tata day 1

tuesday 19 jan 2010

2 am local time

full day yest, tiring day

i start off with breakfast (got Ersebet to cut it down from the day before)

one egg with ham scrambled onions and paprika (not two) probably cooked in about 6 tablespoons of butter

2 slices toast (not six, no rolls) with butter, homemade apricot preserves

homemade sour cherry preserves homemade apples. preserved as chunks

coffee (no tea, no juice)

and one square (not two) of cream-filled pastry (homemade, of course)

then off with Szusza to the school, a distance of at most 75 yards from the PANZIO where i am

temporarily staying it had snowed, about 1 inch had collected

so we walk through the gate into the courtyard of this elegant structure

built around 1910 during the heydays of the Austro=Hungarian empire

formal, a gentle kind of classicism, a C shaped building, turned 90 degrees so that the wings to the left and right embrace you somewhat

the entrance garden graced with pines and spreading yews, now sugared with snow looking like a neoclassical version of Hogwarts --maybe the home campus of Durmstrang

the English teachers have a shared office with twelve desks, like library carrels

with a power outlet, so I hooked up the pc and did a little bit of email

interrupted by hellos and howdydoos with faculty as they came in

mostly female..mostly late 30s 40s 50s one guy, Viktor, new kid on the block

all of whom have accents-- a kind of hungarian drone underneath

so that you strain to hear the melody of english words above the incessant bass line

just before 9 Carla breezes in she is the current token American

heading back to her job in Minnesota --she took a leave of absence and her school has said

come back now or we will replace you

so off I go with her, tagging along to her classes to be shown off

well, introduced

and try to get a feel for the kids who are, by and large, quite polite

(we stand up when the teacher enters the room. Yes we do. We only need to be reminded of it a bit)

and in most cases it seems eager to learn but not so eager to actually work

the freshmen are where the big push is because they need to get up to speed this year in english

since much of their academic work next 3 yrs will be taught in english—math, bio, chemistry, econ--so I have the same freshman kids (2 groups) 3 times a week then other groups only 1x a week

in all it is 22 45-minute class sessions (start on the hour, day begins at 8, is over at 1:45) but 3 of the 22 is one group of 9^th graders and another 3 is the other group

so that makes about 40 kids. then there will be 16 other groups I see only once a week so figure 200 students there. overall then I will have to learn 250 names many of which will be hard to get down.

zoltan dori adam no prob its the Bolacs Bensze Balenc combinations that will get me down (Flashback to “Alphabits” in the National Lampoon yearbook)

so we wound up the day with a general faculty meeting at 2 pm I met the principal, who spoke to me in Hungarian while Szusza translated, till on a hunch I just flat out blurted est=-ce que vous parlez francais and she does so I said we could chat in french if need be and then the meeting started

and after about four minutes I heard her say RRRRooooBerrrrrrrt LOOOOOOOEEEEESSSSS satabi satabi then all these eyes were on me so I said about 45 seconds of how happy I am in english, 30 seconds of i'm delighted auf deutsch, and about 20 seconds of muy feliz and enchante and then it was time to present a farewell token to Carla and that was that

so Carla and I head off to her apartment which I get to take over later this week after she packs herself and her cat (dont ask) back to the usa we walk past the convent (200 yrs old, falling apart, still parts of it used as dorm for some of the kids whose home is too far away for daily commute) then past the esterhazy summer palace, along the lakeside, then past the castle with its moat and fortified wallto the less romantic section of town--grey 4- story apartment slabs gas stations grocery stores (some very much in the Aldi mode, others more like a minischnux, but more basic, no fancy schmancy—that is in the next town over) to her place where we meet and greet the downstairs folks

Istvan and Imre and Elisa and Heliforget (too many faces and names in one day) so the place is about the size of my LR and DR combined plus a separate kitchen (big propane tank sits on the floor with flexible metal hose to stove) the wash machine sits on the floor next to the tub and empties into it (WM is named Boris, seems to have a personality). I will have my own balcony (!!!!!) and will inherit stuff from Carla plus Robert, a previous incarnation of me who remains mysterious and seems to have left (unprintable) stories behind

3:30 am now back for another 2 hrs sleep (I drifted off around 8:30)

maybe a banana first?

I do have yoghurt

(pronounced YOG hurt push hard on the H in Hooooort)