Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving...

This week was a very interesting week for me...

Thanksgiving dinner was last Saturday...it was quite enjoyable even though the holiday was in October...


Tuesday I woke up to lots of snow outside...it was a lovely sight to see. I like winter and I like snow, only when I do not have to shovel the stuff.


I really thought it was going to be a good day until I got to school. As I was telling the boys to stop hitting each other, Mark, my little psychopath, decided that it was in his best interest to punch me in the eye. Not sure how any seven year old would think that punching the teacher in the eye would help them, but obviously he thought it was a good idea. I did feel bad for him later on, after he was yelled at by almost everyone one in the school, except for me (I have yet to master the Hungarian degrading of students). I also was able to miss out on the staff meeting that was held on Tuesday afternoon so I could babysit my class. I was told by my principal I could do anything I wanted...

Today I also had to teach lessons about Thanksgiving which was interesting...my class loved it. I did a very basic story about it complete with pictures. Later we made placemats and put our hand print turkey pictures on them. Here are some of the results...





Here is Zsofia, one of our new students, the other is Dézi, who both moved to our school to get away from the "problems" in Nyírbátor...It is working out alright though, they both seem fairly smart and will catch on fast.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Eger!

Eger...a place that is simply magical...I love it there...cheap wine and a beautiful city...what could be better...As Briggi says " I want to move to Eger when I grow up." Big enough to have a good mall, yet it is still not Budapest. If you ever visit Hungary, Eger is a must, for the wine alone...Just think...we went and spent around 1000 ft on probably 14 glasses of wine and then we left with 6 litres of delicious white wine. The only disappointing thing was that we never actually made it to the baths on Sunday morning because there were competitions taking place and there was no where else to go. no matter what...It was an amazing weekend I will remember for a very long time...

Our experience in the Valley of the Beautiful Women



Briggi, she had gone without coffee for too long...but the drink was sooooooooooooo good!


Photos of the city and the castle, a beautiful place








At the minaret, take from this picture what you want...


Our Marshmallow experience...

Briggi saying goodbye, as I was on the bus going back home....

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Transylvania and Denmark...

This is really delayed in posting but I have not really had the energy to put it up until now.

Transylvania was amazing, most times it is beyond description. I can't believe I ate so much food and drank so much wine in such a short time. Palinka everyday, plum, cumen and blueberry, and they were very good! The families we stayed with were so nice and welcoming. The sights were amazing, so many places I want to return to, most notably Nagyvarád with so many buildings in the art nouveau style. I know I am not writing that much, but most things had to be experienced in person to really understand, especially things like Hajni trying to translate a song when she didn't want us to know the lyrics. I will post some pictures (when it decides to work) but I sincerly advise anyone to go and see things for themselves...


My adventure continued when I went to visit my sister in Denmark. After lots of waiting time in two airports I finally made it to Aarhus around 10pm and met up with Lyn and Henrik. I had a horrible first day, learning that the airline that I had a plane ticket for went bankrupt and therefore I needed to buy a new ticket, costing me more that the other three combined. I was not very happy at all. This luckily got
better when my mother and step father arrived and brought lots of stuff for the both of us from Canada. My bag went from being 5 kg to 20 kg with all the new stuff and I was not looking forward to carrying it all back. I also stocked up on some essential Danish supplies, most notably Cuba Caramel, which I highly recommend to anyone if they visit Denmark. It is caramel flavoured vodka and does taste a little like candy, which makes it much easier to drink.
After saying goodbye to my family on Saturday afternoon, they were going to a party for Henrik's mother's 12 1/2 wedding anniversary, I chilled out in the house until I had to start my incredibly long journey home.

I caught the bus around 12:45 am and took it into town to the bus station where I had to wait for my train for around an hour. I was happy that it was fairly quiet because I knew that the actual train ride would not be. The train ride was about four hours to get to Copenhagen and I had plenty of entertainment with all the intoxicated people riding the train to various places along the way. By the time I reached Copenhagen I was exhausted, it was 6 am and I had not had any sleep in nearly 24 hours. I could not check in until 8 so i had two hours to waste in the airport, so i just read and tried to tune everything out. Finally, the plane left Denmark around 10, arriving in Hungary around 12 and I needed to make my way to Kobanya-Kispest so that I could catch a train all the way back home. I was not looking forward to another long train ride home, but by this time I did not really care and just wanted to get home. I made it to Mariapocs around 5:40pm exhausted from not having sleep for way too long (though in fact not the longest I have gone without sleep, something I do not wish to repeat) and just wanting to sleep for as long as possible before school started on Monday morning.

I spent way to long detailing my travel. Oh well, now you have some idea what it was like, and keep in mind I had to carry a bag that weighed 20 kg.

I am happy I got away for fall break but was so happy to return to school and see my kids bright and early on Monday morning...I missed them so much!