Friday before our trip to Germany

What a day.  First of all, it was crazy at school.  I had a meeting with Mirtill and the headmistress (just to check in… not because I was in trouble – settle down everyone), I had to be a part of a video shoot – more to come later – and I had to get to Budapest with a cat amidst the train strike.  Yeesh.  First things first – meeting with the headmistress.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t as nerve wracking as previous trips to the principals office had been.  She welcomed us with tea, and though I initially declined, I remembered my Hungarian manners and said of course I’d like some.  Mirtill prodded me with an “she has really good teas Carla…” why would I ever say no – especially to the headmistress?  Dummy.  So she had water prepared for tea.  Remember that I am still fairly new to tea drinking, and most recently I have only had loose teas.  As I watch and copied the movements that Mirtill and Martha made, I realized I have a lot to learn.  First of all, I accidentally ripped off the paper tag from the end of my rope, so it was bound to be lost in the water at some point.  Then as it was perkilating – or whatever it does- in the cup, they both did something with the spoon and twisted the bag around and squeezed.  I looked like a bafoon trying to do the same, but whatever.  She asked me questions of my perception and impressions of the school, namely of the students.  Of course I told her exactly what she wanted to hear (which isn’t all that far from the truth).  She asked me if I needed any help with anything involving the neighbors, and I told her that I was pretty much over the whole neighbor thing.   I decided that I was going to give each apartment a Christmas card and sign it “with love, Carla” – she thought that was a witty answer.  She asked where I had traveled to in Hungary, and though I padded my list a bit, I made the most of her offering advice of where to travel next.  I told her that my parents are coming before Easter – and uncomfortably had to insert that I would be missing three days of school as a result of their visit – and she said that would be no problem at all.  She also suggested some places to take them while they are here, and told me to nail down the dates so she can try to arrange some tickets to programs and things like that.  What a lady.  Then, she came in with a doozy – so are you going to stay a second year?  Jojj… (pronounced yoy in Hungarian).  I still waver upon wanting to stay and wanting to return to finally “grow up” in the states – but man… the thought of staying is becoming more and more appealing as I become more comfortable here.  I told her that my school was only going to hold my job for one year, so that it was not possible for me to stay, and she seemed genuinely disappointed.  Much different than had I spoken with Kay Joyce (the old BHS principal) about the same thing.  She’d probably push me off a ledge to stay in Hungary.  At any rate, the meeting was good. 

Later that afternoon, I had agreed (reluctantly) to be a part of a senior campaign video.  The senior classes all nominate one boy to be their candidate for school king.  They have a big campaign around “Eötvös” Day – (the end of January I think) and create a video that the whole school sees and then people vote.  That is at least the impressions I have at this point.  I was asked by the 12E class to be in their video.  Initially it was as a playboy girl, but then I was assured that it was just to play poker.  When I told them I didn’t know how to play poker, they said, neither do we – it’s okay.  So… the filming point for this video was at one of the bars in town – club Cocoon… and I have heard only trashy things about this bar, so I was not thrilled to be going.  Additionally, it was about a mile from the town center, so I was getting a ride with a student- Soma.  How uncomfortable could one be?  We get to Cocoon – along with the 9 others in his van- and there is a professional videographer there with equipment and everything – this was apparently legit!  Also, I saw one of the other teachers there, so it couldn’t be all that bad if we were in this together right?  We were told to be there at 2:00… the rest of the cast – and the special BMW car – weren’t there until 3.  I had to leave by 3:30 or 3:45 to get home to finish packing and get my stuff to try and get to Budapest –so it was a tight squeeze.  Eventually other teachers showed up, and I felt more comfortable with the situation… until it came to filming my part.  Somehow – between 2:00 and 3:10 or so, the storyline had changed radically.  It went from me playing poker, to me being courted by Hugh Heffner (the other – older – teacher) and him fighting Péter (Péti) over me.  I just sat at this table in this bar… and as I watched, my name was said about a dozen times followed by actions that no student should be doing in the same sentence as their teacher.  It was crazy.  The next thing I know, Soma is translating to me “Mr Takacs will rub your leg with his leg ok?”  “WHAT – NO that’s not okay!!”  “Then you have to show him you like him too by licking your lips” “ARGHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGHG”  How did this happen?  The other teacher (Mr. Takacs) and I just kind of shrugged our shoulders and looked at each other like – here goes nothing… we filmed the scene and things were fine, or so I thought – until we got a “migatsen” from the director – that means “again.”  Geeze.  The next scene unfolded into Péti coming into the room as a waiter, seeing me and falling in love – only to pour his glass of water in Heffner’s lap.  Then they were to fight – over me.  What?  It was getting late, and I was getting restless to leave – and get the heck out of there before I landed myself doing something else crazy – when I was told of the last scene to be filmed.  I was to run, hand in hand with Péti looking like we were in love.  Seriously.  I’m still not sure what the whole point of the video was, but I know that it was a humiliating experience for me- though the kids loved it.  Maybe I’ll be absent on Eötvös Day when they play it.  Ugh.

After my big screen debut, I had to rush home (thanks to a ride from one of the students) to finish packing all my stuff.  I dropped off the Christmas cards to all of my neighbors, did one last check of the place, caged the cat and headed to the bus station.  The trains all throughout Hungary were on strike, as were some flights at the airport – so we had to figure out different means to get to Budapest.  I arrived at the train station 40 minutes early (for a 5:40 train) in case there was a big line.  I did have a huge backpack, a small backpack, a cat and a bag of all of her stuff.  I waited and watched for my bus, and when it was time I hauled all my stuff outside to stand by the posted stop for the Budapest bus.  Hmmm… 10 minutes late… 30 minutes late… 45 minutes late… I sent a text message to my 9^th grader Dori asking if her dad had heard anything about the trains, and if I’d have better luck at the train station.  Her dad has to ride the trains every day – so he has experience with alternate routes.  I also texted Mirtill and asked how long I should wait before I realized that the bus wasn’t going to come.  She had (reluctantly) offered to drive me to Budapest, but only after she had shoveled and could check out what the problems with the buses were.  So I waited for her to call back.  She eventually called and said that she and Peter would come and get me and drive me to Budapest, but they wanted to do it before it got too snowy out.  Sidenote: from a Minnesotan, this snow was nothing.  It had yet to stick to the ground in fact – but whatever, be concerned about it…  So I waited for her and Peter.  Keep in mind that now I had waited in the bus station for over two hours – with a cat – and a bunch of drunk homeless people.  It wasn’t exactly my idea of Friday night fun.  In the mean time, I got a call from a Hungarian number I didn’t recognize.  Usually it’s not like me to answer calls I don’t know, but I was feeling a little wonky anyway – so what the heck.  I picked it up and the other end said “Hello Carla, this is Zsolt Wagner, I am Dori’s Dad.”  Holy crap.  Her dad had called me to answer questions I had about the trains and buses.  He said “today is your lucky day – a colleague of mine and I are on our way back from Vienna through Tata to Budapest.  He has to drop me at home here and then continue to his house in Budapest- he will take you to where you need to go.”  Oh my gosh – how awkward – a man I had never met, but had been in my apartment cat sitting with his daughter – was offering his colleague (who I’d never met- and to my knowledge had never been in my apartment) to drive me to Budapest.  Jojj.  I told him that I was at the bus station and that I would just wait for them there – and he insisted that I return home to wait in the comfort of my flat.  Man.  It would take so much effort to get back to my apartment with all this shit – ok Zsolt.  I’ll be waiting at my apartment for you in 45 minutes.  Weird weird weird.  I called Mirtill back and aborted the mission – I told her that a strange man was going to drive me to Budapest, and I had no problems with it.  Zsolt and Gábor showed up at my apartment exactly 45 minutes later, ready to tow all my stuff to Budapest.  To make things even more awkward, Gábor was totally a handsome man approximately my age who spoke fluent English.  He was witty, smart, insightful and – of course – married.  Oh well, we still had an enjoyable ride.  He dropped me off right in front of Jake and Ellen’s house – without accepting any money at all.  I was saved – even thought it was by a strange man named Gábor.  What a day.