Pentecost Holiday

 


This is my first year to celebrate Pentecost as a national holiday. In Indonesia, the Christians celebrated Ascension Day, but not Pentecost. Here, we did not celebrate Ascension Day. I spent the morning doing research. I looked up some articles about assessing speaking which led to interactional competence. I was also rereading my students' evaluation of the communication skills course that I taught and thinking about how to rejig the curriculum next semester to align with the new mode of testing.

In the afternoon, I took a long walk. As with all national holidays in Hungary, the grocery stores were closed. I used to think that everything was closed, but when I saw some people with ice cream, I did a little exploration and found that the confectionaries were open today as was the bakery across the street. I did not hear or see as many trams or buses running today. On my walk this afternoon, I saw many out enjoying the warm June sunshine. Some were walking their dogs. Some were pushing strollers. Some were riding their bicycles. 

While I was walking through the park, a stranger greeted me. This is the first time such a thing has happened to me. She was very polite, using the full greeting, "I hope you are haveing a good day" rather than the short Hungarian equivalent to "hi". Our conversation was cut short when my third turn was "I don't know." 

Here are some photos from my walk today.



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