December 22, 2010: A Christmas Concert

December 22, 2010: This morning I went to the Nyugati train station to meet a fellow CETP teacher who is on his way back to Portland for the Christmas vacation. This is his second year in Hungary and in Europe he lives not far from the Romanian border. He teaches primary school students and it sounds like he's really enjoying his work and has his classes under control using both positive and negative reinforcement. His techniques are very age appropriate but I'm afraid won't work for the high school students I teach (They involve stickers that younger students love to see on their books). At any rate, it was fun to exchange teaching ideas with him and learn about the typical situation of other teachers of English in Hungary. After hearing about some of the living and teaching conditions of other CETP teachers, I feel very lucky to be at Ujpest where my classes are manageable (~10 students per class vs 30 students for other teachers), the number of times I teach each class is twice a week vs the once a week other CETP teachers are with their students, and my housing is comfortable compared to those living outside Budapest. Plus I have the additional advantage of doing all sorts of great cultural things that people in small villages don't have the opportunity to enjoy.

After he and I returned to my apartment, we had a quick lunch and set off to Keleti train station so that I could buy my rail tickets going to Salzburg, Austria on December 26th. The tickets were cheap since Ruth and I plan on a four day vacation there, the exact length of time that allows us to get the cheapest tickets! Luck is on my side again. Ruth and I are now all set for a great trip.

From Keleti, we took subways to Vorosmarty ter to the winter festival where Ruth purchased some items. We were fortunate that we were at the market as the clock struck 4:00 because the Gerbeaud Coffeehouse played its hourly bell song that illuminated various windows of the coffeehouse as it played.

On leaving the winter market, I caught a glimpse of Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo having coffee at one of the stalls.

Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo at Budapest Winter Festival

Following that we walked to the city market for Ruth to see all the vegetables and crafts that are available there. Unfortunately, the shop keepers were packing up things as we walked through the aisles so we may have to return some other day to look more closely at what's for sale. 

After that we walked to Raday utca for dinner. Our dinner was very leisurely and we had plenty of time to walk from there to the concert location that was just next to the National Museum.I briefly talked with Andi, one of the teachers at Ujpest who was in the choir. She reminded me that the music would be lower key than the normal music they do at the Palace of Arts. First the orchestra came on the stage followed by the choir. There was a balcony above that the children's choir stood on to sing. The concert was held in a large auditorium so the acoustics were not as good as the acoustics in the Palace of Arts or the opera house. As for the music, it was light Christmas music and there were two soloists, a soprano and a tenor who had outstanding voices. The soprano sang music similar to what I would imagine Celine Dione would sing. All the selections were well done, and Ruth commented that her choir had done some of the numbers in past years, too. As usual the audience erupted into the "iron clap", a pulsating applause that indicates that the audience wants an encore. So, encore we got followed by two more. It was a great way to celebrate the Christmas season.

Christmas Concert Choir

The following video is a sample of the kind of music we heard at the concert.