Staff meetings... enough said.

my sofa-bed-futon-thing.

Okay, so this is day 3 in Pápa.

I went to the first staff meeting, and that was an experience. For most teachers/professionals, staff meetings suck and most people tune out anyways. Mine was 4 hours long, and in Hungarian. Awesome. Fortunately, everyone knew I had no freakin idea what was going on, so I wsa handed a stack of the English course-books so I could flip through and become acquainted with what exactly pre-intermediate, elementary, intermediate and advanced levels are expected to know. I was shocked—I am almost positive none of my high school students would be able to pass the intermediate English exam required to graduate here! I mean, I know we don’t teach grammar like we should, but dang. Miss Desmond is going to be doing a lot of homework. Throughout the meeting, some of the English teachers would sort of give me tweet-like status updates about what the headmaster was talking about—the economic situation, the smoking problem, the schedule for the year, etc. There was a 15 minute break somewhere in there, with fresh-baked biscuits, the yummy layered dessert I’ve eaten at least 5 times since I have been here, and soda and wine. After the main staff meeting, we had an English department meeting, where everyone was rearranging which course-books they are using, also in Hungarian. I again got the abridged version of the events in English. I also figured out the “3+3” lessons—two sections of 9th grade English, each three times a week. Tomorrow I am going to the Primary school to figure out what my schedule is there, and how well the two mesh. I am hoping to not have to buy a bike, as it doesn’t seem like a sound investment for only being here for 5 months, but it’s like a 20+ minute walk between schools and my flat makes a 3rd point in the triangle of my new daily life. It’s actually a pretty big town—30,000 seems relatively normal, but then again I never walked across Brentwood or Norco to get where I needed to go! Plus, with the weather being this unpredictable, any help in making my time traversing town would probably be greatly appreciated... although when the ice comes I don’t know that a bike would be helpful anyways. Oh, the things to think about!

a map of town... I will try to highlight things sometime soon.

Settling in has actually been really easy, though rather expensive, as I wanted a fitted sheet, a desk lamp, a shower curtain, hangers, bowls, a hair dryer, etc. All things that are one-time purchases, obviously, but the first trip (or two) to Tesco/Interspar was quite expensive. I’m considering them investments for the future CETP teachers that will replace me when I leave.

Some brief notes on life in Hungary:

It is COLD. It is August, and I turned the heat on last night. And the weather is so unpredictable! It can be sunny one minute and cloudy and drizzly the next. It has rained off and on for the last three days, today being the heaviest so far with actually downpours. I will definitely be buying good winter boots soon, and perhaps even a slicker if this rain keeps up.

rain!!!!

I have yet to find a simple boneless skinless chicken breast. Heck, I’d settle for one with skin, if it was deboned. I am headed to the actual butcher sometime this week (instead of the grocery store) to see if I have any luck there.

I haven’t had any problems (so far) working the gas-operated appliances. That is exciting. I also bought a surge protector, as apparently computers get fried often when there is lightning. Hopefully it is enough to preserve my connection to home.

Okay, I have a lot of lesson planning to do—more on that process later. Viszlat!