First of all, I've clearly made it to my new home. After flying from Boston to Chicago, to Istanbul, I finally made it to Budapest. Upon arrival I was pretty happy about two major things: 1.) ALL of my luggage made it over (no idea how this happened. I literally ran through the airport at each layover). 2.) My director, and my "Hungarian mother,"and other CETP members were at the airport to greet me. After quick introductions we hopped on a shuttle and headed to the hostel to meet the other members of our group!
We are staying at Hostel GoodMo which is right in downtown Pest. It's a very posh hostel and is definitely the nicest one I've ever stayed in. The bedrooms each have 12 beds in them and there's even a "party terrace" which has been a solid place to hang out and get to know other CETP members. The only downside is there is so much going on at all times so it's nearly impossible to sleep. I've been living off about 4-5 hours a night and am starting to feel fairly creature-ish ( "HE WAS A TRUE GOLLUM CREATURE"- quick shout out to mama T right there). But really, I am starting to act and look like a true creature. Thank god for bronzer.
The view from our hostel bedroom.
The room of sleep deprivation.
Da party terr.
If I tried to write down every interesting or incredible excursion I've gone on since I've arrived, this blog would go on forever. I'll do my best to narrow it down.
After I got to Budapest I had one full day to explore the city before my orientation began. In order to get to know the city, 5 other CETP members and I took a "hop on, hop off" tour where you get to explore the city via bus, tram, boat, etc. The tickets were 5,000 Forint, which is around 22 USD. The tour was a great way to see a lot of major parts of the city in just a day. The architecture is incredible. I tried not to drool on my camera as I took some of the pictures below.
The Széchenyi Chain Bridge
View of the Buda and Pest sides of the city from Gellért Hill.
The Hungarian Parliment Building.
After that magical day of exploring, we have spent the last few days doing orientation for CETP which has been interesting to say the least. We have different sessions for Elementary and High School teachers where we learn about teaching, cultural differences, and an introduction to the Hungarian language. The information is all interesting and relevant to what we are about to be doing in the classroom so it's been fun to go to sessions and get to know some new friends in the meantime. The only challenging part of the sessions is the Hungarian language session. Hungarians tend to be more stern as teachers in order to push their students. These lessons are no exception for our teacher. She moves from one topic to the next as we all frantically copy notes from each other and send terrified looks to each other from across the room. I know about 20 words right now, 10 of which I learned before I left. For some reason, some of my friends and I keep wanting to respond in Spanish without thinking because we don't know how to respond in Hungarian. I've let out a couple of si's or no's at bars with a Spanish accent because I'm not paying attention. Things that are super embarrassing: THAT.
Okay now, the reason I'm really here is to teach (even though I sometimes forget about that- mostly when I'm bumbling through ruin pubs with new friends or taking multiple shots of Palinka, a traditional fruit brandy). So here we go. Yesterday I had my first orientation at my new school. I will be teaching at the same school as two other girls from my program, so it was nice to travel there with some familiar faces. We've been able to use public transportation and cabs (my poor friend Hayley is injured so we've been taking cabs a lot to help her get from place to place without too much pain)! Most cab rides are painless but today we actually took one home from school where he drove about 100 mph and almost took out about 200 men, women, and children along the way. Shoot, back to school talk. So, yesterday I got to see my school. I am already in love with it but I cannot even begin to tell you how different it is from schools in the United States.
My school is Krúdy Gyula Általános Iskola and is located in the 3rd district of Buda, also known as Óbuda. While I went to Budapest thinking I was teaching strictly third grade, I found out a little differently when I got to work. First off, let me show you what my teaching schedule looks like:
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Yep. So, that's about what that looks like. Mostly, I have no idea what is going on but I do know some things. I'm going to hold on to what I do know for dear life. What I DO know is that I have a precious co-teacher to work with this year. My classroom will be taught roughly in 50/50 English and Hungarian. Today we met and "planned" for the first week of school for math and science. I say "planned" because I'm not totally sure what happened. Eniko is wonderful but doesn't know a ton of English. There was a lot of smiling and nodding between the two of us. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sore from all the miming and charades I had to do to show her what I was trying to say. About five minutes into our conversation, she ran to the library and brought back two giant Hungarian-English dictionaries which will be essential to our interactions this year. We also called on a translator for a small bit of the planning where her English was not as strong. I wish more than anything that I knew some Hungarian so I could at least meet her halfway.
I met with a few other Hungarian co-teachers to plan music ( I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT/WATCH OUT CHILDREN), art, and crafts. These subjects should be fairly easy, so I'm not too worried about them. The first one I STILL DONT WANT TO TALK ABOUT.
One of the biggest differences is that the teachers do not leave their teaching materials in the classrooms in Hungary. Instead, there is a giant teacher's room with desks for all the teachers. We all claimed desks today and will keep our stuff there for the year. The teachers room is always buzzing with teacher-talk, both Hungarian and English. I'm not really sure what I think about it yet but it's all part of the experience. 2 things to know about the lounge: 1.) You can't heat up your food and eat it in the lounge. No one wants to know what you're eating. 2.) You must say goodbye before you leave it even if no one is watching you.
I have a million more things to write, but I have another meeting soon and then a big fancy traditional Hungarian dinner. I'll leave you with some images from my school.
bird cage....................
courtyard
Krudy from the front.
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