December 3 , 2010: Nyiregyhaza

December 3, 2010: School today went fairly well, except in the last period of the day, the class was a bit rowdy and my threat of writing in the students' ellenorzo met deaf ears. So, I actually collected one student's ellenorzo and wrote a remark in the book that will be translated into Hungarian and sent to the parent of the student so that he will learn that it is not okay to disrupt my class. Hopefully, that will teach not only him, but also all the students in his class that I mean business; I want to be able to enjoy teaching all of my classes, and more importantly I want the students to all benefit from being able to learn English conversation free of one student's misbehavior.

Immediately after school, I went to the Nyugati Train Station to purchase a round trip train ticket for an Inter City train that goes between Budapest and Nyiregyhaza. I bought the ticket only ten minutes before the train left and found my seat in plenty of time. The train was very clean and the seat comfortable.

The woman who sat next to me spoke a bit of English and I learned that she is a student at Corvinus University studying Business Management. She was listening to her Ipod and invited me to hear a song with her using one of her earbuds; she wanted me to hear a song in English. It was a technobeat song of Take Me Home Country Road. I enjoyed listening to it with her.

After three hours on the train, I arrived on schedule in Nyiregyhaza where Jack met me. We walked through the brisk cold night air to his apartment which was located in his school. His apartment is a bit larger than mine with a large kitchen, toilet room, living room, bedroom, bathroom, walk in closet, and a small room for him to dry his laundry (although he must share the washing machine with the school workers who wash school linens). After dropping off my suitcase, we walked to one of his favorite restaurants and had a nice dinner after which we walked downtown to visit the Nyiregyhaza winter festival which unfortunately closed a bit early for us to see. We walked through the main square and I saw the beautiful buildings and many churches that make up the downtown square. It really is a beautiful city. We then returned home, talked for quite a while, and then turned in for the night.

Downtown Nyiregyhaza

Downtown Nyiregyhaza