Kata's Christmas party

For those of you who have been following since the beginnings of my travels, Leila and Kata were the first two people I met in Tata (aside from my contact teacher- Mirtill).  They were at the “small” train station the first day I was here – my birthday – and helped me get to Budapest on the train, and then took me on the metro system and got me to my stop.  I was baffled and impressed by the way they took me under their wing and got me to where I needed to be.  It was only at the last minute that I found out that Leila is a student at my school.  I have run into her mother about a dozen times since.  She is at school regularly, and I’ve seen her in town.  Kata (the mother) doesn’t really speak English, but talks to me through her daughter.  It’s really cute though, Kata regularly just yells out “ Szia Carla!” (the informal greeting friends use) when she sees me – like we’ve been friends forever.  The last time I saw her at school, she was with Leila and subsequently invited me to her house for some forralt bor (spiced wine) and to her school’s Christmas party.  I accepted both invitations with uncertainty as to whether they would come to fruition or not.  The day of the Christmas party I was invited to – I tried to find Leila at school, because I didn’t know where it was, or what time it started, what to wear – etc.  It was typical Hungarian information passing – so I wasn’t too concerned, but I wanted at least a couple more details.  I found Leila and she didn’t know the name of her mom’s school, she only knew it was at 20 Űj ut – (űj means “new” and “ut” means street).  Well funny thing – I live at 14 Űj ut – so this should be easy right?  I set off at 2:55 for the 3:00 party start.  Hmmm… 20 is an apartment building.  This can’t be right.  She told me it was in the middle of the length of the street – this definitely wasn’t the middle, so I ventured in the other direction.  Eventually at a random (to me) street, the numbers reached 1 and then started back up.  I was on my way to 20 again.  Great.  I finally found the school (walking in the rain might I add) and as I approached the building, I wasn’t sure what to expect – so what else is new.  I didn’t know if this was something I was supposed to bring something to, would I be singing carols, was there an open house, what grade did she teach, was there food, would anyone speak English, would I even find Kata when I got there?  UGH!  I walked in the main entrance, and found a little Christmas program in progress.  There were small children with large snowflakes taped on their shirts – and they were speaking in Hungarian.  It wasn’t 5 minutes before Kata found me and dragged me up to the front of the room.  She sought out the only other English speaker in the room and planted me right next to her.  Kata was evidently in charge of a lot of this performance.  As I watched, I learned that her kids were the autistic kids from ages 14-19.  It was fun to watch her interact with her kids – the ones acting out and making noise, frustrating others trying to watch the show, but Kata’s patience and obvious care for these kids showed through.  In many ways, it reminded me of how my dad interacted with his special ed kids.  Though they were handicapped, they had every right to be at the performance and participate as well and she made sure of it.  There were many students at her school that were also orphans and lived at the school.  It was an interesting experience watching all the kids interact.  Her students performed some Christmas carols in Hungarian and then the big man arrived – Mikulás himself.  He had treats for every child there- it was nice.  Kata had a microphone and asked each of the youngest kids if they had been good, and for some of them (who she knew were not good kids) her question was “do you promise to try hard to be better this year?” and when they responded with a yes, she’d follow with “now 300 people are watching and heard you make that promise…” it was funny.  After Mikulás had come, the kids broke off into their classrooms and devoured their candy.  I was introduced to Kata’s class and they were fascinated by me – a real American.  I left shortly after, sadly missing the “acrobatic bicycle” (not exactly sure what that is…) and as I left, Kata gave me the double kiss and declared “I am very happy.”  I was glad I toughed out the rain and made it to the party.  (Kata is in the brown suit in the pictures)