Halloween at Eötvös!!

After school on Wednesday of this week, we have a 10 day break.  Since we weren’t going to be in school for Halloween, I decided to bring some of the traditions of the holiday to the school.  Especially since we had 6 days of school last week.  They had us teach on Saturday (as was the case in the entire country) to make up for the Friday we are missing this week.  I suppose it makes sense, but yech- Saturday school!  So- I decided that we’d do scary stories (which apparently weren’t so scary) and some bobbing for apples.  I gave them a bit of the history of Halloween, which is Irish – I didn’t know that- and we discussed Halloween in the United States.  Did you know that annually, Americans spend $6.9 billion dollars on Halloween?  Yeah.  Scary isn’t it? 

At any rate, we had a good day.  Again, I was not so thrilled for having to go to school on a Saturday, but hey- everyone else was doing it too, so I might as well enjoy it right?  Some of my students even came in a costume.  I had the 10^th graders write stories using some starters that I gave them – “Running down the street with candy flying…” or “they told me the house was haunted, but it looked okay to me so…” and they did a nice job.  They have come a long way since our initial bout of stubbornness.  They know more English than they let on, and it’s actually been borderline fun.  Their stories were incredible too – creative and funny at the same time.  I think it’s important for them to get some chances to write creatively instead of just proper English. 

At any rate, the 9A kids had a blast bobbing for apples.  I had the first kids do it in the bathroom so we didn’t make a mess, but by the afternoon, I just hauled the tub into the classroom and we did it in there.  It’s actually really hard to do- but only Bence Papp dunked his whole head in the bucket.  I think the funniest part for me was when jenny got a bite out of her apple, but lost couldn't grip the whole thing.  She chewed for a minute, and said "ahh... Fuji.  Yum."  Funny kid.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually bobbed for an apple – maybe I should do it just for fun.

I also carved a pumpkin – which I haven’t done in several years.  I had a little trouble finding one, but I was out on Friday after school with two of the 9^th grade boys and they helped me.  Bence (from a different class than the 9A – so their English is not as strong) and Péter are in a folk dancing class, and I told them I’d like to see it some time, so they invited me.  It was an interesting afternoon.  They told me to meet them after school, but then they had to eat lunch (the big meal).  I was afraid they were going to go home and that they were inviting me to their house –but that wasn’t the case.  They ate at school in the cafeteria – which I did not know existed until last week.  I don’t have the proper card to use in the cafeteria, so I waited for them in the hallway.  OK – weird start to our afternoon together.  Dance practice didn’t start until 4 so we had some time to kill.  I had to go to the post office, so we did that – I don’t think either of these 14 year old boys had ever been inside the post office because they didn’t know what they were doing – it was funny.  We mailed my letter (my absentee ballot) and went in search of a pumpkin.  

Luckily, there was a zöldség and gyümölcs stand near where we were – (vegetables and fruit).  The boys had no idea why I wanted a pumpkin, and after we purchased one, Bence asked what I was going to make with it.  Make? I asked – “yes, what are you going to bake with it?”  I was totally shocked – it never occurred to me to actually cook something with the pumpkin- I was just going to carve it.  I told them that even if I wanted to cook something with pumpkin, I’d just use the stuff in cans – not an actual pumpkin- the idea seemed so foreign to me.  They of course, had never heard of pumpkin in a can.  Cultural differences.  I guess that just shows how much cooking I don’t do- as baking something was the LAST thing I had thought about using this vegetable for. 

We headed off to the dance class, and sadly the teacher said that today was not a good day for me to watch.  I don’t know why, but I know that Bence was upset.  His exact words were “terrible sorry today Carla – but it is not good for watching”  He was visibly upset, so I walked with them on their next errand to the sports pavilion.  He wanted to register for a karate dancing class.  A what?  A Brazilian karate dancing class – wait – I think I actually know what he is talking about – it’s the performers Megan and I saw in Györ.  He was going to start lessons – and I knew exactly what he was referring to.  I'm becoming more and more Hungarian by the hour.