Year two - or one point five I guess

So I started my second week of school on what is celebrated as "Labor Day" in the US. I remember last year joking with my students - "if I were at home, I wouldn't even be in school yet!" This year, I took a more positive approach to the holiday back home. I sat and (as I often do) thought about all the wonderful (and at times crazy) things that I have experienced in the last year. I stood in the English office, elbows resting on the window ledge, overlooking the beautiful lake that my school perches above. The view is like a postcard. It's so beautiful, I don't know what to do.

I changed my focus a bit, and I looked down at the 9th graders participating in the gym class on the grass below me. As I looked out the window and watched them struggle to run around the "track", I thought about the profession I have committed my life to. I have only known this group of kids I was watching a week (as they are new 9th graders), but how much you can learn in just that little bit of time. There are the boys who are going to drive me crazy, and already have. There are girls who have waited so long to be able to show off their skills in English, they can hardly wait until I walk into the room and they run up to ask me questions. There are the students who don't know ANY English and are scared to death of me. Students still intimidated to speak English freely so they'll write me notes. There are the "just a little bit strange" kids - like Zoli who informed the class that his hobby is Zombie Hunting and that his favorite English word is armageddon. Great - thanks Zoli! There are the flirts, and those who seek to be flirted with. There are jocks, introverts and brainiacs in each of the classes. In fact, as I sat there looking out the window wondering what I was doing in this strange country teaching a language that at times I don't understand, I realized that kids are kids - no matter where in the world they are.

I thought about how blessed I've been to be able to experience - to TRULY live and immerse myself in a culture. To take advantage of the hospitality of a country I knew so little about. They feel it's so important for me to be here spreading my language and culture, when all I want is to learn THEIR language and customs. How lucky I have been to be able to experience this culture, while doing what it is that I truly love - teaching. Sure, each year I go through a phase that will one day drive me out of this field. I become down and disgruntled (mostly with administration and bureaucracy- not the kids) and ask myself what else I could possibly do with my limited degrees. I always return to teaching- because I think it is what I was truly born to do, and I'm pretty good at it.

I felt so much more confident this year than last, for some obvious reasons - including acclimation to the culture and ways of things- it felt like I was returning to a natural fit, somewhere I am comfortable and am happy to go to every day. I am slowly realizing that despite a language difference, I am making a difference here too. I have students who watch CNN to ask me questions because they know that's all I watch. I exchange English books with students and discuss the books with them because they believe it's good learning for them. I teach students who are fluent in two, three or four languages, who are motivated and driven to succeed and move up in the world. I teach students who are curious about so many different things. Today, I had a 10th grader, not the strongest English speaker I teach, come and ask me if I've read the book "Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy." She wants to lend it to me and discuss it with me when I'm done. This week, I got invited to begin karate lessons. Why? It must be because I'm so fierce and they want me to learn new tactics to scare kids? I have no idea, but how thoughtful for a 9th grader to invite me. I have colleagues who - slowly but surely admit- that they speak English and have invited me to many different functions. I'm going on the "faculty trip to a wine cellar" next week, and I am on the list to travel to Budapest to see "Spamalot" - in Hungarian. I have minimal papers to grade, no discipline problems (that I can't handle), and I can teach about WHATEVER I want. I make my own curriculum to suit the students in my particular classes.

Even though I regularly scrutinize the path my life has taken, though it's different than many of my peers, I couldn't imagine my life without my experience here in Hungary. Sure, I have no kids, and I'm no where NEAR getting married, but sometimes that's not all there is to life. I have to keep telling myself that. I have done some amazing things in the last year of my life - and the 31 before that too I suppose.

I will return to Burnsville in January a better teacher, a different person, and a lucky lady to still be pursuing the career that made me who I am. I will continue teaching kids, and teaching them more than just history or English. They learn to be more open minded, tolerant and critical thinkers as a result of contact with me. At least that's the goal.