School Choir Concert

Barna's new purchase from a Christmas festival - it has skulls on - and the choir with the Headmistress speaking off to the left

Thursday night was the Christmas choir concert.  Barna is in the choir, and I had told him earlier that I would go… hmph.  I hadn’t packed for my trip yet, I did have the things for the cat together, and I was flat out not wanting to go to the choir concert.  BUT, I went.  I hopped on the bus and got off at the church.  Exiting the bus at the same time as me was a petite woman who also teaches at Eötvös.  I don’t know her name, but she was at my choir concert, the jewelry auction and at other events I have attended.  It’s like we’re kindred spirits without having spoken to eachother.  She chatted me up the entire walk to school, pretty impressive since I don’t speak Hungarian and she doesn’t speak English.  I told her I was going to Germany for the holiday, and that I was liking the school and Tata etc. etc… small talk.  We got to the school, and I quickly realized that I was completely underdressed.  I had on jeans, a sweater and my red Columbia jacket.  Bad choices all around.  There were suits, dresses, fancy coats – the works.  I had no idea that it was that kind of affair – leave it to Eötvös to do it up right.  Sheesh.  I peeked my head in the doorway, and to my surprise, this was one Hungarian event that was going to start on time.  The room (the multipurpose room) was full, and there was hardly a seat left.  I did see one of my English colleagues, and she flagged me over to sit down, but on my way, I spotted two members of the choir and they flagged me down.  Who do I sit with?  I had so many friends I didn’t know what to do!!!  I ended up sitting next to the people from choir, even though they didn’t speak English – we have a common choral bond.  The songs were good, and though the students sang in their sailor shirts and suits, it felt a little more like Christmas.  Then there was some sort of Christmas program, I have no idea what was really going on, though some kids were in angel wings like I had been in my St. Rose of Lima performance – so I knew it had to be Christmas pertinent.  Then, the choir returned for a rousing performance of “O Happy Day” previously viewed at the Salagavato.  Once they finished, we broke out into the typical Hungarian coordinated synchronized clapping, and they began the song over again.  Barna snapped and clapped his little heart out.  After the concert, Kata (my friend from the first day; the train to Budapest) sought me out immediately.  She struck up a conversation (that I didn’t understand) without even batting an eye, as if we’d been friends forever.  Once we stopped and looked for a minute, we realized that they had opened up the back doors of the room into a classroom, and there was a large banquet table filled with sweets, bars and cookies.  There was also wine – red and white – and forralt bor.  Kata (the secretary and part time math teacher) ran to me with a pitcher of the forralt bor (knowing I like it) and immediately filled a glass for me.  I chatted with Kata (my first friend) and some of the students who performed in the concert.  Then, a tall woman with striking black hair tapped on my shoulder and said, “are you Carla?”  I replied with a yes – and she went on to introduce herself as Barna’s mother.  She told me she was looking forward to meeting me at conferences, but I wasn’t there – of course I told her that they didn’t tell me about them… we chatted for a while, and between the three of us, (Kata, Barna’s mom and I) we had a very funny bilingual conversation.  A few moments later Kata (the secretary) rushed over to me and whispered, “this is my Christmas gift to you, you get two glasses” and she re-filled my spiced wine.  She knows me too well!!  All in all, I’m glad I went.  I got to see Barna perform – and they did quite a nice job – and two of my other students played the violin in the concert.  I got free forralt bor and got to see my best friend Kata J again.  It was definitely worth it.