My black eye

So to make a long story short I fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a black eye. It is very pretty and just in time for my parents to come on monday. The best part of the story is that my contact teacher, Anikó brought a little lamp from home and between each break I am to hold it to my eye. Everyone looks at me a little weird, and it has been fun trying to explain myself to everyone in Hungarian. All of the children think that I got in a fight and I have been trying to explain it to them that I did not get beat up, that I beat the stairs. Well hope mom and dad love the purple coloring that I have put on for them. I look different but this is unreal. Also I must make the point that I am writing this while all of my seventh grade students watch, and they think it is amazing that I can type and watch the Hungarian fulm that they are watching for another class. It is also a little nerve racking to perform and keep their attention on the video they are here to watch. Well that is all for now. 6 Days until my mom and dad are here.

Had a wonderful weekend

Today the sun has hid and rain scatters all about Hernádnémeti. I would be sad but I had a wonderful weekend with some CETPers. It started on Friday when I played football and forwent the Spanish party at Liz's I had to trade one good thing for the other. But on Saturday I met them in Miskolc to head up to the Aggtelek caves. First of all I almost missed the train, even with living here this long I still have no idea why it did not come. A long story short I made the train and headed to the caves.

The caves were absolutely beautiful. The only complaint the whole day was the fact that there was not an ATM within 30km. No worries the caves were georgious. I was so happy to have gone. I was having fun and did not want to go home so some of us decided to dine in Miskolc. After this I went to Liz's and watched the end of the Desperate Housewives season one. I was so into this show that I did not go home until Monday and had the opportunity to dine at Mama Rosas. It was great. That concludes the weekend. And only 12 more days until I see my mom and dad.

Whats up with laura

I am pround to say that I have had a wonderful week here in Hernádnémeti. I have been enjoying the great sunshine. I had visitors one weekend and we enjoyed watching my sixth through eigth graders play in a football match. Unfortunately they did not win but Liz, Jenna and I sure did. Jenna ran and scored us some ice cream from a passing ice cream truck. We all went to Miskolc and had a good time shopping and talking.

At school I have been busy. I have been taking the kids outside to teach them 4 Square. It was my favorite game as a kid so I thought they would like it. I was right. They love it, plus we made the court way bigger so it is more of a challenge. I am excited for the weekend where I will be traveling to Tata. It will be a good time I am sure. I am also interested in planning a cooking weekend where we will attemp stuffed cabbage so anyone who is in the area and interested let me know. I have a good cooking kitchen. Oh yeah 30 days until my mom and dad will be here!!!! Well the sun is hogh in the sky and I have avoided getting any real work done at home so I better get going to be productive.

Still stoked about Kade's arrival!!!

At this moment in my hungarian adventure I am enjoying a wonderful spring break. The weather is wonderful, the sun is shining, the birds are happily bathing in puddles created by the many rivers that are on the verge of flooding, and the storkes have landed and are busy doing what storkes do in their nests about the city. I am enjoying my break in Szolnok, a city to the south of Hernadnemeti. I am spending the time with my just as cheap as me friend Emily.
I bought some interesting and wonderful books today for a wonderful price in hopes to further my knowledge in the hungarian language. One is called the Story of Hungarian, a guide to the language, and it discusses the liguistics and gives information on the nature and workings of this unique language. I also, being a huge classics fan, found a book that has William Shakespear's sonnets written in english and hungarian. I am hoping this will assist me in figuring out word order and forms. I was excited on both finds and am excited to dive into these books. First I have to finish The Drowning Tree, given to me by Mariah and The Prince's Bride from Emily. If you did not already know that is what most of us teaching in Hungary do on our free time...read.
I have also been preparing for a visit from my parents. I am so excited to show them how I have been living for the last 8 months, to ease some worries, and to show off the wonderful people that I live with. And they can see my CETP crib!!!
I have already touched on the subject of my new nephew Kade Edwin Olson who arrived on March 22nd. I am so happy and excited for Amie and James in their new addition. I am also a little sad that I am missing such a huge family event. I can only imagine the look on Collin's face when witnessing all of the first times. I am very appreciative of Amie. She is now the proud parent of two boys, just had a major sugery, is sleep deprived, and she still takes the time to send me pictures and call me to make me feel as if I am really not missing the introduction to Kade. The top picture is Collin being happily awaken by his new little brother who in the words of the happy three year old, "Kade eats boobs". The bottom picture is Kade. I am told that Kade is a easy baby, and Collin is a great helper. Congratulations Amie, James and Collin, Kade turned out great.
That is all from the wonderful world of Hungary.

I have been invited to a pig killing. Mom and Dad it is while you are here most likely so be ready, you will have to eat fat dripped on some bread. I am sure I will love it. I was invited during a wonderful weekend of playing in a womens football tournament with a group of women I have been playing with while in Hungary. Although challenging, none of them speak a word of english, it was one of my favorite weekends while staying here. Who says being an art major would get me know where it is amazing what you can accomplish through some sketches. I also scored a hungarian language teacher. It was great.
I have made another trip to Budapest for the celebration of St. Patricks Day. I think we were the only ones with the grand idea to live it up in an Irish Pub!!! I was a lot of fun, but I got very little sleep and missed one of my trains so I was scolded when I showedup to football late.
The next weekend I started in Nyrígyhaza and spent the day in Tokaj, an area in Hungary where they produce white wine. It was cool but I only liked the first two wines I tasted. I have learned that I do not like sweet wine. I also met some interesting people there too. It was fun the cellars are interesting and there are some cute crafty type spots so I may have to take my parents there. There is a red wine area in Eger that I would also like to check out so maybe i will save that one for my parents.
The most important news thus far is the arrival of my second nephew. His name is Kade Edwin Olson. He was born on the 22nd of March. My sister is so wonderful that she sent pictures of him as soon as she was home.

A whole month

Wow! It has been a whole month since I have updated my blog. A lot has happened. I had a wonderful and quite busy month. I have been taking the opportunity to hang out in and near Hernádnémeti and have been enjoying it!! I spent a weekend with a wonderful person, Rosemary, and we made the best bableves anyone could ask for. We ventured to Tiszaújvaros to see the gang of americans but visited only a short while to enjoy some painting and picture swapping. I saw and heard of her wonderful trip to Senegal to see her son and was amazd at the wonderful stories she had. I also had a chance to just chat with Rosemary which was a very welcome break from my past activities.
The next weekend was just as wonderful. My friend Kat came and together we hung out at my school's bring in the spring party. We also ate mac and cheese and drank kool aid!!! I was excited to see all of my students dance and perform traditional and some not so traditional dances. I in fact choreographed the third grade hippie dance, performed to Good Mrning star light from Hair. They did a wonderful job and I took some photos. I had the best time showing the 8th graders my awesome dance moves at their "disco", but my favorite part was all that Kat and I learned from my wonderful co teachers all in hungarian. The best thing I learned that weekend was to say that I am a very picky eater.
I traveled to Kisvarda the following weekend to hang out with Mariah. She has me hooked on some american program called Weeds. It is so funny. We had a relaxing evening. We planned to cook, went shopping, but then lost the time in her neighbors house. Her neighbors invited us over for drinks and snacks and we had such a wonderful time. I again was on the quest to learn new hungarian words and learned the difference between hand and finished which sound to my ear the same but infact are not. Kéz and kész, two very different words. This is also the week that Janos fixed my gamecube. All was lost for the first week, but now I am over my obsession and play it like a normal human.
Jenna came for some cooking and painting this weekend. We made some brownies, and a wonderful fajitas which were hungarianized living in smallville where it is not easy to find ingredients. We also playedsome gamecube and threw toamtoes at rollerbladers and saw Ben Franklin pull a sick 360 grab trick into a wicked manual. Poor Jenna had allergies so we abandoned painting and rocked the beanbag chairs instead. We had so much fun we barely got her on her train.
Today is women's day. I have recieved so many flowers and chocolate from my students it is amazing. Also my students found out I have a game system and now want to come over...I dont think I am okay with that!!! My students are also hounding me about my decision to stay or leave. I told my teachers I had until the 15th and then I would let them know and they told the students. Talk about a small town and a guilt trip!! If the decision is not hard enough itis even harder when a little 7 year old asks You no like Hungary?

Even with piss ants I love teaching!!!

After a wonderful weekend in Kisvárda, dancing the night away with friends and jello, I returned back to teaching. By the way I was fired up to have the whole bar know my name after my wonderful dance moves which left me bruised and my glasses broken. I blame my small village and the jello. Had I not eaten the jello I would of still had some sence to slow down, oh lets be honest no I wouldn't we can justblame the small village. I get out and BAM!! I have to party. Anyway teaching this week has been the hardest for me since embarking on this grand adventure. I still love it, but I had a difficult day with guess who my stupid seventh graders. I remember in mist of going to school that there was a reason why I strayed away from middle school education and now it has been confirmed for me, I really can't stand the age when they are not only too cool for school, but also think it is funny to be complete and udder Jack Asses. Looking back on myself at that age, I was just as bad, so maybe it is coming back to me, but I was hoping it I would have to take that crap from my own children rather than somebody elses.

So this seventh grade class has been giving me trouble all year, I have almost accepted it, but when another teacher comes into my classroom to yell at them I not only feel embaraced that I can not control my own students, but I am a little sad to say I also feel a rush of relief. I hope that the verbal bashing from someone in their own language will prevent this from happening again. Little do I know. As soon as this teacher walks out the same thing starts up again and the children laugh at their being yelled at. I would like to think it is because they feel uneasy and have not learned how to respond to different situations and cover up with laughter, but I believe that is wishful thinking.

I go over to the classroom of the teacher who assisted me because she speaks English to thank her for helping. I also wanted to get a feel for what I should do in hat situation, because discipline as a non native speaker is hard. She told me she did not know becasue they act the same in her room too. Basically she told me there is nothing we can do. I go back to thinking and decide I will stay with my Choice Theory and if they choose not to learn it only hurts them. But since I have these students three times a week I might follow the advice of Mariah and start kicking some students out!!! I love teaching!!!!

The best traveller ever!!!

I had a wonderful week teaching with my students. Today was a little confusing because we started a new semester, and this is the first running week of it. One of my classrooms was taken over so my students and I had to make due with the library. I uite enjoyed it actually, and I have access to some computers and the TV DVD stuff. So this class might prove to be my favorite soon. Anyway just a side note, now for the weekend update.

I travelled to Budapest this weekend for the sole purpose of paying Hajni and seeing the new CETPers. I saw some of the new comers, but did not see Hajni so I still have a wad of cash for her, which I almost lost in buying a game cube that is selling in Budapest. Wow good thing the store was closed. I also missed seeing Kyle becasue I wanted to get home rather early. This again did not happen because I had to keep my reputation as the worse train rider ever. I once again had difficulties going home. And by difficulties I just mean things were not to plan as I like it being a big planner and all.

Liz and I were traveling from Budapest and were on course to switch in Miskolc to hop a quick train to Tiszaújváros, where I was going to spend the night. On the train one of the conductors started shouting something about Tiszaújváros, Liz and I just wanted to stick to our plan that we sat silent until the screaming was over. We get off in Miskolc to see our train was cancelled and the place is swarming with abandoned skiiers lost and unable to return or go to their planned destinations. We decide to take a bus to Liz's and I would then take one from there to my village in the morning. Everything at this point is running smooth. I wake up, enjoy a breakfast, and walk to the bus station. I wait and get pressured to follow and join God's choosen people of Jehovah and soon figure out my bus is not coming, and to my luck the nextone will not come until my classes are over. I go back to Liz's and get sucked into several episodes of Desperate Housewives. I am like a crack addict, episode after episode I just couldn't get my fix. We decide after two discs or so that we will venture to Misckolc for a lovely dinner and then bus to our towns from there. We have a wonderful dinner and get to the bus station to catch the 730 bus. I once again think I will be stuck because my bus does not come until closer to 8, but aventually I make it home unharmed. Good things always happen to me!!

The Cheesiest of sajt!!!

So in case someone who is not living in Hungary thinks that I am writing cuss words, something I would never do they must learn that sajt, that is the word for cheese. Anyway onto my cheesy reflections from the bus station and the previous weeks. As most know I spent Christmas awaz from home this year, and it had its pleasures as well as its hardships. Obviously spending time away from home is very sad and I missed my friends and exspecially my family. I did however realize more than ever this year how lucky I am in the friends and family I have.

Although I was not with them, they were with me. I was so lucky in the mail and phone calls I recieved. I consider my family the best and want to thatnk them for being the best. It makes this experience even more wonderful. Well I could go on but I am making myself sick with cheesiness, I just want my friends and family both here and at home to realize that I appreciate them. The End

A wonderful weekend

I had a wonderful weekend with friends who I feel very fortunate to have here in Hungary. I started out the weekend with my friend Mariah who joined me from Kisvarda, together we braved the highway and I made it out unharmed by flying wine. We once again made a great impression on my village's ABC store. And another plus my bathroom did not explode on her. We traveled together to Eger, a beautiful town and met Mark along the way. Mariah barely escaped my town under the grasps of evil little yippy dogs. They came barreling out of the gates trying to sink their teeth into Mariah's flesh. She let out a high pitched scream and turned very red. Her scream totally surpassed my vocal outbursts the week before.

We managed to get to Eger succesfully, after taking a moment to enjoy a big breakfast, which we opted over catching our first train. We get there late allowing us very little time to enjoy the beautiful Eger sites before darkness settles, but in time to hang out with wonderful friends. As we waited for our last friend to arrive we gathered in a unique little coffee bar for good conversation. I found out that Kyle, a great, great person has made the hard decision to leave Hungary and tackle other adventures on the home front. I cannot lie, I am very sad about this because Kyle is someone I enjoy so much and hardly had the time to get to know her. I valued the time we spent in Eger conversing over a hot cup of coffee. I have decided that she can be one of my new pen pals and was delighted when she agreed to do so as well. I embrace our new postal friendship that we will share. I am sad to see her go, but I understand her need for departure. I have been in situations which were not good for me emotionally and wass happy for the chance to make the decision that would help my self wellness. I am sad to see you go Kyle, but would be far more so if you stay unhappy.

We had an excellent night tasting the areas wine and relaxing with friends. I have to put in a note of fear I know have for wine when consuming it with friends. It seems wine hates me as much a trains. I once again recieved a shot in the eye from the red evil which sprayed from the mouth of not Mariah, but Janos. I was happily laying when all of a sudden a table flew, my eye stung and Janos was found on the floor. I was a direct target, the wine even jumped and avoided my glasses with a direct hit!!!

My trip home as always was an adventure. I had a plan to return with Jenna through Nyrígyhaza so I would not have to walk to highway. On the train I met Kat and Liz coming home from their trip to Vienna. Liz was going to take the train to Miskolc and bus from there. I decided that was a wonderful idea and joined her. I found out that the only bus to my village was coming in three and a half hours. To make things worse I had to pee, imagine that and all the bathrooms in the surrounding area were closed or broken, what luck. It did give me time to reflect on the recent events and enjoy some reading. I will enlighten everyone to my reflections some other day so just wait.

It is fixed

To continue the story, I ran quickly down to my neighbor's door. The last time I have seen them is when I saw the eyes of my fifth grade student light up when asking for a wine opener. Marko comes to the door, and I state problem, visz, and point up stairs. Gabi comes up stairs with me to see my new indoor pool and runs back down to retrieve her husband Janos. To make it short he shut the water off in the building. Everyone came to my flat to see the american and her blown up bathroom. I even got a visit from the village mayor. It was an adventure, we had to soak up all the water with my towels, and then clean it while we waited for a man from the city to come and fix it. It is fixed just in time to pick up Kat, and then the cookie making continued. Making cookies was great and we had tons left over. We all had time to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail too. And that concludes the before Christmas activities except my singing at school, which I did crappily wonderful.

Cookies and Jello

So it was suggested that we get together and make some traditional American Christmas Cookies by myself in hopes of hanging out with Kyle whom I enjoy, but never see. She ends up eating a nem jo brat and remains in Eger nursing her stomach back to health.
Mariah calls and states that she is annoyed with the ticket woman and may not come, I am a bit sad because I told my co-teachers that I could not do something due to the fact that a friend was coming. Kat couldn't make until Saturaday so I was about to be made a liar. Emily texts me saying she is on the way and will be here at nine tonight. I quick call Mariah back and convince her that she should brave the ticket problems and come anyway. It works and she is on the way. I owe her something big because not only did she come but she trudged through a winter storm wearing only black on the highway. We have time to stop at my ABC store and buy our first batch of liquior and venture home to make some Jello that my parents included in a wonderful care package. We did not have a single problem the whole trip through the ice and snow, and confidently I step firmly into the step of my building...and Biff!!! I go down, but in the words of Kat's hot brittish man Simon Webb, No Worries I saved the beer and only had to sacrifice my elbow and a little pride.
Once safely inside we get down to buisness and make the jello. Satisfied with the results we break out the beer and wine and sit down to an intellectual game of chess. Mind you at this point we have only had a beer a piece. We have finished only two moves each then pour ourself a glass of wine. I am showing her my new travel opporation game given in another package from my parents. As everyone has seen in the game when the medal tweezer hits the side a buzz goes off that can be somewhat alarming. I do this and the poor injured man lurches. I am suddenly wet and there seems to be an interesting color all over my game. I look up and Mariah looks like she is going to die. She obviously thought that this was the funniest thing she has ever seen and unlucky for me she happened to be tasting the wine as I missed the shin bone. The wine was sprayed over me, the game, the chess board, and anything else that was in its path. It was very nice.
We clean up and head out to retrieve Emily. We take the wine with us because it is cold and we thought it would keep us warm. My train station is quite the hike and not thinking we do not bring our phones. We get all the way to the highway and there is no sign of Emily. We venture back and are a little worried that maybe she took the wrong way. We are not so worried however that we would pass up the opportunity to buy a beer to go at the bar. We get back to find that Emily got a ride to my house. Let the consumption begin!!

The evening was wonderful my favorite part was making a new friend in Jonah, we are tight perhaps we will marry in the future. I stumble out of my room to find my house covered in red jello. I called various individuals throughout the night including my new above mentioned friend. I also took a carpet ride and still had the time to write down some needed cleaning supplies. Boy am I hungover.
Lying in my living room trying to make it stop spinning I hear and unusual noise coming from my bathroom, one I have never heard before and was continually made fun of for making the same noise when a dog tried to eat me. Mariah screamed!! A little annoyed for having been aroused from my hung over state, I go to see what she is screaming about. The scream was the perfect action considering that a pipe in my bathroom blew up and water was flowing everywhere converting my bathroom into an indoor pool. The follies of this adventure will soon be exposed because at this time it is my duty to cook the rice for our awesome chicken dinner.

Getting sick and going home!

As we left off we were all boarding the train to travel home, well I am going to Nyrigyhaza so I don't have to brave the cold as you probably remember. Things are going okay at this point, we buy tickets and actually we buy an extra ticket which sucks but I use it later so no worries. The ticket lady told us to ride in the dinning car so that we could all sit together, as we do so some train conductor tells us not to, but as soon as he is out of sight, we go there anyway. I have always been a rule follower, but just this once I decide it is okay to break a little rule. The train starts up and we begin on our quest. We had a rough night and soon Jenna is passed out while the rest of us enjoy food and refreshments. The train stops and we say goodbye to Emily, and continue on our way. The train stops several more times, and finally the train conductor comes and asks where we are trying to go we tell her, and she tells us we missed our stop, but it is all good because we are in Kisvarda and that is where Mariah lives so we can crash at her place. We do so and I get to witness the wonderful wake up of a super happy morining person scrambleing to make coffee while grumbling the morning goddess for waking her. Jenna and I board the train and find that the train goes north, back through Kisvarda, and then onto Nyrigyhaza, that means I missed my only connection that would get me to my town on time to teach. I feel really sick at this point and can barely talk because my throat hurts and I feel like I may have a fever. To make things worse my phone has decided to re code itself, so I can not call my school to tell them I will not make it to class. We have a master plan to go to Jenna's and call Hanji to call school for me and I really can not talk so she tells me to stay in bed. That night I go to the train station to try again, the train does not show up so once again I will spend the night at Jenna's. I finally get a train the next morning walk home and get picked up half way and told to stay in bed and that I was not allowed in school that day or the next day. So I stayed in bed and acted Hungarian, because my co teacher told me that this is not america and when you are sick you stay in bed. I slept and regained energy for the next weekends adventures. All I have to say for that is J-E-L-L-O!

We make it to Roz's and move to phase three.

The weekend proves to be a very American weekend starting out with ordering Pizza Hut, and women drinking beer....from a can!! Dinner is finished and I can feel the beat of music running through my veins, and that means... Let's Dance. We venture to the clubs. Once again the dancing shoes are on my feet and I more than cut a rug, I think we as a group must manufacture them. Also I saw a lot of action on the dance floor, some wanted and some that could have never of happened. But all and all a great night of my favorite thing dancing, which we did until about four in the morning when we decided to travel back to Roz's to regroup. We had cramped sleeping courters and a lot of wonderful cuddling happened with close friends who have become family in Hungary. This so ends phase two but we will continure right onto phase three.

Trying to get home in Hungary can sometimes prove harder than it is worth. So after a wonderful night sweating the alcohol out of our systems, we send Janika to gather some provisions to get the greese to counteract the small hangover many of us were suffering from. The wonderful man takes charge and brings home an american favorite...BurgerKing. We enjoy our gressy meal while talking of our dance moves to out new favorite song, Who the F#*@ is Alice. Where is Jacek when you need him. Later we continue the american genre by lunching at subway. As much as one would like to denounce the american food industry taking over the world, sometimes it is damn nice to order something and know what it is going to actually be. Jenna, Emily, Mariah, and I decide the weekend has been great now lets go home. The beauty of this is that all of us will be traveling on the same train.

My train station is a short hike along a dangerous highway that I would rather not brave in the dark, so it is decided that I will spend the night at Jenna and Yerik's and travel to my place in the morning in the safety of the sunlight. The plan is set and put into action. To enjoy the follies of this trip try back tomarrow.

We still have not made it to Roz's!!!!

Jenna, Emily and I gradually roll out of bed to make coffee and of course switch on MTV. We are enjoying a relaxing morning waiting for Chadwick to call so we might travel to Budapest. We were a little happy that it is getting late and he has not called because we all had hopes that he was getting something only the married people get while living in Hungary. Noon rolls around and we are starving do we saunter outdoors to buy gyros and hot wine. I call Chadwick. The phone picks up, "Hey are you awake yet"? I calmly ask. "I am in a cab in Budapest", was his jack ass response. Although we are well over it now, we were a little pissed because we had been sitting aeound for three hours waiting.
No big deal we well used these three hours to come up with a brilliant plan, Let's mix drinks for the train! Yeah!! To say the very least the train ride was awesome, three women discussing the last night's events and three bottles of rum, vodka(apple flavored), and something clear that was wonderful tasting. One was to be a bitrthday gift, but it made it about half way before we consumed that too. The train arrives and we venture the streets of Budapest to find Roz's house.
We walk out of the tunel and have no clue where to go. The only thing we know is that we are looking for Arpad Bridge. I decide to go and ask someone for help. I scan the area for a safe looking older couple. I approach then and say, "Bocsanat". The reply with we have no money go away in Hungarian. I say "Nem, nem, hol van Arpad Hid"? There faced immediately change and smiles crossed their faces. "Oh yes it is right over there dear".
As I walked away, I took a look at myself and decided that I was dressed pretty good and did not look like a bum, so there was no need for them to treat me like a beggar. At this moment of thought another crossed my mind, I need to break the seal. I am not the only one and we discuss that it can not be much further to Roz's palace so we should hold it. That lasted about a half an hour when we became desperate. Just when I think that I might have to change my pants when we arrive a light shines on a sigen reading WC. We run to find that it is locked. Whatever we drop trou, and only one of us does not make it. I will not release the name of who that was, but I lived in the woods for a year and am a pro outdoor pee'er, just ask the marathon that ran past as we did so. We are almost to the birthday party. To find out who got free drinks, a little action, and what we danced to check in tomarrow. This so ends the reading of today's gospel of Laurnia. PS Baby Jesus takes the Hungarian part of Santas job to help out and he brought me two puppets. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good holiday adventure.

Just before phase two.

The Christmas Party was wonderful. I wore my beautiful elf shirt and helped in a little american christmas presentation. It was also fin because at the end of the presentation we each, and by we I mean the four americans Jenna, Em, Chadwick and myself had conversations with hungarian families who were trying to learn english. It was quite the conversation I had. I was speaking in Hunglish, and only felt confident after the happy litlle family bought me some alcohol. After my conversation with the family I met up with Em and some of here older students who were around our age so it was a more interesting conversation. They taught me some colorful Hungarian workds such as mige and lofasz, this is a PG sight so translations will not be provided.
I as usual danced a lot and ended the evening on a wonderful note, plans to meet Chadwick in the morning when he calls so we can begin phase two of the weekend...the trip to Budapest.

Aside from my wonderful weekend I just wanted to throw a little Boldog Karacsony es boldog uj evet to all. I hope all those who I can not share the holidays with find themselves safe and happy. And get good presents tooo. I love you mommy and daddy!!!!

Thank you James for the facts.

Getting around in Hungary can be challenging at times. Just as you think you have the system down they go and change it without asking the permission of the americans. The group of CETPers decided to gather in Budapest in honor of Harpswell, Kat, and Mariah's birthdays. I decided that I would first go to Szolnok to attend a Christmas party with Emily and her Oxford shcool. This is where I met a wonderful man named Yatzee or something who was a great fan of the Star Wars and thought up until me that girls knew nothing of the subject, James would be proud that I battled with the best and had the correct facts. After class on friday I was in a rush to the train station and pretty much ran to catch the train. I buy my ticket to find the ticket lady in a tizzy about who knows what. I was proud because I understood some of what was said and found out that the schedule was changed, but then she lost me which is not uncommon when she started writting stuff on my ticket. Just as I thought all was lost Janna calls and plans to meet me and I then regain my travel confidence and decide the train lady has no clue what she is talking or writting about. As usual I had no minutes to call anyone so her call was music to my ears, we met in the wonderful city of Nyiregyhaza and traveled onto the christmas party. To find out what happened at the party tune in tomarrow. Viszontlatasra.

A wonderful Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with all of my fellow american CETPers. We had wonderful hosts in Jenna and Yerik, and great cooks all around. Harpswell made a wonderful bird and Liz carved it beautfully. I also lovedthe hot wine and that is saying something if I liked something I know. The best part of the whole weekend aside from ditching the highschool chick, was hanging out with good friends. The club was hopping and I couldnt stop laughing at the bar....thanks Harpswell. I am proud of our accomplishments of alcohol consumption......Bravo group. We miss those of you who couldnt make it.

There are some things a person just shouldn't see!!

As many of us do, or all of us I should say who live in Hungary walk to and from their work each day. Well I was doing just that one afternoon after a day of struggling with communicating with my students. I was reflecting on my struggles when I happened across a man doing that as well. He was a man in his fifties or so, and was hauling what appeared to be lead pipes on his bicycle, another key transport. The bike was getting unsteady and so being the good person that I am quickened my pace to see if I might offer him some Stigen assistance. As I closed in on him I noticed that he was spilling some water or something on the ground and i thought it was a weird time to be quenching ones thirst while struggling along so. I just about reached this man when I realized that it was not water that was pouring and splashing where I walk but urine. The man was struggling to releave himself, while carring his load of goods. I was shoked and totally grossed out. I quickly moved to the road so I would not have to step in it. I once again quickened my pace to out walk the man to my street. I have farther to walk on the street than the walking path, and we met in the crossing and in Hungarian he turns to me and asks if something smells odd. Well in my head I had a lot of things to say beins somewhat sarcastic. I did not had the hungarian words to communicate my not so nice thoughts so politely stated yes, but I dont know what it is. This makes the list of things one should not ever see.

The joys of a language barrier!!!

So as many of you may know learning Hungarian is difficult. My town has not quite got that I myself am not a native speaker and rarely understand what they are saying. I when nervous smile which leads them to belive I understand, and I also have a habit of nodding and smiling when I can't hear which also sends this message.
Well having been in Hungary alone in my appartment I also have been known to dance and sing to whatever music I have selected at the time. Doing so I have developed a reputation and my co workers often comment on it on Monday morning. The first mishap for me came when the teacher who sits next to me in the teacher room, Gabi said something to me with the words enekel and tancol in it. These are the words for sing and dance. I thought she was making jokes about my latest moves. I was wrong I accedentaily joined the school choir and will be singing amazing grace in the christmas pagent. I blame the language barrier.
The second event this week was when Liz and I decided it would be entertaining to go to 40 Year old Vergin. Buying the tickets were a challange and the man kept laughing at us stating that we do not speak Hungarian. I was like duh, good thing it is an English film. Well we finally get the tickets and sit crammed like sardines into the last row. Apparently in Hungary movie tickets come with a seat number and they pack you in even it there are only ten of you you will all be in the back row. Anyway we were waiting for the movie to start and boasting that we will be the only ones laughing because the translations will be so bad in the subtitles. Oh no the joke was on us it was dubbed and that is why the man kept stessing that we did not know Hungarian. Language barrier again wins. On my way to walk Liz to the bus stop some little old lady said a whole bunck about Monday, I had no clue I quickely walked away and on the way back I got an earful from another lady about missing the bus to Miskolc and could not tell here they go every half hour. So I leave with the message this language is really hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!