Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Day Three of Teaching Week

This morning I had my first Hungarian lesson. Well, truly we spoke more in English than Hungarian, but developed a plan. I showed my tutor the materials I had. She will look for a copy of the book that I obtained in the teaching kit during orientation. I spent some time trying to understand how to address people with both the correct words and the correct cultural manner. I'm going to struggle for awhile in getting the vowel sounds correct.

Normally I will be helping this same language teacher with an English for Special Purpose class on Wednesday afternoons. But not today. The Vice Dean of the Faculty of Health Science asked to have lunch with me.

This was at what is rapidly becoming my favorite restaurant. It's close to the office of the Faculty, and that is why is has been selected for a couple of lunches. The decor is charming. One goes down a long set of stairs from street level, and then enters the bar area. One goes up a few steps to the restaurant. One feels as if you are in one of the Pecs cellars.

The people who work here are so very gracious. I didn't know how long it would take me to walk from one university building to another and arrived about 15 minutes early. This was also a day with a cold wind, and that caused me to decide not to wait in the outdoor entry area. I walked in and explained I was a guest for lunch. The waiter knew exactly who I was joining. Another person helped me hang my coat and then asked if I would like something to drink while I waited. I asked for a cappucino. Look at the beautiful service. It will be hard to come home to Minnesota after this wonderful experience. The graciousness of this culture is so very nice and the States can sometimes feel so very plain. Oh by the way, what looks like a salt shaker is a cinnamon shaker.

During the lunch I learned that the Vice-Dean and I had both in Florida in January for the great freeze. We went on to discuss the international week scheduled now for the first week of May. As we talked about various topics, I ended up probably scheduled to give two lectures during that time. One will be about the Omaha System, a documentation system for nursing work in the community. The other will be something I wanted very much to share: the Public Health Wheel. Also I may do a discussion with key faculty sometime before I leave about the Public Health Wheel. As we were enjoying lunch, the mayor of Pecs came by the table and I was introduced.

After the lunch I went back to my flat and began working on some of the lectures and presentations I will give in the next couple weeks. When going back to my e-mail I found one from a Fulbrighter here in Pecs on the High School teacher exchange. He said he and his family were planning to come to a dance performance in my area. I said I would wander out at 6:30 to say hi. I never found them. When I came back I found an e-mail from him saying because the snow had begun again, they had decided to stay home.

The snow is very wet. It makes things beautiful. I noticed people walking with umbrellas, not what one usually sees in a snow storm. I took this picture in natural light, and the street lights made it a bit yellow. I thought, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

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