You can take the girl out of Alaska....

but you just can't take Alaska out of the girl! I smell like campfire and I love it!

Tonight I finally got to have a fire with the students from the dorm with the goodies I brought back at Easter time. First lesson was what a marshmellow is and how it tastes. Second lesson was to try the graham cracker. No need to try the chocolate - they are quite experienced with that!

Then on to the fire being just right,

how to cook the marshmellow and what to do if it catches fire: DO NOT swing it around to put out the fire!

All went well and they loved the s'mores, including the teacher. The only thing missing was the beach and the sunset over the Chilkats!

A'gi, 9E A'ginene, Dorm Teacher

Budapest and Tata

Had an absolutely fantastic weekend. Since my last class was cancelled for exams on Friday, I was able to catch a train at 10:40 (had to run to catch it) and get into Budapest around 3pm. I met up with Jamie, CETP teacher in Ujszasz and we headed out for the great Market Hall at the end of Vaci Utca, a pedestrian boulevard near the Danube. We enjoyed walking through looking at all the food products on the ground floor and the souvenirs on the second floor. Jamie bought a beautiful necklace --- I might go back next weekend to get one myself.

We ended up walking for hours through Budapest, looking at sites and enjoying the city. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and later went to a Mexican restaurant for margaritas. Our hostel was in a good location for getting around and was clean and nice. Unfortunately, there was a loud obnoxious guy in the room next to us who decided that 4:30am was a good time to chat with his roomies - argh. Glad I always carry earplugs and an eyeshade.

In the morning we grabbed a quick sandwich from the food laid out at the hostel and caught the train to Tata (I had to run again, this time not as far) to visit CETP teacher, Carla. Tata is a small town about an hour by train NW of Budapest. There were re-enactments of battles between the Hungarians and the Turks and a medieval type fair going on. The Hungarians were retaking the castle that they lost to the Turks 150 years prior. We spent the day walking around, watching the different battles, taking pictures, trying the beer and wine, checking out the different booths, taking a guided tour in Hungarian through another of Eszterhazi's palaces and going an a boat ride on the lake. What an absolutely fun, relaxed day in the sun. We went to dinner at the Pirate Restaurant and then headed to a club to people watch. We had a lot of laughs, a chance to talk about our students and jobs, and our future plans. I've reduced a day packed with fun to one short paragraph! I will post my pics later, and will add links to Carla's and Jamie's blogs which I am sure will be much more detailed!

Antsy kids

This past week at school was really slow. With five fewer classes due to the 12 graders being gone, my schedule now has many holes throughout the day. The upper classes who remain aren't interested in learning new material in my classes; they either want to study for a test in another subject or they want to go outside in the sun/shade. Last week I ended up letting a couple of the classes study for exams later in the day and also went outside with at least five of my classes. I try to have something prepared that they can do while we sit outside together, or if it is a small enough class, I sit and talk with small groups, getting them to use their English. In two classes I had them do scavenger hunts that worked in one class and was a failure in the other!

The students all have progress exams for their grade levels. The kids in the dorm are drinking coffee to stay awake so they can study for hours. As I walk through the courtyard, students are on benches with heads bent over notebooks, reading intently. Or, writing on a piece of paper in tiny handwriting. They are creating cheat sheets, or puskas (literally translated as gun, but slang for cheat sheet) for use during the tests. I don't know how much the other teachers see of this, or if the students actually use them, or if they are ever caught. (I'm going to do some "investigating" this week.) I had two of my classes canceled as the students had these exams over more than one class period.

Exams will continue this week but I am not sure for how much longer. There are only three weeks and one Monday of school left in the year! I'm sure there will be more exams scheduled during my class times, special activities, and less student interest as we get through these weeks.

Train vs. Plane travel

For years I have traveled by plane; it's what you have to do when you live in Juneau with no roads to drive out of town on. This winter I have traveled via train from Kisvarda to many points throughout Hungary and Europe. The differences in being a passenger on these two types of transportation has really struck me lately.

Basically, when you travel by train, you get on and go! No hassle with a security line, boarding all at once and by rows and seats, pre-boarding for families, elderly, etc. You've got a ticket, you get on the train and if you have a seat reservation, you find the seat, if not, you find any seat that seems to work for you. When it is time for the train to depart, you usually hear a faint whistle from the platform and the train leaves. No boarding announcements, no one telling you to sit down and store your things (duh!), no safety briefing, no seat belts, no taxiing onto the runway and waiting forever. The train just goes and you are on the way. If you are hungry, you dig into your bags for your pre-packed sandwich and drinks (sometimes even beer) -- there is no waiting for someone to come along and pour you a drink and hand you a bag of nuts. Most of the time, upon arrival at your destination, there is no announcement: the train starts to slow down, you get up while the train is still moving, gather your stuff and head for the door. When the train stops, you jump off into the cluster of people waiting to get on, and the train takes off again after a 3-5 minute stop. I definitely prefer the train!

Budapest & Sopron

On Friday, May 15, I left right after school and headed for Budapest where I met Penny & Peggy - two CETP teachers for dinner. I had found a very cheap hostel near the Keleti train station, where I needed to leave from in the morning to Sopron. As it turned out, the restaurant we were meeting at was a straight shot down the street by bus also.

As I entered the hostel, I had a sinking feeling: the area outside was pretty grungy, two drunks walked by as I was entering, and the entry way smelled of urine and there was pesticide powder all along the edges of the walls up the first flight of stairs! Yikes! So, I thought I would still check it out, but could easily leave and find someplace else -- I would just have to pay more. But when I got up the 2 flights of stairs, the place was actually quite nice and cute - and clean - the biggy for me. The guy working was real nice and said I might be the only one there that night, and he showed me around. He also gave me instructions to get to the restaurant. BUT, most importantly, he glued my train ticket back together for me! I ripped it in half along with the seat reservation ticket I had just used, thinking it was trash. Then it hit me that it was also my return ticket! (You would think after 10 months of traveling on the Hungarian trains, I would remember.) Anyway, he worked real hard on it with a glue stick and an extra piece of paper, and when I returned from Budapest to Kisvarda there was no problem.

Sopron is the farthest west city in Hungary and is a few hours train ride from Budapest. The countryside was beautiful, once we got past the industrial development on the outskirts of Budapest. The draw of Sopron is the Inner City, which was originally occupied by the Romans, and then many others since then. Parts of the old Roman wall remain today. Most of the buildings in the Inner City are very old, and the Inner City is a World Heritage site. Sopron was heavily damaged during WWII, but fortunately, not the Inner City area!

I splurged on a pension here, and it turned out to be worse than the cheap hostel. I swear, the ants are following me! There were ants in the bathroom and I had to get them to spray because there were so many --- I would have preferred changing rooms, but there were none others available. I even called around, but no luck.

While there I also visited Ferdo where the Esterhazy Estate is and Nagycenk where the Szechenyi Mansion is. I have pics of both of these posted.

I traveled alone again, and kind of wished I was with someone while looking around Sopron, as there were a number of wine cellars and I just didn't feel comfortable sampling by myself. Actually, I didn't really have a problem with going into the places by myself, but as a single traveler I didn't think I should let down my guard by drinking!

The train ride back was long and miserable. First, from Sopron to Budapest, I was on a Gyor, a fast local train, but it was totally packed -- people had to stand! And it was HOT. I had my bag on my lap, and when I moved it, my pants were wet with sweat! I had a quick stopover in Budapest, and then a much better train ride the rest of the way back, but I didn't get to Kisvarda and my flat until around 11pm!

Sunday and the week of May 11-15

Saturday's adventures with Judit's family was followed by another adventure with them on Sunday. We drove to Debrecen (1 1/2 hours) to go to a street market/fair. There were two sections - one was crammed full of people selling clothes. The clothes were piled on tarps and there would be 100's of the same item all with the store tags still on them. Besides clothes, there were tables with household goods, carpets and various electronics. Most of these people were Roma (Gypsy), or from Romania. One woman was dressed in traditional clothes of the Sze'kely Hungarians from the Transylvania area where we visited in the fall. This was a pretty rough section - everyone walking and shopping were holding onto their purses quite tightly to their front.

From there it moved into a more organized fair with booths. But even these were selling new clothing. There was one street though with handcrafts, and then throughout there were they typical booths or jewelry, nick-knacks, and fair things. We were there for hours and then headed back to Nyiregyhaza to a Medieval theme restaurant for a traditionally HUGE Hungarian dinner.

The school week was pretty different. This was the first full week with out the 12 grade kids. So my schedule is sparse: 3 days with only 2 classes, 1 day of 3 classes and 1 day of 5 classes. Of course, I still have the 3 classes for the dorm students in the evenings. The weather has been pretty good, and the kids are having a hard time focusing and are asking to go outside quite often during class.

Lunch turned into an all day affair!

This morning I was picked up by Laszlo and Judit, husband and daughter of Judit the maths teacher and form teacher for 12D. Judit invited me long ago to lunch at her house, but it never worked out until now. I had a fabulous time and was with them all day - not just for lunch, but for dinner too! And now they will pick me up again tomorrow morning and I will go to Debrecen with them to a fair -- where there should be plenty of handcrafts for sale!

Judit the daughter (age 14) was very excited about my coming to their house. She was bubbling over when they came to get me. She has studied English for 5 years now and is also a private student of Suba Istvan, so her English is quite good. I spent the first few hours visiting with her while Mom Judit cooked our lunch! (She didn't want help, I asked just like my mom taught me to.) We talked about everything that these kids learn to talk about in English in school - free time activities, favorite subjects, holidays, etc. But it didn't seem like a lesson at all and I really enjoyed talking with her. She reads alot, which is not something I have come across here much, and enjoys listening to music, chatting on the internet, etc. Pretty typical otherwise. She is also quite the artist and she showed me some of her work.

For lunch we had fried chicken, fish, french fries and rice with corn. Oh, and of course a starter of soup with potatoes, peas and carrots. Laszlo and I started our lunch with a shot of Palinka! I couldn't get out of it -- it is a very traditional welcome to guests.

After lunch we went to Grandma's house (Judit's mom) to pick up net-heads. You know, the kind we use for misquitos at home, but here we were getting them because we were going to visit Grandpa's beehives! Grandma is a crafter and she had a number of pieced quilt covers and macrame around the house that she showed me.

We then drove to the forest and walked between the forest and the field to

the beehives and Grandpa. Grandpa opened one hive and showed the two sides: one where the bees live and the other where they make the honey. Ok, probably simplified, but that's the jest of it. He searched until he found the queen bee on the first side and then pulled out the screens on the second side to show the honey that is already being made in there. He was a bit concerned as the wind has been picking up and the weather not the best for the bees to be out doing their pollinating and bringing back the nector.

Judit in her net-head.