January 21, 2011: End of week at Ujpest High School

January 21, 2011: During the last month, painters have been busy repainting the hallways of the high school. There are perhaps twenty men who first scraped the walls thoroughly -- I mean they actually chiseled the previous coat of paint off the wall and patched holes with plaster before applying a new coat of paint. After they complete their work for the day, someone carefully mops up the dust and debris that has fallen to the floor so that the hallways are as clean as possible for us to walk on. I must say that our school building is always immaculately kept clean thanks to the diligent painters and the ladies who seem to work around the clock sweeping, mopping, and dusting.

Maintenance at Ujpest

 In the evening there was a performance put on by the students and others of traditional Hungarian readings, singing, and dancing. Of course I could not understand the readings or the song that was sung, but the dancing was quite lively. Boys began with the traditional high kicking synchronized dancing and this was followed by boys and girls dancing in pairs. They wore traditional Hungarian outfits. The dancing was quite spirited and colorful. I hear that with modern times, the younger generation prefers western popular music so the school is trying very hard to preserve some of the traditional Hungarian dancing and singing styles as best they can.


After the performance one of my colleagues came to my apartment where I heated up some left over chicken that I had prepared the previous night. We made quite a dent in the leftovers! We also spent quite a lot of time just talking about this and that. It's nice to learn what issues are on the mind of people in my host country.