June 10, 2011: Last day at UMSZKI

June 10, 2011: Today was the last day of classes at my school (UMSZKI). Since there was a teachers meeting planned for the late morning, only the first three classes were to be taught. However, the form teacher of the classes I was to teach decided to have all three sections of her class together for the last day so I ended up not teaching at all. Actually I wonder if it's fair to say that we were teaching at all this past week. Take a look at a student of mine who was sitting in my class yesterday. Does this look like a student who is concentrating on my lesson?

Instead of teaching, I cleaned out my desk, returned keys and items to others, and distributed things I no longer needed to others in school. I did not attend the teachers meeting since it was conducted in Hungarian and concerned assigning marks for behavior and attitude to all the students in each of the classes. After that, however, it was time for the teachers to cook. Recall that I was to cook a dish. I had selected Hungarian beef goulash a la Halverstadt style. However, the head of the department told me last minute that she was making a few revisions to the recipe I wanted to cook: instead of beef we would use pork; instead of noodles we would use potatoes; no mushrooms or sour cream should be used, etc. In other words, I learned that we were not using my recipe after all. And in fact the other teachers really cooked the dish, not I. But, the dish came out very well. It was also great to socialize with my colleagues while the food was cooking. As you can see in the pictures below, all the food was cooked in cauldrons on fires made of broken up furniture from the school.

first cook pork fat with onions and garlic

final product - pork in paprika and other assorted spices

Our department's dish was quite tasty and we accompanied it by wine and a cucumber salad I had prepared at home the night before.

After the lunch, I returned home for a rest since the afternoon turned out to be hot and humid. And I needed a shower to get rid of the smoke smell in my clothes from the fires that cooked our lunch. In the evening, my colleague, David, invited me to a concert that a friend of his was performing in. She had given him two tickets so we could attend the concert at Margit Island for free. The concert hall was really an outdoor amphitheater, one that I've shown pictures of in past blog entries. It was nice to be able to go there to actually hear a concert. 

The evening weather turned out to be ideal. The first half of the concert consisted of classical music, mostly Liszt. It started with the symphony orchestra playing Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. Then a violin soloist performed three of Paganini's variations. The artist was very talented but also very much a showman -- dressed like Liberace and moved very dramatically. His technique was very good although I found he played the same dynamics in all the pieces he performed in -- no variation between loud and soft at all. The third number that he also soloed in was Thais Meditation, a very haunting melody. Then a pianist performed Liszt's Death Dance, variations on the death theme by Liszt and it was quite amazing to hear. There were times in the performance where his right hand played scales running up and down the piano while his left hand banged out the death song theme with great forcefulness. It was so interesting to hear the contrast between the frilly scales he played with his right hand the the forceful pounding with his left. After that, the violinist played Liebestram and then there was an intermission. The second half of the concert was modernized Liszt and other more contemporary pieces. It was during this portion of the concert that David's friend sang accompanied by the violin and orchestra. Then there were other artists who performed -- a quartet of ladies playing stringed instruments, and later Hungary's "New Voice of 2010" who sang two very rousing numbers. All in all the concert was very enjoyable and ended my school year in Hungary in a perfect closure. 

After the concert, I was introduced to David's friend and also met her parents. Then off to home. Unfortunately the concert let out after the last buses were scheduled to run. David and I walked off Margit Island and I was amazed at how crowded the island was with young adults who were packing the bars and dance clubs across the island. Budapest certainly is no sleepy town I can tell because there were lots of people everywhere. The view from the bridge going from Margit Island to Pest is something I'm sure going to miss after I leave Hungary.

After we crossed the bridge from Margit Island, we saw a taxi and David explained to the driver where I wanted to go. However, as I rode, we passed the bus that I normally would take to go home, so after passing the bus on the road, I told the driver to stop so I could catch it and take it home instead. I managed to return home shortly after midnight. What a great way to end the school year. Tomorrow it's off to Slovenia!