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| Love my flat Oilerman! |
UPDATE:
1) Sorry we have neglected the blog, blame the Cardinals. We can either stay up til 2 AM to start watching the game (that worked twice) or we watch the games when we get home from school. We bought the MLB package and so we can watch them the next day, which has been a lifesaver (for our students, fellow teachers and each other!)That has worked better, but it pretty much takes all evening to get thru a game (especially Game 3, but totally worth it). Either way, it's been pretty exhausting trying to keep up with this playoff run -- hope it ends well.
2) We just returned from a day-trip to Romania. It was what we expected Hungary to be. Thank goodness it's not.
3) We will be attending the Pig Killing/Bacon Fat/Sausage Festival in Békescsaba, Hungary on Fri. and Sat. We did find out that they no longer kill the pig in public, so that sucks.
4) We will then be leaving for Vienna, Austria for our fall break.
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8AM -- Wake up/breakfast
10-11:30 AM -- Practical Suggestions about Hungarian Life
12-1:30 PM -- Teaching tips for the Hungarian classroom
1:30-3 PM -- Lunch
3-4 PM -- Hungarian Language lessons (UGH!)
4-5 PM -- Break
5-6 PM -- Practical Suggestions
Really, the classes were helpful -- but after two days we were spent (actually, Meliss was almost in tears after our first language lesson - it would be like learning English in 4 days). It was all just a little too overwhelming -- but I honestly don't think there was a way to do it that wouldn't be overwhelming.
We had Hajni (Hoy-nee), Maria (Maaar-ia) and Bea (Bay-uh) as teachers...all Hungarians. They covered a lot of language and a lot of culture over 4 days (and none had shaved legs... Meliss was super excited!).
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| This is Maria, she wrote the book we used to try and learn Hungarian before we came over. |
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| Her Hunglish was outstanding! We asked for her autograph -- she was quite pleased. |
We were told on the first day...at the first meeting...that we could expect all classes to start on time, but none to finish on time.
That was true.
Oh, and don't forget that there was no air conditioning (well, there was some, but not really good air-conditioning) and it was really hot for these four days.
So, it was pretty much awesome.
Here are some highlights from what we learned from our Hungarian teachers:
1. Hungarians are pessimists. In fact, they are the greatest pessimists in all of Europe. As far as education is concerned, children are raised to survive the inevitable failures to come as opposed to preparing for future successes. It's like a whole nation of Cub fans.
This is largely due to the many wars Hungary has fought and lost over their thousand year existence. Hajni talked about always having to be ready to make the least worst choice available and survive the consequences.
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| The following are a series of drawings Maria showed us as a way to introduce American expressions to a Hungarian classroom...see if you can figure out what they mean. I'll give you the first one because I don't know if anyone under the age of 65 has ever used this phrase. "To buttonhole someone" And if you just said, "oh yeah, I've heard of that"...well, then you are a geezer. |
2. There will be no smiles. Hungarians do not smile at strangers. They will only smile when you become part of their community. This goes back to the Communist Era and the threat of secret police. (We found this to be true in Budapest, but not so much in Sarkad and Gyula).
Ok, so this is awesome! Think about it in your life -- how many times do you see someone walking towards you and think, "Aw crap, now I have to make small talk with this guy/gal." It sucks, well, they don't have that in Hungary, you just get to ignore them like you want to!!!
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| Yes, that says Calorie Free Frozen Pork. |
3. Men enter bars/restaurants first and get on and off buses first, women follow. This is so they can check for trouble...not cause it's the way it ought to be done!
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| Looking back, we were surprised this didn't say Maths, cause that's what all the books use. |
4. You have to pick up a basket when entering a grocery store or people will scowl at you -- and you must bring a bag with you to take stuff home (or pay extra for one there).
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| They seem so happy! |
5. Do not ask a Hungarian "how are you?" unless you are prepared to hear the answer.
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| And our favorite. Pretty sure I'd get kicked out of an American classroom for showing this one. |
6. You must be firm when saying "no." This goes for all things...a Hungarian host will "make you eat until death" if you do not firmly refuse more food. It is not rude to say no, but you can't be wishy-washy about it.
Also, this goes for the ladies as in "no means no, unless you smile and then it means yes."
We have seen these (and many other) little characteristics of the Hungarians play out on a day to day basis. From all that, it sounds like Hungarians would be really gruff and stand-offish or mean-spirited, but that has not been the case for us.
Every person we have met (with the exception of one waiter in Budapest -- but it was hot and he was fat) has been for the most part really friendly to us. Oh, the other good part is most have been very patient with our lack of Hungarian and seem to enjoy our pretty useless attempts at speaking their language.
Throughout the week, we met a lot of nice people -- but we spent the evenings mostly in our room exhausted. Again, we were very happy that we had already seen a good portion of Budapest because we didn't feel the need to sprint out after lessons to see what we could see.
I am pretty sure I would've have been livid if we had shown up the day orientation started only to be cooped up in classes all day long.
Didn't get to take pics, or really even get a chance to sit and talk w/ everyone, but we have since been in contact with many more folks thru facebook during the last couple months. It's become a nice support group for all of us displaced Americans. Here are a few pics of some new fellow CETPers. Hopefully, more to come as we get out and about.
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| Meliss and Lee |
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| Marielle and Skye |
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| Emily and Meliss |
We had found that bar (with air-conditioning) a few blocks away and walked there on a couple of nights. Here is us relaxing with some new friends at Bernardo's Bar AKA Rex William's Snooker. We loved this place.
By Thursday of orientation we were out of clothes, so we walked to a laundromat down the street. Two very nice and very old Hungarian women helped us get things started and then we sat and waited. It was soon after that we realized the water in the wash had turned red.
Y'see, on the plane trip we were given those little pullover covers and so we kept them (since any blanket is a good blanket for my wife, plus -- hey, free blanket). Unfortunately, we didn't think about washing them for the first time. Ooops (in Hungarian -- Opa).
The old Hungarian woman laughed at us and then gave us a lecture (though she was really only talking to Meliss -- women's work, you know) about separating colors before washing. Or that's what I was pretending she was talking about because neither of us had any idea.
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| Good thing I had another bag full of extras |
So, pink underwear is not a problem...but I did wonder how my pink socks would be received as I walked around Sarkad and Gyula.
As the week drew to a close we had another dinner outing at a very nice restaurant near Heroes' Square.
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| I got to eat Melissa's too -- but she tried it Sarah, so another quarter for the piggy bank |
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| Chicken Paprikesh -- and sour cream. I did not get to eat any of Melissa's on this one. |
After dinner, one of our new colleagues was kind enough to buy everyone a shot of Palinka. How thoughtful! Still terrible...and all subsequent attempts have been just as awful.
From there we walked and trammed back to the hostel to pack as we were leaving the next day (Sunday) for our real new home in Sarkad.
All we knew was that my contact teacher, Szilvia (Sylvia), was picking us up and that we started work on Monday. So, I suppose we can pick it up from there next time. To end our Budapest blogs, these are some random pictures of Budapest that didn't quite fit anywhere else!
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| This means emergency exit...but the responses on facebook for what this COULD mean were much more colorful! |
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| Ha! |
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| No, they did not have beignets...but it is NOT Cafe Dumbass as my wife calls it. |
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| Yep |
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| A Coca Cola Light? and 0.31 liters of Soproni? We have no idea how much we're drinking. |
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| It's a Brave New World The city workers have all different colors |
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| Oilerman or not, this statue is creepy! |
NEXT -- Szilvia, Sandor, and the road to Sarkad.
***Picture 1 To buttonhole someone
Picture 2 -- Culture Shock
Picture 3 -- Truth is stranger than fiction (ok, easy -- but they really do call it Maths here.)
Picture 4 -- Like a house on fire
Picture 5 -- Headhunter. Yep -- as Hajni would say at the end of each lesson..."Welcome to my country!"
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