Taylor's questions: Round two.....(because she's always got 'em)

first of all I would like to amend on of my answers to the previous round of questions. What do I do after class? My last answer made things seem much more boring then they actually are and this week I managed to have something scheduled for every single day of the week after school! On Monday there was a teachers' meeting. OK, so still not getting to exciting and eventful but it was something, mostly I just sat there and listened to them all talk and argue for 2 hours while I did my best to piece things together from the words I could catch (which mostly consists of numbers so, as you can imagine, I didn't get much information) but the other English teachers translated later on for me- a bunch of administrative bullshit- that may have been her exact words. At this meeting we also graded class 5. Yes, we, as a group graded them. I'm pretty sure that it was only their behavior grade but we (the teachers who have that class) all sat in a circle and read off the students' names and then two number "Kovács, Máté 4, 5" and then everyone either agrees or says "no, 4, 4" and it continues like this- very unscientific- just shouting and agreeing on the kids grade. Occasionally, because this is class 5's first year at this school) they call out the name "Dér, Cintía...does anybody know who she is?" and everybody laughs.
On Tuesday there was an English speaking and pronunciation competition at the school that I helped judge. The students (just a select few from each class) had to read- or preferably memorize- a short story or part of a story in English and then we judged their pronunciation, fluency and presentation. The winners will go on to a larger competition later this month at one of the high schools in town. I think I heard a shortened version of the story "Stone Soup" about 25 times that afternoon!
On Wednesday, yesterday, Ilí, my contact teacher and the head of the English Department at my school invited me to her house. She lives on the far south east end of down in a big beautiful house with a nice big yard. We had dinner and drank some kind of Slovakian brandy and talked and had a wonderful time.
Today- Thursday- I have Belly dancing and then it will be Friday (the 13th! which was the basis of most of my lessons this week- superstitions and things that are good luck and bad luck in the US and in Hungary) and then the weekend!

So, on to Taylor's questions...

1. So far, in your descriptions, people, although they don't speak a lot of English, seem nice. How are you recieved as an American? Any anti-American sentiment?

I was just discussing this with Peter, a son of one of the teachers here (my age), who I am helping with his English. In all of the countries I have traveled I have noticed some level of anti-American sentiment. In some countries it is higher then in others. France for example- in Paris I always had much better luck with broken German then with English. But so far, here in Hungary, my experiences have been very positive. Peter and I were discussing how some people are better able to separate a country's politics from a country's people and this separation is what is key in the acceptance of Americans abroad- you can hate American politics and still like American people. Hungarians, he said, are better at this separation at this moment in time because of the bad political situation they are in (daily protests at the Parliament building demanding that the Prime Minister leave his position), because of this they are more aware of the separation between a country's leaders and politics and the people and can more readily see Americans as people separate from the politics, policies and leadership of their country.

2. What do people think about the deal with the prime minister? Do people talk a lot about politics, or is it something they don't address in public that much?
For this I will say see question 1. But more importantly, see that in question one I have only referred to Peter's views in the conversations I have had with him. This is because people, at least the teachers at my school, do not talk much about it. I can tell that it is in their thoughts daily and that some are angry with the Prime Minister (most of the people) and others with the protesters. But it is in one line mentions to each other and rarely long in depth discussions. Clearly the people are angry and hear this all of the time "the situation in Hungary is very serious" and that they are worried about their membership in the EU but still, it is not talked about in public and I have been told, flat out, that I am not to bring up the situation with the Prime Minister or anything relating to politics in the classroom, as far as the students are to be concerned, everything is fine and nothing is happening.- whether or not that is actually true- or if a few actually have strong opinons on the subject I don't get to know.

3. The year I went to France was the first official year that French kids took part in trick-or-treating. Part of the globalization of Halloween. Do they have Halloween in Hungary? If so, is it just a commercial, Americanized version of it?

This will probably better answered in the next week or so as we get closer to Halloween and I do a lesson on American Halloween traditions. However, so far, I know that there is at least something because I have seen a few Halloween like decorations (pumpkins and such) in some store windows. But Trick-or-Treating...I doubt it.

4. Can you drink tap water?

Yes. And I do so often. In the teachers' room I keep a mug in my drawer that I refill from the sink through out the day. I don't get as many strage stares when I do this as I did when I was in Germany but there certainly isn't anyone else doing it! More because they don't drink much (still) water here in general then because there is anything wrong with it.