still alive

i fell down the stairs outside the college as i was walking xander. i went bump bump bump on my butt down three steps. it hurt!! wanna see?

mariachi gypsy and rob

reagan, 11, who was given a blanket because it was so windy

the other night the entire CETP group was treated to a nice dinner on the patio of some restaurant. i sat with the mother-daughter team who will be teaching fairly close to me and with some guy named rob. we had delicious food and decent conversation. there was the equivalent of a mariachi band - a gypsy band - playing around us all evening. the wind really picked up while we were eating. the waiters came over and shut the umbrella we were all sitting under.

reagan and laura, almost getting closed in the umbrella

here are some pictures i took out of my bedroom window. i am staying in a college dorm for about a week - well, only 2 days left, while CETP training is going on. they are teaching us about hungarian culture, language, history, and giving many teaching tips. each of the teachers will be going to our respective new homes on thursday.

class - picture taken while i was in a corner participating in some activity, this is just a good view of the rest of the class (minus about 10 people) and the classroom

this is sound of music maria. she is hungarian, but teaches english in hungary (and has taught hungarian in the US). she sounds just like julie andrews. i can only tell if i listen very hard and for a long time that she is in fact not british. she was talking about music for a minute and sang five notes: do re me fa sol la... i was on cloud nine. i love listening to her, so good thing i have to for about 4 hours a day!

yesterday i was going to go on a boat tour with some people but we missed each other at our rendezvous point so i went to get a pastry with some other people, rachel and brittany. we stopped in a pastry shop where i got ice cream and they got pastries. some old lady started talking to us un hungarian, assuming we knew it. we all knew a little and tried to understand. she was so precious telling us which pastries were good and so on. then she kep talking about some stuff we'll never know what. i tried to move the conversation on, like, see ya later, sweet old lady but she just kept chatting away. we took a picture of her, but it's on one of the other girls' cameras. i'll get that one to you soon.
then we went to another bakery, more fancy though. we sat outside and had some cakes brought to us.
delicious, as you can imagine. i was bothering a waitress or two trying to learn some hungarian words and the guy at the table next to us came over. he was hungarian, but had been living in the US for 51 years. he complimented my hungarian (yesss!) and asked us why we're here. it was nice for a stranger to initiate conversation with us for a change.
on the way home on a tram i was talking to some guy about the word for "fish" (to make sure no one ever tries to give it to me here). some girl on the tram overheard our conversation which was basically me repeating "i don't like fish, thank you" or something in hungarian. she said something about me speaking hungarian then gave me hard words to say. i tried and didn't suck too much and she seemed to stop challenging me. she asked if i was on facebook. i said, of course, i'm american. she wanted to find me on there, so i told her my last name. her eyes got all big and she said rrrrrreally? yes. she said, i am taw-catch too! we hugged and took a picture. i cut myself out of it. here she is:
i won't know her name until she finds me on facebook. she didn't always have a crooked face.
last night when i got home i asked some college student the word for stairs. she told me and we started a whole thing. i told her about xander, she wanted to see him, she asked about me teaching here, etc. we came to my room, oh her name is martina, and i showed her xander. she taught me a bunch of words and i told her about falling down the stairs. she laughed like it was hilarious how i have a bruise on my butt. then... i can't believe it myself, i showed her. hahaha. she laughed even more. oh well, i like her. she told me her room number and come find her to hang out. we will see each other again in 11 months when i come through budapest on my way hom to the US. she introduced me to a guy living a few rooms away from me, Vozo. he had just ordered a pizza and i was jealous. tomorrow, that's what i'm gonna do. they also taught me some hungarian together. it's the hardest language ever (except like chinese and heirogliphics or something) but everyone is so nice to help me with it.