Day 19 and 20: Sunburn and Strawberries

Yesterday morning we were able to go swimming at a pool here in Reghin. Well, I didn't swim, but Katie did. You have to pay to swim, and they keep it VERY clean. I was really impressed with how sanitary everything was. It was much nicer than any of our public pools. I sat outside in the sun and read the only book I brought with me: C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces. I haven't had the opportunity to read yet at all, so I was excited to have some down time. I put sunscreen on twice, but as usual I got extremely sunburned. I think my skin is just a magnet for pain. And to make things worse, it is NOT an even burn at all haha. It's in weird splotches. I guess I should be happy that I got some color...

As I suspected, my class has been different sizes every day, because different children from Apalina are coming, and not all of them have the time(or want to come) every day. I have had about four consistently come to class, but yesterday I had about 14 students, and today I had 7, so I really just have to take my lesson planning one day at a time. I didn't want to teach just vocabulary today, but that's what ended up happening. I think because tomorrow is the last day, I'll try to focus a lot on writing and forming sentences in simple present using the vocab that they have learned, and hopefully everyone will be able to keep up. I'm glad that we will have most of these children at Attila's camp in July, because we can review some of this and make sure they all learn it.

This morning we went to an outdoor market. It was so much fun! This market was mostly vegetables and fruit, but there were people selling clothes, and men cooking sausages and whatever that meat is that sounds like "mitch" but I'm sure is probably spelled like "mics". Anyway, Katie and I bought some strawberries because we have both been craving them. There really is nothing in this world like the smell of fresh strawberries. It reminded me of being home actually - when we were young and Mom would get us up at 5:00 in the morning to go to the strawberry farm...but I digress. These were the best strawberries I have ever had, hands down. We bought two kilos of them(we paid about $3.50!), and they are already halfway gone. I don't know what it is about the produce here, but there is no comparison to the produce at home. I know everything is fresh and organic here, and that makes a huge difference, but wow. I didn't even think I liked certain vegetables until I had them here - like cabbage, for example. I have always hated cabbage, but I am now a fan. Shocking I know. It must be something in the air, because we can't drink the water. ;)

Our English classes are going so well, but let me just freak out a little about my Hungarian class. I cannot BELIEVE how much work Orsi is putting into teaching me. That girl is incredible. I feel a little guilty, but she promises that she had time, and it wasn't any extra work at all...I'm still not sure I believe her, but I think she really enjoys teaching, so maybe this good for her. I learned SO many verbs yesterday, and actually conjugated three correctly in front of her. She has also come up with more helpful vocabulary than I've learned all semester with my computer program. I'm really disappointed that we only have one day left teaching here in Reghin, because I am learning so much.