School Days

Yesterday was the second day of school. I was going to write on the first day of school, but I’m not sure if it counts. My host parents took me out at noon to go do the paperwork for my visa and residence card. Today, I stayed the whole day which felt like forever. There are a few girls who help me get from class to class and who will hang out with me at breaks. I have no idea what my schedule is, but they seem to know . . . so I’ll follow them until I figure it out.

It is so hot here, like 90 degrees F, way more than I’m used to. The first day, we had to wear this little sailor uniform which was insanely hot. Fortunately, we were allowed to change after the first hour and we didn’t have to wear the uniform today.

Yesterday was great because I had two English classes and choir. The first English teacher is so great. She is so excited to have a native speaker in her class and she had me read some riddles to the class and asked me every step of the way if I was comfortable speaking. My homeroom teacher had me sit in front of the class and asked his students to ask me questions while another student translated. A lot of the students speak English, which is really helpful.

One of the girls said that some people are afraid to talk to me because they’re worried that their English isn’t good enough. I tell them not to worry because their English is better than my Hungarian. Everyone I’ve met so far is really nice and willing to help me.

Choir was the last class of the day and I sat with two girls that spoke really good English and one said she went on exchange, but I didn’t get a good chance to speak with her. The choir teacher is strict, but you can tell she takes her job seriously and she loves the music. I jumped right in and sang some songs in Hungarian. It was helpful that there were only three words over and over. We even did rounds and everything. I loved it so much. Too bad it’s only once a week.

I keep waking up early. I’m always awake before my alarm, which is set to 6:15 and I find that the morning is a great time to write or relax a moment. That’s when I usually do these blog posts. I’ll get up, take a shower, get dressed, and by then it’s like 6:30, maybe.

I’ll sign off with a thank you to all my classmates who are being super nice and helpful and might just be reading this blog post.

-Alina

My view every morning