Farewell, Summertime

 Wow! It's the end of August already. On Sunday, I talked to an English teacher at church. She told me that the school year always begins on August 1 and ends on June 15.  The university schedule is slightly different. Our classes begin on September 6 this year.

Hungarian Culture

On Saturday before going to bed, I realized that we had a potluck on Sunday and I had nothing prepared (and not much to prepare) to contribute. I bought some fruit at the grocery store on my way to church. When I got to the potluck, I realized it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Everyone brought finger foods: pastries, pizza, cookies, cakes. At least one other person brought fruit as well.

The church had quite a gathering for the baptismal service. We had guests from other churches. They set up more chairs in the back.  They had to call in another interpreter. There were four of us who could not speak Hungarian.  Only two of us were native English speakers. A pastor's kid from India has been attending the church for three years now.  Two other visitors were not native English speakers, but were quite fluent in English.

Tutoring

Today was my turn to be tutor. I suggested trying some of the restaurants near where I live and then coming to my house for the lesson.  We walked around the square, then settled on the busiest restaurant, which also serves vegan food (my tutor is vegetarian). I had a Hungarian potato casserole. The potatoes had been cut into smallish pieces, then layered with boiled eggs and sausage (potato, sausage, potato, egg, potato), then baked. Before serving, the server put a dollop of sour cream on top.  They also had fruit soup. This time, I took a picture. The soup was served with a dollop of whipped cream. Later, my tutor told me that, having seen another customer with whipped cream on his fruit soup, she asked the server, "Is the whipped cream only for special customers or can anyone ask for it?" This one was very tasty and had a hint of nutmeg. In my next lesson I'm going to need to learn how to order fruit soup. 

 I lost my glasses on Friday walking home with some free appliances that an American who is moving out of Hungary gave me. In addition to ordering fruit soup, I'll also need to learn to ask, "Have you seen my glasses? and answer any followup questions about what they look like.

Work

Tomorrow, my tutor and I will be meeting for lunch at a soup place near our office. It is getting cool enough here that soup is enjoyable. The Soup Port has quite a variety of soups that I am looking forward to trying out. After lunch, I will have my tutoring session in Hungarian and, if the key to my office has been returned, I'll be able to look at the Hungarian books left behind by my predecessor. At two, we have a departmental meeting. At 3:30, the writing teachers will have a coordination meeting. Next week, it will be back to having a routine.Bye, bye summer.

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