The time has come

to pilgrimage. It is time for the Csíksomlyói Búcsú. We had a pilgrimage here in September, but I have been told that the one I am going to to nothing like it. I just hope I don't get lost, that would never be good. Luckily, I am going with Ili, Andi and Jamie. See you after Pentecost.

Here are some photos I found from the pilgrimage:

Old McDonald had a farm...

and on that farm he had a rabbit, a rabbit with very long claws


and on that farm he had a chicken and duck,


and on that farm he had a cow, a very blue cow,


and on that farm he had a horse, yes a horse,


and on that farm he had a pig,


and now the whole farm:

Music

Thanks to Briggi and her desires for more Hungarian bands, I was able to listen to some new music. I may not really understand it all, but I still like it.

I now have songs by Tankcsapda and Magna Cum Laude. I have also been listening to the National Anthem with the distant hope that one day I may be able to sing it. Anything can happen, right?

I also copied a CD from Csabi, that he uses for singing class. Some good classic music, but they are mostly short clips.

Any suggestions on other Hungarian music?

Nailpolish

I don't know if this is a common thing, but I've noticed it a lot around here.

The kids have specified jobs, assigned by Kata, and one of them is in charge of checking fingernails. Mark came up to me one day, asked for my hand, looked at my hands and said, "nem jó." I was a little confused, but Kata came over and said it was ok.

I found out later that he was checking to see if the were short. They were not short, but stuck out a little past my fingers. I like growing them to a reasonable length, and painting them.

After this, I began looking around and noticed that no one wears nail polish. They all have very short nails. It is practical, but I like spending time painting them.

Back in November, Briggi and I bought some dark nail poilish for winter. I painted my nails and the next day there was great commotion about my black nails. Really they were purple, but the kids only noticed that they were dark.

This week I painted my toe nails. I was showing Andi the tan on my feet when she saw my nails. She just said, "you have black toenails." Once again, they were purple, but the colour was shocking. She said she had never painted her toenails, ever. And she had only ever used clear on her fingernails.

Painting my nails was always so much fun as a kid. I was just shocked that she had never had any colour on them in her entire life.

Kids.

Today, the kids were playing with a plastic gun. I was dumbfounded at first. I know it is just a toy, but I am still not used to it. I have seen so many different things that would be banned at home. Playing with axes, electric drills and knives sometimes just happens.

There are so many things that kids can do and get away with.

Good thing is that I have yet to witness an accident with any of the items, bad thing is that one day, it is bound to happen.

Tongue twisters

Répa, retek, mogyoró. Korán reggel ritkán rikkant a rigó.
(Carrot, radish, hazelnut. Thrushes rarely whistle early in the morning.)

I have been trying to memorize this tongue twister for a few weeks now. Ili first started with it when I was trying to get her to make the "th" sound. I can get through it now, I just after to really think about it, especially rolling my r's.

7a was also trying to teach me another tongue twister.

Mit sütsz, kis szűcs? Sós húst sütsz, kis szűcs?
(What are you frying, little furrier? Are you frying salted meat, little furrier?)

I decided to look up some more Hungarian tongue twisters so here they are.
I will probably be up half the night trying to say them correctly, and probably still be way off.

I like that this is almost made up entirely of t's and e's:
Te tetted e tettetett tettet? Te tettetett tettek tettese, te!
(Did you do this pretended act? You, doer of pretended acts, you!)

This one is just awesome, who doesn't want rhinestone-studded spandex clothes for ostriches?
Stresszes, strasszos strucc-sztreccscucc.
(Stressing, rhinestone-studded spandex clothes for ostriches)

Massage and beating up are the same thing...
Öt török öt görögöt dögönyöz örökös örömök között.
Five Turks are massaging [or beating up] five Greeks amid everlasting delights.

Good luck if you want to try them out.

The wire

Looking at a calendar today, I realized that there are only 3 weeks of school left.

I only have 1 full week, the last one, which will be chaotic anyway.

How can time go by so quickly?

So many things have happened this year that have been odd and amazing. It will be hard to forget things. I just hope that next year will be like this.

A year from now I will have a different outlook on things, mainly because I will be packing up to return home and go back to school.

I am just so happy that I am staying another year.

School Trip

Cseni asked last week if I wanted to go on the school trip with the older students. Why not?
I had no idea it would be such a long day, but I guess that is what happens when you have to travel half-way across the country. I got up at 4am, getting very little sleep. The bus left the school at 5 to start the long journey. I am surprised the kids had so much energy for that time in the morning, I tried to sleep but, that is hard when there are screaming kids all around. We finally made it to Ópusztaszer.

The panorama room was quite amazing, it was hard to picture it before seeing it, but I definitely recommend seeing it if you have the time.

We had some free time to walk around the grounds, a large open air museum. Wandering back to the bus about 30 minutes before it is going to leave, Istvan started talking to me. His first sentence was, "I remember you said you liked Unicum Next." That is when I clued into the fact that he already had been to the bar. We talked a little about different things, him making some odd jokes along the way. We got back to the main building and that is when he hit up the bar again, bringing me a beer too. I guess I am just not used to the idea of drinking on a school trip.

We eventually had to mount the bus to start the long journey home. Getting home at 10pm, I was exhausted.

It was a great place to visit, I am just not sure it was a day trip. 12 hours on a bus is a very long time.

Attack of the Birthday, Part two

Today was awesome. So many things happened. I will add pictures when I am back home, but that will likely not be until Tuesday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

Here are pictures from the weekend:

Attack of the birthday

I walked into the teachers room today and they all broke out into song. I am pretty sure for the first few seconds I had a look of fear on my face.

I then clued in to what was happening and things made a little more sense.

We ate chestnut cake, cherry and chocolate cake and I was sent home with two ice cream cakes a hand made embroidery and a card signed by all the teachers.

My birthday poem, in the card:

"We're wishing you another year of laughter, joy and fun
Surprises, love and happiness
And when you birthday's done
We hope you feel you deep in your heart
As your birthdays come and go
How very much you mean to us
More than you can know"

That is when I almost cried.

Funny thing is that my birthday is not until tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon making 66 cupcakes. I have 62 left. I only ate 1, 3 went to Andi who wont be at school tomorrow.

Here they are:

Négy Évszak

We started learning about the 4 seasons today. It was quite an enlightening experience for me.

I knew that teaching the kids how to read and write would be difficult. I realized how interesting it would be today.

Spring - Sprig, not sure why that is
Summer - Summes
Autumn - Atom, phonetically it makes sense, well for the most part
Winter - Vintör, this is by far my favourite. I like the use of the Hungarian alphabet.

All I can say, next year will be most interesting.

Time

I have been thinking a lot about time recently. Days, weeks, months and even years.

The thing that frightens me the most is that there is only one month left in school.

Two months, I will be home.

Three months, I will be back here.

I can't believe that I have lived here since September. It seemed like such a long time when I left home, but now, it seems as if it were gone in the blink of an eye.

I also can say that this is one school year that I am not counting down the days until it is over. I don't want it to end. I have learned so much, and I hope others feel the same.

Happy Mother's Day

Here, Anyák Napja was last Sunday, but for me it is this week.

I wish all mothers a wonderful day and I hope all the children behave.

Next year

Today, the kids who registered for next year visited along with their parents.

Ili and I were playing "Spot the Mark." Which of the 24 potential children were going to turn into the likes of Mark. Overall, they seemed like good kids.

It also gave us a chance to talk to some of the parents. They told Ili and me that we should stay as teachers for their kids, even after next year. Now Ili is also having difficulty deciding whether she wants to go back to high school kids.

I will just have to wait until next year to see if I will be able to leave my kids, ever.

Croatia

It will be hard to forget this trip. Whether taking grad photos around the city, trekking for a lost camera, sunbathing in the afternoon or debating about climbing up a road to potentially see a castle. It was certainly an adventure.

Here is some of what I saw.