Saving Hungarian lives... It's what I do.

I had an opportunity last week, and boy did I take advantage of it.  I had a free period since one of my classes was practicing for the Christmas party (more to come later).  I found out that morning, that it was blood giving day at school.  I never missed a bloodmobile at BHS or when I was in high school – so why would I miss now?  I wasn’t sure if it would be easy or not, but I thought I’d give it a whirl.  I brought a copy of my passport and my driver’s license and off I went.  The students were surprised to see me, it didn’t appear that there were many teachers giving blood, but whatever.  I got in line and started the process.  Unfortunately, the whole process was in Hungarian.  So, I enlisted the help of one of my students to lead me through the process.  It was not easy – at all.  I had to give a bit of information to the nurses, my address and things like that.  Then, I was pricked and they tested my blood by putting drops of it on two different circles to see whether it was A or B blood.  Apparently that’s as deep as they go- just A and B.  Once it changed a certain color, she was convinced that I had A blood.  Then I had to fill out the questionnaire – also no easy as my Hungarian is coming along slowly still.  Tell me it isn’t awkward to have one of your students ask you about your sex life, and your disease and mental history.  Lucikly Niki was a good sport, but it was still weird.  After that, I had my blood pressure taken and was a little low, and then they guessed my weight because I had filled it out in pounds which means nothing in this metric world.  I was then handed a bag, with the needle facing me – and off I went.  The blood giving was easier than it had been in the past – they found my vein a lot quicker than nurses at home had, so I was pleased.  I became a bit of a freak show as classes were changing and I was giving my blood.  Afterwards, I was “bandaged” using a cotton ball and gauze wrapped around my arm.  I went to the “goodie” table, and retrieved my treats for giving blood, a cloth bag, a candy bar, a bottle of water, and a coupon for 500 forints ($2.50) at McDonalds.  What a deal!