This...is...SARKAD! (part 1)

How to explain Sarkad?  Well, let's start with this -- after ten days in Hungary's capital we moved to a small, remote farm town on the border of Romania. 

Budapest

And Sarkad...

Now, small remote farm towns aren't that foreign to us (hell, I taught in Jerseyville for 12 years) -- however, living in a small, remote farm town on the border of Romania is something else entirely. 

We got up on our first day in Sarkad and made our way to my school, Ady Endre--Bay Zoltan Gimnazium Kozepiskola es Kollegium (yeah, that's right). It wasn't difficult -- it's only a 3-5 minute walk depending on if the back gate is open or not. 

Front of my school

To the right of the school is a fenced in courtyard where students hang out in between classes, if the weather is nice.  

Courtyard -- student dormitory on left and more classrooms on right
The church by our apartment is in the background

This creek runs between the main school and the courtyard

I still can't believe there aren't any "accidents" involving students/books/hats ending up in the creek. There is just a little sidewalk that winds around the courtyard next to it.  It really wouldn't be a stretch to actually have an accident.

Back of the classrooms and dormitory

Back of my school

And from the school looking back toward the creek and dormitory

And I almost forgot -- 

The school parking lot

BACK TO THE STORY  --

As Meliss and I walked into school, the teachers were all walking out of a meeting.  We met up with Sylvia and she introduced us (much like a receiving line at a wedding).  It was a lot of "hello," "how are you," "nice to meet you," -- that about sums up most of my everyday school conversations. There are 3 or 4 teachers that speak some English at my school...and since we speak little to no Hungarian...well, there is a definite language barrier. That being said, everyone is really friendly -- it's just that we have no way to really communicate.  

What's really crazy is when like five or six teachers get into a conversation around us when we are at school. It's hilarious and/or frustrating depending on our mood.  Meliss has taken to participating in these conversations by trying to look thoughtful and saying stuff like, "you don't say," "wow, that's really something," etc. I just keep my head down and make up fake conversations...usually dealing with fantasy football. 

Anyway, we went into the teacher's lounge (the tánari, as it were) and rifled thru my desk to see what materials I had.  

Sylvia explained that Andras and Zsuzse (pronounced Andrash and Shuzhee, but we call them Andrew and Susie) were going to pick us up to take us to Melissa's school. This was a big relief for "us."

Sylvia (who speaks fluent English) also informed me that there were teacher meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday that I need not attend and so I should just return on Thursday.  No argument there!

Andrew and Susie showed up soon thereafter and we hopped in a car for Gyula.  At this point, Melisss and I were clinging to each other for life. We had stayed pretty adamant about sticking together these first few days...at least until we could figure out how to successfully get from one town to the other. If they took Meliss to Gyula, then I was going as well. No questions asked.  Ok, we did ask, but it was no problem and off we went for Gyula. 

A lot of what they said on the ride to Gyula (about the school, our roles, and about teaching in Hungary) makes more sense now (3 months later) but it didn't at the time -- we were just happy to get some answers about Melissa's teaching arrangements.  I do recall that Andrew and Susie also made mention of the gypsy problem in Sarkad (if you are scoring at home, that would be two warnings in (our first) two days about the gypsy problem in Sarkad...comforting.

Susie and Andrew (Melissa's contact teachers)

Andrew dropped us all off at the bus station and Susie briefed us on bus transportation.  Then, we walked through the city center on the way to Melissa's school.  Gyula is a tourist(y) town in southern Hungary. Tourists come for the castle and for the thermal baths. The thermal baths are used to cure all sorts of ailments including, but not limited to, arthritis. As such, it is a tourist town for old people (kind of like Branson, but less Yakov).

We walked into Melissa's school -- Gyulai Romai Katolikus Gimnazium, Altalanos Iskola, Ovoda es Kollegium (we had to look that up) -- (it's Roman Catholic, that's all we could figure ) -- (and I didn't even put the squiggles and umlauts on all the letters) -- (Melissa really missed working at EAWR at this point!) -- and met many of her teachers. 

Melissa's school (pictures of which will be posted on the Gyula blog coming up) has several teachers that speak English -- so that was helpful (but, they're all named Csaba {Chaba}, as far as we can tell).  On this day though, we were sent to THE DIRECTOR.  Ok, that's a little over the top, but that's what they call the principal type person.  Still, we were beckoned to his office. Along the way Susie even told us how nervous she was...and she's Hungarian.  

We walked in and I swear it was like that scene in The Natural when Robbie Redford goes to meet with the shady owner that didn't like having any lights on.  Plus, this guy's name was Zoltán.  So, we sat in Zoltán's darkened office and he buzzed questions at us (thru Susie) about teaching, life, and other matters. It was TERRIFYING!  

Update: he loves Melissa (she teaches him English for one lesson a week) and has invited us to live in Gyula for next semester.  

For all of that, at least we found out that Meliss had a teacher's meeting on Thursday (which she did have to attend) and she would begin teaching the following Monday -- so done and done. 

Except that we still had to make our way back to Sarkad -- and that meant the bus.  This was our first bus trip alone.  As we waited for the bus, we decided it was probably best to just go with "Sarkad?" and hand the driver some money.  He looked at us, laughed a little, took our money, and we found a seat. It's about a twenty-five minute ride to Sarkad from Gyula and we just hoped we would end up there -- and then recognize it when/if we did. 

It has been three months now and I still have to ask the bus driver if I am getting on the right bus (and by ask, I mean walk up, say "Sarkad?" or "Gyula?" or "Békescsaba?" {two of which I can't exactly pronounce} and then hope he understands me.  I have had to get off of several buses because of this).  

On this day though, Meliss and I made it back to Sarkad and that gave us two days to clean and unpack in our new home.  

After cleaning, we struck out onto the mean streets of Sarkad.

Sarkad bus terminal (it's right across the street from the flat)

Blurry picture of our fountain -- I think Meliss was dodging a bike when she took this

The loud church

One of several different horse carts
The guys driving it always look at us like we're strange for taking pictures of them!

Above is the sign for the Real grocery store and the store itself.  For the first few weeks, we just walked around Sarkad checking things out. The most excited we got was when we stumbled upon a new grocery store (there are 4 of them).  Each has a few things we want, but none have everything we need, which means grocery shopping includes walking to all of them.  

Our tiny Tesco (we have seen these as large as Super Walmarts in other towns)

Penny Market is the furthest away so we go there the least.
Also, the security guy follows us around the whole time we're in there.

The last one is the CBA and it's our favorite because the the produce section has less gnats and fruit flies than the others. Also, the CBA is where I first attempted to buy lunch meat for us.  I went after school to buy some turkey. I know the word for turkey -- it's pulyka.  Turns out that I knew how to spell the word for turkey but did not know how to pronounce it. 

I went to the counter, pointed at the sliced turkey, and said, "Pull-e-ka." The lady just shook her head. So, I tried "Pool-e-ka." Nope.  "Polka?" Nothing.  I looked around for a second and was happy to see that not too many people were going to witness what happened next.  I pointed at the meat and did my best turkey gobble ever. The lady about fell over laughing, then called all her co-workers over and told them. A bit embarrassing, sure -- but I got that damn turkey!

I don't think the lady was messing with me but on the way home I thought about how far off I could've been from the right word (it's "poo-e-ka").  Pointing at turkey and saying something that had to be close to turkey should do it right?  Oh well. The good part is that now when Meliss and I go in we get waited on straightaway, just in case I do something else stupid for them. 

Our other favorite place in town is the húsáruház (butcher -- or something close to that).  When we were leaving Budapest, the only thing Hajni (our director) told us about Sarkad was that we should be very happy because they have a great butcher. Take from that what you will.

The butcher of Sarkad
Inside pics coming soon

And what he sells...

The first time we went in, the butcher was hacking some hooves off some animal's leg (guessing pig, but wouldn't bet on it). Then, those smaller hoof chunks were placed in the display case.

It's a very small place -- and there were just hunks of meat hanging on the wall and  others jammed in the display case in front of us. I wouldn't say that we recognize all the food in there yet -- there are certainly some parts and chunks that we hope we never have to eat -- but we do know what animal the meats are coming from at this point (without having to make any animal noises).

Usually we buy a piece of meat, take it home, and use the translator to figure out exactly what part of the pig, cow, turkey we have.

Back on the street...

Primary school across the street from our flat
The trees block our view of it from the balcony so we thought we were
in the wrong town when we first saw it from the bus

Another primary school down the road a bit....

We thought this was a bit violent for the little ones?
Trianon is the treaty the Hungarians were forced to sign at the end of WWI
They are not happy about it

Seeing these well manicured lawns made us feel more at ease -- we were a little
worried about this horrible gypsie problem --but this all seemed very normal

An average backyard (or garden as they say)

More horse cart action!

Walking on left -- bikes on right

Another street -- we tried to keep the church in sight (not terribly difficult) to avoid getting lost

I don't know if you can tell -- but look at how pointy those nails are! We have seen these in person and they look deadly

Horse cart -- I took a camera to school with me and stopped class just to get this picture

On the other side of town (about a fifteen minute walk), is Lake Eden. Meliss was still dealing with her mosquito phobia so we didn't spend too much time here, but long enough to get some pictures. 

Lake Eden Hall of Fame

I am not swimming in that lake.

Ok -- so that's Sarkad!  Well, not quite.  We'll have more pics from inside the butcher's shop and some of the grocery stores. Also, stuff from my school...and more horse carts as well!

We were going to add the first days of school to this one but it's too long already -- so that will be next.