family. not exactly the thanksgiving i grew up with, but it was still pretty great!

christmas program!

2010-12-17T12:41:00.004+01:00

i teach in two elementary schools this year and one of them had a christmas program and invited me to be part of it. so, for the second time in hungary (and in my life) i donned a santa claus suit.

the kids all knew it was me and were overflowing with excitement about their performance in the program.
eniko (enn-ick-ew), the first grade english teacher, arranged their part in the program. as "frosty the snowman" played the children built a snowman on stage. they put on its hat and eyes and nose and mouth and scarf and buttons while having snowball fights and dancing around.

but before we were on stage there was a lot of waiting...

which meant a lot of restless 6 and 7 year olds...

it's traditional in hungary to put up your christmas tree on christmas eve. they don't overdo it with lights and it's rare to see houses decorated with lights. they could use a little help with the method of adding the lights, but it doesn't matter, really... 'cause it still turns out nice. see?here is eniko as she normally looks:

before and after the kids decorated her

some restless kids got curious about the audience and i caught them peeking out before we started

our kiddies were so great! they sang their guts out and danced around with glee. and they were surprisingly patient while waiting for their turn. eniko and i hung out backstage until the end of the program. aren't we adorable??

so, big hit! there were lots of familiar tunes translated into hungarian, lots of christmassy songs and costumes, lots of variety on the stage, including singing, lipsynching, drama, choreographed uh... movements, poetry, and running. the kids had a ball and the parents and friends clapped in rhythm, in true hungarian style. :)

mákos tészta

2010-12-17T12:31:00.004+01:00

my dear hungarians do love their poppy seeds. you can find cakes, cookies, muffins, rolled up bread, bread pudding, and an array of other hungarian specialties chock full of poppy seeds. one thing that is a bit strange (though delicious) to me, however, is poppy seed pasta, or mákos tészta. it's made by combining pasta with ground up poppy seeds, sugar, and melted butter. it's often served with a piece of fruit like an apple, and is, of course, preceded by a bowl of a steaming hot hearty soup.

that's what i had today. while it seems a weird idea to have something sweet for lunch (to us americans) or perhaps a silly combination, it's actually quite fulfilling and good. you may need some time to get used to the not-so-sweet poppy seed flavor, but once you do, it's golden! i couldn't eat mine at school because of time constraints, so i was given a packed container of it, meaning i got a double portion of both soup and pasta. um, great! i'll eat it tomorrow too and feel a tad more hungarian. :)

no november

2010-12-07T14:48:00.001+01:00

there are no posts for november because i'm going to pretend that horrible, no good month never happened.

oh, but i went to switzerland and holland. so i'll remember those a little.

sometimes hungary is so lame

2010-12-07T14:38:00.001+01:00

what's the reason for these oddities? anyone who can tell me... will save my sanity.

is it because they're cheap? is it because they're an ex-communist country and so they're still 20 years behind? or is it just because they're hungarian. tell me! please.

-hungary is still closed on sundays

-some shops still don't accept debit/credit cards

LET ALONE offer cash back anywhere in the country

-checks? never heard of 'em. seriously.

-dryers are luxury items and even the few rich people who have them don't use them every time they launder

which means bring on the clothes lines, drying racks, and ironing

-everything is on PAPER and must be because no one trust electronic anything around here

like gift cards... or as hungarians would say, "what's that?"

-techno, seal, mariah carey and other top 10 music

-women are 50s housewives: cook, clean, take care of the kids single-handedly as well as work full/part time jobs (insanity!) while husband works a regular 9-5 then comes home and watches tv (there are exceptions, but not many)

-FDA regulations? huh? you can buy milk straight from the cow, eggs straight from a hen, or a live farm animal if you know the right people, you know, so you can have PIG KILLING or make homemade sausage... and DESK lamps heating food in buffet style restaurants instead of heat lamps

this stuff won't strike any hungarian as odd, by the way...

-for necessarily cheap people, there are no garage sales, craigslist-type sites, and the hungarian ebay-like site is not well trusted or often used

-i've never seen anything in hungary i'd call "state-of-the-art" ... in 2 years.

-chalkboards in schools, as well as minimal classroom computers, projectors, etc.

-air conditioning is rare and where available it's advertised in the window on a sign

-TAPE DECKS in cars

-still use winter tires and summer tires and say "all weather tires" are unreliable

-have "as seen on tv" shops.... can you think of anywhere else to buy that stuff?

-speedos

-small fridges/freezers means 3-4 trips to the store per week

-old (style) hard beds that open for storage, no box spring, no pillow tops, no reason to sleep in it

-heavy pillows stuffed with feathers that protrude and poke you and make you wonder if you just got some farm disease

-wardrobes instead of closets. why!? for the life of me, why?!

-SEVERE prejudice - gypsies, black people, asian people (or as hungarians say "chinese" as all asians are chinese to them and are ruining the world), and people with mental/physical disabilities/ailments

-fenced-in property, all the way around every square centimeter (to keep out aforementioned 'hooligans')

-toaster over? crock pot? ohhh, how i miss them.

-customer "service" ... guards follow you around in stores, they harass you at closing time, waiters come twice: to ask what you want (the millisecond you sit down) and to bring your food... if you want them after that, get ready for a nightmare

-itunes? ipod? mac? hahaha, what??

-doing business legally? that's for suckers.

-sandwich on your person 75% of your waking life. sure, why not.

add some if you have any i've left out.

p.s. i've had a really frustrating/infuriating couple of weeks and this is me venting. it's not meant to be (overly) mean to hungarians, though they've been overly mean to me lately! ugh.

October 23 - fall!

2010-10-24T16:32:00.005+02:00

october 23 was a big deal in 1956 in hungary.

this weekend it was commemorated across the country.... with flags and wreaths.

having missed the all-hungarian poetry reading ceremony in the city center (i assume it was the same as last year) i decided to take a walk with my camera to capture some fall.

enjoy!

i did.

Zrínyi Gimnázium szalagavató bálja

2010-10-24T15:50:00.005+02:00

though i haven't worked at ZIG since june 2009, i was invited to their ribbon-pining ceremony and ball for seniors again this year. it's always good to see my former colleagues, but this even was special for another reason.

when i began working at ZIG it took me a while to get to know the students. i took role everyday in every class - aloud - so i would learn the kids' names. i addressed them by name in the halls, too. i loved (most) of them a lot and i really missed that school last year.

the first ball i went to with ZIG kids was in november 2008. i had worked at the school for less than 2 months and NONE of the students i taught were seniors that year. so i went to the ball and ONLY knew the teachers, and i only knew them by sight and voice from the staffroom.

i was lucky enough to be invited to the ball again last year, but since i was working in two other high schools i had a duty to attend one of their balls that night first. i did make it to zrinyi's ball, but i only knew 2 classes of seniors graduating (and to be honest, they weren't my faves).

enter: this year. the kids i got to know and love in my first year of hungary, the ones who taught me hungarian and helped me learn to become a good classroom teacher, the ones who asked me about home and my dog and boyfriends and my opinions of hungary, lotttts of those kids are seniors this year. when i went to THIS ball of all the graduating seniors, i taught like 80%!

there was a time when the students toasted champagne with their teachers and offered cheek kisses. i was surprised and even moved when so many of my former students recognized and made an effort to greet me as well.

in extreme contrast to how i felt at kossuth all year last year, i didn't feel utterly forgotten and unappreciated at zrinyi.

we got dolled up...

we ate...

and we danced... a lot!

we had a ball. ;) (i just HAVE to say that!!)

the new place - video

2010-09-19T18:27:00.005+02:00

vidor festival!

2010-09-04T20:54:00.006+02:00

there is a festival in nyiregyhaza each year called VIDOR FESZTIVAL! it's about 'happy art' like theatre performances, street artists, bands, face painting, live statues, etc. and this year i'm both in town AND aware of it. so i went!

click the flower to watch a VIDEO of vidor festival - it's long but a good representation

there are mimes and actors in the streets for about a week!

they aren't camera shy at all! :)

the only band i know, have heard and liked their music, and is pretty popular around here (csik zenekar) was in town to perform this friday night... as a headliner. here they are, the little sweeties.

but there are also random unknown-looking bands in the city center as well

and people who seem to have just mpicked up instruments and started playing them for passersby

holding the progam, this little girl's dreams come true as she takes a picture with... some face painters?? haha.

i've always been intrigued by the living statues. they stand there for an hour without moving. i'd be fired at the first itch.

these entertainers are actually in town for theatre performances, but when they're not in plays they're out in the city luring in customers with all their charm (everything in the festival is free except the theatre stuff)

there are fire throwers, people balancing stuff, jugglers, the works.

and these type of people...

acrobats, bikers, stunt people...

of course, once in a while they get the crowds involved too

my favorite thing i saw was the caricaturist an his works of art

and he's pretty good (these portraits are free! but you have to wait in a long line full of teenagers to get yours)

scary

happy

tonight is the last night. the people are packing up and going home or to wherever they're going. and the city center is going back to normal, but it was a good happy-art week if you ask me. :)

in the city center this afternoon

2010-09-04T20:12:00.003+02:00

today i was in the city (with three other americans!) enjoying the nice weather and the remains of vidor fesztival...

we bore witness to at least 3 wedding parties walking around the city center, which is typical of a nice saturday in summer.

but as we sat and drank beer and ate pizza, one such wedding procession turned a bit odd:

i haven't seen any of the 100 weddings in town stop and play in the fountain before.

but man, i love this town.

new flat! (that's right, i said "flat")

2010-09-03T20:24:00.009+02:00

this summer i moved out of school-provided housing. i got my very own flat! gábor and i looked in the newspaper for furnished flats that would accept dogs, were in my price range, were on the ground floor, and were near the city center (and not nasty). we called around, xander being the biggest deal-breaker - can you imagine?! - and finally he ended up driving me around to see the flats and being there for negotiations' sake. the first flat was ok but was 30 years old and smelled like old sick people. the second was was fine but SO BIG that i couldn't really justify living there alone. then the third one... well, when i walked in the deal was done. third time's a charm. and it IS quite charming.

the building is on the corner of two residential streets

and my flat is right by the entrance (the pull-down shade is on my window and those are our mailboxes on the wall)

xander even feels at home here now.

ok, so that corner is full of teaching stuff piled on a a table, but that comes with the territory of being a teacher. there's a bit of a mess... but it's me we're talking about here.

the armchair and sofabed you're seeing are my first major purchases in hungary! i'm sitting on that couch right now :)

xander's space is in the corner and he seems happy with it. that tv works but is not plugged in (since it only speaks hungarian to me). aniko' insists that watching tv will improve my language skills, but i'm pretty sure it'll just give me a headache.

view from xander's corner. that's my closet, that big green wardrobe. it's in the living room because it didn't fit through the bedroom door and i didn't protest enough to get a new one.

my beautiful kitchen! it's called an "american style" kitchen, though it doesn't strike me as particularly american. it is a 10-fold improvement over my last kitchen. i regularly bake and cook and freeze things, just because i can. plus, there's even a bit of counter space! woe is me.

my bathroom junk on top of my classy washing machine

whoops, i better pick that stuff up.

my doored shower! no leaks, no mess, just showers.

everything has its place... everything just isn't IN its place.

a look into my bedroom... it really is just a room with a bed and some shelves

looking at the kitchen from my bedroom. cool accordion door, no?

outside there is a courtyard/parking lot as well as two other buildings of the 'flat complex'

it could be called a 'gated community' heheeehee

we dry our clothes outside. (my flat is on the far right in this one)

if xander's happy, i'm happy. and look at 'im....

anyway, my mailing address is on the top left of this blog in case you have a hankerin' to send me a housewarming postcard. :)

amsterdam

2010-09-02T14:29:00.010+02:00

when you think of amsterdam, you may think of anne frank

(here's her house)

but maybe not chocolate genitalia

but what you should think of is BIKES! they're everywhere!! here's a parking structure built just for bikes... and it's probably full.

when i was in high school i had a penpal, angela, from the netherlands. she came to florida to visit me. eventually, we lost touch but when i went to holland, i looked her up and we met for lunch. great gal!

the other thing i wasn't prepared to experience in amsterdam was the slew of canals!

and they're pretty green up there. here's a tiny car for handicapped people, old people, etc. who can drive it in the bike lanes (which are on like every road, btw). they only go like 35kph, but it's enough... and i want one. i think they're only available in holland, though.

here i am with my friend and host, remy. he's dutch but his english is on a native level. we went on a canal cruise and had an all around good time!

here i am sitting in a stereotype

pot/weed/marijuana is legal in the netherlands. so there are places called "coffee shops" where you can drink and smoke whatever you want.

of course we went in and saw what there was to see...

here's a 'space cake' or brownie made with pot in it

and there's a bar in there

that happens to sell all kinds of weed and weed products

and paraphernalia is also available

we went to the heineken experience and saw how they make heineken

in the factory there's a heineken museum as well as tons of football (soccer) junk

here i am in the stinky room with all the vats. we tasted the unfinished beer products and could touch the hops and yeast, etc.

then, of course, free beer!

on tap

here is "the dam" after which the city takes its name

closer... oooh, ahhh

canals, bikes, and celebrations

the narrowest house is 4 stories high, but only as wide as a window!

next time i'm there, i'm going in madame tussaud's

omg, pretty

there was an ice cream BOAT! this guy scooped up whatever you wanted right from his boat to yours. sweeeet!

bikes, bikes, bikes.

it really is quite a beautiful place full of weird stuff...

like the world famous 'red light district'

apparently some people want to make sure everyone knows they're not part of the RLD

(with signs like this)

but some places are unmistakably part of it

there's no shame about the red light district there.

on the contrary, here's a statue of a prostitute.

here are the red lights

it's about 2 streets wide and 3 blocks long

not too big, but makes its impression

pretty girls in the window... for rent. :(

there's no place like amsterdam, that's for sure. i'm glad i went and it's a good place to visit. while i wouldn't like to live there, i'm sure i'll make it back that way again some time. i want to see the only missing stereotype: windmills!

balaton

2010-08-20T00:25:00.010+02:00

after the transylvanian adventure, i was in need of a REAL vacation. so a couple friends and i (minus one friend who couldn't make it) headed to *the* lake in hungary. balaton.

we live very very very far away from there (in hungarian terms) and it's even farther when you don't have a car because you have to take trains and buses to get there... and of course, a mandatory stop in budapest.

but we got there. and oh, how we loved it!!

(for more pictures with captions CLICK HERE.)

the pedestrian street

omg, adorable.

we took a little boat ride on the lake since it was still a bit too cold for swimming. here i am with klara and xander. rowin' away!

and here's kimmy! (kim) she saved us with her mad rowing skills.

we took turns taking pictures because it was just so picturesque!

ok, this is practically a post card.

church on the mountain with the lake and sailboat in the foreground... it's so balaton.

sailors sailin'

we took a ferry to the peninsula (tihany) where we had a lovely afternoon of sight-seeing, eating, drinking, relaxing, train riding, walking, and picture-taking.

the city center is pretty freakin' cute. there are people (german tourists!) everywhere and no grumpy hungarians in sight.... just happy, relaxed, rested people :)

kim and xander bonded so much. he misses her almost as much as i do...

i mean, really...

klara and swans!

me and xander! and paprika!

it was just the relaxing vacation i was needing! pictures really can't do it justice. that was possibly my favorite weekend in hungary. whenever you come here, you simply MUST get to balaton!

transylvania -5

2010-07-19T22:17:00.003+02:00

last day. get me the heck home.

it was a lovely day and it would have been nice to have been outside of a smoke-filled car that was loudly jamming to folk music. but alas, that's where i was.

we saw gypsies selling bags of pears on the side of the road. i wanted one.

then we stopped at a touristy restauranty town to "have a bite to eat." i had been away from civilization for 4 days and was happy to be sitting in a restaurant and being served.

so we parked with lots of other tourists, i grabbed my purse, and was joyously heading toward the restaurant.

then akos whipped out a a picnic blanket and put it on the hood of the car.

i nearly wept.

then it didn't work out so well, what with the carving the chicken on the hood of the car, so we packed up and moved on to a better spot.

don't get me wrong, it was a nice place to have a picnic. it was pretty, had a view of the mountains and valleys, and was a beautiful day. it was just the last straw for this girl. we sat down, unpacked, ate the same picnic food we ate 3 days earlier, everyone but me peed, and we relaxed a bit.

then we saw a shepherd and some animals.

back on the road, soon to the border. my silly non-EU passport caused a bit of a holdup, but nothing unbearable.

road, smoke, folk music. that's all i remember.

i like this sign with a tractor, bike, and horse and buggy.

that kind of sums it all up.

it was a long, interesting, and hard trip. it was not at all vacation to me (hiking, mud, outhouses, more hiking, churches do not a vacation make) but i'm glad i got to see that part of hungary.

it was enough for a lifetime. mark my words.

transylvania -4

2010-07-19T21:53:00.003+02:00

we traveled to some small village in old, old, old school hungary where we were to spend the night with some nice family. they weren't home, but the random guy in the street we asked knew them, of course, and where they were. so we snatched him up and he showed us to the party. he smelled like booze and B.O. :)

the minister who was opening his house to us, calman, was cooking up a storm for everyone. meat and meat and other meat.

arnold pretended it was weird, but that fool ate that meat in less than a minute.

there were some pentecost festivities to choose a king.

a gypsy kid won the race and was crowned with his hungarian (non-gypsy) girlfriend. in that part of the world hungarians and gypsies don't hate each other's faces and guts. it was so refreshing to see everyone of whatever color getting along together. more like home than i'm used to these days.

arnold, who is skilled in nearly everything, joined in... well, showed up the teenagers

a cow showed up, too

while at the BBQ, i had to pee.

i had to use a dirty, icky outhouse.

which locked itself after i went in it.

i was stuck in there with other people's poop.

for 5 minutes.

i whined to our hostess that i'm a city girl and i wanted to pee in a real toilet.

she promised they had internet at their house, plus a real bathroom.

arnold and i took a walk ('cause we hit our time limit of partying at the BBQ - 4 hours)

and we saw this fence while we translated songs from english to hungarian and from hungarian to english together

then home to the minister's house. dinner, drinks, talking, internet, bed.

all she promised about her house was true!

plus chickens!

transylvania -3

2010-07-19T21:39:00.002+02:00

the touristy day (with sarcasm) was spent hiking around some city center visiting two churches and an old storage place for villagers' food and stuff. historical. my favorite.

600 stairs or something great like that... guess what was at the top!!

a church.

i'll spare you the pictures of the boring stuff and just show you some cool things. there was a sundial that showed modern hungary's time, 'cause you know... it used to be part of hungary.

here i am faking a smile in front of the church at the top of the stairs. i had to have one or two pics of myself to prove i've actually been to romania.

for the days we were there we kept seeing pilgrims walking back to wherever they came from. that's right, people walked for days and weeks to get to this mass! they sang along the way and, of course, carried their flags.

there were "pentecost roses" (which i'm told are not actually roses) all over romania that time of year. they were very impressive and come in rich, deep colors.

the trees in the whole country are painted white for the bottom meter. historian judit says that's because when people invaded and were sneaking around town, the hungarians wanted to see them if they were hiding in front of the trees, so they painted them white for contrast. judit's husband said it was to keep bugs away. i don't care enough to find out, just thought it was odd.

we went to the touristy place (like where normal tourists go to see/do dracula stuff) for a few MINUTES. cute, huh?

this is all i saw of the dudd, though we were in his birthplace

*i need to travel with people with like interestes*

transylvania -2

2010-07-19T20:46:00.008+02:00

you can't beat the scenery in old hungary (transylvania) as far as hills, foothills, even mountains are all around. big open sky, wildlife, villages, and hungarians. *smile*

the mountain that is the final destination of the pilgrimage.

what most of transylvania looked like to me

we got up at 9 and drove an hour to the mountain where we parked about a mile away and walked toward it (strike one).

no pictures of the hike up because it's just a big muddy, hellish hike up a stupid stupid mountain full of a bajillion catholic hungarians who are way to eager to be hiking up a big muddy mountain at sunrise. i was not at all happy, talkative, nor interested in scenery. imagine it, if you want. (strike two and three!)

here's the only proof i have:

but once we got to the top it was a whole different atmosphere. there was such a huge crowd that it covered the whole mountaintop. some bishop gave a sermon, and some other fancy people talked. everyone was reverent and attentive. see their heads?

soooo many flags! i looked and looked for an american one

but finally settled on this canadian one to represent the other side of the world

and this flag, sneaky little thing, kept tricking me into thinking it was american (it's actually old hungary's flag)

my favorite part of the whole experience was when it rained (go figure). all the magyars whipped out umbrellas and ponchos. there wasn't a wet person on the whole mountain!

hungarians are always prepared

every single one of them

have you ever seen so many umbrellas?!

even the flags had ponchos :)

these are the sweet old people we stayed with. they came with us to the mountain service. those are unhappy faces because we didn't bring any food and we were up there for like 4 hours (strike three).

judit and akos got tired of standing so they leaned against each other and listened.
("hey forest, you lean up against me and i'll lean back up against you. that way we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud" came to mind)

obviously arnold is very cool

i finally saw an american flag!

after the long mass, a few chats with some friends and strangers, an akos potty break (i'm sure), and some pointless standing around, we started our descent. (the people wearing pointy felt hats would be my companions)

it was terribly muddy. judit bit it and slipped in the mud. akos was 20 paces ahead of us, so i'm sure he didn't know. then arnold bit it and sat down! in the mud. he was a good sport about it.

after the hike down (much easier, btw) we walked through the town that sits at the bottom of the mountain. old hungary to a tee!

in this stone mosaic you can see the shape of old hungary (the complete shape) and new hungary (hungary as it's seen on modern maps). hungary was divided and divvied out to the surrounding countries after WWI, in which it lost like 2/3 of its territory. hungarians still talk about it like it happened last week. *sigh*

trianon.

transylvania -1

2010-07-19T20:09:00.005+02:00

a colleague of mine from szent imre (the good school) invited me to come along with her family to transylvania for a pilgrimage (which is held once a year in the same town for all the catholic hungarians ... read about it here if you want). since i didn't go last year, i thought it would be worth it.

we left at about 3am. (strike one)

the four of us traveled by car for a day and a half, 50% of us smoking like chimneys. (strike two)

on the way to where we were going we stopped at some (gorgeous) gorge to hike around (strike three, but bearable). there was no railing or anything to keep us from falling off the ledges, but somehow we managed.

when they wanted to go hiking up to the top (steeper than i care to recall) i bailed and waited for them at the bottom. i amused myself by taking pictures of nature. ooh, ahh.

they came back and the husband (akos) and the 'son' (arnold) had to make a teamwork effort to get down safely.

we traipsed through the mud for another hour after they came down, had a picnic lunch, and hit the road again.

language schools

2010-06-25T14:45:00.003+02:00

somehow i'm working in four language schools right now, at least for the summer. it's a lot of work if you consider the hours, but the work is relatively easy as it's mostly directed conversation.

one language school, kódérné iskolája, has been my work place for almost exactly one year. they have treated me well, paid me well and on time, helped me with things outside of work, and the director even took me on a trip once. they are friendly and helpful and speak english quite well. i work with michelin employees there and a few randop adults. love it.

another language school, central language school, is quickly losing its native english teacher. they can't seem to pay me on time and when i have the nerve to ask for my own payment, i'm told not to whine and i'll get it soon. i told them i won't teach another lesson until i'm paid in full. we'll see how that goes. as it is, i don't want to quit just yet because i love my one adult student there and wouldn't like to leave her high and dry. i may just steal her away from them and quit anyway. in that school i also teach two 8 year old girls, which, as i've learned in the past couple months, is beyond my patience and ability. they're sweet girls who put forth a decent effort, but they don't speak enough english to make it worth my while. again, we'll see.

then there is big ben language school. i work for them, but in another town. i take a bus once a week for about 70 minutes and teach two managers of a lens company. they're good guys, the pay is great, and i like to get out of nyíregyháza once in a while. the language school itself is very official and there is more paperwork there than in all the other language schools combined. if i have to cancel a lesson or move one, it's a big deal which needs the director's approval. they pay once a month and i haven't worked there for a month yet, but i suspect it will be done in a timely and honest and well-documented manner.

this week i agreed to work in the fourth language school, ILS. i had a meeting with the director and the education director in which we agreed we were a good fit for each other. they arranged a guided tour of the place (which is three stories) for me this morning. i was impressed by the organization there - certainly not typical of hungary. they gave me keys, had me sign for them, showed me the shedule for all classes, including my own and the ones i might be asked to substitute teach in, then took me on the tour. they showed me the staff room, the books, the library, introduced me to other teachers and demonstrated some stuff on the computer for me. i was SHOCKED when the woman helping me opened a folder in the computer called "christie" which already had important documents in it for me to review. it's like they're a real business who was expecting a new employee. that was more than i would have said for ANY of the three high schools i've worked in. whoa!

then i checked my email and saw that i had received a staff email from ILS. it was addressed to all 30-something teachers and introduced me as the new colleague in the school. it said where i'm from, where i studied, what my degree and certifications are, complimented my american accent, and referenced my hungarian skills. it asked them to help me in fit in and gave my contact information.

o.
m.
g.

that's the best welcome i've ever had in this country and i haven't even started working there yet!!! my first class is on tuesday and i truly can't wait.

things are starting to shape up... végre. :D

moving

2010-06-16T09:54:00.002+02:00

i'm moving today! i currently live in a small flat on the school campus (the bad school). but this weekend i found a one bedroom place that accepts dogs, was reasonably priced, is 3 years old, is acceptably furnished, and isn't too far from the city center, so i snatched it up! pictures to come, but gimme a break 'cause i'm moving!! yay!!

anonymous

2010-06-16T09:53:00.001+02:00

when you post anonymously on my blog, pleeeeeease sign your name (and if you're a stranger, mention that, too) 'cause i go nuts trying to figure it out. thanks.

end of school

2010-06-09T13:31:00.003+02:00

today was my last day of teaching.

*deep and heavy sigh*

i couldn't be happier to be finished.

this year i was less content with my life than i've ever been. overall school was not good. not fun. not rewarding. i've weighed it in my mind and, though there were some good kids, good times, good lessons, good relationships, i honestly -and regretfully- think i would have been better off somewhere else this year. i try to live in such a way that i have no regrets, but this year got the best of me. i feel like i wasted my time here. that's a stomach-wrenching feeling i don't hope to experience again.

kids are kids everywhere, i realize. they're teenagers who have bigger things on their minds than learning english. it really sucks when your students don't care about what you're teaching. i think i was spoiled when i taught ESL in texas and my students were so desperate to learn english.

i also teach in language schools here where the students (adults) do their homework, pay attention for the whole lesson, and want to make up missed lessons.

i taught in a great school last year where the students are all college-bound, bright, and have good senses of humor. we got on pretty well (save 2 evil classes) and got a lot done. when we said goodbye there were cheek kisses, hugs, gifts, and even tears.

today, on my last day of school, i was jovial and jubilant and giddy and blissful, as i was wholeheartedly aware that i don't have to do this again. there were no cheek kisses, hugs, or gifts. i cried a tear or two of "wow, i actually survived" relief when i came home from the last class.

this year i taught in two schools. one is a catholic school full of mostly polite students. their ability in english varied, as did their attitudes toward learning, but at least their behavior was under control. sometimes they didn't want to learn or do anything, sometimes they whined when we had conversations for grades, but they were respectful and i felt like they cared about the kind of adults they will become.

the teachers in the good school were very friendly and helpful. they always asked about me and my classes and vacations and my life. we ate together, talked together, joked together, and had a memorable and pleasant year. i'll gladly stay in touch with the people i got to know there as long as possible. i'll likely offer them a speech of gratitude for the great year and thank them for their kindness toward a stranger in a strange land. they are the only reason i'm still sane. and that's the truth.

in the bad school... wow. there were good kids in every class, of course, but they were largely outnumbered and overshadowed by the bad behavior and attitudes rampant in the 'lutheran' high school. the level of english varied, certainly, but on a much lower scale. teaching here was nearly impossible and it's devastating to think these people will soon be RUNNING hungarian society. lord help hungary. to sum up the year: i had problems with, shed tears over, got fighting mad at, and mentally gave up on the students, teachers, AND administrators. it got me thinking i shouldn't even be a teacher because i seriously can't cope with people behaving in ways i witnessed this year.

i am certain i won't be missed (or even remembered) in this school. i say that because they forgot about me the entire year. i also say that because of their record with native english teachers. thankfullyly, they are not representative of all hungarian people. most hungarians strive to be hospitable and friendly (at least once they get tot know you...).

last year the teachers in my old school gave me a gift and a goodbye letter with all of their signatures. even the administrators, who didn't speak english, bid me farewell with kisses and good wishes. i felt sad to leave the staff last year and knew i'd miss those people and exchanged phone numbers with some so that we'd stay in touch.

i neither expect nor want the same goodbye from these people (bad school peeps). there are 2 or 3 teachers who would give me the time of day, so i'll say goodbye to them. i'll actually MISS the financial office ladies, the cleaning staff, the ladies who guard the door, the secretary, my neighbor the priest, and the handy man when i'm gone. i guess these are more 'my people' than my "colleagues". i've never felt like part of the staff here and i'm going to count that a blessing.

i'm sorry to report this to you, family and friends (and possible strangers), really sorry. honesty has won out. this year was an emotional roller coaster from which i'm happy to alight. i'm a different person now than i was. unfortunately, i'm think i'm more bitter and cynical, less inspired, less motivated, and less hopeful. i was unprepared for such a year and my spirit paid the price for it. i'll inwardly address this during the summer, but i'm burnt out hardcore and i really need a break.

*sigh*

done.

finally.

maturity exam

2010-05-03T13:14:00.002+02:00

this week is the érettségi. it's a maturity exam for seniors/school-leavers. they must pass this huge test (or series of tests) in order to graduate. it covers all subjects and all things they should have learned in school. there really isn't an equivalent in the american school system, though the closest thing is the SATs/ACTs... but you can fail those tests and still pass school. all kids all over hungary in all schools are taking this test and it's a huge deal.

anyway, it's happening this week. specifically monday, tuesday, and wednesday. since i'm not administering this tough test, i have three days off. yippee! i'll take what i can get while the 18 year-olds of the country show what they know.

oh, and they have to dress up all fancy to take the exam. so do the teachers who administer it.

suckas.

finally

2010-04-22T21:31:00.007+02:00

it was so wintery for so long.

i didn't blog.

it felt so wrong.

snow was here,

snow was there.

snow was even

in the town square.

snowmen and snowballs

made it fun at first.

soon that was over, though...

and then came the worst.

piled high,

day and night.

sometimes it was

quite a sight.

flowers were planted

and so was hope

i don't think i ever really

learned how to cope.

i waited and waited

and waited some more

sure that spring was

knocking on our door.

it was a long time coming

longer than i care to say,

but now i see spring everywhere

every

single

day!

terraces came back to town

all is green that was so brown
the ghost town days have gone away

hungarians came out to play!

tulips brighten every corner

there is no better street-adorner

wedding processions all through the city

grooms so smitten, brides so pretty
cafes are open, fruit abounds

laughter and talking

are the springiest sounds

the thing i missed the most last season

was enjoying an ice cream for next to no reason

fagyi is back, back in full swing!

is there anything better that announces the spring??
morning or midday,

cone or cup

any time, any place

just lick it all up.

the thing that is most nyiregyhaza,

the thing that made white feel so black

was the fountain i love, right by my house

BUT LOOK! the fountain is BACK!!

i heart spring in hungary.

scotland - the royal mile

2010-04-12T19:04:00.008+02:00

in edinbrugh there is a castle and a palace about a mile apart. the distance between these historic places is logically named "the royal mile." michelle wanted to take me there, so i obliged.

on the way up the hill i noticed the architecture changing...

we got a great parking spot on george street (michelle was excited) and i even saw an american flag! it's a rare site for me these days, you realize...

there were scores of older looking taxis advertising to the best of their abilities

make no mistake, irn bru was not to be outdone!

when we got close to the mile we hiked up some stairs

(i was just grateful it wasn't a hill or mountain)

then we were there: atop the royal mile at last

it's really quite a pretty place, though there are masses of tourists and touristy shops

around the middle of the mile there is a great cathedral. we went in and snooped around, but didn't PAY THE FEE to take pictures. google it if you wanna know!

the day went from sunny to overcast to gloomy over the course of two hours, but i was able to see through the gloom and notice the uniqueness of the place

despite the sometimes inclement weather, there were people enjoying themselves all over the place (michelle and me included)

the steeples in europe are sometimes so ominous looking...

i even caught a few glimpses of spring... though in my mind "spring" equates to "pretty flowers"

one side of the sky was blue, the other scary gray

scotland is covered with hills/mountains that decorate the background of everything. notice the snow... in april... aye aye aye

when we got near the castle and saw some phone booths, i couldn't keep myself from going in one. i'm a tourist at heart sometimes, i guess :)

from the castle wall i could see pretty buildings everywhere

the view from castle hill

after the compulsory tourist walk, we went shopping. no matter that it was easter day, as no one even seemed to realize that it was the resurrection day in the UK. all the shops and restaurants were open, people were bustling to and fro, and i didn't see a single egg, bunny, or cross.

whatev, we shopped.

i picked up some scottish stuff for a few friends in hungary and tried on a piece of scotland myself.

there was a bagpiper, niel, who was a kindly gent. he tolerated my questions and seemed to really enjoy his job. i didn't let on how much i dislike the sound of the silly instrument, but rather requested 'amazing grace' and listened to him blow his bag.

look how presh! it sounded just like i imagined/remembered. no need to post a video.

actually, i'll post THIS video instead:

Ross Playing the Bagpipe + Bloopers (HILARIOUS!!!) - The best video clips are right here

scotland - new lanark

2010-04-11T20:36:00.008+02:00

there is a world heritage site near edinbrugh, so when traffic was too bad to go to any noteworthy lochs, we hit up New Lanark instead.

it was a bit wintery still, but green was starting to spring up in places....

(found this online) there is a working waterwheel there

there were some rad cobblestone buildings

there was a trail all around the place and to stay on it you had to follow this little fella

look how cute their "rubbish bins" arejust saw this stuck on some ford. the harrison ford mobile, lol
hehehe, i cracked up at a lot of signs
the whole place was very old school and traditional looking

outside of the site, in Lanark, there is a cool church (adorned with a clock as almost every church i saw in scotland was) near a famous gas lamp post. it was used by provosts (the scottish equivalent of a mayor) back in the day and it still pretty cool looking nowadays.

we stopped at "Inn on the Loch" for a lovely lunch on the way home

it overlooks a cute little loch (lake... idk why they use other words for things there)

with TONS of swans! yay! they are vicious, mind you. so hands off! then we saw some buoys. i say "boo-eez" while brits say "boyz"... though there already is a word called boys. whatev.

see how pretty?

there is some farmer with a good sense of humor who dyes his sheep red (or blue, i heard) for pretty much no reason at all except to entertain the people on the highways. people like me.

scotland - the food

2010-04-07T21:50:00.007+02:00

before i even went to scotland i heard about "irn bru" that is, "iron brew" and that i had to try it. it's some kind of orange counterpart to dr pepper and mountain dew. it has like a million flavo(u)rs and is chock full of caffeine. my verdict: mountain dew-esque. weird colo(u)r, unique taste, youngins like it as a sugary pick-me-up. i can live with or without it. :)

a few times at my friends' house in livingston, UK i had some delicious toast made from this seedy bread. it was so good, like... enough to make it to the blog. get some if you can!

sometimes when michelle and i talk online she tells me she's eating a curly wurly. i stare blankly at the screen when she says stuff like that. but now i know it! and have eaten one, even. caramel covered in chocolate. can't miss, really.

one breakfast was traditional in the sense that is was a british eastery food: hot cross buns. you know, from the song! they cost more than one or two pennies, but they were worth it.

on a shopping day we hit up a mall food court because, well, because we were hungry. some nice polish girl at o'briens handed over some delicious 'toasties' or hot sandwiches. i got tomahto basil soup whilst michelle sampled the potato leek soup. we each had half of an apple caramel muffin. i know your mouth is watering now, isn't it? mmm good.... kind of hard to mess up, though. ;)

for our (pre) easter feast michelle cooked up a storm! somehow she used plain potatoes and this:

to make this:

and married them with roast chicken, sausages wrapped in bacon, corn, bread sauce, gravy, green beans and broccoli! um, can you say insanely good?!?!

there were some odd chips/crisps around. like...

and weirdest

cadbury comes from the UK, in case you didn't know. so i left with a dozen eggs... that's right!

those little guys are only available at easter time, BUT there is something equally awesome available year-round:

that's a candy bar made out of cadbury creme eggs. take a moment to think on that.

since i'd practically be fired for going on vacation/holiday without bringing something back for my colleagues, i picked up some scottish shortbread. it's no scottish whiskey, but it'll do, i'm sure. haven't tasted it, but i'll let you know if they eat it.

in case you're wondering (which i'm certain you are), no. i did not have haggis. if you know me at all you know i'm a slightly picky eater. one line i don't make a habit of crossing is the internal-organs-as-food line. sheep stomach can be on someone else's plate, thank you very much. i'll stick to roast potatoes and cadbury eggs. healthy, huh?

scotland - the visitees

2010-04-07T21:03:00.002+02:00

i met some random girl online about a year ago on omegle.com. it gives you a stranger to talk to and we got paired up. we spent an hour or so chatting about life and whatnot and when we were signing off we decided to exchange email info. i remember that i saved her address as "michelle good chat on omegle." i especially liked her because of her knowledge of and interest in the english language, pop culture, and her sense of humor (humour).

from then on we chatted regularly, usually in the evenings. we shared details about our lives, sent links back and forth all the time, googled a LOT (like if there was a limit we'd have reached it), and got acquainted. over the course of the year we built a pretty strong friendship, one that is rarely paralleled these days (well, in our lives anyway). we got to know each other as well as two people can on the internet, i'd say, so when my two week long spring break came up i knew just what i wanted to do.

meet my newest best friend.

here we are together. finally.

me and michelle

michelle and her husband paul being cute as they got ready for a picture

the picture

paul, a scotsman, really tested my listening skills with his accent

i mean... can we BE any cuter?

i can't really put into words what it was like to meet her, but i'll try. she was JUST what i expected, the exact person i had gotten to know and love on the internet over the past year. she's charming and witty and sweet and lovable, easy to get along with, considerate, very english, educated, funny, sensitive, curious, and the tiniest bit ... shall we say, detail-oriented? haha, it's one of her most endearing features.

the next few posts will be about the adventures of christie and michelle. buckle up.

christmas (a little late, but... whatever)

2010-03-25T09:16:00.010+01:00

i went home for christmas.

i spent some time with family and friend in florida, got to know my little sister all over again, went to a relative's house who has lived in florida for most of my life but i'd never visited before, had a little christmas party with some strangers, and went to my pregnant sister's city to pet her belly and go to dinner and a museum with most of my immediate family.

then i headed to texas to see the rest of my immediate family, my texas-dwelling sis and bro-in-law, and some friends. the weather was snowy and cold, incapacitating most of the state. i was sick for a few days with my sister so we sat on the couch watching 'lie to me' and sharing a box of tissues. i hung out with a few brave college friends and my childhood bff. we ate wings and chick-fil-a and chili's and mexican food and pei wei and olive garden. a friend invited me to her family's domino game night so i hung out with them and had a good laugh with her crazy grandma. had a slurpee and got a TON of new clothes, too.

off to illinois. after some luggage delays (which were settled 2 hours before i left illinois) i met up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. we ate and talked, of course, 'cause that's what people do. i went to church (for the first time in a year and a half), played blitz (card game) with the grands, hung out with uncle/aunt/cousin who have lived far away my whole life but who made for a lovely weekend anyway, and i kissed the cheeks off my grandparents.

my grandfather, an ethnic hugarian, asked me to speak to him in his long lost mother tongue. i could say sentences to him and ask him questions, which he understood but couldn't reply to. then we played a translation game. i'd say some nouns in hungarian and he would promptly reply "tomato" or "dog" or "window." it was great to see him reliving his childhood and participating in my hungarian experience, too. he's so freaking sweet.

(family!!!)

back to florida. i took turns with dad reading bed time stories to morgan and we played games and sang songs.

dad, tara, morgan and i went kayaking one early afternoon. it was shorts and t-shirt weather, sandals and sunglasses weather. un-christmas, but very florida.

it was a good trip with a LOT of traveling. to and fro, here and there... overall i was on 11 planes. ELEVEN. luggage was lost twice, but always returned. i was on buses, planes, trains, in cars, trucks, and taxis. i brought some of hungary with me to the US and a LOT of the US back to hungary. i didn't get to see everyone i wanted to, nor do all i wanted to do with the people i did see, but i'm sooooo glad i went. it was a much needed reminder of home and my roots and my country.

i love america for a lot of reasons, mostly the people i know and love there.

but i love hungary just as much. that's right, JUST AS MUCH. and going between the two countries just proved that fact to me, because on both transatlantic flights i had the feeling i was "going home."

meh

2010-02-26T20:51:00.002+01:00

just don't feel like blogging. maybe it'll come back. you can leave me some love if ya want, though. i'll see it. :)

megyek haza, mas haza...

2009-12-31T06:11:00.002+01:00

back to hungary... my other home :)

megyek haza (i'm going home)

2009-12-16T15:24:00.002+01:00

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!

private students

2009-12-12T02:00:00.004+01:00

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.

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

birthday weekend

2009-12-08T22:37:00.005+01:00

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.

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 aroundwe 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.

birthday week

2009-12-04T22:46:00.007+01:00

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.

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.)

thanksgiving

2009-11-27T19:11:00.005+01:00

joyce, my replacement at ZIG, invited me to go to debrecen (a bigger city a couple towns away) with her and her daughter for thanksgiving. the "american corner" was having a celebrations with none other than a bunch of americans! i was feeling particularly sick of the hungarian language, as i use it all the time, and was craving english fellowship. so, off we went on a train.
there were a bunch of strangers there, obvisouly, since i don't live there, but we had a fun time chatting and eating. it was potluck, so there was a wide variety of food.

here is my plate

then of course there were a ton of desserts. here were the most interesting ones. waffles with chocolate sauce to dip them in and a peachy cheese cake. nice!

at the end of the meal some scotish guy who had spent a lot of time in the US (i could tell from his accent) sang some typical american songs (or what he thought were typical american songs) and - no kidding - we had a sing along... with words on the screen overhead and everything. it was weird, but enjoyable. i've been asked by hungarians if there was dancing. no. no, there wasn't. that's not how americans celebrate stuff, silly hungary.

weekend shenanigans

2009-11-18T23:47:00.007+01:00

this weekend i met up with some lektors in my town. tara came from her village a few towns over, kim - a new lektor fresh from teaching in hong kong and japan- came over from her slightly larger village, sean, a teacher in debrecen-a decent sized city about 45 minutes away made the train ride, and andrew, another lektor in nyiregyhaza, walked into town.

we stopped off at a brick oven pizzeria to get some delicious chow. while i didn't take pictures of our yummy broccoli, chicken, and corn pizza, i did snap a shot of the baggies our silverware came in. it says 'bon apetit' in hungarian, something you can never start a meal around here without saying. look how cute the little pizza man is.
we talked a bit, getting to know each other, ordered some diet cokes and ate. soon the boys left to go take their stuff home, so the girls headed to a cafe for dessert and more talking.
we had some cakes, sweets, and tara treated herself to some hot white chocolate. yum!

then sweet kim had to leave to go to her school's ball (mine is this weekend!), so tara, sean, andrew and i headed further into town to the ice skating rink. it's open from november to march, so we had to squeeze in at least one trip there.

after paying, renting skates, putting them on, and putting our stuff at the coat/purse check, we were ready. tara and me, that is. the boys couldn't be bothered to ice skate, though that had been the plan since before we met. oh well, we were off. after a lap or two i noticed my friends eszter and annamari making their way around the rink. soon i joined them, as it was eszter's first time (and annamari's second!). skating, like many other things, is more fun with kids.

tara, eszter, and me
boys who couldn't be bothered (andrew and sean) :)

me, eszter, and annamari- bundled up and having funwe went out for some drinks and more chatting. tara spent the night and left in the morning. sunday afternoon i went over to eszter and annamari's house to play in english. we read some books, played in her tent, watched some youtube cartoons, and had dinner. they're such fun.

eger - with lektors!

2009-11-15T20:24:00.000+01:00

we didn't choose the best weekend to go to eger, as it was wet and cold, but we had some fun!

here are tara and kim getting some kürtőskalács. kim is new to hungary this year so this was her first taste of the doughy goodness!

the eger castle

tara and megan playing on the castle playground

some pathway around the castle

castle roofy room thing

the castle and the city

megan peeped through the binocular thign

kim and tara were a little loopy

the skyline - that pencil thing is called a minaret. a skinny little tower

church and such

aww, hungary

the minaret (from the castle)

walking up the minaret's stairs

at the top. tight fit!minaret on a clearer day

xander came along. carla liked him.... but he didn't really like herthe church at night

the first wine cellar we went to (mold on the walls, coins pressed into the mold)

second cellar

third cellar, gypsy music to set the mood

wine lady pouring into my mouth, dry white wine (not my thing)hot wine is all the rage in eger. here is a bird... dispensing it through with his beak

this was us for most of the weekend
i'm glad we went. there was a lot of climbing and walking in the rain, but there were good experiences, good food, and good company that more than made up for it.

halloween party

2009-11-14T01:17:00.007+01:00

(a little late but worth it)

tara, another teacher in CETP, invited a bunch of us lektors (native english teachers) to her house for a halloween party. it was kind of international with an australian, a canadian, and a bunch of americans.

i went to a costume store and found something i had never been ever in my life.

santa! (or mee-ko-lash in hungarian)

then this happened, of course...
(me and franny, a funny teacher who was dressed as a ... geisha?)
you gotta sit on santa's lap
(snata and klara, and australian teaching in a small village nearby)santa and tara, the witchy hostess (and a little xander)

santa and a ninja, andrew, another teacher in my town
(please note i have a pillow under that suit)

we made mummies, too...toilet paper mummies. here i am with klara, my mummy

we even had caramel apples (laurel, jon, and franny)

here are klara and lisa biting into the delicious treats

we played some games like pin the bow tie on the skeleton

we took a REALLY hard test about halloween and the origins of halloween traditions - franny won! she got 11 out of 18 right! we bobbed for gummy worms in bowls full of whipped cream- fun!
she sure was a good hostess! there was snacks, goodie bags, and jello... plus we ordered pizza. Mmmm.

all in all it was a GREAT party and i'm glad i went to that little village. thanks

november 1

2009-11-02T10:18:00.006+01:00

i tried to convince other native english speaking teachers to go to the cemeteries in their towns on november first because it's such a cool thing to see. i don't know if they went or not, but in this post i'll show what kind of sights you can take in on that special day.

november first (all saints day/day of the dead) is celebrated in hungary to honor and remember the dead. people go to the cemetery and decorate their loved ones' graves (which are above ground) with candles, flowers, and wreaths. they tend to the graves all year round, unlike we do at home, but on this particular day or weekend, the place is packed with more life than an ordinary cemetery.

last year's blog about this day

this year i went to the huge cemetery in my town with the lady who has been teaching me hungarian, edit and her son geri. we walked around looking at the multitude of tombs and gravestones. the feeling you get while there on this day isn't the normal creepy feeling that usually accompanies a trip to the local graveyard. there is a somber feeling, of course, but the many families walking around with you give you a sense of peace about death. well, at least for me.

there are different sections of the cemetery, some newer, some older, so the graves differ.
there are even places for burying atheists or non-religious people. there is a relatively new structure in my city's cemetery made for that reason. they mix water with the ashes of the deceased and bury them in a common grave, just writing the names of the dead on a large plaque.

at the common graves

with the year they died

i can't really show in pictures just how many graves and candles and flowers there are

florists must make half of the year's profit this time of year

it really is quite pretty

tent bottom new place

2009-10-27T20:02:00.005+01:00

i went to a place called "tent bottom new place" (Sátoraljaújhely in hungarian) with tara yesterday. we heard that there was a chairlift or something that we had to go on. we walked around, found the tour inform place, got a map and some info and were on our way.

we took a bus to a roundabout that was said to be near the chairlift. we saw this sign and knew we were close.
we walked some more, tara said it was like a kilometer (she's canadian so that means something to her) and happened upon this sign. so we were headed in the right direction!

we arrived!

and we got on

and ascended into the fog (oh, it was the first foggy day in hungary this year. we were told we would see a great panorama...)

fall was happening all around us. unique as that is to me, i had to snap some shots of it.

pretty pretty

at the top we wanted to get out and look around but there was construction so the guy told us no. we turned around and headed down for the second half of our 38 minute journey.

on the way up and down we were taunted by the bobsled station and the track

we could see people having fun and going faster than we were

since "if you can't beat 'em you should join 'em" we marched our little selves right over there when we got off the (otherwise cool) chairlift. we jumped in a bobsled and were ticking up the track like that!

some guy told us how to use the hand breaks - in hungarian. we smiled and just passed him.

i may have screamed and laughed the whole way down.it was so fun! we could control how fast or slow we went, so it wasn't like anything we had done before in a theme park. there was a photo op at one point and tara reminded me to smile. here's the result:

ummmm, great picture! we really did have that much fun. don't believe me? click below and watch the video!

name day celebration

2009-10-23T20:00:00.000+02:00

in hungary we celebrate name days, as you may recall. under communism there was a government approved list of names hungarians could name their children, so i think to make it seem like that wasn't as sucky as it actually was, hungarians (and other countries) celebrated the names by assigning one (or sometimes up to 5) name a day of the year. it's a bigger deal than birthdays since name days are public - even printed on calendars - while birthdays are usually just a family affair.

anyway, at school we celebrated all the name days from september and october with one common party. the staff members who had their name days during those months brought in goodies and drinks for the other teachers.

before we ate the food, we (and by 'we' i mean 'they') sang a little song which was new to me. apparently it's a catholic thing... well, that's my guess.

the guy who started the song is a priest. he began by listing the names of the honorees, then led us into the song.

then cheek kissing ensued, which i expected...

and then we dug in! there were pastries and fruit and homemade dishes and candy and cakes galore, not to mention tea, soda, sparkling water, fruit juices, and coffee.

gotta love teacher parties in the staff room :)

halloween

2009-10-21T00:13:00.004+02:00

i did a halloween lesson this week with most of my kids. some good classes got to have races to make mummies.

some were pretty proud of their work...

some were not so happy to be the mummy...

some had way too much fun...

and some kind of sucked at it...

after talking about halloween (15 minutes), and mummy wrapping (5 minutes) i gave the class the remainder of the time (25 minutes) to do a halloween word search. [hungarian kids equate cheating with helping so when they take a test there is ALWAYS cheating and no one feels bad unless they get caught. teachers have even congratulated students on cheating without getting caught, sort of encouraging them to beat the system however they can. i'm not making this up.}

when i told the students that the winner would get a candy bar, all conversations stopped. i told them they could help each other and they all refused. i had never heard such silence. even the most rambunctious kids (like the boy pictured below) concentrated and tried their best for the prize. i was really quite impressed, if not stunned.

so far, after two days of halloween, i'm willing to call it a success. the kids learned some new vocab, made mummies, and had a howling good time.... and so did i.

szent imre - the good school

2009-10-18T12:00:00.001+02:00

szent imre is the catholic school i teach in on tuesdays and thursdays. the teachers are great and always talk to and help me. we eat lunch together, talk about lessons, and shoot the breeze in our planning periods. they make me like my job even more than the kids do.

that's not to say that the kids aren't good, because they are. most of the time the students there are interested in english and learning and so interested in my lessons. they are cooperative even when they don't fully understand what i'm saying.

since it's a catholic school, it's a bit more strict than other schools. the students don't greet teachers with the normal "csokalom" (i kiss you[r hand]) but with a latin greeting of 'may you be blessed by jesus christ'... or something like that. (no need to correct my latin, people. i'm working on hungarian right now.) i am supposed to respond with the latin for "may it be so forever."

if i see kids in the hall, they are supposed to say this phrase and i am supposed to respond accordingly. it's so long and strange to me, though, that i usually just say hi to them. oh, well.

here is one of my favorite classes at that school. i wanted to take a picture of them but forgot my camera. i ran downstairs to get it and told them to get in position. when i came back, they were ready and had surprised me with a different word than "cheese."
maybe a video will make you feel like you were there. :)

another favorite class of mine is the beginners. this is their first year learning english and they haven't lost their motivation for school yet. we do very elementary things in there (and i use as much hungarian as english!) but we all like it. this week we sang some songs: Old McDonald Had a Farm, Father Abraham, the Hokey Pokey, B-I-N-G-O, and the jazz chant that goes 'hi, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory.' when i took their picture they wanted to sing partof one of the songs. so here they are:

the lock thing

2009-10-17T12:29:00.001+02:00

in my town there is a ... structure (for lack of the actual word) with a lot of padlocks on it. the tradition surrounding it is that couples attach a lock when they're in love and seriously committed. it's quite a sight, actually, because people decorate their locks with their names, dates, pictures, or inside jokes.

i think it's a fun idea... uncharacteristically so for the hungarians ;)

went to tata

2009-10-16T11:54:00.000+02:00

another teacher, carla, invited other CETP people to her town to exchange lesson plans and have a get-together. i was excited to go because a)i'd never been there, b)i like carla, and c)i need some lesson plans that will work with my *lovely* kids.

stan (some sweet CETP guy) and carla, the hostess
who even let xander come along AND sleep on her bed for a while
then she took us on a little sight-seeing tour
and we saw the sights: the lake, the castle, the stuff around the lake and the castle
after the tour and the lesson stuff we went to dinner at some pirate restaurant - yum!
thanks again for your hospitality and lessons, carla!

xander

2009-10-15T12:20:00.000+02:00

this little dog of mine...

last week xander had some back and hip problems. he couldn't jump up on the (low) bed, sit down anywhere, or let me pet his back without whimpering and yelping. it was so scary and sad for me. i was frustrated because i didn't know what the problem was and the silly dog can't tell me! i noticed it when i came home one evening and decided if he wasn't better by morning i would take him to the vet.
i was in the middle of a series of phone calls (trying to find an english-speaking vet) and getting fed up and scared when a former colleague (from the best school ever, zrinyi) called. she asked how i was and through tears i said ok. she said, ok, that means not ok. i told her the problem and she came over right then to escort us to the vet. we took a taxi (driven by my private student, taxi-driver gabor) to the animal hospital.
the vet who saw us was a nice lady, but didn't speak english. i couldn't understand all (or even half) of what she said, but i could figure out a lot from her gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and the words i knew. gabi, my colleague, translated periodically but not throughout.
it seems his hips were buckling or something under the pressure of his extra weight. the vet was sure to explain to me several times that xander is overweight. later she said he was old, too. (i, of course, googled it when i got home and my nearly 7 year old dog is about middle aged for his breed... so not old.)
we were given two medicines: a pain killer and a joint lubricant (or something). i understood the regimen and agreed to administer the meds to him accordingly. i am also supposed to watch his diet, give him more exercise, and keep him from walking up/down stairs and jumping on furniture until he's back to normal.

as of this week, i'm happy to report, he's back to his jumpy, stair-walking self. he has been spared a few scrapes of people food and doesn't like that, but otherwise he's happy. thankfully it wasn't anything more serious. i can't tell you how many times i've said out loud to him, "please don't die in hungary." i know i would be just devastated. anyway, all is well again.

i love me some xander-pants!

apple pie

2009-10-14T19:43:00.004+02:00

this little thing, a piece of hungarian apple pie, inspired me to bake (something i don't do too often, but when i do, i really enjoy it). this hungarian treat is good, believe me, i just had to have a slice of america.

i mentioned it to lisa (another american in this town) and soon we planned to bake the pie at her workplace because it has a good kitchen.

she made the dough

then we peeled and sliced some granny smiths

and added the good stuff
(some little kid was there and kept coming over
to ask if she could have one more piece of sugar apple)

it smelled so good even before it was cooked!

we had a weird idea to also make some kind of apple turnover... for no real reason, either. we whipped up some dough, eyeballed the amounts of sugar and spices, then wished it luck

um, yum

i made that lattice top! my first one ever :)

all in all, it was a good idea and a great dessert!

the real truth is i'm american, not hungarian... in fact, as american as apple pie :)

wine time

2009-10-09T21:31:00.005+02:00

this weekend i went to tokaj (the white wine region of hungary) with 3 french girls, 3 american guys, and a canadian.

we went to a nice winery and sat outside for a while, sampling the edes szamorodni (mmm, mm, good sweet wine) with some bits of cheese and bread.

behold!

later we hiked up the 'mountain/hill' to see what we could see from the lookout. it's not really a mountain, but it passes for one around these parts. there are two paths up the mountain: the red (hard) one and the green (easy) one. we went up the hard one (fun, fun, fun) and down the easy one - maybe the reverse of the plan i would have suggested.

THE mountain/hill (see? it's not really either, but something in between)

i didn't take any real pictures of the hard path up the mountain (not something i'm dying to remember) but here is something kind of like it. imagine it being a bit darker, a bit steeper, no leaves - but just dirt, and ten billion more trees to the right.

tokaj is the most famous wine region in hungary. they make sweet, dry, and dessert wines there...all white or rose. here are some of the great grapes... which we may or may not have sampled illegally on the way down the mountain. :D

a vineyard on the way down the mountain (the easy path)

a view from the easy path

some frenchies in a vineyard
there are two main rivers in hungary (the danube in budapest and the tisza in the eastern part of the country... where i live). here is one of them - the mighty tisza (tee-suh)

we had some wine in a wine cellar or two - kind of like this one (those barrels are the signature look of hungarian cellars...red rimmed and full of delicious wine!)

there are also restaurants in many cellars there. so you and your party can have a hollowed out cave room all to yourselves for your own private wine tasting extravaganza. i'm game!

P.S. readers: this has been the 100th post! thank you for your continued readership and commentship. if it weren't for you, i wouldn't be blogging at all. thanks for giving me a reason!

around the house

2009-09-22T19:07:00.004+02:00

this is what the outside of my accommodation looks like, just fyi

gábor, the handyman
it's a fun word in hungarian "ezermester" (ezz-eR-mesh-teR) roll the R

when i moved into this house/flat/place i was given a brand new washing machine. that, in itself, is pretty fancy and i was very excited about it. i ran the washing machine as needed but never more than that and never at night. that was because it shook and screeched and walked across the room! i told the handyman about it, mostly about the shaking, so he came over and put a folded up piece of paper under one of the corners. that did nothing for the beast, of course, as it was violently shaking not just wobbling. this week i went to a friend of a friend's house and saw that he had the exact same washing machine. i told him the issue with mine and to my utter amazement he told me i needed to remove three long screws from the back of the machine. he even showed me the screws he had removed from his own machine. i explained to the handyman what was needed and he was as skeptical as i was about it. he always wants to help though, so he begrudgingly removed the screws. i thanked him and told him i'm sure it would be ok now, but he instructed me to wash a load and tell him if it all fell apart.

it didn't.

now it works like a champ,
is quiet as a mouse,
and stays as still as a
... washing machine

here are the mangy screws responsible for disturbing me and my pup
all is well in my humble, and i really mean humble, abode :)

family day (at kossuth)

2009-09-21T22:04:00.004+02:00

the other day i was walking through the school yard (where i live) and saw people setting up a lot of tents. i asked the priest lady who lives next to me what's going on and she said the next day would be "family day" and students will come with their families and have a cook-off at the school. she said i should come (or at least make an appearance, as i have been sick the past week or so) and enjoy the food. i dropped by for about an hour, taking pictures at will.

the sweetest table

fried apples... though after they're finished they salt them (i would have guessed sugar)

"grilled" chicken - um, delicious!

a typical table with goulash, noodles/dumplings, pickles, kids

and anotherthe food was then judged by 5 or 6 very lucky people

the winning class gets custody of this wooden spoon trophy? for a whole year

after i left there was some traditional hungarian folk dancing (of which i've seen more than my share)

here is a look around at family day (i was talking to some hungarian and had to speak slowly and clearly, just ignore, please)

some boy band was there and the girls were going a little nuts. i didn't recognize them, of course, but they may have been a big deal since news cameras were there. or maybe the news people just came because there was nothing else going on that day. i never know, plus, i don't have a t.v. and wouldn't watch the news if i did! :)

i went back home (on the other side of the school yard) and listened to the music and slept a while. the flu -weather swine or otherwise- has been limiting my activities and interest. hopefully i'll be back to normal this week. sorry about the long break from posting... did you even notice?

the start of school

2009-09-02T14:56:00.003+02:00

yesterday i taught in the catholic school, szent imre. the students were well-behaved, helpful, good english speakers, and seemed interested in class for the most part. the teachers helped me find the right classrooms, gave me materials, asked if they could help me, and even told me which bus to take home, when it left, and where the stop was. nothing was really unexpected except that i'll usually have 6 classes on tuesdays but yesterday i only had 3.

today i taught in the evangelical school, kossuth. there were several unexpected things: the concert that took up almost two classes, the time i was teaching a class of 31 students though it should have been 15 or 16 and two other teachers came in to figure out what went wrong, the two classes i taught where no one spoke ANY english at all, and the classes where my hungarian is better than the students' english. most of the students were well-behaved, helpful if i asked anything, and ... kind of nervous/terrified. i don't understand the division of classes yet, but hopefully i'll get it soon. the schedules haven't been completed yet (it's the second day of school) so teachers and students alike are confused and wandering the halls. until 2pm all classes are mandatory, after that they are optional for students. you can imagine how many students will come to those classes. we'll see how that goes. i only have 2 such classes.:)

i met another lektor (native teacher)this afternoon. we were both sitting in empty classrooms waiting for our students. her name is amelie; she's the french native teacher. we're going out tonight as we are not hungarian and that's an instant bond. there is a big music festival in town this week (vidor fesztival! - joyous festival) where groups from all over come to play and sing. the city center is packed every night and the concerts go on until about 11. should be fun.

hortobágy - the hungarian plain

2009-08-31T12:26:00.007+02:00

i was lucky enough to be invited to the hortobágy (whore-toe-bodge) by another CETP teacher last week. we were met by her contact teacher, kata, and kata's boyfriend, bill (a british guy who has somehow managed to live in hungary for 20 years) and we all went on an 'excursion' to the great plains national park.

the horse drawn wagon

the famous hungarian longhorn cattle

(pay no attention to the german woman talking throughout the video. she said some interesting stuff, i'm sure, but with her thick accent and my inability to focus through the wind and rain, i didn't catch much of it.)

kata and carla

mangalica pigs - they have curly hair, they're raised for their meat, usually for sausages, which is very low in cholesterol and apparently pretty tasty. (german-hungarian lady pictured)

me and carla

we stopped in the hortobagy restaurant and had a traditional hungarian meal. of course i started it off with some gulyas, which was delish!

in some places we were allowed to get out of the wagons to look around and take pictures.

little did we know that it would be the coldest and rainiest day of the summer... there were some italian people in our wagon with us. they had some little kids who were miserable in the wind and rain but took it like champs and had a good time anyway.

after the hour-long ride we looked through the shops and stands of the semi-annual market they hold there. it was slim pickins since the weather was so bad. we also stopped in some little old lady kiosks along the way. here are some traditional handmade things...

hand carved longhorns (for over $500!)

doilies, table cloths, whathaveyou

pottery shop

a good day: a bit damp and a bit freezing, but good company and good attitudes made up for it tenfold. i was glad to spend time with an american, happy to meet a nice hungarian lady, and amused at the britsh guy's antics, opinions, words, and accent.

out with the old, in with the new - schools

2009-08-24T21:25:00.003+02:00

today i went to my two new schools (szent imre and kossuth - you might as well learn the names because i'll have to differentiate between them all year).

magdi (who has been like a contact teacher for me so far, as she has taken me to the immigration office, helped me with paper work, come to my old school and translated for me at kossuth), an english teacher at kossuth, took me to szent imre today to meet with the principal/headmistress. when we arrived all the teachers were in a beginning-of-the-year meeting so we hung out in the hall for half an hour talking. when the meeting was over we went into the teachers' room for a party, as one of the english teachers is retiring and so threw a party - kind of a goodbye party for herself :) - for the teachers. gifts and kisses, food, cakes, drinks, the whole bit. i was also introduced to the staff at this party and given a plate (that had a deviled egg with sour cream sauce on it already). they seemed nice enough. several teachers came up and introduced themselves to me and some invited me to go get coffee/smoke with them. as i'm not a huge coffee drinker and i don't smoke... i went anyway. i had time to kill before meeting the boss lady. after "coffee" (and by that i mean ginger ale) a nice rita showed me around the school. we arranged for me to get reimbursed for a bus pass, to get lunch tickets, i saw the copy room, library, cafeteria, computer room, and language room. szent imre is a catholic school, recently partially renovated/updated, and clean. i noticed crucifixes in each room (not just class rooms, but every room) and there is a chapel on campus. it has three floors, one main building for classes and a really big dorm for students to live in (i was offered a room in the student hostel, but declined as it wouldn't have been good for xander... or me...). the headmistress was busy with meetings and couldn't meet with me, as it turned out, but that's ok. i'm used to this hungarian-ness by now. i was told i'll get my schedule on the first day of school, as will the other teachers. ON the first day. oy. i'll mostly be teaching 10th graders, with 3 classes of 9th, 2 or 3 11th grade classes, and one class of school leavers (seniors/12th graders). some of my classes will be "zero level" students who are learning english intensively (15 hours a week). this may the first time to study english for some of them! anyway, i'll be there on tuesdays and thursdays.

i took a bus back to kossuth (the school where i live) to find out what i could find out. the teachers in the staff room ignored me when i went in purposely looking confused and lost. i went to the assistant principals' office instead hoping one of them would speak english. one did! idk his name, but when he started speaking in english i seriously thought he was "doing" an accent because it was so thick and different from a typical hungarian accent. anyway, i said something like, "i have questions" and he jumped up to help. i asked and found out when the first day of school is (importnant, no!? and it's different than szent imre's first day... weird.), the opening ceremony, when we're leaving for prague on wednesday (4am, btw), and where my desk is in the teachers' room. that's about it, but that was the stuff i wanted to know, so, it's all good. kossuth is an evangelical school, also three stories, there's no chapel but we'll attend chapel services in the big yellow church.

i almost cried several times during the day. even though i'm in the same city i can already tell that life will be really different this year. that's not to say that it will be bad, just different. i had a really good introduction to hungary being at zrinyi last year and it's possible it will be hard to beat. i forgot how sucky it feels not to know anyone and not to have anyone know me. actually, i've moved once a year for the past 6 or 7 years, so i know how to start a new life, but this is the one time i haven't wanted to move and change, but i had to. i still have high hopes for the year and know it will be a good and unique experience. even for me, someone who likes, even craves change, change is still hard. the weird thing is that it all hit me today. not all the goodbyes from students, not the last day of school, not when i cleaned out my desk this summer, not when i signed the contracts at the new schools or when i signed a completion of contract paper at zrinyi, not even at my farewell party (another post), but today. the ushering in of new faces, new buildings, new everything, that's what made it real.

debrecen

2009-08-22T18:58:00.005+02:00

there's another CETP teacher, carla, living and working in debrecen (the second largest city in hungary) for a couple of weeks. it's pretty close to me - 30 minutes by train - so i hopped on over to see/meet her the other day. sadly, we didn't take any pictures of ourselves together. we did go up in the big yellow church:
there were a bunch of steep stairs to get to the tower, but the view should make it worth it.

here's the inside of the tower

and the view of the city centeranother view

and another
debrecen boasts one whole tram line. here it is in all its glory!

a warning sign at the train station:

sweets stand... good to know they're in every city

after we walked around, went in the church, sat down a while for drinks and chatting, and a tram ride through part of the city, we got some italian food at some place with a reputation.
it was good to have some real (good by american standards AND hungarian standards) food, but i think i was happier about the arizona green tea. *sigh* oh, the things i miss...

folk dance festival

2009-08-22T04:48:00.004+02:00

i went to a folk dancing festival. it was entertaining but a bit long for my taste. (9pm-1am)

before the dancing started, all the participants lined up on stage:

there were more than they thought, i guess... look at the purple people in the photo above and then in the photo below. man, it must have been hot up there.
this bright purple lady below is the israeli ambassador to hungary (Aliza Bin-Noun), the middle lady is the mayor(ess) of Nyiregyhaza (Judit Csabai) and her husband. i chatted them up during intermission since they were sitting behind me. ambassador lady spoke on the stage for a few minutes in hungarian and i immediately loved her because i love all people who learn hungarian as a foreign language. we spoke in hunglish for a few minutes before taking this picture (i cut myself out of it so you know it must have been bad!)

loved the costumesaw, sweet hungarians dancing around wine bottles...

these people were fantastic!

cutesy

the whole time i was utterly distracted by the "decorations" on the stage. i commented on them to my coworkers (who invited me) and we laughed it up. in fact, whenever i almost started to fall asleep (you know, during the third and fourth hour) i just looked at the stage and started chuckling again. come on, seriously? who hung them!?

so sad.

folk dance festival

2009-08-22T01:32:00.002+02:00

There was an international folk dance festival in my town in August 2009. There were 8 countries represented and there was a LOT of variety among the dances. Belgium, Portugal, Hungary, Japan, China, Taiwan, Israel, and Turkey.

I didn't label all the dances, sorry, but the last one is Japanese people doing traditional Hungarian folk dancing and it got the biggest applause of all of them, as it was in Hungary.

the new place

2009-08-17T02:29:00.002+02:00

so i realized i didn't show you around my new place yet. i've done a lot of work in it (moving things around, cleaning, taking doors off hinges, and getting things situated) and though i'm not completely done, i'm proud enough of it to show it to you.

no need to comment on all the things it's not or all the things it lacks, believe me i'm aware. i've made my peace with it by comparing it not to the apartments i've been living in for the past several years, but to the dorm rooms i lived in for 2 years. in that comparison, this place wins. no roommate! first floor with a gated front yard! cable internet! some other things i like are the full-length mirror, the really tall windows, the extra office room, the brand new washing machine, the 12 foot (?) ceilings, and the handyman who (theoretically) will repair anything i need repaired.

i'll readily admit last year's place was better (as it was an actual apartment) but i'm not scared or bummed to be living here. it's inside the gated school campus. a handyman and a preist (lady) will be living here with me the whole time, but in different "flats." the location is about 5 minutes walk to everything in the city center. as i've been exploring a new part of town i've been in some new sweet shops, two paper stores, a new convenience store, an "american" themed restaurant, and two new grocery stores. in fact, next week i'm going to have to learn where the bus stops are around here because i haven't even taken a bus since i moved in (end of june).

ok, so, it is what it is. my new home sweet home :)

cukrászda video

2009-08-09T00:37:00.003+02:00

i was given the honey cake, the 'cottage cheese' cake, and the ones called "bambi"
at the end of the video the lady who worked there asked what i was doing and anna told her i was taking pictures, that i'm an american teacher in Nyiregyhaza, that she spoke highly of this ice cream from this place, and that she brought me here to taste it. (it's hard to hear and understand her on the video, but that's what i can make out.)

ice cream with anna

2009-08-08T22:19:00.008+02:00

anna (the director/owner/ruler of the language school and so my boss!) grew up in a small town (Szikszó) about an hour from Nyíregyháza. she told me about an ice cream place that made handmade/homemade ice cream that was to die for and invited me to come with her to taste the goodness. so after working up an appetite swimming in caves, we drove to her hometown.

the place had a old-timey family-run type feeling so i liked it immediately.

it was busy the whole time we were there, not surprisingly

there were lots of ice cream flavors (not 31 or anything...) and lottttts of sweets.

mignon = delicious

cake display

we both had caramel and cream. the expectations were pretty high, but they were MET!

anna took me for a short visit at her aunt's house (to discuss a tablecloth, bring her ice cream, and give her some joint cream). then when we got in the car she turned in the wrong direction (i thought) and down some side street. she excused herself and said she just can't leave the town without getting some spring water from the well. we got out some bottles and headed to the pump.
i was tempted to think anna was weird, but when another kid showed up with bottles i thought maybe this really is the thing to do in these parts. in fact, the water was pretty good - natural minerals in there, ya know.
we had a nice drive home through the mountains and the plains and fields of corn and sunflowers
we even stopped in the wine region (at my request) to get a bottle of sweet winey goodness. a cute little wine shop full of the national favorites:

these barrels are typical of wine cellars in the wine region so a fitting display.

look at the cutey little gift baskets

we got back to town, dropped off some ice cream at the language school freezer (anna had to bring some back for her employees since they all knew she was going to the place), and went to her flat for a few minutes. we had a drink (more to come on that later) and she loaded me up with a variety of her summer batches of jam.
anna bought me some cakes but i wasn't paying attention and she got wayyy more than i thought. 2 bambis (chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate cream), 2 turo cakes (the translation is "cottage cheese" but i promise it's not disgusting like that sounds, think cream cheese), and 2 chocolate honey cakes (which taste like an upgraded s'mores because it has honey cake, cream, and chocolate frosting). omg, wow.

i had so much loot after this long day! i can't wait to get into it all :)

water from the spring, wine from tokaj, and
jams: orange, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberrya very enjoyable and memorable hungarian day. thank you so much, anna!

cave baths

2009-08-08T21:34:00.005+02:00

the director of the language school i'm teaching in, anna, invited me on a day trip today. there were a few elements of the trip, but the recreation destination was the cave baths of Miskolctapolca. it's a common thing in hungary to go swimming in the thermal baths, use the saunas, and take water aerobic classes. i've done it countless times since i've been here, but these were different. in front of the caves there are a few acres of outdoor pools and grass. people were swimming, tanning, playing, eating, sitting, and having a great time as anna and i walked in. we were only interested in the cave part, as it's cooler, there's no sun, and fewer children. so we headed in to a building which looked nothing like a cave:
there we found locker rooms and bathrooms, so we changed and headed to the pools. the cave baths were discovered in the 16th century and studied for their medicinal benefits, pools were added in the early 1830s and 1930s, remodeled and modernized as late as 2005. the thermal springs in, under, and around the bath complex still supply them with a lot of water as well as some of the drinking water for the town.

here is the entrance pool: there are pounding waterfalls used like massage, jacuzzis, and "wild water" which is water with a current throughout the rivers in the cave.

the water in the caves doesn't move very fast, but there is definitely a discernable current.

it was so cool how everything was lit in there! you can see high up into the cave while you swim.

one of the tunnels leads to a dark room with music playing. it's called the "star room" because of the stars .... i don't know if those were holes or lights or what. there were a lot of lounging teenagers in there when we went in, so we didn't stay long.cave baths

to get from river system to river system within the cave, there were sidewalks and railings everywhere. some walkways had those heavy waterfalls in case you need a quick massage.

after we waded, swam in different temperature pools (not pictured), jacuzzied, and had waterfall massages, we ate a quick lunch - nectarins, cookies, and sandwiches with meat, cheese, and peppers, yum! - we took showers, changed, and left the lovely bath complex. i'm really glad i got to experience it because i had never swum in a cave before. :)

hamburgers

2009-08-07T11:33:00.004+02:00

i went to a student/friend's house on the weekend to make some real american hamburgers. there is a burger place in the city center here which boasts "american hamburgers" but they still put cabbage and cucumbers on them and don't have any tomatoes. i mentioned this to rudi, he said it to his parents, and soon i was invited over to have a cookout with them to show them the way. here is how it turned out:

gettin' ready

rudi's first bite

(his shirt says: i'm not lazy, i'm just conserving energy)
so they were a little thick
he thought it was just a way to get mayo in his mouth
here is his family (idk what's up with his dad)

all in all, it was a success. it was a taste of home. *sigh*

movies

2009-07-31T00:37:00.004+02:00

i've been watching movies in my spare time since i've come to hungary. i've probably seen way more movies than i care to admit, in fact. but lately i've seen some really good ones (all for free online, by the way - maybe illegal, maybe not. i'm not downloading... i'll consult my ethics about it at a later date. now i'm just enjoying the american-ness of it all.) now for some not so wordy movie reviews of the most memorable of the month:

long awaited,
much anticipated,
a bit disappointing,
but still mildly entertaining

drawn to this for the cast,

thought-provoking,

predictably sad,
mildly entertaining

funny,
good acting,
new take on previously done story,
entertaining

sweet romantic comedy,
is very similar to 'as good as it gets',
familiar actors,
entertaining

sweet romantic comedy,
more realistic than most,
superior actors,
entertaining

also saw: up (ok), bolt (cute), the hangover (hilarious), the knowing (lame)
want to see but can't find online yet: the ugly truth (i'll deal with katherine heigl just to see some gerard butler!!)