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September 06, 2001
Please no apples
I can't believe it's been a week since I wrote anything here. The last 7 days have gone by so fast. I suppose that since I've taught a week of school, I'm a seasoned teacher now. HA! Not really. Every day on my way to school, I think to myself, are these kids really going to listen to me today? Am I actually their teacher? I can handle the idea of teaching, but being a teacher carries much more responsibility and I don't always feel worthy. I do it anyway though, and hopefully when I see the students learning I will feel more teacher-ly. I just hope they don't bring me any porcelain apples that say " Teachers change lives" or some other cheesy encouraging phrase. I've never been one for collecting ceramic fruits.
I think I have learned more this week than I have taught. The 12s and 13s want to learn web programming like Perl, PHP, Javascript. I know only vaguely know this stuff, so with the help of a few smart friends, I've been cramming lots into my head.
Apart from academic learning, I've been learning a lot about Hungary and Budapest. Last weekend 5 of us took an overnight trip to Szeged to visit Stephanie. Her teammate, Kara, left for the weekend, so we took the train to sunny Szeged to keep her company. Train travel is so cool. I'm still in my honeymoon phase with public transportation here. The metro runs every 2 minutes during rush hour and my bus leaves every 6 minutes. So handy! I can usually get within a block or two of anywhere in the city on a bus, metro, or tram.
I do miss ground beef though. I'm sure it's around here somewhere, 'cause they have every other kind of meat, but I haven't seen it in any of the grocery stores I've visited. So if anyone wants to send me a care package, please include some ground beef. Thanks.
I also think the Hungarians are a bit obsessed with underwear and shoes. I think there may be more shoe stores in Budapest than people. They're everywhere. You can also buy underwear at many metro stops, train stations, sidewalk vendors and of course the underwear stores. I guess we have fast food restaurants on every block to match the Hungarians' shoe stores. We've all got our vices.
We're still looking for a place to live. We won't be kicked out of our current place for 2 more weeks, but we are supposed to have a new address by tomorrow. We are supposed to have proof of a domicile by tomorrow so we can register with the government. We need a rental contract to get our visa and residency permit. It doesn't seem very likely to happen. I know we will have a roof and walls; we can crash at other ESIers places if we have to. If we don't register with the government in time, we wont get our 1 year working visa which means we will have to leave the country every 90 days to get a new visa. Big hassle.
Something will work out. God'll take care of us. He always does.
Posted by neal on September 6, 2001 07:05 AM