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.