I wish I had known

There are many things I wish I had known before coming to Hungary. I was prepared (but are we ever really prepared) for things to be different, but there are a number of things I wish I had known. One of them was things I should have packed and things I should have left.

Things I packed and I was happy I brought/wish I had brought:

1. Movies to play on my computer.
2. Note cards, you can never have enough.
3. Ads from the Sunday paper. If I had had more, I could have done more.
4. Jeans
5. Peanut butter (although you can get it at Tesco)
6. Comics-from the Sunday paper/comic books
7. A book of children's games or how to play cards. These can all be changed to make them EFL friendly, and as I don't have Internet at home, it would have helped me prep for classes.
8. Photos of home
9. A clear idea of what was going on
10. A sense of humor
11. A smaller backpack
12. Reeses Peanut butter cups. I ate them all, and they were delicious.


Things I wish I had not brought:

1. My German/English dictionary. I am only subbing for German (albeit about once a week), and I know all of the words that we use. That would have saved me 5lbs.
2. So many shoes. China shop shoes are cheap.
3. The German/ESL books. I bought better ones here, and for the most part, my students are not advanced enough for the intermediate books I brought.
4. Reeses Peanut butter cups. I ate them all, and they were delicious.
5. Dressing gown. It is so bulky.


I may continue this list later, but these are the most important so far.