Helplessness in the Classroom

Some days are good, some days are bad, and some days are just ugly...I guess Forrest Gump was right when he said that life is like a box of chocolates. Days here in Hungary are like that. One day, everyone seems to care and the next kids are flicking each other off, dropping the F-bomb just for your reaction, and you still haven't gotten paid! This is by far the longest I've EVER worked for free! I was actually surprised by how much it didn't bother me for a while. Well, now I've hit the limit and I'm ready for the dough! So please, pay me....!

Anyway, my first class today attempts to blow my eardrums during their "GOOD MORNING MISS...I'M FINE THANKS, HOW ARE YOU??" chant. For the love of GOD, there are more ways to answer the question "how are you?" besides "I'm fine thanks." I know for a fact that not all of them are fine. So, as I was feeling tired...as I have been lately, I taught them this among other things. One student surprised me by saying, "I'm half tired and half happy." Ok, I'll take it! So minutes after the opening exclamations, little 6th grader Krisztian (sp?) chucks a wad of paper at some girl across the room and at throws his middle fingers out at her waving them around in a fit of anger. I can't possibly imagine what she did to make him do this. So in the first five minutes of my 1st class today, I yelled and did many hand gestures that I think construed negative meaning. They seem to react to this more than my calm shhhhushes (the Hungarians even shush differently than we do...more of a sssssssssssss than a shhhhhhhhhh). Also, I find that banging my Nalgene bottle on the blackboard grabs their attention as well...in more ways than one. First, it's loud, second, they are convinced that I come to class with it equipped with either palinka, vodka, or some other kind of alcholic drink. The teachers are even fascinated by the Nalgene. "What is...that?" they ask quizzically. It's not that I teach like I'm drunk...I think it's just because they've learned more alcohol vocabulary than any other topic. I told one boy, "So you know how to say vodka, whiskey, rum, and beer, but you don't know how to say river?"

After ten minutes of note-writing, throwing anything in sight, falling out of chairs, and talking unneccesarily loud, I was furious. I guess I had finally come to the end of my fuse. After a few moments of silence, one boy meekly said, "Happy Birthday Kat." and then the whole class burst out into the Happy Birthday song...and my frosty exterior proceeded to melt away. That's the funny thing about kids...they can test your sanity one minute and then win you over the next. I don't even know how the kid remembered my birthday, but it did mean a lot.