End of the Year

I’m not sure if anyone really misses these posts, but I’ve noticed a few advantages of keeping a blog, so I’m

continuing to write them. Thanks, Mom and Dad for reading them. The primary school finally had their Language Day and 20th Anniversary celebrations. I can see the relief on teacher’s faces, now that it is all completed. Pretty soon they will be entering final grades for their students.

The 7th grade kids who learned Casey at the Bat with me did a fantastic job. They were told that they would receive two extra 5 scores (1 is bad, 5 is good) in their regular English class if they memorized their parts for the reader’s theatre. In rehearsal, they were fantastic. The real deal wasn’t perfect, but they got through it well enough.

The funny thing is, none of the students, much less the parents, understood what was really going on. Baseball isn’t played in Hungary. Soccer dominates recreational pastimes here. Before their presentation, I organized a very short PowerPoint presentation, explaining a few things like what a base, bat and out is. Assisting the 1st grade class with their English songs was fun as well. They sang B-I-N-G-O, My God is so Big, and the Itsy, Bitsy Spider, among others. It was awesome to see how far the students had come from the beginning of the year.

The celebrations continued during the Activity Day, later in the week, where students could choose from several games and crafts the English teachers organized. Students could play ultimate frisbee, make chalk, play English computer games OR play baseball with me! I was really nervous about it. We used a whiffle ball for obvious reasons. There were no gloves (surprise, surprise), but we did find a bat! I think some Hungarians are fascinated with American sports, but they don’t have the opportunity to experience them. It was definitely a success. I throw the word success around lightly these days. Success, in this case, means that nobody got hurt, nobody cried, nobody got angry and everyone understood my simplified version of the game. The batting wasn’t as horrible as I thought it might be, and I heard many kids say, “Audrey, baseball is a very good game.” They were having so much fun, I just wish I could have played too!

The students are starting to take their end of the year tests. I found out something very interesting about these tests. The students receive their tests in class, but they do not put their names on them. The teachers grade the work and the tests are recorded along with the scores from the entire country. Then an average is calculated. I help some classes prepare for their English tests, 7 or 8 kids at a time. I really like the small groups, and I actually enjoy teaching English grammar. It might be because I find so much simplicity and order to English grammar when I compare it to Hungarian grammar. English speakers, stop complaining.

I’ve been able to fit in just a few excursions before I leave for the states on June 2nd. The weekend before last, I went to Budapest to visit the Brauns (fellow MCN missionaries) and enjoyed a Belgian beer festival. They like their fruity beers. While the weather was a bit cold and wet, we enjoyed the sights and each other’s company. Last weekend, I went to Ukraine. Dasha accompanied me. She is a Ukrainian girl who attends Kossuth Secondary School in Hungary. I often talk to her during my visits to the youth hostel connected to the Turucy Zoltan Primary School. I don’t think I would have gone to Ukraine without someone who knew their way around. I met her family and visited Lviv! I’ve heard many stories of Ukraine, and was excited to see it for myself.

Dasha lives in Mukacheve, located next to the Latrica river in Western Ukraine. The city is very old. All of the streets are cobblestone. Dogs and cats are seen sleepily roaming the streets, but they aren’t threatening. I drank and interesting Ukrainian drink called Kabac. It isn’t alcoholic, but it tasted like a mix between beer and Coca-Cola. Next, we took a 4 hour train ride to Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine. We were “serenaded” by gypsies, bearing guitars and singing old, upbeat songs of their past.

Lviv is known to be the most Ukrainian city culturally, but there are still Polish and Austro-Hungarian vibes. The Turkish people largely influenced Ukraine. For example, many statues of heroes wear Turkish style pants and hats with tassels. They also carry long curved swords. While in Mukacheve, I heard many people speak Hungarian (it used to be a Hungarian city), but in Lviv, I only heard Ukrainian/Russian. I can’t tell the difference. They are both Eastern Slavic languages, they sound very similar and have similar grammar structures. We visited a chocolate factory, a coffee museum and many churches that surround Lviv’s city center. The train ride back to Mukacheve was pleasant. Seeing rolling hills was welcoming after spending so much time in the flat plains of Hungary. The wildflowers were blooming and a lone cow or goat could occasionally be seen grazing in the fields.

There are only nine days until I am back home for a wonderfully busy summer. I’m looking forward to it so much, I can hardly contain myself.

Until next time!