Rewind

Let's rewind about three and a half years. I am a junior at BC, looking forward to my senior year of course. I have been accepted into an English language program at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland for the Fall semester and I am psyched. Once I was accepted, I needed to jump through various hoops at BC as well as for the program and for visas and such. One of these hoops was a series of unnecessarily early morning weekend classes sponsored by our international studies department in order to help us prepare for life and studies abroad. I won't lie, I felt very above all of this. I had been wanting to go abroad for SO long, I had done my research, and I had even spent about five weeks in France after my freshman year, which was a good toe in the water, if you will. I knew what I was doing. I even visited Krakow and met the people who ran the program with my Dad over spring break. I didn't need to be told by some random people a bunch of generic cliches at 8 am on a Saturday morning. Needless to say, I was a bit hostile to all of this. Well, something that they told us at one of these classes has apparently been seared into my mind, and now I am experiencing the truth behind it. To be honest, I was even thinking about it long before I left for Hungary.

Well, Poland didn't work out. It wasn't that I showed up and decided I had made a mistake, I never went. Maybe you are wondering if I regret it, and while this is a loaded question, I will say I definitely don't regret my decision. I knew it wasn't right for me at the time. I wish it had been! As I said, I was jumping through various hoops (apparently it is far more complicated for a senior to go abroad than a junior!) and the final hoop was a paper that needed my signature. I stared at this paper until the last possible day, when I realized I just couldn't do it. If I signed the paper, I was officially withdrawing from all of my classes at BC that Fall. I couldn't. Of course there were other issues that lead to my decision, such as my own health, but I just could not imagine missing those classes and potentially losing housing with my best friend, and all during my senior year. (A short aside: For those who don't know, I had emergency gall bladder surgery during finals my sophomore year at BC, so needless to say I was worried about something like this occurring while in Poland.) But not going to Poland back in 2008 left a hole in my psyche and in my life experience. I NEEDED to go abroad and spend time in Central/Eastern Europe. I had studied this region for so long that I needed to make this happen.

Well it's interesting how things work out. If I had gone to Poland in 2008, I would have missed taking a class on East Central Europe in the Short 20th Century, with a Hungarian professor. I loved this class and it did a lot to boost not only my knowledge of the subject, but also my confidence as an "academic-in-traning" of sorts. I wrote a short, 25-page, research paper about the fascist regime in Croatia compared to what happened in Poland (Slovakia could also be added to this group, but I only had 25 pages!) during World War II, both Catholic countries, but with vastly different histories during the war. I felt like I could write a book on this subject, and that planted a seed in my mind that perhaps I would one day. Anyway, this class certainly put Hungary on my radar as a potential destination, and of course here I am now! Life has a funny way of making things work out in the end.

Back to my original thought. So this piece of advice that I keep turning over in my mind may not sound like much, and perhaps you've already heard it. I was told that generally speaking, there is a honeymoon period of about a month. Reality hasn't quite set in yet. Nothing seems quite real yet. But then around the beginning of October, you will have some intense culture shock and homesickness. Now if you've been reading my blog, you know that I didn't have much of a honeymoon period initially. I think I was crying by day 3 in Koszeg, but haven't since! I have been feeling a bit down lately though, partly because I have been sick for the last week, and being sick and alone is just not a good feeling. But I have noticed a similar sentiment with other CETP teachers, and it seems that early morning class was right on point. Look at that...September 29...right on schedule. But I will say, since the first part was so accurate, that though the recovery period varies, it will pass. They assured us of this. Maybe just a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, or longer, but it will pass and you will come out the other end barely wanting to go home. It is culture shock and it is very understandable for people in our position. I will say that having CETP has been AMAZING and I don't think I could have done this without it! It is such a comfort to read other blogs and see similar thoughts and experiences to my own. It's hard to be alone in a foreign country, but having CETP makes me feel like I'm not really alone, so thanks guys! You are all awesome!

And on that note, I will get back to nailing down my activities for tomorrow. Yay Friday!

Hello Miss Kelley!!!!

It has been a little while since I've written a real blog post, and I apologize. I am still very bad at blogging, but I have already been farther on this blog than my last one...so I suppose that's something. Even though I really like teaching, and the kids here in Koszeg are quite a pleasure to deal with most of the time, I am TIRED at the end of the day. Teaching is a very emotional profession, especially for someone relatively new to teaching. Also, as I found in France (mind you I was only there for 5 weeks) it is very mentally draining to be immersed in another culture and language. Not that I don't appreciate every second that I am spending here, but at the end of the day I must admit that I do enjoy retreating into my apartment and having some quality time watching some American TV shows or something of that nature. It's almost as though I need a couple of hours listening to an American accent to decompress my mind before ironing out my plans for the next day. Perhaps this is just a phase I am going through, but for right now this little routine is helping to keep me sane and positive.

I will say that I am getting much more proficient at shopping and using my gas stove and oven. All of these new processes were a bit overwhelming for the first week, but now I'm starting to feel the semblance of a rhythm or routine to my weeks that will surely make time fly. It's hard to believe that it's been almost a month since I left home. At this rate, Christmas will be here before I know it. I have just about six weeks until Fall Break, which is a week long, and entails a trip with my fellow CETP teachers. Based upon the good times had in Budapest during orientation, I am really looking forward to it! A whole week with fellow Americans...YAY! I kid, but it will be nice to talk at a normal speed and just have some time to compare notes and decompress after eight weeks of teaching. Then after Fall Break, just over five weeks until I fly home for Christmas! That will just fly by I'm sure. No pun intended. I'm not telling you this to give you the impression that I am counting down the days until I leave, but it's just amazing to me that I'm not dying of homesickness yet. As my previous posts described, I was very worried about the homesickness, but so far it has not been a big issue. Culture shock was a lot at first, but quickly passed once I met my students and have continued to get settled.

One startling difference between Hungarians and Americans is our process of greeting each other. In America, it is not at all obligatory to greet anyone less than a very good acquaintance or friend. I was lucky if my students in Virginia made eye contact with me in the hallway much less actually greeted me. Here I'm getting, "Hello Miss Kelley!!" yelled at me across the campus. I'm getting used to saying, "Hello," "Hi," or "Szia" to just about every person I pass throughout the day. Even in packs of 10 kids, they ALL say hello to me. I'm not kidding. So among all of the negativity I described in the first couple of posts, there are these little beams of light that are starting to break through. The kids seem to really like me, and overall, they are very nice people that I enjoy being around. I'm looking forward to working with them throughout the year! More to come soon...Pictures of my school below!

~Kristen

The Stairs Going up to the First Floor

Entrance -- Just inside the Front Door

Front View

Full View -- So Pretty!