I've now gone to a whole week of Hungarian school. Okay, not really, I've been to three english classes, a math class and a homeroom, as well as two all day outings. It feels like a lot. I don't know what you've been told but waking up at 7:45 is hard. (I honestly don't know how I'll ever wake up an hour earlier back home, but we'll deal with that later I suppose.)
Yesterday I got to see kids my age hear about 9/11 for maybe the first time, or maybe they'd heard of it but didn't know much. When we were first at the school before leaving to go into the city their teacher asked them if anyone knew anything special about the date (this was translated to me) and obviously I knew and I'm not a hundred percent sure how the discussion went from there but their teacher told them a lot about it and they asked some questions. It was really interesting to get bits and pieces translated and to see how non americans view it. One question that was asked that I had also kind of been wondering from their perspective was: What makes this tragic event so different/special? Why were they talking about it? To the best of my understanding the teacher answered that it was because the United States is (one of/ the?) most powerful countries in the world and nothing like this had really happened there before. I was impressed they were even talking about and think they may have done a better job of honoring the day then some of my previous teachers.
On to the fun stuff. Well, first on to a museum, then on to the fun stuff. First the whole class got onto a bus (making it rather crowded) into the city. Getting off at Ferenciek ter we took a short walk to this seemingly non-descript museum. It was a poetry museum dedicated to the hungarian poet petofi sandor. There was a woman who talked for a long time all about him in Hungarian and I'm not going to pretend I was interested in that. My foot fell asleep during the talk but I managed to stay awake. After her long speel we walked into the next room(s) where there were some interactive activities. Then after those finally we were on to something exciting.
A scavenger hunt! The class was spilt into teams and everyone given around 7 things in the area to find and take their picture with. My team was Borka, Bori, Dori, Dodo, Eszter, and of course myself. First we had to find this library and take our picture with it and the fountain in front of it. (Warning: the rest of this paragraph is all about teenage girls taking pictures and that's about it.) We took a couple nice pictures and then did some sillier poses by the fountain. Then we were off to find Raday Utca (which I knew where was, also for all you non Hungarians Utca means street). We posed in front of the street sign and asked this guy to take our picture - which he did but he didn't get the sign in the picture so we had to ask another person. Next was the great market where we had to ask multiple people to take our picture because they were all turning out blurry, in the end we got some cute ones. And on to find the Budapest Music Center we were. (Side note: finding things in Budapest is so much easier when you have Hungarians who can ask other Hungarians where things are.) The last thing we found was this huge building called the whale the looks pretty cool from the outside but we didn't go in. Then we tried to look for something called old parliament or something like that but no one knew what it was or where so we gave up. Since we had at least looked for all the things on the list we started walking to a school the final meeting place. At first we were confused about why we were meeting at the school but then we were told it was designed by the same person who designed Radnoti (the school I'm with) and that made more sense. From there we were dismissed.
Now a bit more on developing friendships and such. Throughout these past days (a whole school week!) I've been getting to know the class better, names and everything else in my memory has improved. I have a pass to get in the building. I can go by myself and know what stops on the metro and bus to get off. And as generally as possible I know what I'm doing. The names I know: Borka, Bori, Dori, Dodo, Chi Minh (boy was I wrong with that spelling before), Eszter, Vera, Maty (I don't know spelling but I know how to say it), Szofi, Anita, both Dannys, Peter, and maybe some others but not off the top of my head. I think it's safe to say I've gotten to know Borka and Bori the best. Borka is the best translator I could ask for and as a super bonus we have quite a bit in common. We both like youtube (especially Miranda Sings), we like American Horror Story, One Direction, horror movies in general, being silly and laughing a lot. A lot of what I just said describes Bori a lot as well except she likes horror less but watches it anyway with Borka, which just shows how sweet she is. Everyone else has been lovely also I just don't know well enough to describe thoughtfully.
Today we played board games and went to some caves. I'm not sure exactly why there were two days in a row of field trips but I'm also not complaining. This morning I woke up confused and worried (this is what waking up before 8 am does to me), I wasn't sure what time it was or when I had to leave and had a little panic but ended up making it to school in plenty of time. Once I got to school a bunch of the girls were preparing Bori's birthday present (It was her birthday today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BORI!). They had all gotten her a little something or written a card and someone had printed out pictures from yesterday that looked super cute and we all chose together which one to put in the frame. Then we all played games for a while before we left for the caves. I played this game with picture cards and some little pieces of paper (which I'm not going to explain all the rules because its pointless but was really fun) and I ended up winning -which was exciting. Then we started to play scrabble (they agreed to try to play in English because they're all the nicest people ever) but then it got hard and confusing with the Hungarian alphabet and spelling in English so we quit. It was pretty much time to go by then so we walked out to the bus stop.
After being packed into a couple of buses like sardines we were finally at the caves. Hanging around outside chatting a bit and then finally we were ready to go in. It was cold in the caves and listening to someone talk in Hungarian about rocks was okay I guess but looking around at the actual rocks themselves were pretty cool. A ways later there was a memorial and a wreath to commemorate someone (a caver perhaps?) who'd died in the cave - kinda freaky/sad, kinda cool. We kept moving on and again someone was trying to convince Borka to teach me Hungarian swears. After that they told me a story where they had met some people who only wanted to know the Hungarian word for penis and then would shout it all the time. Which of course started the penis game (which if you don't know what is how did you get through middle school first of all but second of all is basically where you start saying it really quiet and then you have to be louder than the person before you and eventually its really loud) and so it ended up a bunch of Hungarian highschoolers yelling penis. I just laughed. Pretty quickly after that we were out of the caves back into the warm(er) air. We sat around again and I learned a hungarian (not sure if its really a hungarian game but I'd never played it before so I'm assuming it is) game with two teams and a coin. Basically the team with the coin passes it around so the other team isn't sure who had is and then puts their hands face down on the table and the other team has to figure out which hand it's in. Very fun, or at least passes the time, but kinda hard to do well. That wrapped up our time together because right after we got back on the bus into the city where I left to go home and a few went back to the school.
A bit of online courses and then the Bovens were in our apartment! The Bovens (Greg and Ruth) if you don't know used to go to our church (Ruth was one of our pastors) but now are at La Grave but currently in Budapest with us! Unfortunately all the school I've been going to has made me slightly behind in my classes (how ironic) and I couldn't go to dinner with them, but I was brought home starbucks and pizza by my favorite (only) parents. What an end to a great week.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
hungarian overload: first day of school
Today was my first day (well half day/ two classes) of Hungarian school. It was one of the most interesting things I've ever done and probably the most purposely confused I've ever been. So the church my family goes to in Budapest (St. Columba's) pastor has two sons, one of whom goes to a very good school in Budapest (Radnoti) and classmates speak a good amount of english, his mother was kind enough to ask the school and the certain teachers if I could join them for a few classes. It was so bizarre being back in school, and to add on to that everyone was speaking some language I couldn't understand.
When I first got to the school it was a break between classes around noon, so Danny (our pastors son) introduced me to one of his teachers and we went into an office and talked to a woman I think was a secretary who wrote down my name (Aby Bouman - close enough) and said she would make me a pass for the building that would be ready tomorrow. (Just to clarify that bit - right when you walk into the building there is this turn style type thing like you would put a ticket through then walk through and then its locked again and this key/pass thing will let me in and out of the building.) After that we walked through the halls to the room where the next lesson, English, would be and I was introduced to some of his classmates. In this moment and through the rest of the day my sympathy grew for any level of foreign exchange student. I was bombarded by names and faces and lots of Hungarian going way over my head. At first all of them were shy to speak in english even though I could understand them saying things like "beszel angol" which basically means speak english. It is so hard to learn more than one name at a time in english no less Hungarian. I think I remember about four or five from all of it. Basically what happened when I met everyone was that I was moved over to the girls (classic highschool) and so during class I sat next to Borka I believe was her name- she had good english and was quite nice.
The first class was english which was good because believe it or not it was all in english, except for when there was a more difficult word that would be explained in Hungarian. At the beginning of class they were working on participle clause which I've never even formally learned but was very obvious to me (the native speaker) what they were suppose to be doing. Some times a student would be called on to change two sentences into one giving more information in participle clause form and they would say a sentence that made sense and said the same thing but would be wrong because it was the wrong form - this made me realize just a portion of how hard it is to learn other languages english especially. Throughout the whole english class most of the students had been a bit chatty but this one girl especially had been talking in Hungarian when the teacher wanted them to speak English and near the end the teacher was getting fed up and she asked the girl, "what the bloody hell could you have left to talk about, is it too much to ask that you keep your personal matters to the break?" I was a bit taken aback but at the same time it was rather funny and they seemed to think so as well. I don't think the meaning hit them as much as it did me but I kept thinking how people would react if any teacher said anything like that at home.
Now there was a short break between classes where I followed some girls out to the courtyard where some students were playing soccer (futbal, I suppose) but us girls walked over to a corner and stood/ sat and talked. Most of it was in Hungarian but every so often they'd ask me a question or tell each other to speak english. In the end it was got across that we were the same age, I would be in Budapest until december, and I know who Miranda Sings from youtube is. Also I got some oreo milka (chocolate bar - my favorite) from a girl named phonetically chimy but if I had to guess it would be spelled cseme.
Next we headed back inside for homeroom which was more students than the first class and the room was full. I was sitting by two girls, one of which had been in my first class the other not so she tried to talked to me in Hungarian before someone else jumped in saying I only spoke English. Then the teacher asked my name I said Abi a couple times (apparently its not a common name as they don't really have the same A sound that begins Abi) and then she told me thats all she could handle for now. After that I was informed later she told the girl next to me to translate the class or the important parts but she didn't - I don't blame her it'd probably annoying/ a little bit scary/ she probably just didn't feel like it but after the homeroom the other students were joking and teasing her about it (not in a mean way). With out a translator I pretty much tuned out the class except when they would say a number or day of the week (which I know) or when they would all laugh at something, and once the teacher said Szell Kalman Ter and that is a metro stop I know. It was a very strange sensation having no idea what was being said.
At the end I was told it was time for the boys to go to lunch but since I was following Danny I could go to. On the way down to the lunch room Danny said I probably couldn't have lunch because I didn't have a pass which was fine but then someone came up with one so I got to eat anyways. After getting my soup with random meat pile in the middle (Danny said "I don't know what this is but I think sometimes its better to not know") I sat down with a bunch of guys speaking hungarian. At one point Danny told me they were happy I couldn't understand them. Then they went around saying names me repeating them and then promptly forgetting. I remember one of them starts with M and is very Hungarian and there is another Danny but thats about all. Then they wanted to teach me how to swear in Hungarian so from that point I stopped repeating what they were saying. After eating we headed back upstairs and since the next class was PE and they boys and girls were separated I decided to head out.
All in all it was a pretty good first experience and I'm going back tomorrow at 10 for another english class. Then later in the week are some field trips to a museum and some hiking/ ropes course? which I believe I'll be going too. It's hard but it's fun and I'm excited to go back.
When I first got to the school it was a break between classes around noon, so Danny (our pastors son) introduced me to one of his teachers and we went into an office and talked to a woman I think was a secretary who wrote down my name (Aby Bouman - close enough) and said she would make me a pass for the building that would be ready tomorrow. (Just to clarify that bit - right when you walk into the building there is this turn style type thing like you would put a ticket through then walk through and then its locked again and this key/pass thing will let me in and out of the building.) After that we walked through the halls to the room where the next lesson, English, would be and I was introduced to some of his classmates. In this moment and through the rest of the day my sympathy grew for any level of foreign exchange student. I was bombarded by names and faces and lots of Hungarian going way over my head. At first all of them were shy to speak in english even though I could understand them saying things like "beszel angol" which basically means speak english. It is so hard to learn more than one name at a time in english no less Hungarian. I think I remember about four or five from all of it. Basically what happened when I met everyone was that I was moved over to the girls (classic highschool) and so during class I sat next to Borka I believe was her name- she had good english and was quite nice.
The first class was english which was good because believe it or not it was all in english, except for when there was a more difficult word that would be explained in Hungarian. At the beginning of class they were working on participle clause which I've never even formally learned but was very obvious to me (the native speaker) what they were suppose to be doing. Some times a student would be called on to change two sentences into one giving more information in participle clause form and they would say a sentence that made sense and said the same thing but would be wrong because it was the wrong form - this made me realize just a portion of how hard it is to learn other languages english especially. Throughout the whole english class most of the students had been a bit chatty but this one girl especially had been talking in Hungarian when the teacher wanted them to speak English and near the end the teacher was getting fed up and she asked the girl, "what the bloody hell could you have left to talk about, is it too much to ask that you keep your personal matters to the break?" I was a bit taken aback but at the same time it was rather funny and they seemed to think so as well. I don't think the meaning hit them as much as it did me but I kept thinking how people would react if any teacher said anything like that at home.
Now there was a short break between classes where I followed some girls out to the courtyard where some students were playing soccer (futbal, I suppose) but us girls walked over to a corner and stood/ sat and talked. Most of it was in Hungarian but every so often they'd ask me a question or tell each other to speak english. In the end it was got across that we were the same age, I would be in Budapest until december, and I know who Miranda Sings from youtube is. Also I got some oreo milka (chocolate bar - my favorite) from a girl named phonetically chimy but if I had to guess it would be spelled cseme.
Next we headed back inside for homeroom which was more students than the first class and the room was full. I was sitting by two girls, one of which had been in my first class the other not so she tried to talked to me in Hungarian before someone else jumped in saying I only spoke English. Then the teacher asked my name I said Abi a couple times (apparently its not a common name as they don't really have the same A sound that begins Abi) and then she told me thats all she could handle for now. After that I was informed later she told the girl next to me to translate the class or the important parts but she didn't - I don't blame her it'd probably annoying/ a little bit scary/ she probably just didn't feel like it but after the homeroom the other students were joking and teasing her about it (not in a mean way). With out a translator I pretty much tuned out the class except when they would say a number or day of the week (which I know) or when they would all laugh at something, and once the teacher said Szell Kalman Ter and that is a metro stop I know. It was a very strange sensation having no idea what was being said.
At the end I was told it was time for the boys to go to lunch but since I was following Danny I could go to. On the way down to the lunch room Danny said I probably couldn't have lunch because I didn't have a pass which was fine but then someone came up with one so I got to eat anyways. After getting my soup with random meat pile in the middle (Danny said "I don't know what this is but I think sometimes its better to not know") I sat down with a bunch of guys speaking hungarian. At one point Danny told me they were happy I couldn't understand them. Then they went around saying names me repeating them and then promptly forgetting. I remember one of them starts with M and is very Hungarian and there is another Danny but thats about all. Then they wanted to teach me how to swear in Hungarian so from that point I stopped repeating what they were saying. After eating we headed back upstairs and since the next class was PE and they boys and girls were separated I decided to head out.
All in all it was a pretty good first experience and I'm going back tomorrow at 10 for another english class. Then later in the week are some field trips to a museum and some hiking/ ropes course? which I believe I'll be going too. It's hard but it's fun and I'm excited to go back.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
cave-ventures and a day in the life
Yesterday was our last true Hungarian class and quiz before the oral exam (which I'm not taking). After class a group of students (Sierra, Kara, Jane, Sam, and Jason) were planning on going to some caves in the Buda hills and invited me. Obviously I accepted. When class ended I stayed at the dorm for a bit, ate lunch and then we were off for the caves.
Sierra had looked up directions so we took the tram to Szell Kalman the end of the line and went to look for the 91 bus which was somewhere in the large square. After walking nearly the whole perimeter I spotted it pointed and we all started running towards it not wanting to miss it. Jason was the only one to make it on the bus before the doors closed but Kara was so close behind and ended up running straight into the door resulting in lots of laughter. Midst our laughter the doors opened back up and we were being yelled at in Hungarian and shooed off the bus as it turned out we were at the drop off stop a mere 50 ft from the correct pick up stop. So we walked over to the right place and sheepishly walked past the driver before remembering Kara and collapsing into more giggles. Another 20 minutes on the bus we were at our stop and looking to Sierra for direction but her map was all in focus except the square of where we were so we guessed and of course went the wrong way. We did however find a sweet playground where we meandered looking for moms to ask for directions. We found a few but none spoke very good english and we didn't have the Hungarian word for cave. Eventually we called my dad and got the word and then got directions and left. When we'd been walking for a while we thought we must have gotten faulty information so turned around and went back to the beginning and asked at a grocery store and found out we had been just short of finding it so back we went.
Luckily when we got there we only had to wait about a half hour for an english tour and in the mean time were out of the heat and able to look in the small exhibit they had. At 4:30 our tour started with a small Hungarian family and a super cool tour guide named Viktor, who was giving the tour in English and Hungarian so would first say it all to the family then us run ahead and do it all again. We learned that the air was so clean in the caves that just the 40ish minutes we were there would clear our lungs of 2 weeks of dirt, also because of the insanely clean air the caves are used for therapy for folks with asthma or other breathing issues. We also heard a bit about Viktor - a lot about where he had traveled, his recommendations for hiking and how him and his mom, who has waist length dreads, had practiced caving in that very cave. All in all very awesome guide. On our way out Jane asked where some stairs to the side lead (genius question) and he told us they were the original entrance/exit and we could go out that way if we like (boy did we ever like). So 104 steps later we popped out on top of the hill with a great view of the city. Then we asked how to get back to the city and since he was off the clock now he said he would just accompany us. What a guy.
Today without Hungarian class to wake up for I got up around 10 (not that late really) and was ready for the day around noon (okay not ideal but anyways...). A little more sitting around and then we decided to go out to the little cafe two doors down called Java Kaffe. I absolutely loved it. I had brought the computer and my school notebooks so after ordering (a frozen mocha - delicious) I settled in for some adv. algebra. Two hours and a brownie later I decided I should probably do the rest of my work at home and left. Then walking into our building I made a decision to take the back steps instead of the normal steps or elevator (we live on the 6th floor just FYI). After living here 5 months back in 2011 and being here another month now I'd never gone on those stairs. They're so cool! Our building is pretty old (but nice) and these steps seemed like a good adventure. They were much more spirally and there were doors more often. I don't think I'm describing them well but in any case I'm glad I finally went that way.
About an hour later my mom was back from I'm not really sure where and we decided to go back out first to the post office (to send my first postcard how exciting!) and then to this cool clothing/miscellaneous store both my parents agreed I would love. I asked my mom a bunch of times the name but I think it must be very hungarian or have some spell on it because I can't remember for the life of me. I did love it though, it was the perfect mix of old and new (mostly new but a few used things - like loads and loads of converse) and vintage and modern. They had lots of cute dresses, tshirts, tank tops, etc. I wanted to spend all of my money there but ended up just buying a pair of sunglasses (which I actually needed because I left my old ones on the back of a camp roger van before getting on the ferry to North Manitou Island).
Then we came back and had a medium/great dinner (it was a bit spicy for my taste) of couscous paella. Now I'm writing this in bed with earbuds in place and a cup of tea by my side. Overall I'd say these were two exciting (well if not exciting at least fun to live) days and I hope you enjoy this description of them as much as I liked living them.
Goodnight.
Sierra had looked up directions so we took the tram to Szell Kalman the end of the line and went to look for the 91 bus which was somewhere in the large square. After walking nearly the whole perimeter I spotted it pointed and we all started running towards it not wanting to miss it. Jason was the only one to make it on the bus before the doors closed but Kara was so close behind and ended up running straight into the door resulting in lots of laughter. Midst our laughter the doors opened back up and we were being yelled at in Hungarian and shooed off the bus as it turned out we were at the drop off stop a mere 50 ft from the correct pick up stop. So we walked over to the right place and sheepishly walked past the driver before remembering Kara and collapsing into more giggles. Another 20 minutes on the bus we were at our stop and looking to Sierra for direction but her map was all in focus except the square of where we were so we guessed and of course went the wrong way. We did however find a sweet playground where we meandered looking for moms to ask for directions. We found a few but none spoke very good english and we didn't have the Hungarian word for cave. Eventually we called my dad and got the word and then got directions and left. When we'd been walking for a while we thought we must have gotten faulty information so turned around and went back to the beginning and asked at a grocery store and found out we had been just short of finding it so back we went.
Luckily when we got there we only had to wait about a half hour for an english tour and in the mean time were out of the heat and able to look in the small exhibit they had. At 4:30 our tour started with a small Hungarian family and a super cool tour guide named Viktor, who was giving the tour in English and Hungarian so would first say it all to the family then us run ahead and do it all again. We learned that the air was so clean in the caves that just the 40ish minutes we were there would clear our lungs of 2 weeks of dirt, also because of the insanely clean air the caves are used for therapy for folks with asthma or other breathing issues. We also heard a bit about Viktor - a lot about where he had traveled, his recommendations for hiking and how him and his mom, who has waist length dreads, had practiced caving in that very cave. All in all very awesome guide. On our way out Jane asked where some stairs to the side lead (genius question) and he told us they were the original entrance/exit and we could go out that way if we like (boy did we ever like). So 104 steps later we popped out on top of the hill with a great view of the city. Then we asked how to get back to the city and since he was off the clock now he said he would just accompany us. What a guy.
Today without Hungarian class to wake up for I got up around 10 (not that late really) and was ready for the day around noon (okay not ideal but anyways...). A little more sitting around and then we decided to go out to the little cafe two doors down called Java Kaffe. I absolutely loved it. I had brought the computer and my school notebooks so after ordering (a frozen mocha - delicious) I settled in for some adv. algebra. Two hours and a brownie later I decided I should probably do the rest of my work at home and left. Then walking into our building I made a decision to take the back steps instead of the normal steps or elevator (we live on the 6th floor just FYI). After living here 5 months back in 2011 and being here another month now I'd never gone on those stairs. They're so cool! Our building is pretty old (but nice) and these steps seemed like a good adventure. They were much more spirally and there were doors more often. I don't think I'm describing them well but in any case I'm glad I finally went that way.
About an hour later my mom was back from I'm not really sure where and we decided to go back out first to the post office (to send my first postcard how exciting!) and then to this cool clothing/miscellaneous store both my parents agreed I would love. I asked my mom a bunch of times the name but I think it must be very hungarian or have some spell on it because I can't remember for the life of me. I did love it though, it was the perfect mix of old and new (mostly new but a few used things - like loads and loads of converse) and vintage and modern. They had lots of cute dresses, tshirts, tank tops, etc. I wanted to spend all of my money there but ended up just buying a pair of sunglasses (which I actually needed because I left my old ones on the back of a camp roger van before getting on the ferry to North Manitou Island).
Then we came back and had a medium/great dinner (it was a bit spicy for my taste) of couscous paella. Now I'm writing this in bed with earbuds in place and a cup of tea by my side. Overall I'd say these were two exciting (well if not exciting at least fun to live) days and I hope you enjoy this description of them as much as I liked living them.
Goodnight.
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