Thanksgiving in Nyíregyháza and even Hungarian Students Cheat

I'm still a little shocked by the fact that a student didn't attempt in the least to hide his cheating strategy while sitting in my class trying to come up with as many uses for dental floss as possible. His technique includes removing the label of a Coke bottle, writing the formula, answers, whatever on the back; re-sticking the label to the bottle, and drinking enough Coke to see the answers through the plastic. I fully intend to create a lesson designed to make him feel guilty about cheating so that he'll think twice about doing it again (and it wasn't even in my class). Not that my lessons will change the world of cheaters, but when you don't have a curriculum or books that you should use and you're just out there flapping in the breeze, a lesson on cheating isn't such a bad idea.

Thanksgiving in Hungary was quite a nice intermission from my now established play of life in Szerencs. Liz, Jeremy and I baked some chocolate chip cookies (six at a time (should have been called butter bars), batter stirred in pots)). Jeremy was in charge of chopping the chocolate bars into "chips" as they don't exist here and had to make an emergency bike jaunt back to Tesco to fetch the forgotton ingredient baking soda. Liz was ecstatic about buying a "plastic Charlie Brown" Christmas tree at Tesco...full with ornaments and lights. I even splurged on a string of colored bulbs to put in my room.

                                        

Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night was complete with a full turkey...a bird that was killed for us on Thursday because the Hungarians were adamant about us having our traditional food on our American holiday. The potluck was successful and we all left feeling a little rounder and more cheerful. No American football...just some Creedence and Black Eyed Peas music on Yerik's Itunes list (Oddly enough, these are the two bands that stick out in my head - apples and oranges, I know).

Being with everyone on pseudo Turkey Saturday was very comforting during a time that is usually spent with family and I'm definitely thankful to have a wonderful group of comrades to eat, drink, and be merry with.

Prague and All Saint's

Just got Internet installed in my apartment and I'm still counting my lucky stars that I brought the laptop on the trip (even though it almost broke my back hauling it around the Dublin airport about 4 months ago when I first hopped the Atlantic).

I've fallen back into my routine of teaching both my school classes and private lessons. Two weeks ago, I was in Prague with my travel buddy/American teacher in southern Hungary, Harpswell. We joked around so much that the 8 hour train ride flew by and before we knew it, we were in the Czech Republic, our passports out of breath.

Entrance to the Charles Bridge in Prague

On November 1st, Hungary commerates their dead. At night, everyone gathers in the cemetery with candles and pays respect to the dead (a 180 from the hyped up Halloween parties we have with fake ghosts and the sort). So we saw glowing cemeteries shoot by the window just as our train pulled out of Hungary and into Slovakia. Moments later, we stopped in a bigger city...to which Harpswell says, "This can't be Bratislava...I really don't think it is." Not even two seconds later, a huge blue sign with yellow letters announcing BRATISLAVA faces our window.

We spent much of Prague walking off all the pure slabs of fat and pastry that the Transylvanians funneled into our mouths. After mistaking two modest bridges as the Charles Bridge and fueling up on hot wine, we trekked up to the castle. Prague rested in a misty November fog that fit the Central European stigma oh so well. We frequented a rabbit hole bar (it was like walking into a tunnel that led to more and more rooms), a pirate bar and tried to process all of the excess English we heard....you just don't get that in Budapest or in a small Hungarian village of 11,000.

Dark and gothic spire plenty church

We walked through an Italian movie set with Christmas trees and white lights strung over a narrow cobblestoned street. I was impressed by the amount of random art that exists in Prague. Metal babies crawl on the TV tower eye sore and a silohuetted man hangs off a building from a steel bar. Art where you don't expect it - that's one of the things I liked the most about Prague.

I like how the flora matches the orange roofs of Prague in the distance.

Babies crawling on a tower

While in Prague, Harpswell and I were charged way too much for a glass of beer at a Herna bar, stayed in a really nice hotel our first night, then nearly froze staying at Harpswell's friends' apartment, the windows open for much of the November night, re-united with my old Budapest roommate Lara and met her boyfriend, Brendan with whom we went out dancing at a bar playing African drum music, and wandered the streets and cemeteries talking. Prague was fun, but it's good to be back in Hungary.

Through the Woods, Transylvania

I made it back alive from my journeys to the east and west of Hungary. Transylvania was a lot of bus time, a lot of gas station Cola Lights and Mexicorn, but also some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen.

Orange, yellow, and red broccoflower trees (as Jenna so creatively calls them) covered the mountains like a spread, sharp canyons that looked like they had been traveled upon by Frodo Baggins and company, and horses pulling carts of gypsies clambered up and down past our bus, sometimes almost being plowed down by it.

Jeremy and I take a break on a frosty mountainside

Jenna, Mariah, Harpswell, and Liz hitch a ride with the local transportation

Killer Lake looks calm. The water's iron oxide and calcium carbonate preserve the foliage beneath the water perfectly. Because of all the chemicals, no fish can survive here.

We learned traditional Hungarian dances from these friendly folk.

Some of us were not so successful (including me, in red)

We stayed with different Hungarian families each night (the Trianon peace treaty left Hungarians living in Romania when the borders were changed).

Above is a Hungarian village in Romania where we stayed.

The families met us with shots of palinka, a type of Hungarian moonshine that supposedly helps with digestion. We were certainly fed well in Transylvania...the families didn't want us to leave and tell everyone that there was no food in Transylvania. There was soup, stuffed cabbage, beef and a noodle type dish and pastries for dessert. Nothing like fried vampire bat wings or anything of that nature. We also did not get the chance to drink blood. Oh, and I did eat eggs in Romania and survive...at a time when the news makes the bird flu sound like the Bubonic Plague.

Dracula's supposed home-town: Sighisoara, was incredibly gothic and creepy. There were tall towers with miniature chimneys that made me wonder what went on up there. There was actually a bi-lingual school at the top of the hill next to a huge cemetery that sloped over the hill. I briefly thought what it would be like to teach there. The tombstones were covered in ivy, candles were lit, and the ancient stones with crooked crosses had nothing on the sandblasted stones of today. There was a bust of Vlad Tepes in the center of town. This was my favorite place in Transylvania even though it was the most touristy. The atmosphere was perfect for exploring, as it was Halloween and we spent much of our time wandering through cemeteries and down the cobbled streets imagining what the town was like under Vlad's cruel rule.