Sunday, October 5

I am typing this in MS word on Sunday morning, and will have to post it to my blog later. In the middle of the night Friday/Saturday, we had a huge electrical storm that woke me and made the power go out momentarily. I think this caused the schools network to go down, as I have been unable to access the internet since. This is very irritating, as I had plans to do quite a bit on the internet this weekend, including talking to my kids and probably my parents via Skype and some class prep. Also, on Friday night I went to download a movie from itunes and the agreement said you had to be in the US to download the movie. So I went to Zune, selected a movie, paid, and then again, it wouldn’t download as I had to be in the US! Pissed me off.
I made a list of all the things I could do – and some I needed to do – over the weekend that did not involve the internet, and I was quite busy yesterday.
On Friday Edit and the school maintenance manager took me to the store and we bought pans, a mirror for the bathroom (yea), hangers, etc. So, I spent the day yesterday washing the dishes and putting them away, finally getting my clothes sorted, hung and folded and continuing with the laundry.
When I first meet the maintenance manager, he just stuck his head in the room where we were and greeted us. He was quite friendly and warm and Edit smiled and laughed. When I asked Edit who he was, she said he was the school character and laughed. So, I decided he must be an older priest or someone who just hung around for some reason that everyone liked.
It’s all in the pronunciation: char-ac-ter vs. care-ta-ker ! He’s the Caretaker! He was very helpful at the store, picking up different things, such as the soup ladle, and asking if I needed it. We chatted (single English, Hungarian and German words) on the walk and he seems like a very nice, fatherly type. He had the maintenance guys come in and hang the mirror and then noticed I had my bin in the bathroom with all my toiletries on it, and he indicated that he will have a shelf built to put in that space. Nice!
I also did more shopping yesterday. I went back to the paper store, this time with a sample of what I was looking for (I couldn’t find it on Friday), and the sales clerk helped me. I asked for 15 and got 50 plastic sleeves to put papers in to put into notebooks. In very broken English/Hungarian, she asked if I was an English teacher (Angolul Lektar) and at what school (eskola). She also asked if I was from the US or UK and when I told her US and Alaska, we had to get the map to show her Alaska. She then told me she has been to, or will be going to Washington DC in 2 somethings! This is the way the communication goes!
The paper size here is different than ours. It is called A4 and is a bit narrower and a bit longer. The three-ring binders aren’t. They are two ring. I will use two of them to organize my class lists and plans. I have 17 different groups of kids – I hope in a month to be able to remember who is who – or at least the ability of the class when I walk into it!
I also went to the fruit and vegetable stand yesterday. This was my second time in there, and the woman greeted me and asked how I was. I think this is the limit to many people’s English speaking abilities. I answered, asked how she was and when I paid, and said Kusanum (Thank you), she corrected my pronunciation and added “saipan” which means very much.
Both of these encounters encouraged me to come back to the apartment and study Hungarian. I made a list of all the words I recognized but don’t necessarily know how to pronounce and then worked on pronunciation with my language cd’s. Very interesting alphabet. For example, the letter y by itself does not exist. The combinations ny and ty are recognized as letters. Once in awhile, you will see a y in a family name without the n or t, but this is the only place.
I also decided to get in a walk by going to the castle and then on to the Tesco, a Fred Meyer type store about a mile from here. The castle was on the way and as I approached, I could hear a lot of yelling and cheering. There was a soccer game going on. I don’t think there is much left of the castle, but there was a building to the left of the field, but I didn’t really see a way to it from where I was. There were a few light rain drops, so I figured I had better head to the store before it really started coming down.
I had fun walking up and down every aisle in the store, looking at the products. I didn’t find any peanut butter, but there was nutella which I was not inclined to buy. I did buy more hangers for my clothes organizing project and a few food items. When I left the store, it was absolutely pouring rain so I had to walk very quickly with the umbrella in one hand and the bag in the other. It poured rain for the remainder of the afternoon/evening, so I was glad I had plenty to do inside.