David goes back to primary school

David's first couple of days here have been pretty quiet.  The first night out, we walked to the pizza place in the zero something degree weather.  David quickly realised that the single sweater and the thin coat that he brought with him would not be sufficient.  This gave Amanda the excuse to go shopping!  The next day, we headed off to Nyiregyháza to go to the nearest mega-store where David found a snow-jacket to his liking.

The weather has actually improved over the last couple of days and now we're unlikely to get snow, so Amanda and I are kind of sad.  Dave is still pretty cold however, and is constantly turning the heater up and putting on an extra layer (he just turned to thermostat up to 27degC).  We can't blame him however as he did just come from the Australian summer.

What I can blame him for however, is his insistence on going for "runs".  On Sunday afternoon, he and I ran to the nearby town of Pócspetri, which is around 1.8kms away.  I still believe it almost killed me.  We used to go running together a couple of years ago, and I was significantly fitter than he was, but now this is just not true.  David was definitely slowing down for me and had to sprint off towards home to avoid getting cold.  Even at those low temperatures, there was no chance of me getting cold as I gasped and wheezed for breath.  We're going again tomorrow apparently.

David came with me to school today and met the Grade 4s and Grade 3s.  It was all fairly good and the kids behaved well.  Ili turned it into an educational experience with the kids having to interrogate Dave and then write a paragraph in English.  I think the kids really like him.  Actually, Kitti, one on the Grade 3s ran up to me in the playground and informed me that "Eszti likes David".  She then ran off giggling.  I thought she was just teasing but when I went back to class later Eszti was asking where David was.  So despite only being in the town for 72 hours or so he's already got admirers.

The school is in full Christmas mode at the moment because Santa is coming next week.  In Hungary, Santa brings presents on Saint Nicholas's name day (December 6) then Jesus brings presents on Christmas Eve.  With that in mind, and as a way of fulfilling the cultural requirements of some freetime lessons, Amanda had the Grade 1B kids make Santa masks today.  The Grade 2s also posed for a photo with some paper flowers that they made.

- Daniel.