Leisure

Nov 2

On Tuesdays, I have mornings off, but then have a Hungarian class,  a English grammar class, and a writing class. I generally eat a late breakfast and squeeze my lunch into the break from 4 to 6. I was a little late last week, catching up with other ideas for lesson plans, and decided to try an Indian fast food restaurant even though I have little affinity for Indian food. The place with the ready made Indian food menu on the door turned out to be a store rather than a restaurant.  I found some lentils.

Nov 3

I experimented with a lentil recipe I found online, with a few substitutions of my own. I did not rinse the lentils enough, so they foamed over. The soup was very good. I shared some with my culture coach on Monday. She liked it.  I made another batch with yet another modified recipe on Wednesday, November 10, which I shared with my English teacher friend from church. 

Nov 5

I shirked all day. I should have marked papers and polished my slide presentations for class, but I went shopping instead. The supermarket that has a brand of muesli that I like also had bananas and milk on sale, so I went on a shopping hike. I came home and made another celery-broccoli soup, which I consumed in a couple days.

Nov 6

I avoided schoolwork again.  I prepared for my Bible lesson and did housework: laundry, vacuuming, cooking, dishes, and rearranging furniture. I've been listening to a biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe on a radio program, and was inspired to read Uncle Tom's Cabin. I stayed up late watching a 1986 Showtime mini-series of the story. 

Nov 7

This morning, we had another baby dedication. This baby uses cloth diapers, so the diaper cake looked a bit different from usual. After the Bible study, I checked my mail and found a job advertisement for my favorite language game, Duolingo. I found a free download of Uncle Tom's Cabin and stayed up late eading the first part. 

Nov 8

After I got home from school a little after 8 pm, I finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Tuesday morning, I scrambled to polish my slide presentations for class. 

Nov 9

I went to the health department to see if I had been registered in the system. (I applied for this two weeks ago). The official assured me it would be in the post in a week or two...or more.  Coming home from the health department, I stopped at the vegetable vendor to buy carrots for my lentil soup. The saleslady asked me if I wanted the tops cut off. Since she was motioning to the rubberband that held the five carrots together, I though she meant to cut that and said yes. I was not upset by the misunderstanding since I had not really though of using carrot stems and leaves in anything.

In the afternoon, I went to my English teacher friend's house for tea. I shared some of my lentil soup, which smelled wonderful. My friend had also invited another English teacher from her school, who is also the director of the American corner here in town. We had a lovely visit. Before I went home, my friend gave me two sacks full of houseplants. 

Nov 10

My friend invited me to join her class on a field trip to the museum. One of her students, who has applied to join an exchange program for high school students, showed me around the exhibit about one of Hungary's most beloved queens, Sisi.

Nov 11

This morning, I discovered an email from Duolingo asking me to complete the next phase of their interview process: writing a couple of exercises.  They said it should take no more than an hour; it took me less than 40 minutes.  I also went to the money changer this morning while the exchange rate seems to be higher in favor of the US dollar. After lunch, I might attack the mounds of assingments to mark or I might indulge in another day of leisture.  I saw an 1885  book entitled Grammar-Land: Grammar in Fun for the Children of the School Room by M. L. Nesbitt that looks like another great tool for procrastination.