Metropolitan State Student Day

Today was the day the students came from Budapest to Pecs. Pecs was again snow covered and the morning walk was a sloppy mess. I went to my office for a bit and was delighted to find my printer has been fixed and now I'm in business there. I so wanted to get some materials ready for students in the MSN class here that they requested after I spoke with them last month. Now being able to print articles, I'm able to finish this project.

I then went to the train station. About ten minutes before the train was to arrive I began to hear announcements about the train from Budapest-Keleti, but my Hungarian was not good enough to understand the difficulty. I walked back into the station to look at the digital announcement board. Then I learned another word in Hungarian -- late,something like keson, but in a slightly different declenation. Anyway late 15 minutes.

The train finally arrived and many people got off, but no students. Just as I started to walk onto the platform to see around the train, the group began arriving and explained they were in the very last car. We set off for my office building, because it was frankly, a good place to use the toilets. Then a professor scheduled to speak with the students later in the day asked if she could do in the morning because a family emergency, so it was very good thing I had left this spot on the morning schedule.

So they sat down in a classroom and learned about the Erasmus program from Professor Timea Nemeth.

From there we walked to the Arkade where everyone had lunch. This required them to all go into the food court and get something for themselves rather than having table service. Everyone seemed very happy with what they got. Then we headed up to Szechenyi Ter to meet with Professor Thomas Burns, another Fulbright professor. We went to the Vorosmarty Building of the University of Pecs -- and considering the weather grateful that I had asked for a classroom in which we could meet rather than having such a meeting outdoors.

Professor Burns explained the two golden eras of Pecs, one being the time of 300- 450 when it was a Roman province capital and the second being the time of the Turks when it was an administrative capital for that government.

We then walked to the Cella Septichora where we were given a guided tour by Professor Burns. Here are some photos.

The students really seemed to like this visit and truly having Professor Burns made all the difference. He was able to explain details and concepts in such a way that everyone could understand what they were seeing in context.

Next we went back to the Vorosmarty Building, and had a presentation about the University of Pecs. The students were very attentive and asked some good questions about salaries for working professionals in Hungary.

Then came free time. I told the students about the Jazz Ambassadors Exhibit at the House of Arts, but when we got there it was had been changed to a stamp exhibit. I'll go back sometime and give it a more thoughtful look.

We had dinner at the Elefant Haz, eating fine food very quickly for the time came quite fast to depart to the train station. I got everyone started going down on Jokai Ter and told them not to turn anywhere until they got to the train station.

When I turned to go back to my flat I saw these interesting street lights. I noticed all the street lights the very first moments almost that I got to Hungary. In Poland I take pictures of the fences. This is the first of what may be a large collection of street light pictures.

We had a wonderful day. It was great to have them all here. They were very good sports about the lousy weather. Everyone seemed to like Pecs. I know I surely do!