today i went to my two new schools (szent imre and kossuth - you might as well learn the names because i'll have to differentiate between them all year).
magdi (who has been like a contact teacher for me so far, as she has taken me to the immigration office, helped me with paper work, come to my old school and translated for me at kossuth), an english teacher at kossuth, took me to szent imre today to meet with the principal/headmistress. when we arrived all the teachers were in a beginning-of-the-year meeting so we hung out in the hall for half an hour talking. when the meeting was over we went into the teachers' room for a party, as one of the english teachers is retiring and so threw a party - kind of a goodbye party for herself :) - for the teachers. gifts and kisses, food, cakes, drinks, the whole bit. i was also introduced to the staff at this party and given a plate (that had a deviled egg with sour cream sauce on it already). they seemed nice enough. several teachers came up and introduced themselves to me and some invited me to go get coffee/smoke with them. as i'm not a huge coffee drinker and i don't smoke... i went anyway. i had time to kill before meeting the boss lady. after "coffee" (and by that i mean ginger ale) a nice rita showed me around the school. we arranged for me to get reimbursed for a bus pass, to get lunch tickets, i saw the copy room, library, cafeteria, computer room, and language room. szent imre is a catholic school, recently partially renovated/updated, and clean. i noticed crucifixes in each room (not just class rooms, but every room) and there is a chapel on campus. it has three floors, one main building for classes and a really big dorm for students to live in (i was offered a room in the student hostel, but declined as it wouldn't have been good for xander... or me...). the headmistress was busy with meetings and couldn't meet with me, as it turned out, but that's ok. i'm used to this hungarian-ness by now. i was told i'll get my schedule on the first day of school, as will the other teachers. ON the first day. oy. i'll mostly be teaching 10th graders, with 3 classes of 9th, 2 or 3 11th grade classes, and one class of school leavers (seniors/12th graders). some of my classes will be "zero level" students who are learning english intensively (15 hours a week). this may the first time to study english for some of them! anyway, i'll be there on tuesdays and thursdays.
i took a bus back to kossuth (the school where i live) to find out what i could find out. the teachers in the staff room ignored me when i went in purposely looking confused and lost. i went to the assistant principals' office instead hoping one of them would speak english. one did! idk his name, but when he started speaking in english i seriously thought he was "doing" an accent because it was so thick and different from a typical hungarian accent. anyway, i said something like, "i have questions" and he jumped up to help. i asked and found out when the first day of school is (importnant, no!? and it's different than szent imre's first day... weird.), the opening ceremony, when we're leaving for prague on wednesday (4am, btw), and where my desk is in the teachers' room. that's about it, but that was the stuff i wanted to know, so, it's all good. kossuth is an evangelical school, also three stories, there's no chapel but we'll attend chapel services in the big yellow church.
i almost cried several times during the day. even though i'm in the same city i can already tell that life will be really different this year. that's not to say that it will be bad, just different. i had a really good introduction to hungary being at zrinyi last year and it's possible it will be hard to beat. i forgot how sucky it feels not to know anyone and not to have anyone know me. actually, i've moved once a year for the past 6 or 7 years, so i know how to start a new life, but this is the one time i haven't wanted to move and change, but i
had to. i still have high hopes for the year and know it will be a good and unique experience. even for me, someone who likes, even
craves change, change is still hard. the weird thing is that it all hit me today. not all the goodbyes from students, not the last day of school, not when i cleaned out my desk this summer, not when i signed the contracts at the new schools or when i signed a completion of contract paper at zrinyi, not even at my farewell party (another post), but today. the ushering in of new faces, new buildings, new everything, that's what made it real.
little did we know that it would be the coldest and rainiest day of the summer... there were some italian people in our wagon with us. they had some little kids who were miserable in the wind and rain but took it like champs and had a good time anyway.
doilies, table cloths, whathaveyou
pottery shop
