A bright orange duffel, dotted with multicolored butterflies and stuffed to the brim rounded the curve of the conveyer. Heaving it off the track and onto the luggage cart, I began to push through customs, barely able to see over my mound of 50 and 70 lb bags. The whoosh of the automatic doors brought a wave of 100 degree air; glistening and worn, I met Evá and Agi (short for Agnes), my representatives from Széchenyi technical school where I will be teaching on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The three of us enjoyed coffee as we awaited my roommate Jessica’s arrival from her harrowing stay in Ireland. The women told me a little more about what I’d be doing here in regards to teaching, about their school, and my apartment. I am teaching at two secondary schools here in Hungary (students ranging in age from 14-19 years old); Széchenyi’s population is made up primarily of guys, and I will be teaching history (American civilization), and written and oral communications skills. In addition to this, I will be helping English speaking faculty with pronunciation and vocabulary.
I’ll also be a faculty member of Teleki Blanka Grammar School, a liberal arts magnet school that is well known as one of the best schools in Hungary. Each teacher at Teleki teaches five classes and I will be relieving many teachers of one of their classes. I’ll be responsible for coming up with lesson plans for conversational English and also teaching essay writing (creative and academic). I paid a visit to the school on Thursday, met with the head master, and met my colleagues – I couldn’t imagine a better school to work at! The teachers were so excited to have me there and many of these women looked like they could become wonderful mentors and friends! In Hungary, teachers have a faculty room where there are cubby desks in which to plan lessons and use the internet; when class begins, it is the teacher that comes to the classroom rather than the students (who tend to stay in one classroom throughout the day). Students are on tracks, kind of separated into “teams” that stay together. Teleki is not as affected by the economy and does not have restrictions on the amount of copying that can be done, etc. I can’t wait to start working here! There are many extracurricular activities to get involved in and traditions to be a part of; the head master even offered to look into sending me to a primary school teacher to learn Hungarian!
Now many of you have asked about the apartment – it’s situated in the heart of the city, about four minutes from the city center. Jessica and I live on the third floor (and there’s a lift!!), in a two bedroom apartment. It has a large living rectangular living room, a pretty generous kitchen, and nice brightly lit bedrooms. Our bathroom and commode are separate, with the washing machine placed in the bathroom. The apartment does not have air conditioning (which seemed rough for the first few days with the temperature reaching 100 degrees!) but now that it has cooled down a bit, it isn’t bad at all! Saturday, Jess and I traveled by train to Budapest where we caught the metro to IKEA (this took about 2 hours) – we were able to get wonderful throw pillows, bedside tables, and lamps to decorate our apartment. It has made it seem like a home to us and we’re very pleased! We can’t wait to have internet access!
The three of us enjoyed coffee as we awaited my roommate Jessica’s arrival from her harrowing stay in Ireland. The women told me a little more about what I’d be doing here in regards to teaching, about their school, and my apartment. I am teaching at two secondary schools here in Hungary (students ranging in age from 14-19 years old); Széchenyi’s population is made up primarily of guys, and I will be teaching history (American civilization), and written and oral communications skills. In addition to this, I will be helping English speaking faculty with pronunciation and vocabulary.
I’ll also be a faculty member of Teleki Blanka Grammar School, a liberal arts magnet school that is well known as one of the best schools in Hungary. Each teacher at Teleki teaches five classes and I will be relieving many teachers of one of their classes. I’ll be responsible for coming up with lesson plans for conversational English and also teaching essay writing (creative and academic). I paid a visit to the school on Thursday, met with the head master, and met my colleagues – I couldn’t imagine a better school to work at! The teachers were so excited to have me there and many of these women looked like they could become wonderful mentors and friends! In Hungary, teachers have a faculty room where there are cubby desks in which to plan lessons and use the internet; when class begins, it is the teacher that comes to the classroom rather than the students (who tend to stay in one classroom throughout the day). Students are on tracks, kind of separated into “teams” that stay together. Teleki is not as affected by the economy and does not have restrictions on the amount of copying that can be done, etc. I can’t wait to start working here! There are many extracurricular activities to get involved in and traditions to be a part of; the head master even offered to look into sending me to a primary school teacher to learn Hungarian!
Now many of you have asked about the apartment – it’s situated in the heart of the city, about four minutes from the city center. Jessica and I live on the third floor (and there’s a lift!!), in a two bedroom apartment. It has a large living rectangular living room, a pretty generous kitchen, and nice brightly lit bedrooms. Our bathroom and commode are separate, with the washing machine placed in the bathroom. The apartment does not have air conditioning (which seemed rough for the first few days with the temperature reaching 100 degrees!) but now that it has cooled down a bit, it isn’t bad at all! Saturday, Jess and I traveled by train to Budapest where we caught the metro to IKEA (this took about 2 hours) – we were able to get wonderful throw pillows, bedside tables, and lamps to decorate our apartment. It has made it seem like a home to us and we’re very pleased! We can’t wait to have internet access!
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