end of school

if you'll recall, i was given this poinsettia for my brithday from lovely aniko' (student turned friend). well i put it outside of my door to festive-ize the hall along with the wreaths on all the doors. then one day i stepped out to buy some potatoes. i saw the plant when i left. i walked to the store and back, was gone about 20 minutes, not longer. and what did i find upon my return? NOTHING, that's what. big, fat NOTHING.
so i was sad/mad/amused that someone would steal my plant (in hungarian it's called a santa claus plant, come on, how can you steal that?!?!). i wrote this little note which says "thanks!" like thanks a lot, jerky thieving hungarian who stole my plant. i left it outside my door in the plant's rightful place.
here is my sad little door with its lone wreath and no poinsettia. see the card?
i'd love to tell you that the thief saw my sad card and returned the plant. but no. no, no, no. :(

anyway, i know you've all been wondering, so here is what xander is doing these days...
the last week of school was stressful but good. on monday i gave a drama workshop for teachers in my city. there were several english teachers from my school and some from a few other schools. altogether there were like 16 english teachers. the workshop was called "using drama in the ESL classroom" so i presented ideas, activities, and reasons to use drama with english learners. overall it went pretty well. i wasn't as nervous as i thought i would be, probably because of all the familiar faces. the activities we did were so fun and funny. that's really why i liked doing it: free entertainment... also, it was all in english. muahahaha! afterwards, a british native english speaker, karen, invited me to come to a gathering she and some other english speakers have every tuesday. i am glad for the invite, since i love talking... in english... and meeting new people. i couldn't go this week, but i will definitely go sometime. it's just coffee, tea, and visiting. sounds perfect.

after the workshop i went to a christmas party for the teachers at my school. it was held in one of the huge classrooms. there were a million different kinds of sweets, foods, and drinks. seriously, millions. they were all set up on the perimeter of the room and there were two circles of chairs going around the room, too. not what i expected for a party. in the middle of the chairs there was a long table with weird things on it. as people got there, 6pm on the dot, some students came in and presented a little christmas performance or something. they were 9 or 10 standing in front of all the teachers. they were supposed to be people on a bus or metro. they just stood perfectly still for a really long time while some voices from a cd player expressed what each person was thinking. if i could have understood it i'm sure i would have been much more interested. as it was, though, i was mostly impressed with how perfectly still they all stood for about 10 minutes. they were my students, by the way, 12d.
after the students left, some teacher passed out lyric sheets and we all sang a few christmas carols (in hungarian, of course). aniko' was sitting next to me and translated some for me because that's my favorite. some teacher read a story and cried during the reading. i asked aniko' why and it turns out she's just sensitive and the story wasn't sad or anything. i can sing a christmas song in hungarian now. only one, though, 'cause some of them were pretty advanced for little ol' me. the lyrics seemed very holy.
thennnn the party started. i brought a cd of christmas songs (per some colleagues' requests) and it was played while people ate, mingled, and gathered at that long table in the middle of all the chairs. the weird stuff on there was actually craft stuff. we could make some cards, gift labels, and/or ornamental things. it was fun; i made some card thingies. i am bad at crafts.

in my classes i played christmas music, gave out some lyrics, and mostly gave people a free day. see? these are 9a girls. they really like me... and it's good, 'cause i really like them, too.

it was cold and rainy everyday. here are some umbrellas in the teachers' room.

friday after school got out (at 11am by the way!) there was an assembly in the gym which included some ninth graders performing "the happy prince" by oscar wilde. it was nice. there was dancing, acting, singing, and reciting of poems. i really wished i knew hungarian.
here are some assembled kids....
girls reciting poems...that gold guy is the prince and at his feet is a swallow....
friday night the language teachers met at a mexican restaurant to celebrate the end of the year. i wasn't too into taking pictures as i wasn't feeling too hot, but here are a few.
this is the guy who picked me up from budapest back in august. he's the first zrinyi representative i ever met. laci (lotzee) took way more pictures than i did. maybe i'll get to see them some time. (hint hint, laci!)
this was my delicious "tex mex salad" with cucumbers, corn, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, bacon, and chicken. i'm describing it in such detail because i will forever remember its goodness.
here is spanish teacher gabi (who also speaks english) and is very fun.
this is judit, my hungarian tutor. she's not usually so blurry. ;)
so i ordered a drink ('safe sex on the beach') and i specified that i wanted a cherry. the guy thought i meant i wanted a bottle of cherry drink so that's what that other drink is. ugh.
this is a teacher who is on maternity leave from zrinyi (my school). she's been gone for a few years and isn't sure when she's coming back. i hope it's soon 'cause i really liked her. she invited me to come to her house to play with her little kids in english. woohoo!

here are some kids singing at the assembly. i don't know those kids but if i'm here next year i'll have them then.


tomorrow i'm going to budapest and on wednesday i'm going to collect LIZ from the airport!