Thermal Pools,Discos, and Pancakes!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry i haven't written in a while, i've been rather lazy! Things here are going really well and I feel as though I have properly gotten inot the rhythme of life here in Oradea. I love teaching and my kids continue to surprise and delight me everyday. I was just reading the homework of my oldest group. I had told them to write two paragraphs on their "Perfect Man/Woman". The answers I got were hilarious. One kid simply wrote "1. blonde hair 2. blue eys 3. big chest". Another one wrote his perfect woman is "an animal lover, like me". He also specified that she must "like pizza" Another one wrote he wants a woman with a "tight and soft bottom". Keep in mind these boys are 13 to 15 years old. Another one actually wrote me a whole poem about his perfect woman, it was actually very good. These kids just crack me up.

The debate with my older one was just amzing on Friday. They all worked really hard and one team even typed up all their arguments. I was so impressed with how into it they got. My little ones continue to be absolutly adorable. One little girl who sports very long pigtails hands me part of her snack everyday as I hand out nametags. My bad boy of the class, whos not really very bad just violently enthusiatic and very interested in everything, came up to me and apoligized for being so bad I had to put him in time out. My heart just about melted. I made one of my kiddies cry the other day. He was being very naughty and totally deserved it but none the less I felt pretty bad. Last week I was teaching my little ones the words I'm angry, sleepy, sad, and happy. I was acting out the emotions for them, stomping about and pounding my fist into my hand to demonstrate "I'm angry". They got such a kick out of my performance that I am relativly confident that they kept pretending not to understand so i would continue making a fool of myself.

I am really growing to love my kids. All their idiosyncrises, their little habits and personalites just entertain me to no end. Teaching is a lot of work but really fun!

I had a very good weekend. Last Saturday was Dora's eleventh birthday party. We cooked all morning long, making a million muffins, sandwiches, biscuits, and of course finishing up the cake. There was an absolutly incredible amount of food at the party. Dora had a really good time I think. She was wearing the most adorable all purple outfit. I bought her a beach towel that had a horse print on it which I think she really liked. At the birthday party, Dora's grandpa tried to teach some Hungarian with mixed results. It was semi hilarious. Also, on the subkect of my mis pronuciation of Hungarian words, I was trying to say the name of one of my older girls and I think I ended up saying some sort of curse word instead because the whole class broke into hysterics. Oops.

I was feeling a bit homesick Saturday afternoon, so I went for a long walk in the park in the center of town. I saw five different brides taking their wedding pictures in front of the town fountain looking beautiful and so happy. I love weddings so that cheered me up considerably. I came home, expecting to jsut spend the night in with my host family (my friend Edina was busy). I was talking to my country cordinator on Skype and she asked me if I would like to go out with some of her friends who live i Oradea. I wasn't sure what to do but I didn't have any other plans so I agreed to meet them at 11 in the center of town.

As I left mynhost mother teasingly told me to be back by 8 am because we had daytrip planned. She definantly qualifies as a "cool mom". I took the tram at 10:30 to go meet them, feeling rather excited to hit Oradea's club scene a bit. I was sitting happily on the tram when all of the sudden I noticed that I didnt recognize ANY of the buildings the tram was passing. I started to panic a bit, knowing that the tram stops running at 11. I finally got off and began to fully freak out. I was on an unlit street and I had only a vague idea of where I was. I was alone. I weighed my options and finally decided I had to ask the two men standing at the tram station for directions. They were actually (thankfully) very nice and spoke English. They told me to walk towards the center and look for a taxi. As I turned to leave one of the men said "Be careful". I walked very fast towards the town center, phone in hand, calling Linda, the friend of my country cordinator I was going to meet. She told me to walk until I could find a taxi. It was scary but I found a taxi relatively quickly and got to the town center relatively quickly.

Once there, I met up with Linda and her friend Villie. They were both in their early 20's, probably like 24 or 25. They were very nice, and asked me a lot of questions about the US and my family. Linda is petite and has a beautiful slightly crooked smile. Villie, her friend, told me about how he had studied abroad in Alaska. They were incredibly welcoming considering they didn't really know me before that night. We went to a local pub and met up with their friend Timi. We played fuseball, and around 1 am headed to a local club. After talking at a table for about an hour, we hit the dance floor hard. It was all old 90s music and we had such a great time dancing around. At 4 am, we finally left. I was exhausted but filled with happiness. It was a great night and Linda told me I was welcome to come out with them any night.

On Sunday my family and I went to a thermal bath called Baile Felix. It was sort of like an American pool, but with the temperature of a warm bath. Their was also a water slide. The pool was really crowded and the people watching was fantastic. I saw 400 pound men in itty bitty speedos and old women in string bikinis. I saw lovey dovey couples floating in each others arms. I saw carefee parents carrying their naked, laughing infants through the water. I got a fabulous tan and read a good portion of Anna Karenina. The thermal water felt delicious, and after spending an hour in the really hot bath I dozed off in the shade. I also got a 20 minute massage for the equivelnt of less than 5 dollars. It was lovely. After the thermal baths, we drove to this amazing garden of lotus flowers. Lotus flowers, I was told, only grow in thermal water and only along the Nile and in Romania. Upon first lookign at the pond of white lotus flowers, it seems like it is just some sort of lily pad. But if you creep closer and peer under the leaves, you see this perfect flower, this perfect present floting delicatly. These lotus flowers looked unreal, like the sugar flowers on top of a wedding cake. They were so perfect they looked like they were made of wax. It was stunning. Near the gardens, their were a ton of gift shops and I bought some souveniers for my family.

On Monday, i had the unfortunate experience of being locked out from my family's apartment for 5 hours. It was my own fault, I had forgotten my key. I tried to make the best of the situation and wandered around the market by pur building for a while. I went on got dinner by myself, feeling very alone in my own booth. It was ok though, being alone. At home, I hate being alone. I never like to be the only one in my house and at Georgetown scared when my roommate was away for the night. I think I am starting to like being alone a lot more since I've been here. It's sort of a nice, independent type feeling. I like exploring by myself and thinking and reading. It's nice. Later on I went for a walk with Edina in a thousand year old fortress near the center of town. The wall was very old and very thick and you could just feel the history, the pants of solders who fought and died for those walls hundreds of years ago. It felt like sacred groud, saturated with human drama. We talked of many things, travel, books, politics. I really like Edina and I think she will be my friend long after I leave here.

Afterwards I went home, where my host mother apoligized profusely and insisted on feeding me a second dinner. It was a good day overall, despite the lock out.

Yesterday I went to a pubwith Edian and my new friend Csilla to watch the Netherlands Uruguay game. I am really getting into watchign the world cup here. Csilla is very nice and I am glad to have another good friend here.

Today I watched Kung Fu Panda with Dora, ate a lot of pancakes with apriocot jelly, and generally layed aournd. It's been raining all day so it feels very cosy to stay inside.

I love and miss you all,

Emma