My day at school was quite tiring since I had six classes in a row with only a twenty minute break for lunch. At least I didn't have to teach 9E class 2! Right now I'm teaching students how to introduce two people who haven't met before. The dialog is a bit longwinded, but they did their best. But last night, I got a brainstorm while trying to fall asleep. After I finished testing them orally on the introduction dialogs, I told them to take a small piece of paper and write the name of their favorite hero on it. Then I had them stand up in threes and have, for example, someone introduce Abraham Lincoln to Lady Gaga, two of the people selected by the students as their favorite people. By doing this, I was able to get them to divulge more than just "Abraham, this is Lady Gaga" and vice versa, because I told them to tell the other person what these famous people do. The students seemed to really enjoy this exercise. And, only in such an exercise will you get Abraham Lincoln to meet Lady Gaga in a single lesson!
After school I went to the Hungarian Visa office to get my resident visa stamped into my passport. Andras was very helpful in explaining any questions the visa stamper had. Then, I asked Andras about how I could get the internet in my apartment. He readily agreed to take me to arrange for this after I got my visa. This meant his driving through rush hour traffic (no treat in Buda!), find a place to park, and then go into the mall with me. The mall is the newest one built in Budapest and it opened only last month. Below are pictures of the old part of the mall, and the new one that just opened. (Another week for Ruth to shop?)
Figure 35 shopping mall (old part)
Figure 36 Budapest's newest shopping mall (in Buda)
We went to the T Mobile store and waited for our number to be called. When we went to talk with the saleslady, we learned that only Hungarians are given the "good deal" and that non Hungarians need to pay around 10,000 forint (~$45) plus a surcharge for how much I used the internet. Definitely not a good deal. But Andras told the saleslady that I would be working in a Hungarian school and really deserved the same deal as a Hungarian. Eventually, she said that she would give me the Hungarian deal after I produced my tax number. Fortunately, the school just gave me a copy of my tax number a few days ago so I produced this for the saleslady and she processed my order (altogether 5,000 forint with no limit on usage, only a limit on bandwidth which won't be more than I'd be using anyway, even if I use Skype). The monthly charge will be 3000 forints per month, a great deal. All I'll need is a wireless connection and Andras said that he'll get me a used one cheap and install everything on my computer for me soon. He said he'd try for tomorrow (I certainly don't want to push him since he has been SO generous with his time helping me), and since I'll be meeting him tomorrow to get my insurance card, I might be in business tomorrow!
One other interesting thing to tell you: As I was preparing to leave school, one of the English teachers approached me asking if I would tell her my blog address. I asked her how she knew I had a blog, and she told me that the students had been reading it and she thought it would be interesting to see what I had to say about living in Hungary. I have no idea how the students found out about my blog since I never told them about it, but I'll have to be extra sensitive to make sure I don't offend any Hungarian readers of my blog. (I don't believe I've said anything especially negative so far and if I have, I hope my blog readers realize that I'm pointing out differences between Hungary and the US and mean no criticism of what I have experienced – to date, I have been very satisfied with my experiences in Hungary and hope to build on them and learn what Hungarians are really like.)
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