Fight The (Hungarian) Man!

Hungarian for the day -
Mi ujsag? (mee uy-shaag) - What's new? Used like "how are you doing?"
Kepzeld.... (Kape-zeld) - Imagine that..... and you tell them what's new in your life.

Well I'm back from excursion number two to Szeged's Office of Immigration and once again no dice. While last week the official had assured us that we didn't need to get our visa before applying for our residence permits and that new stamps were what we'd need (and my paperwork is stamped like nobody's business), this official was of a different opinion. We need to go to the Hungarian consulate in Serbia to get our visas before we can even think of residence permits. While I'm bummed that I've spent the last two weeks on a fool's errand for something I can't even apply for, on some level I'm actually happy because now at least my school knows I will need a visa and will hopefully help me accquire one. "Hopefully" is the key word there.

Besides the bureaucrats and their lies life is going well. I've had a great two days of teaching, and I think that the kids and I will get on quite well this year. This is not to say that every day does not bring its struggles. For example, yesterday I could not figure out where room 3 was. I hadn't checked where it was because I had already taught in room 5, which was on the ground floor, and I assumed that 3 would just be two doors down. When I finally found an English speaking colleague to ask she replied "Oh that's in the other building." Nobody told me there was another building. Life lesson: always ask if there is another building. This other building contains rooms 3, 4, 18a, 22, and F - it's all so logical! Also, I must remember in future similar situations to ask up front for all the paperwork I will need to fill out. Today I learned that I need to have a syllabus for each of my 16 classes that plans out each of my 21 lessons for the next 36 weeks. And I haven't met 7 of the groups still because of random scheduling pandamonium. And it's due Friday. The good thing about working within such an obtuse and bizzare structure is that bull shitting is standard. When I told my colleague I would have to completely fabricate the documents and would probably never stick to them she acted like that was a given. So why do it in the first place? You can be sure the answer involves stamps - probably of many different drab colors with those cute little lines for paper pushers to sign.

The best thing I did this week was introduce a tongue twiser some of my more advanced (read: breezed through my lesson plan) students. I'm learning that teaching is a lot like leading a bunch of wolves, and that you have got to be the top dog if you are going to get anywhere. The tongue twister nicely leveled their egos and, because I practiced it pretty extensively before hand, I nearly got a standing ovation. Just call me Mr. Alpha Dog. I give this to you in case you ever need to impress a room full of Hungarian 17 year olds:

Betty Botter bought some butter
"But," she said "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter
it will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter
that would make my batter better."
So she bought a bit of butter
better than her bitter butter,
and she put it in her batter
and the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter
bought a bit of better butter.

Of course with my crafty class I had to promise that if three of them could perfect the whole thing I'd do a Hungarian tongue twister. Three of them did, and they got quite a kick out of my , er...awesome Hungarian skills.