welcome freshmen

this week was sort of a welcoming week for the freshmen. i have only 2 9th grade classes. this is how the whole grade came dressed to school on thursday.

they wore garbage bags, socks and sandals, goggles, floaties, leotards... anything to make them look stupid. someone - i'm still not sure who - was awarding points for people dressed the craziest. i hope my 9a kids did ok. during class they gave me a shower cap, some water wings, and a ducky floaty to wear. i did it proudly!

today was STUDENT DAY at the new dorm. there were competitions among 9th graders starting at 830am. then students had street art, dancing, handball, pet beauty contests, and cookoffs. i was able to talk with many of my students and plenty of colleagues. i even got to taste some authentic, traditional hungarian cuisine. here are some pictures from student day.

market day!!

every saturday and wednesday there is a large outdoor market. today i went to ours! this is outside the building. inside the building are small shops, lunch counters, and many shoppers.

here is a flower shop inside.

this is the flower aisle inside. there are so many varieties and they are SO cheap!

this is another aisle inside. on the left are pasta and eggs, on the right are jars of honey (big ones!) and some stuff i can't identify.

all along the outer walls of the building are meat counters where you can buy freshly cut meats. they look ok but man, that part of the market stinks!

this is what i saw when i went outside to the outdoor part of the market.

here is a typical merchant's selection.

aw, little old ladies were buying roses. so sweet! plus, they are good lookin' flowers.

here is the flower aisle or section outside. it wasn't very busy but there sure were a lot of flowers!

here is one last look before i left the market. *sigh* oh the marketplace.

Pictures of the town

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this is my apartment building. that patch of grass is what xander is most familiar with.

this is the mexican restaurant RIGHT across the street from my flat. the food is ok, not mexican by any stretch, but delicious still. the green building is a motorcycle store which is shockingly busy. the yellow dumpster you see is where many gypsies shop. they collect random stuff - shoes, old bags, cans, old food - and carry it off in plastic bags or baskets.

this is the street i live on and walk down everyday. it's so cute!

fashion suggestions...

more fashion suggestions...

a typical scene: hungarians waiting for a bus. i myself am part of such a scene about 8 times a week. it's lovely.

ah! the bus is coming! this is one of the longer ones. usually i ride buses that are just a single bus. they are sometimes so full that more people are standing than sitting! people often give up their seats to old people or mothers with small children.

though this side street is just precious, the crosswalk where this picture was taken is the most dangerous one i've come across. yikes!

when i walk to school or to the market this is the area of town i pass through. i cross this street, look in all the shops, and watch people all the way there.

old people are everywhere. it makes me think of florida. hehehe

our nike store. they have the same brands we have in america but some of the styles here are very different. whatever - nike is nike.

an example of hungarian parking.


i hope you enjoyed seeing pictures of my neck of nyiregyhaza. i like this little town and its people.

a rainy weekend

it was so cold and rainy this weekend that i basically did nothing all day everyday. sad, but that's ok. it's always good to have some down time. i took some pictures of the money because... why not.




the paper ones are handy. here are the conversion rates: 200 ft = $1.30
500 ft = $3.20, 1000 ft = $6.40, 2000 ft = $12.80... there are also 5000 and 10000 forint paper bills... but i am poor and don't have one of those. there may be higher denominations, but none i'll ever see!
the coins are pretty useless except the 100 forint ones (the gold and silver in one coins). the others are just as useless (to me) as american coins are. but they're everywhere.


my OTHER sister sent me 2 care packages!!! i got them the other day at school and i was so happy!!! (incidentally, they were bound with strong plastic binding so i needed scissors. i asked a colleague for some... in HUNGARIAN! she understood me quite easily and i started dancing around. not only did i remember the word for "scissors" but in hungarian when something is the direct object you need to add a "t" to the end of the word. in my sentence i even remembered the T!! i said, "kerem egy oloT." and i got scissorssssssss!! woo hoo!)
anyway, in the packages were games (for my classes!!) hand towels - which are proudly displayed in the bathroom, one of which was used to dry off xander from his first hungarian bath yesterday, a toy xander left in america, some kleenex - not nasty rough face tissues like they have here, some over-the-door hooks - to hang towels on, some GUM!, a few other things and most importantly: macaroni and cheese!!




WE LOVE YOU, LIZ!! THANKS FOR THINKING OF US!!!

Teacher Room Video

this is a very short video, sorry, but there were a lot of people in there and i didn't want to be disruptive.


there are 15 minute breaks between all classes. the teachers use these breaks to prepare for the next class, write in the daily book (the naplo), or eat a snack. i don't return to the teacher room as often as everyone else because my classes are very spread out.

regarding the naplo: i hate this concept. for class 9a there is a book which has all the students' names. in the book after every class i have with 9a i must write who was absent, what we did in the class, and any grades i have assigned. that wouldn't be so bad if i were a "form teacher" and had one or two classes (like 9a or 10c) only. however, since i am the lektor, the native english teacher, i have all levels. since there is a book for 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 10a, 10b, 10c, etcccccc, i have the lovely task of writing in 15 naplos a week. some naplos i will write in twice a week because i have 10a(1) on tuesdays and 10a(2) on thursdays. so, i must write in these silly books 21 times a week. it's a lot!!! plus, it's all in hungarian! *sigh* today i wrote in class 10c's naplo for last thursday and friday, and yesterday and today. it took 10 minutes. so far, naplos suck... not to mention the fact that no one will ever read what i write but it is necessary that i write it. grrr.

oh yeah! the other day i had a meeting with my "private student" aniko. we met at the mall and had a cup of hot chocolate each. we just had a nice conversation and got to know each other, not a real lesson. she asked me to travel with her somewhere sometime. i said i would and that i'd love to have her along on some trip of mine. she's 23, nice enough, and pretty good at english. she bought my hot chocolate, too. what a sweetie. we shopped for some shoes for me, too. it was good to have a translator handy. that's really what i want full time! not someone to translate everything, but someone to teach me all the words. hehe. yeah, i like her.