Did she really just say that?

Yes, yes she did. I found this question a reoccurring thought of mine this past week. There are many things that I did not think that teachers would really say, but guess what, they do in Hungary. My favorite example of this was during one of my first meeting at the school. I had written down some of my questions to try to get a better handle on school policies, organization and just school life in general. Most of these questions I received a strange look and a blanket answer. "Is there a dress code?"... no "Do you allow food or drink in the classroom?" .. no, but maybe if they are hungry. "Tardiness?".. they will come.. and my favorite " what do you do about misconduct? what is the disciplinary system?"... oh just ask them to stop.

Who could not be impressed with this well oiled machine? Even so, I tried to prepare myself, and come the first Wednesday in September I got on my bike and headed off to my first day of Hungarian High School. I arrived early, learned how to use the copier and was inform that Zsuzsa, who i think is the head of the department, would be sitting in on my first class. As I was waiting for her, a man full of presence, came bouncing in the teacher's room surveying with whom he would introduce himself, and landed upon me. He told me, in Hungarian, that he only taught on Wednesdays and that he didn't know anyone. I told him that i didn't know anyone either, and before another Hungarian word could come out of my mouth, I hear the other teachers loudly proclaim that i am the English lecturer and that i do not understand him. He then turns to me and says- are you not Hungarian? i replied no i am American, but i understand you to which he now says in English oh i am so sorry i also can speak some English. Before the next breath, he bounds off to meet the other teachers in the room with his funny story of how he mistook the American for a Hungarian, and everyone had a good laugh. This little incident occurred a couple more time that day. By the end of the day, however, my graciousness was about at its limits and decided that if i did not make this a joke, we were going to have issues. So the next time someone came up to me and began speaking Hungarian and the teachers gave their, by now rehearsed speech, I smiled and said something about never knowing what the crazy American would say, and thus ended that. Obviously I am still working on my relationship with the other teachers.

Now for what you really want to know. How are the students and what is the classroom like. Well they are all different. some classes are very quite and some are very lively. The one thing they have in common is that no one can say my last name. Another similarity is that they are not a fan of speaking English, but boy do they love speaking Hungarian. In my first class, I walked in the room and Zsuzsa introduced me, and one of the guys said that he did like to speak English, and something else in Hungarian- I don't remember now. I looked at him and told him that was such a shame since this was a speaking class. Of course all of their eyes got big and could not believe that the American could understand some Hungarian. So, for the most part this past week, was many many classes of students trying to push limits and me pulling teeth to get them to introduce themselves. The agenda for next week? Is survival asking for too much? Really only in a couple of my classes do they really try me, the others are quite lovely and over all i think this will be an entertaining year.