Bookends

I feel alternatively that I have just arrived, hot and sweaty into Ferihegy and that I have been here forever. 

Things are both entirely similar and entirely different from late August and early September.

My kids are returning to the energetic state of chaos that surrounds new beginnings and endings. They still ask me if I am married, am I really 88, and other varied personal questions. Unlike in September I am no longer shocked by their curiosity.

In late May we went to another Wine festival in Etyek. Again Lauren, Lyla and I piled into the ancient yellow volan bus to trek the 45 minute journey. This time they did not meet me at the Bus station, and this time we knew where to go.  

My music and Youtube education has grown thanks to Franny. I am learning new ideas about food from Jon. I am learning about physical presentation from Lauren and Lyla. I am learning Hungarian from Sani and Jeno. I am learning about fishing and wine from Tamas. I am learning patience and joy from my kids. I am learning to play Hungarian cards from 11b. I am learning about sewing, baking, traveling, dancing and BLISS in all its forms from the people around me. 

I love being a teacher, because it means I never have to stop learning and pursuing knowledge. 

I just hope I have taught my students something as well.

"Tomorrow there will be an execution"

Is what one of my teachers told me, as I looked around at people tacking colourful banners around the school. My confused face must have given it away, because he looked at me strangely as I asked "Exhibition?" 

I have had a delightful week of company. First Tara in Mariapocs then later a friend from Australia I had not seen in years. 

Tara and I accompanied the teachers on a wine "tasting" in a small town just over an hour away from Heves. On the way there we made a pit-stop to drink wine, at some one's house...just because, and when we got to Nagyrede, it started with obligatory shots of Palinka. The night was spent talking to a teacher who has not spoken a word to me in the last 9 months that I have lived here, listening to the Bandis sing songs, nattering in Hunglish, eating amazing food, and dancing to Hungarian jazz under the stars.

Judit, Tara and I popped into my favorite flower shop, where the man behind the counter gave us free yellow roses each "for our birthdays"

There was a fashion show in school, including dancing Snow white and the seven dwarfs. 

Tara, Jamie, Jeb and I chilled in Gyula for two days. I ran into an acquaintance, whom I have not seen in two years, but still remembered who I was (despite no longer having black hair). Odd, and nice. 

I saw a play in Eger with the Cops. It involved Alien ghosts, a fold out book, a gangster, a robot, a bomb, an overenthusiastic cop, a mean caretaker, plum dumplings, and a girl in a clown suit called Hedgehog (sunni)... AND it was a musical.

I gave someone a hair cut. It turned out cute. 

One of my private 11b students taught me how to play Hungarian cards. When the rest of the class came in, more people joined, and I ended up skipping lunch to play cards with my students.

The Folk Art museum ladies recognize me, as I have now been there at least 5 times (taking the tour). Twice in the last week. Although never having taken the tour in English, I have been the translator almost all of those times, even though my Hungarian is pretty bad and I only figured out the word for linen on the third time around. 

Babysitting: 12B style

As the date of their impending freedom approaches, 12b's apathy towards the English language grows, and this results in both frustration and hilarity for their Anyanelvi teacher (the No). 

One poignant example is today's class. The assignment in the Erettsegi (Hungarian maturity exam, much like the HSC in N.S.W., The Abitur in Germany or the Matura in Austria) book was to explain to the examiner why the student would be a good babysitter. They had to cover such points like:

• Do you have any younger brothers or sisters?
• What would you do to entertain the child? 
• What would you give the child to eat/drink?
• What would you do in case of an emergency (ex. Crying)?
  

The No divided the class (about half of them were 'mysteriously' missing) into two teams. The boys opted to stay together, and so did the girls. Fluttering between them, the No tried to spur her students on to do the exercise, she received only blank looks and muttering in Hungarian. In the end, she sat with each group and asked them their responses. The girls gave fairly normal responses: Yes, I have helped look after children. We would give them fruit and vegetables. We would play ball and run with them, and in case of emergencies, we would sing to them, hug them or take them to the Hospital.

The boys, however gave a slightly different response. One of the boys kept repeating that he hated small children, and finally assisted his group (himself, one other official student, and one student who comes although he has already taken his language exam (he just sits in the back and listens to music)) with the following responses:

• We would feed the children fruit, vegetable and beer milkshakes
• We would take the kids to the pub and a metallica concert (lifted on shoulders so not to get squished)
• In case of emergency we would take them to the hospital (yes, even if the kid is just crying). 

"Adam loves you tanar-neni"

Spring is coming. 

The No can tell. Not only because it is light after 4pm, not only because there is less bite in the chilly gusts of wind that accompany her to school, but because her students may be beginning to crack. 

This week students have professed love to the No in 3 separate classes. One student tacked variations of "and Miss has my unending love" or "Miss is very nice today" onto every sentence he had to read from the textbook. In a couple of her classes, the students keep asking about if the No has a boyfriend (hadn't we gone over that?). Got asked to party with two groups of students (one needed help asking, so paused after every word, waiting for his friend to whisper the next word to him). Two of her students have begged her (and I do mean literally on their hands and knees) not to bring them to the Osztifonok/confiscate their cell phone. One student resorted to throwing himself on the floor in the middle of the hallway during passing time, rolling around and intermittently making Monkey noises. 

This behavior could also be partially attributed to the increased level of chaos that has reigned over our school. One third of the teachers have been out sick, while another healthy chunk are on the school ski trip leaving the rest of us to scramble to replace them. Replacement generally means that both advanced and beginner halves will be together in the same class. Or a German group and an English group will meet together. This means that either two lessons are being taught at the same time, by the same teacher (yes it is as confusing as it sounds), or a lesson which is too difficult for half and too easy for the other half. At the same time we are preparing for a Ball next week, which should include various performances. Due to the illness of the organizer, we only found out today who was definitely preforming. 

There was also another dance last night. It was a Farsang party for the dormitory students. The No was invited, after participating in a passing-time dance party with the 11d girls. Not really knowing what to expect, the No tentatively approached the school at 5:30. She met with Zoltan (12d's Osztifonok) on the way, and the pair stumbled through broken Hunglish until they got inside. The No was pulled aside by one of her petite (but considers herself to be a tough guy) girls, and told she must judge. The talent/costume contest was pretty good. They boys showcased their sport skills. And the girls showed of dancing, costuming and acting skills. After which the No was shepherded into a small room and fed things. Then there was awkward dancing, and she made her escape. 

All in all, it has been a strange, if wonderful week. Although it has given me new goals: 

a) Learn to dance

b) Work on Hungarian...so I don't need a constant translator

c) Remember my umbrella at all times

d) REALLY have to work on sniffling giggles....it just encourages them. 

"With Napoleon Brandy, made in France and not in Minnesota" p30

Teaching stuff:

As a way to encourage students to push themselves out of their normal four sentences in Dialogues, I have created character cards. The trick is to incorporate the character into whatever dialogue we are working on. It forces them to be a little more creative, and think about how they are putting the vocabulary together. These are the characters I have so far:

• A strict teacher
• A Vampire
• An obsessive comic book collector/artist
• An angry waitress
• A parent of 4 young children, who you are looking after during the dialogue
• A university student
• A Pirate
• A Superhero (state your name and superpowers during the dialogue)
• A caffeine addict, you need to drink at least four cups of coffee a day
• Someone vain
• You have a disease where you fall asleep every 5 minutes, but only for 10 seconds at a time
• A presidential candidate (think about campaign promises)

If you have any suggestions for more that would be great! I am currently compiling a list of situation cards as well.  I used these in my more advanced classes, but even then had to explain some of the vocabulary/concepts.

This is how I roll...

With one of my private students, we came across the term "this is how I roll." Which made me think of exactly how I roll as a teacher at EJK/G.

Today in first period only two girls showed up. I was confused, because no one told me that there would be a university presentation. Later another teacher spent 45 min looking for her class because no one told her either...yeah that is how we roll.

Second period was 9d. Already my largest and one of my most challenging classes, it was crashed by the other half of the homeroom class. They barged in yelling "Nincs tanar, Not the teacher" and sat down in my class. After just a moment's pause I gave directions to the German students (the class crashers) in German. This stunned most of my class into silence, because they did not know I spoke any other languages. Then spent the rest of the lesson shifting between being a Miss, a Tanarno and a Frau. A semi-bilingual teacher in a supposedly trilingual classroom with practically monolingual students...yeah that is how I roll.

Last period I spent 15 minutes with my class searching for an empty room. Having been told I was not in the classroom I have been using since the beginning of this schedule and all others on the first and second floors of both wings were being used. One third of the class was spent looking for a place to have class...yeah that is how we roll.

We are working...we aren't working....

Jet-lagged and bleary-eyed the No showed up to school on Monday morning. Many of the other teachers looked at her surprised, because despite the No's assurances, they had not been sure if she would return to school. The No glanced up at the board that listed substitutions and general announcements. There she saw something about Szombaton (Saturday), but ignored it. She had been planning a Mexican/Hungarian fiesta for over a month. She had checked which Saturdays they would be working, sent out invitations and bought supplies at home.
So on Tuesday, when one of the teachers translated the message on the board to mean that we would be working on Saturday, the No was both disappointed and peeved. Flurried messages over facebook and cell phone assured that while there would be some cancellations, the Mexican party would continue. So, having rearranged her schedule the No was set. But the No forgot, she lives/teaches in Hungary. So, while she was surprised on Thursday by the news that Saturday school was moved from this weekend to sometime in March, she shouldn’t have been. The government moved the date of the extra working day, because of the gas crisis in Europe. In summary, the gas from Russia to Europe has been cut off due to diplomatic problems. This means that Hungary has to tighten its gas-using belt, i.e. gas in public factories has been cut off, and in Schools and universities, it has been cut down. Our second floor is cold enough that the students wear jackets and scarves during class. This means that in order to save gas, we do not have school on Saturday.

New Schedule, New Beginning

Monday morning I walked in to school refreshed from break, and excited to start the day, or at least see the other teachers. There sitting on my desk were three objects that I had not left there. One was a package from my fabulous mother, full of enough goodies that I will gain 200 pounds and have a diabetic shock if I eat it all.
The next was a letter from Austria, addressed not to me, but rather to the other non-Hungarian Briggi.
Finally on top was a small white slip of paper with my new school schedule. The return of two teachers has meant an entire overhaul of the daily plans. Not only are my classes in a completely new order, I have two entirely new classes. I look forward to another couple of weeks of getting lost, and trying to figure out how Week B has 23 classes, while Week A has only 21.
Coming back to school after a blissful two-week break, reminds me how much I appreciate and missed my kids. As crazy as they behave, and as much as they do not listen, forget their homework, and complain about working, it is all worth it. Helping even one student further their education, or understand something just a bit better, makes the bad days worth it.

Stuff we have done: (or holy cow, actual teaching stuff)

The monster mash: Used it as a listening exercise in two ways - as a cloze activity and as an action activity. Assign key words with an action, and when they occur in the song, students must make the action. This is better for younger students, highly energetic students and Saturday school.

The song/movie line dialogue: Another teacher from Szolnok suggested this activity, and so far it has worked really well. Have students write a line from a song or movie, and then collect them. Randomly hand them back to Students in groups and have them create a dialogue using these two lines.

Past Simple review dialogues: Asking students to discuss their break, write sentences on the board. Then circle irregular verbs and box regular endings to create visual difference, and go through regular and irregular verbs. Then ask about our example character…my crazy friend Joe’s break and then ask the students to box or circle the verbs. Then have them create short dialogues using at least six verbs, three regular and three irregular. This is meant as a review activity, not as a means to teach the difference.


After Obama's win on Tuesday, I now have a new name: HalloBriggiTanarnő has been replaced with ObamaistheWinnerBriggiTanarnő. Well at least in the hallway as I search for my classes.

The sad lament of Finom Oscar

All that was left was a bloody sploge, some feathers, and a couple of choice inedible organs. This was all that was left of Finom Oscar on Monday morning. The No was devastated, now who would she chase down the streets of Heves, his ruddy orange feathers gleaming as he ran? Who now would protect her from rabid bugs on her way to school? And when she had had a bad day, who would she yell “you will be soo tasty one day” to? Only a month into life in Heves, and Finom Oscar was by far her favorite chicken.
But the gruesome death of her favorite chicken was only the beginning of an extraordinarily strange week.
During the week she began to put two and two (hopefully incorrectly), and is vaguely uncomfortable with the 11-D police class. Training to be policemen, the class is dominated by boys, boys who stare at their American teacher. Not the ‘I’m bored, stop speaking to me in this language I don’t understand’ stare that she gets from most of her classes, but a new and disconcerting one. They smile, and stare while they smile. L from BP suggested that the No should report them to their Homeroom teacher. However, the No has nothing concrete to report, no evidence that they tried to lift her skirt or pin something on her, just that they stare at her. This is not a reportable offence, because in Hungary it is not an offence at all. Men stare at women all the time. In fact, the No catches Attila and whom she thinks is the 11D homeroom teacher Zolika staring at her all the time. Perhaps they are just being friendly, like when one of the quieter and dignified 11 D students (who never smiles), popped into a classroom, gave the No a giant goofy grin and waved then ran out again.

They also may just like their American teacher because a few weeks back she did not bail out on the Stork day. Storks bring new things, so in Hungary they half welcome and half haze incoming ninth (and in our school seventh) grade students on the stork day. It involves public acts of humiliation and is run by older grades. Our school does things a little differently; they also haze the new teachers. Surrounded by a crush of students and some other teachers, the No was swept towards the gym. However she was stopped by a number of her 11D students, who were in charge, and decorated with eyeliner on her arms. Suitably resembling an artist’s canvas, she walked into the packed Gym, and was informed that she would be singing a solo of Madonna’s version of American Pie. Not knowing the lyrics, the No instead gave a slam poetry style recitation of ring around the roses. The students did not get off so lightly, and ran egg relays, swore oaths while standing on one leg, and had to pack into ‘nests’ that were so small that they had to hoist the lightest student on their shoulders just to fit. Giggles and smiles dispensed with, the Stork celebration was abruptly over and everyone went home.

The rest of the week the No awkwardly dealt with weeping students in two classes. Her pin-curled hair trying to eat anything not moving fast enough, watching Chicago in three of her classes, made applesauce out of a giganormous box of apples another teacher gave her, gobbling sweets from a package one of her awesome cousins sent, and added to the lies about her imaginary boyfriend/husband/roommate/buddy/mortal enemy Joe.

Attack of the Rabid Slugs, chickens training for sprints, or where are my classes?

This week, the weather turned frigid, and the No still suffering from hill-rolling related rashes on her arms, shuffled around her unheated apartment. Only the third week of September and already she was wearing a third of her clothing at any one time. The rainy conditions brought out the slugs and snails. On her Monday journey towards the school, the No resembled a Russian ballet dancer, as she jumped and skipped around avoiding attacks of rabid and blood thirsty slugs.

The third week in, and the No still got lost on the way to her classes. It is not that she cannot find Room 108, or 224, but for each class there are three different possibilities in her schedule. The fourth and fifth weeks were not much better, and the No has heard that because of a returning teacher, everyone will get a new schedule as of November 1st.

I have visited Budapest both of the last two weekends; the first for a wine festival in a surrounding village and the other weekend to visit friends. Budapest throws into sharp relief not only the difference between the city and country life, and also the changes in myself.

When first landing in Budapest from Minneapolis one of the first things I notice is the complete lack of skyscrapers screaming competing to be the first to pierce the sky. There is more sprawl, but as most of Budapest was built at the turn of the nineteenth century the buildings are ornate and short. Coming in from the country four weeks later, I am overwhelmed by the busy pace and my inability to see the sky. Buildings looming overhead, and the multitude of neon creating a false dawn mess up my internal clock and make me feel claustrophobic.

One of the other big changes that I notice is the amount of English spoken. When arriving in Budapest, it seems as if there is very little I could understand and getting lost as the streams of language swam heavily past my uncomprehending ears. Now returning after living out of the city, I am almost queasy with the amount of English being spoken. Everywhere I go I hear tourists and expats, trying to listen in to all of their conversations makes me dizzy and my head hurt.

However probably the biggest difference is that I have yet to see prison-breaking chickens running sprints down the streets of Budapest. Nor have I seen tractors causing traffic jams, or public transport beeping at sheep and cows to move them off the road. While Heves and its surroundings may not be heart-stoppingly beautiful like Gyula, or breath taking like Budapest at night, the little things warm my heart.