Thursday, November 27, 2008

Szerencs - with Laura and Reagan ROUND 2

this weekend i went to szerencs again to see laura and reagan. this time i went for a weekday so i could see their school, too!

this is xander on the train on the way there.
getting tired...
what!?
after i arrived safely in their town, about an hour's train ride, we decided to go to lunch. unfortunately their town is pretty small and there isn't a huge variety of places to eat. i think i'm sick of pizza, so i asked about going to "Buffalo Bill's", a swanky little place they have in szerencs. we braved the cold and wind, walked a couple miles, and found ourselves in a cool little restaurant with a native american/cowboy theme.



soups came first. goulash for reagan...
"meat soup"for me, though it had noodles and veggies, too
i ordered chicken wings and fries. it was delish!
they brought me a separate water bowl with a lemon floating in it so i could clean my fingers. i also had a bone plate. that's how Buffalo Bill's rolls.
laura had some breaded turkey strips, but they were a little bland for her taste. she asked for some kind of sauce and they brought tartar. it was a no go. then the waitress brought a basket with all the sauces they have. one of them was real life barbecue sauce. she was very happy!

this is me and Buffalo Bill... i thinkafter eating we shopped in a store for a little bit, caught a taxi home, and set to work to help/watch reagan with her powerpoint presentation on american christmas. she took this picture of me.
this is proof that the powerpoint presentation existed.
the next morning that very computer you just saw died a horrible death. some messages about "deleting physical memory" and "no rebootable material" and "your computer is dead forever, say goodbye to all your pictures from the last three months in europe" came up and it was game over. sometimes life sucks for no reason.

on monday i went to school with them! classes were fun because of the little cutie kids. i observed a 2nd grade, 5th grade, and 7th grade class.

some boys doing a skit (7th grade had skits due the day i was there!)
a sign in one of the classrooms: he that doesn't know is not stupid, it is he who doesn't want to know who is stupid (translation courtesy of a cute little 5th grader)



in between classes there are 10-15 minute breaks. here is what happens when the children are unsupervised (6 times a day!). omg.


before i left laura gave me a bunch of books, index cards, and supplies she's not using. on the trainride home i looked through them all. there were some hungarian/english dictionaries and flash cards, so i quizzed and taught myself because why not.

other than the computer crashing and the freezing weather, it was a good trip. i'm glad i got to see what it is like to teach in a hungarian elementary school. the other teachers there were nice and some reminded me of my very own colleagues. i hope i can visit that school again some time.

3 comments:

Giant Sis said...

the video of the unsupervised children is terrifying. but i love the head, shoulders, knees, and toes one! too cute! are you sure you don't want to teach little children english? you could sing all kinds of fun songs with them! happy american thanksgiving! do they have a "hungarian thanksgiving" at another time of the year? like canada does in october? luv yer guthole!

Ashlee said...

oh Xander you silly little dog. I'm so glad you got a photo shoot on the train!

I'm so glad there are french fries in Hungary, I really don't know that I could live without them, I do not like chicken on the bone, and I did not enjoy looking at your pictures of empty bones. GROSS. But, yay for BBs!

Little kids are so cute! (except when they are crazy in the halls!!)

Anonymous said...

goood... americans really think there is NOTHING in hungary:D. omg, that video is really terrifying!!! what of a school is that:D?!