Cheers, Cookies, and Cheetahs

Before I get into the explanation of the odd blog post title, I want to start off by saying that I have still not been moved to my new school in Budapest. However, I received word today that my program has found a replacement teacher! So I will finish out next week teaching, the following week will be fall break, and when I return I'll be moved to my new apartment in the hills of Buda! The kindergarten I'll be working at is called "Szőlőszem" which means "grapes" in Hungarian. I've been stalking the heck out of the facebook page and it looks like it's going to be a blast- I'll keep everyone posted.

In the mean time, some updates on my adventures the past two weeks, because there has been a lot of them. First, the bad news- I am currently on hour 48 of being secluded in my bed recovering from a horrible case of pink eye. I went to bed Tuesday night with some mysterious goo coming from my left eye, and when I awoke Wednesday morning, it was swollen shut. We had been told at orientation the sick days for teachers in Hungary are not taken lightly- if you call in, you must go to see a doctor that day and receive a note to miss work. Let me tell you, I was feeling so awful that the thought of getting in a car to go see a doctor sounded less than appealing. When I called my headmaster, however, all I had to say was "eye infection" and he knew exactly what I was talking about. Apparently there has been a pink eye outbreak amongst the teachers at Mátyás. He said there was no need to see a doctor, and that he would have drops and cream delivered to my apartment. Happy Shannen. Veronika, the secretary of the school who has become my good friend, delivered my medication later that day along with a huge chocolate bar and a Hungarian fairy tale book translated into English- the book was even wrapped in pink wrapping paper. 

Anyway, onto other happier news- Oktoberfest! At the end of my last blog entry I was preparing myself for the 12 hour bus ride to Munich for what I figured would be an epic adventure- and that it was. I really didn't know quite what I was getting myself into. When Kate and I went to board our bus, I was panicking because I thought I had accidentally deleted the reservation off my phone. As we went on in our high pitched anxious chatter, we didn't realized we had reached the front of the line. The lady checking people onto the bus just looked at us and said, "Kate and Shannen?" Of course she was able to pick us out as the silly American girls... We were convinced she was playing some sort of game with herself, possibly called "spot the Americans."

The bus stopped every four hours, and we got as much sleep as you possibly can on a bus. We arrived in Munich at 9:00 am Saturday morning. The bus dropped us of at the train station in Munich where Kate and I met up with the rest of our friends. None of knew exactly where we were going, so we decided to just follow the people in dirndls and lederhosens...and it worked. The entrance of Oktoberfest was not exactly what I expected...it looked like any other cheesy carnival. As you can tell

from this picture, it was also POURING down rain, making us all the more anxious to get ourselves into a beer tent. If only we had known what a struggle this would be...we were kicked out (quite literally) from one tent because of our backpacks, apparently they weren't allowed, and rejected from another because we didn't have reservations. Finally we managed to get into
Hofbräu, one of the biggest beer tents at the festival.

Again, though, this did not come without a struggle. The way they let people in is, about every 20 minutes of so, they lift up a rope and people stampede their way in. After almost being trampled and buying a pastry for 10 euros in order to bribe our way in, we were settled at a table buying steins of beer from women in dirndls. Note: these steins are MASSIVE and these tiny women carry 4 or 5 on each arm. It made me feel like a weakling. Anyway, after our first stein we all started to adjust to the crazy, crowded atmosphere of Oktoberfest. We made a LOT of new friends- being at Oktoberfest is not like being at a bar, where strangers awkwardly make conversation. Total strangers treat you like best friends, want to take pictures, and constantly clink steins (when I say "clink" I really mean crash- people would cheers so hard that these glasses, each weighing probably 2 pounds, would break.) We spent the afternoon

Our new friend Jorge and I enjoying a beer

drinking more beers than anyone should at 11 am, laughing as our friend Daniel tried his best to stand on a table and chug an entire stein, and eating some delicious German treats.

Beer as big as our heads!

Our first taste of German Pretzels- Yum.

 


It was all fine and dandy until Kate and I attempted to use the bathroom- instead of being lead to the toilets, we were lead OUT of the tent. I was attacked by a German security guard because I was still in possession of my stein and Kate and I were shoved out of the tent- away from our friends, and left out in the pouring rain. The rest of the day was spent eating sausages, chatting with some random men eating chicken at a restaurant, and finally ending up at a Starbucks drinking pumpkin spice lattes wondering what the heck this day was. It went by in a flash. It was crazy, exhausting, exciting, hilarious and confusing all at the same time. Would I do it again? Absolutely. After an insane 12 hours of Oktoberfesting, we boarded the bus back to Budapest and got in just as the sun was rising over Parliament. A successful way to end the weekend.

School the following week was quite an adventure as well. Like I wrote in my last blog post, I have been working with my older students on ordering at restaurants in English. This week we used the menus they created last week to perform skits where one student was the waiter and the other the customer. I noticed that when a lot of the "customers" got to their dessert order, they chose cookies. Whenever they did, the entire class snickered under their breaths. I was confused, but I just brushed it off. It wasn't until Veronika offered to sit in on a few of my classes that I found out the reason for this. She took me out for coffee after school one day and explained to me that "cookie" has the same pronunciation as the Hungarian word "kuki" which means small penis. Dear God. Flashback to last week, when we were learning dessert words and I asked my eighth graders, "ooo you like cookies? What kind of cookies? Chocolate chip?" Humiliation. No wonder I couldn't get my students to stop laughing- and here I thought I was just really entertaining.

Since I have been burnt out trying to come up with so many lesson ideas, last week I decided to get into something that always excites me- holidays. I have been teaching my first and second graders all about Halloween and its been a blast. On Monday I taught them the song "Looking for Dracula" and they all drew their own vampires. We talked about what vampires look like "the have fangs, they wear capes, etc." I drew a sun on the board, pointed to it and asked a group of my first graders, "do vampires like the sun?" Immediately one of the boys, Misi, who I have barely heard speak a word of English, let alone a full sentence, stood up and said in his most passionate voice, "NO! That vampire HATE your sun!" Well. I guess I got my answer then. I awarded him with a star sticker.

After quite a few hectic teaching days last week, I was excited to escape into the city for the long awaited "Animal Party" a few teachers in our program had been planning.When we were hanging out at our friend Tiffany and Daniel's after the wine fest last month, we realized there were a lot of October Birthdays in our group- what better way to celebrate than with a theme party? I went into the city on Friday and stayed the weekend with Kate.

 We woke up on Saturday morning and wandered around West End mall, where we ended up finding cheetah ears at Claires (yes, they have Claires in Hungary), Cheetah Print leg warmers, and some face paint at a party store. We were ready to go. We made our way out to the suburbs, to our friend Elena's apartment, where we met up with the rest of the zoo. The group included a tiger, a shark, a cat, a lion, a zebra, an elephant, a zeetah (zebra/cheetah), a puppy, a penguin, a fox, a bumblebee and even a MANATEE! Yes, I have found someone who is just as obsessed...my friend Brenna. She wore a manatee sweatshirt and even pinned a piece of    

The weirdest picture I've probably ever take

 cabbage to her hair. We spent the evening catching up, playing flip cup, and eating pretzels and nutella. It was great to spend time with a lot of other teachers and share some of our adventures. The night ended with me, Kate, and our friend Nicole going to get gyros and the three of us snuggling in Kate's tiny little bed.

Daniel the Great White

Wild Cats- Posing with Hilary the Lion

 Anyway, that's about it for now- sending everyone lots of hugs from Hungary. I'll post a new update after my next adventure- a week in Italy for fall break! Naples, Rome, Florence and Milan with 5 amazing girls from CETP. Ciao!

In Limbo

Sziastok!

Not a whole lot has happened since my last blog post in terms of transitioning to my new school. I am still here in Kecskemét while my program works on processing the paperwork for my replacement teacher. In the mean time, I'm trying to enjoy each day and work on some creative lessons in these last few days with my students here. This week my little guys (1st and 2nd graders) learned the months of the year through a song sung to the tune of "Michael Finnegan." We've also been reviewing what I've taught them (shapes, colors, days of the week, opposites) and its rewarding to see that they are catching on! Its so hard having them for such a short amount of time because I never really know how much they're retaining. I'm learning that it's all about repetition and routine. We start every morning by singing our days of the week song and going over what day it is today, what day it was yesterday, and what day it will be tomorrow. I think they really like the familiarity and knowing what to expect...and it gets their juices flowing. As for my older kiddos, we have been working on ordering at restaurants. This week they made menus for their own made up restaurants. As an example I made this:

 Again, I got a lot of very creative ideas, including "Cafe Expensive," where everything costs upwards of $1,000, "The Happiest Cafe of the World," where the slogan is "Don't worry, be happy," and "Viktor's Pizzeria," where everything on the menu begins with the name "Viktor." It's so much fun to see these kids take an idea and run with it. 

Last weekend I made my way into Budapest again, where I met up with my friends Kate and Jenn. One of the other English teachers needed a dog sitter so we spent the weekend at her beautiful apartment overlooking the Danube and Parliament and cuddling with her adorable Dachshund dog, Bobbi.

On Saturday the three of us met up with some other friends on our program and went to a real-life, legitimate hamburger joint! One can only take so much paprika chicken before a true American burger fix is needed. From there we spent the day roaming the city and exploring before heading out for a night on the town later that evening. We spent Saturday night at a huge bar that had a rooftop terrace and a porch swing! Kate and I also found a place that sold steins of beer for 225 forints (Basically a dollar). Win. On Sunday we had a lazy day walking around Maragaret Island. It is a beautiful park with a musical fountain, a huge grass area, and running trails. To make things even better it was an absolutely picture perfect crisp fall day.

Jenn and Bobbi enjoying a stroll on Margaret Island

Crossing Margit Híd to the Island

My days in Kecskemét are slow and more lonely compared to my time spent in the city, but I am trying to make the most of the rest of my time here. I've gotten into the groove of Hungarian grocery shopping (the first few times took me about two hours because I was translating everything on my phone). But I'm learning a lot of Hungarian words this way, and most of the cashiers know me as the silly American who only knows the phrase "Nem beszélek magyarul." (I don't speak Hungarian). 

Anyone who knows me knows that I can't cook to save my life. This has been interesting, however, what I lack in cooking skills I make up for in salad preparation. I can make a MEAN salad. Which has been a plus for me considering the veggies and produce here are super fresh. When I say fresh, I mean feathers fly out of the box when I open my eggs. So this is basically what I've been living off of. Its delicious, nutritious, and most importantly, doesn't involve me using my scary gas oven. 

This week I have also taken time to explore some of the outskirts of the city. I went on a quest to find a great place to run, and low and behold I found one! It's a dirt track about a 15 minute walk from my house. It is across from this pretty park and runs around a grassy field. At sunset its gorgeous and I really get into my groove. I've been running distances I've never been able to run before. People play with their dogs off the leash in the grass, so sometimes I'm interrupted by a furry friend, which is always a plus :)

Since I spend a lot of time alone, whenever anyone asks me to do anything I jump on the opportunity. Eszter invited me to the theater to see a Hungarian opera this past Tuesday, and while I knew I wouldn't understand anything, I wanted to go anyway. We had a great time. The singing was great, Eszter did an amazing job stepping in and translating when I got lost in the storyline, and we enjoyed some great espresso during intermission. As a plus, her father Andras has a lot of connections with the city, and I was able to go in and explore the theater backstage before the performance. The whole place is really gold and ornate and fancy. 

Illegally trying on the Costumes Backstage...ssshhh!

 

 

 

 

 On top of dealing with the logistics of changing schools these past two weeks, I've also had the headache of dealing with the immigration office. Its been a nightmare trying to process health insurance, salary, and residency issues when in an entirely different language. Luckily in this midst of this craziness, I made a new friend! Her name is Veronika and works in the secretary office at my school. She took me to process all of my documents and tried her best to translate everything that was going on. After this nightmare was finally settled, she and I had coffee and cake together. She knows a LOT about history, and was telling me all about the history of the city, which was great because I have not gotten a lot of that since I've been here. She has also been telling me about Hungarian pop culture, and how even Hungarian rappers throw up the "West Side" sign. Pretty funny. Since there is a bit of a language barrier between us, we have to use my iPhone dictionary a lot. While I think she gets frustrated when she can't remember certain English words, I actually enjoy having to look things up because it helps me expand my Hungarian vocabulary. We get along really great and she had even offered to give me some Hungarian lessons before I leave for Budapest!

That's about all I've got for now...I think I've rambled enough. Now its off to pack for my fun-filled weekend... a blitz trip to Oktoberfest! Beer Steins, Dirndls, Drunk Germans, and Preztels here I come!

Kate + Shannen = <3