A nod to Clare of 3BT and why it is OK to eat fish.

Ahh Palinka and Tavas. Sometimes I think the gods are out to get me in trouble, like the mischievous friend who pushes buttons just to see if this time will be different from the last 17 times. It wasn't, and while I could rant and rave about the bad parts of the weekend (all caused by my own drunken stupidity) I wont. Instead, with a nod to Clare of "Three Beautiful Things" I will remember the simple and the beautiful things.

1) The daisies that dot all of the grassy pathways in my town.
2) The sweet burn of good palinka as it slowly slides down your throat, and then eating a piece of dried apple afterwards.
3) A friend peeling off the layers of an unopened Iris, until it exposes the yellow bit
4) Friends, who instead of scolding, are willing to play "Dude, where's my phone" and go on an adventure across town at 8am after only 4 hours of sleep.
5) Blue sky and sitting in the sun
6) Understanding one of the students asking a non-English speaking colleague questions in Hungarian
7) Being called Tanarnő
8) Walking under trees full of pink blossoms
9) That moment when the student 'gets it'.
10) Lying in bed, covered in blankets, the sun streaming through the windows and not having to get up.
11) The word Bliss.
12) When a student surprises you with something very clever


A while ago I went to a teacher convention in Budapest. It was really good, and gave me tons of new ideas. One of them was a graffiti game, where students should write a phrase in English and decorate it in the style of Graffiti artists. I did this once on a Saturday, when there was some extra time, and no one wanted to be there. Most of them wrote the usual "Happy Easter", "I love Timmy" so on and so forth. My favorite was from one of my sassy students:

"It isOK to eat fish, because a fish doesn't have feelings"