November 26, 2010: My birthday in Hungary

November 26, 2010: There are a lot of advantages to having a Facebook account. For starters, I have come in contact with people I lost contact with years ago. I was even contacted by one of my very first students back in 1970 when I taught mathematics in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia so through him I'm now in touch with several of my first students! However, Facebook also has revealed a bit of personal information such as my birthday, and the this fact did not go unnoticed by my students. Just before my first lesson, there was a knock on my office door and several students from 9D entered my office with a birthday gift. One of the students even gave me my first Hungarian puszis, two kisses, one on each cheek, the way that I often see two Hungarians greet each other (man to woman, woman to woman, and man to man -- I even see students do this as they greet each other throughout the day). What a nice way to start out my day, and my birthday! Then to top off my birthday, I had some great lessons that had few discipline problems. Then, for the icing on the cake, the students of 9C came into my office just after lunch and sang Happy Birthday and gave me another nice gift. So, although I had to teach on my birthday, a day that I could have taken off, it turned out to be a great birthday.

Meanwhile, I had leftover NASA gifts from Joe to give out, so I gave some of them to the 12th and 13th grade students who attended Joe's lecture. Maria, the form teacher of the 12th grade class confessed to me that it was not a good idea to give her students the gifts at the beginning of class. She said that the boys were giddy with delight to receive their gifts and continued to examine the gifts rather than pay attention to her! Same experience I encountered!

It's supposed to snow for the first time tomorrow, giving us about 10 centimeters of snow! It will be fun to witness snow again. However, I hear that the weather is cold for only two months (December and January) before it becomes nicer again. We'll see.