the start of school

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.