saturday, sunday,

Amazing weekend here....a little pink cheeks from spending saturday afternoon in the sunny baths, and then to a different bath sat night. The bath at night on a saturday is rediculous because everyone just packs a whole bunch of alcohol and heads there since they are open till like 2 in the morning. The only problem, its about 8 degrees farenheit outside, and there is a 60 second walk you must do to get to the water....we are in our bathing suits, its night time, way below freezing and icy....so the 60 second walk outside from the locker room to the water is brutal. What's even more brutal is the 60 second walk back, because since you've been in the bath, the temp drops a few degrees, you're a little drunk/unsteady and soaking wet! Somehow we make it through, but its pretty crazy! Sitting in the nice warm bath for a few hours more than makes up for the 2 minutes of misery though, so we, and tons of other Hungarians continue the madness.

Today we woke up and went hiking in this little village Szarvaskű....and it was SO beautiful. I've never been hiking in the winter or on snowy/icy trails, so it was a whole new kind of adventure, but the view at the top was fantastic and totally worth it. The sun was pretty strong so it wasn't too too cold, and we were pretty bundled up anyway. After, we went to Ben's mom's house for some yummy bean soup. I'll post a few pictures here from our adventure....The rest of the night is going to be filled with lesson plans and a nice sunday night movie :)

2 weeks down.....

So, I have finished my second week! It's been tough, fun, and a great experience so far. Although I wake up every morning thinking "Why why why would I choose to work in Europe? Europe is supposed to be fun, not for waking up early and being a professional!" I am still glad I am doing this. I really only have to get up early 3 days a week, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to stay nice and warm in bed...especially when I know the weather outside is below freezing!

However, after my first 15 minutes of general grumbling and getting out of bed, I am a pretty happy camper. One thing I've noticed so far is that the European lifestyle is just different. For instance, back home this time last year I woke up every morning, sat in an hour of traffic to get to school only to commute home, whip myself up a sandwich, shove it down my throat so that I could be out of the house and on time for work. After work (I didnt get home til after 7) I made dinner, did homework and sat on the couch until I passed out...only to do it all again the next day. Basically, I had NO life outside of school and work....I would be so exhausted when I got home that I couldnt do anything but sleep and sit on the couch.

Here, work is only a part of your day. After work the city is still pretty lively...there are people catching up with friends at local pubs, going to grab some dinner, walking around, going to the baths, going for a dessert somewhere (pancakes with fresh fruit--finsci!!)....etc. Its so nice to not feel like my day is completely over after Im done "being responsible" for the day.

Last night, after my LONG day at work (7 lessons in a row!) we grabbed a little beer and headed to the baths to relax....and it was so nice, all the steam rose up around us because it was -12 celsius...SO COLD! But after you feel so good. Anyway, Im still happy to see the beginning of the weekend, I get to sleep in for 2 days, relax and "enjoy the life!"

Here are a few pictures Ive taken since I got here: The first is A nearby park with lots of trails....And a floating stick! The second is near the main square of Eger at night...

Here is a better picture of my school

Andddd here's us at the baths last night!

kepek

here is the panorama of eger that i shot in the fall...bright colors, nearby mountains in thebackground and a gorgeous, really old church to the left there
and here is where we drink lots of wine and eat lots of soup :)

you know, the snow

aint so bad when you don't have to drive! turns out i don't mind the snow so much when there are pretty things to look at like a nice square, or pretty mountains, or orange and pink houses with snow on top. i guess small doses is the key, and i may change my mind about it next week...but the snow here (for today anyway) wasn't the worst thing in the world, it was actually gorgeous to see this small city under a blanket of the white stuff.

hopefully some snow-covered Eger pics to come :)

a few pictures

So That's my school on the right there....it was really beautiful when I got to school this morning, so I tried to take a picture with my new cell phone....the colors didn't exactly get soaked up as well as I'd hoped. But, you can see the school as well as the gorgeous mountain view in the background....The sun just came up over the mountains so the sky was light pink and yellow.

Also, cant wait till that weeping willow tree gets some leaves on it! It is by far my favorite tree and Hungary is full of them!

Here is the view from the window in the teacher's lounge. Mountains, adorable little houses, and the sun peeking out....Again, not the best picture, but at least it's something!

My school is a bit outside of the city towards the mountains where we go hiking (In the Bükk Mountains)....so every window I look out of has a pretty gorgeous view of everything.

And if anyone's never seen a picture of the city Im living in these days, here it is. This is the view from the castle overlooking the whole town of Eger. I have a pretty sweet panorama I'd like to post, but I don't have any way of getting it online at the moment....so maybe one day soon I can figure it out.

Well thats all, my Monday went okay...The kids (especially the lower grades) are getting a little more talkative as the days go on, so hopefully that will continue! More photos to come :)

survived the first week!

So, the week started to go uphill after the middle of the week. I finished all of my lessons, and the ones where I was actually teaching and not just introducing myself went well! A pretty big question came up in a few of my classes that I've never had to think about....

It reminded me of hiking with Ben and him asking why we say "though" at the end of sentences all the time....such a random question and pretty hard to explain since we dont really think about why we say things, we just grew up with it! So the question that came up was when to use "she" and when to use "her." I had to think about it pretty hard before I could come up with a legitamate answer that would actually make sense, but it came to me as I was passing out for a nap Friday after school.

After waking up from my nap, I was pretty refreshed, so we headed to the baths with a few beers in hand (German Hofbrau Haus beers, Mom!) and relaxed for the rest of the night.....The baths at night are great because they are outdoors and all the steam rises up around you so you cant really see anyone who isnt sitting 2 feet away from you.

Last night we went to a little party with "Grandpa's homemade Palinka" and it was literally the strongest liquor Ive ever put into my mouth....never again, just normal Palinka for me from now on!

Today was filled with eating a delicious homecooked Hungarian meal and a little lesson planning for the coming week...the theme of the week is health....so we'll see how that goes.

Thats all for now.....but Im sure the cheeky kids will be doing cheeky things I can write about this week!

Now I know how our high school teachers felt!

Well, I have officially started my new job. It is my first week as an English teacher....and there arent enough words to describe this experience, but I will try my best. My first day was on Monday, and after still being jetlagged (and awake from 1AM to 4AM) I had a bit of a rough start. The bags under my eyes were especially saggy, I was jittery from drinking a few too many cups of coffee, and it was the first day in a new position where no one knew me. I got to school a little early, met with the man who gave me the job...he gave me my schedule and I was off to my first class after a short walk around the (tiny) school. To say I was thrown into it is an understatement, but it was alright because I was just doing introduction stuff on the first day of class anyway.

My actual job is teaching conversational English 25 lessons a week. Included in these 25 lessons, I have 10 different levels of English speakers (Grades 9 through 13 with a high and low level per grade). I have some classes twice a week, and some classes once a week. Being a new teacher in a new school where everybody only speaks a little of your language is a little overwhelming because I haven't been given much direction as far as what to teach. Everybody says "Just talk to them," but a lot of these kids are VERY shy/ don' know me at all, so its a little rough. I am used to 4/5 year olds who never seem to have enough to say to you!!

The biggest challenge is going to be getting everyone to talk every class, but I'm already solving issues and coming up with activities and ideas...It's just a lot of work since I have so many different levels of English, so I need to gauge my lessons accordingly.

Long story short, I'm figuring it out, slowly. One cool thing is that I have a lot of freedom with what I want to teach, but at the same time, it's difficult to figure out where to begin! Some of the students are really nice and excited to ask me questions (read SOME...maybe like 8 students....) and the rest are talking the bare minimum or just being the average bored highschooler, which is to be expected.

On Wednesdays I only have 2 lessons, and the great thing is that I only have to actually be at school for those 2 lessons. So, today I didn't have to go in until Noon, and I got out a period early! I am going to love having this break in the day every Wednesday, although I have to make up for it by having 6 or 7 lessons (thats right, out of an 8 period day) on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Tuesday is a light load as well with only 4 lessons. But this morning Ben and I went out for some breakfast and I got a HUGE coffee (very hard to come by here...they always want to give you those little espresso shot coffees in Europe) at our favorite bakery. I think that may become a weekly tradition :) Also for a huge coffee here, Probably the equivalent of a "grande" at Starbucks, it costs 180 Forint which is just less than a dollar. You can imagine how happy this makes me!

Thats all for now, I hope the second half of my week goes smoothly...and I am always looking forward to the weekends now, when I can do normal fun Hungarian things!

love to all back home <3

made it!

After a longgg overnight flight, I made it to Hungary. Still a little jetlagged, but getting over it. Saturday I met with the head of the English Department at my new school for coffee and we talked about everything, so I was pretty excited. Before that we were in the baths...the weather has been gorgeous here! We just need sweatshirts, not even jackets....thats probably coming to an end this week though! Since the weather is so nice, we rode bikes through the city today and then went for a little hike. On the way home, we stopped at my new school so I could see it...and it seems nice and new and so cute. I took some pictures, so I will post them soon.

So far, a great weekend, delicious Hungarian food and just mentally preparing myself for the big first day tomorrow :)

snoowww

ruining my plans. officially delayed 24 hours...

i have ants in my pants, can't wait to go!

....packing

...well i've crammed the next 6 months of my life into a rather large suitcase. I say "large" because I was actually able to curl into a ball and climb into it while it was empty.

This is a little different from backpacking, mainly because I can't look like a dirtbag everyday of my life. I have to be a teacher and look semi-professional and well put together, so a gigantic suitcase is the necessary route to looking like a real human. Props to Jimmy for not only bringing it home from Oneonta in one piece (not even knowing I was going to steal it--that's intuition right there), but for letting me take it because "I'm a girl and have more stuff."

hooray!

i get to wear jeans to work :)

one way ticket to budapest

...for the second time! First time was September 2008 to kick off my backpacking trip.

officially leaving next wednesday evening (January 12). A little concerned about snow messing up my life, but hopefully it won't, because I have a lunch date next Thursday in Hungary ;)

so apparently i'm leaving...

...or arriving, however you want to look at it. Anyways, I got a job offer as a high school English teacher in Hungary. And I'm going to take it.

After much deliberation, many questions, and a deep breath, I came to the conclusion that I did because it is just one of those situations that makes sense for me at this moment in my life.

Seems pretty simple, but it wasn't!