Monday, September 21, 2009

Snapshots of the Week

Last Sunday, several of the teachers went out to lunch after church at my favorite Greek restaurant. It's right on the banks of the Danube River and they serve an amazing hamburger. Since I don't get a lot of good beef around here, I've never even tried anything else on the menu. And, they know how to treat a girl right - every one of us was given a rose as a parting gift!

Monday afternoon was the Staff vs. Students soccer game. The staff team put up a good fight, but the students won 3-2 (or something like that).As you can see from the picture below, I was socializing more than participating. Really I was doing the staff team a favor. It would have been worse had I played. The people beside me are Izabella, Sari, and Hannah. Izabella is a wonderful Hungarian friend of mine who teaches Hungarian language classes to elementary and middle school students at ICSB. Her daughter Sari is a fifth grader this year. Hannah is one of my roommates and teaches at the school as well.Tuesday morning I decided to pay some bills. You might be interested to know that in Hungary, you pay your bills at the post office. Every bill comes in the mail and has a yellow perforated part at the bottom. You just take them to the posta and pay the lady at the counter. The ones pictured below are the receipts that I keep as proof I paid the bills.

Interestingly enough, this bill paying event was a little more exciting because the lady at the window didn't count my change correctly. Instead of giving me 3420 forint, she just gave me the 420. (A difference of over $15.) That meant I had to stand there and explain (without words) that I had been underpaid. After a game of charades, another lady came out and together the two women spent about ten minutes counting all the moolah in the cash box and comparing it to a computer printout. Finally, after much delay, she apologized and gave me my forint! I am so glad I was paying attention!Wednesday was our faculty meeting. In hopes that we will be prepared for emergency situations, we practiced fire drill procedures. This pic is a little behind the action, but you should know that we got to intentionally pull the alarm. I felt a little rebellious even being present for such an event.Thursday I made a long-awaited purchase! There was a mini sewing maching on sale at Tesco (British store sort of like a Wal-Mart) and I'm always needing to hem something, so I went for it. I should have known better. I guess you get what you pay for, because it only made it around one hem of one pair of pants. Now I have to figure out how to take it back. Oh the joys of living internationally!

And today I got a package from my dear friend Laura! THANK YOU!!!!! Even the padded envelope was cute. Inside were some very fun items, but I must admit the best part was when one of my students offered me $25 dollars for my box of Cheese-Itz!

2 comments:

Janet said...

So, my question is, did you take the student up on the $25 for the box of Cheezits? Want me to send another box of them? That is funny. Love the sewing machine story....guess that means you'll have to come home to hem, right? I wish!

Emily said...

There is no way I'd give up the Cheese-Itz for a mere $25. I gave him a handful. :)

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