2022.10.24. – Gonna be a lecturer too

This morning, before my class, Otgontuya came up to me with a piece of paper to notify me that this Friday, I’ll be giving a lecture as part of the ‘Country studies’ course.

Actually, I’ll do lectures three consecutive Fridays, so two more weeks after this one. My three lectures need to be about Europe, and I was like, wait, that’s quite a broad topic to talk about in 3*90 minutes… She gave me a list of topics to cover that didn’t really narrow it down: "history, population, political and social relationships, geography and environment, education, society, cultural peculiarities, economics, foreign relationships, and art and literature". She also told me (after my insistence that she give me something to focus on) that I should pay extra attention to ‘education’ as these students may choose to study in Europe in the future. So far so good. (Not.)

And here comes the tricky (trickier) part: she listed 5 countries that I should focus on during these lectures: Hungary (obviously), the Czech Republic and Poland (makes sense), and Russia and Turkey (wtf?). I tried to tell her that these two aren’t really Europe and she offered to take Turkey away and get the Asian lecturer to talk about it, but she insisted on Russia being part of Europe. At first, I accepted my fate, but this evening I had a talk with the embassy guy and he told me in no uncertain terms that I can and should refuse to talk about Russia in this context. So I guess I’ll have another chat with Otgontuya tomorrow. I mean, Europe is not my expertise either, but Russia? I know very little about it, and that’s mostly literature (or history, where they were the bad guys in Hungary).

Had dragon fruit for breakfast (it has a very mild taste but it's pleasant)

Anyway, after I had this minor crisis, I went to teach my 3^rd language class of the semester. We started by listening to Magyarország (the Ibolya Oláh version) and passing around a pack of Duna kavics. Then we learned country and capital names, how to express nationalities and how to say I live somewhere (which meant teaching them their first suffix! -ban/ben and some verb conjugation). There were only 11 students again, and I am guessing the group won’t be over 15 people altogether now, even if a few people do come back. That is kinda sad bc it means half the group left after our first class (well, Hungarian is a difficult language to master), but it’ll also be good for those who remain bc it’s much more sensible to teach language to a class of 14 than to a class of 28. And those who are still here seem hard-working and enthusiastic too.

After my class, I stayed in my teachers’ room and did some work there (as the WiFi’s still not working back in the apartment) – doing some research on the educational system of the abovementioned countries. (Research meaning I watched a YT video for each country.) I also sent an email to my students with their homework and some info about the film screenings this Wednesday.

Coming home for lunch with my husband, I had some time to decompress, then I went to the Sports Club (first time using their gym instead of the pool), deciding to focus on my knees today instead of my usual swims. I did 30 mins on the stationary bike (cycling through some French province, at least that’s the workout I picked on the monitor), then a very short knee workout (about 10-15 mins) on the mini-Bosu I’d found in a corner, and finally went to use two machines (one for thigh muscles, one for upper back and chest and shoulders) for 3 short sets. I haven’t been to a gym in a long time (years, I think), and I forgot how much I like using the equipment there – and how much I dislike having other people there. It’s easier in the pool because you can’t really see them while you swim, and even if they do gawk at you, at least you can rest assured that you know what you are doing (well, at least I do). I have a kind of confidence in the pool that I don’t have anywhere else – not even in the classroom, and I am a certified teacher. Guess that comes with over 20 years of experience; something I do not have in any other field.

The 'Champagne' bike route

This thing looks and feels like a Bosu but it's smaller and also less stable
Still, it's there!

In the evening, I had three small dinners (spring rolls freshly fried when I just arrived home, a bagel-like pastry with tofu and vegan feta and tomatoes for my actual dinner, and another round of spring rolls at 11pm with my husband) and spent about 2 hours working. First, I wrote a speech for the film screening event (introducing the movie and giving it some context), then spent the majority of these 2 hours working out a draft for my lesson plan for this Friday’s lecture. I want to do a general overview of Europe, and then the other two weeks I can focus more on the countries and specific topics I need to cover. Also talked to my uni friends a bit (their moral support keeps me afloat), and one of them had a great idea about my research obligations. I may try and do a collaboration with a former classmate who is now stationed in Spain, also teaching Hungarian as a foreign language. It would be great not having to do it all alone.

So happy about this vegan feta - and it was also fairly cheap bc it was on discount!
(Btw it tastes nothing like feta)