Let's have a ball

Hungarian for the day: nagyszerű (nadj-ser-oo)- great/wonderful!

After a couple of very quite weeks of Szentes livin', this past Friday night brought with it a bit of excitement as it was my school's annual ball. Nobody had told me anything about what to expect (naturally) and I was told only that it was a special winter dance for the seniors and that I should be there at 7 with a tie on. So I showed up at 7 to Szentes' sports recreation center expecting something akin to the cheesy High School dances that I remember from my adolescence. This was nothing like that, however. Instead it seemed that the whole town was packed into the building for a very solemn ceremony. The seniors walked into the center of the room to receive ribbons indicating that they would be completing school this year. I felt bad for them because over an hour of speeches followed and they were not permitted to sit. It reminded me of a graduation ceremony, with practically everyone the school could muster delivering congratulatory and inspirational addresses while friends and family in the stands snapped endless photos. Blowing things slightly out of proportion is a theme I've noticed a lot here, and this was a perfect example as my colleagues have assured me that the graduation in June will involve pretty much the same people saying the same things except it will be even longer and even more formal.

The rest of the evening, however, was the biggest surprise. Before the real disco type dance began for the students they performed a number of different acts for the crowd. Over two hours of impressive talent followed the speeches. The senior classes each put on a fun dance and had a power point presentation with lots of photos from their time at Boros. It must be quite emotional for them to leave behind their classmates because the classes here are sorted in the ninth grade and then students proceed to have the same classmates in every lesson for the next four years so they become quite close-knit. The seniors also put on an extremely formal choreographed ballroom dance. It was all quite impressive, and I watched slack-jawed as some of my shyest students sang solos and did provocative dances in front of everybody. Some highlights from the evening included 12b's line dance to Cotton Eyed Joe, 12c's swing dance to the Jailhouse Rock, the capoeira demonstration, the hip-hop dance troupe and the performance by Szilver, Szentes' award-winning dance troupe. I took some videos with my camera and here are a few of the evening's coolest moments.

The ballroom dance to Strauss
including almost all of the seniors.

The hip-hop dance troupe. Three of these girls are
in my classes and they are some of my favorite students.
Excuse the shaking camera, there was some shifting going on around me.

Here one of my shyest students turns out not to be so shy. Niki really
impressed the crowd with a few solo performances. Here the group Szilver
dances as she sings. Szilver is a local dance troupe that has won a number of awards
in international dance competitions. Apparently they are 9th in the world and
a few of my students are among their most impressive dancers:

All in all it was an extremely enjoyable evening, though clocking in at over 3 hours it was longer than I was prepared for. Today in class I talked to my students about it and they seemed rightfully pleased with how the whole thing went and extremely relieved to have the two months of intense rehearsals behind them. Indeed, late the night after the ball I was in a pub playing poker and I saw a number of seniors who were very, very celebratory. I think it's really great that they have a event like this here where parents can come to be proud of not only their students success at getting through school but also that young Attila can kind of swing dance on top of his academic abilities. I must admit, though, it seems like a lot for the students to have what we in the US would consider a graduation ceremony, talent show, and Prom thrown together in one night. It really sucks to have the flu on that day. The next day was Taylor's school's ball and I felt somewhat obligated to come and keep him company because he had done so for me. Despite apprehensions as to whether my ass could survive another entire evening on an unforgivingly hard chair, I was looking forward to it because his school is known throughout the country for its drama program so I had high hopes. Honestly neither Taylor or I were quite as impressed with his school's ball. This is probably because though there were some great acts it was also even longer and became quite repetitive. I don't think we were the only people present to feel that way and indeed it was quite comical to see half of the Hungarians running for the door to sneak in a quick cigarette between acts after three hours in the auditorium. The lengthy ceremonies gave me time to ponder upon the fact that by deciding to be a teacher I was signing myself up for a lifetime of really long ceremonies. The things I'll do to get summers off.

Well that's about all that's worth mentioning in Szentes. I hope the weather where you all are is better than the permanent wintry mix that we've been living in over here. Hellostok!