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.