The other English teacher

On Thursday after school I met Mike, another English teacher with CETP here in Kisvarda. This is his third year teaching, and his second here in Kisvarda. His wife also teaches and they have an apartment in Nyigyhaza. He stays at the school here in Kisvarda during the week, and goes home to Nyigyhaza on the weekends. It was great meeting with him. He really helped me out a lot, orienting me to some of the Hungarian ways, the town and teaching. Earlier in the week, three kids took me shopping at the grocery store Edit had pointed out to me when she gave me a tour of the town. I thought that is where I was meeting Mike, but as it turned out, there are two of these stores and he was waiting for me at the other. Not only are there two of the Coop (pronounced cope) stores, there are also two of the ABC stores, and about three others, plus the Tesco on the outskirts of town! So, the town is much larger than I thought it was and was shown.

He walked me to the train station – the small one – as there are two – and explained how it all works. Ticket office is only open M-F, normal working hours, so I will need to get tickets in advance. Also, they don’t take credit/debit cards at this station, so will need to have cash. He also gave me directions on how to walk to Tesco on side streets, as the main highway does not have sidewalks and he thought it quite dangerous. If I had thought to ask him about an internet café, I might have been able to find one this weekend.

Oh, and stores are only open in the mornings on Saturday, and not at all on Sunday. Except Tesco which is open every day. He took me through his school which is much like a prep school, with kids coming from all over the region. His school is much larger than mine and there are more kids staying in the dorm (a couple of hundred) than in the dorms here (30 girls and 7 boys). I walked him through my school in exchange.

He was just plain invaluable to meet with, as he was able to identify some of the nuisances of their culture and how to deal with them.