The Chiropractor Still

I am still making weekly visits to the chiropractor. I did find out that there are only 5 of them in Hungary. Four of them are from the U.S. and one from Canada. Some days after I leave, I feel great with no pain in my back, hip, or leg and other days, I feel worse than when I started. The four thousand Huf a visit was also a major factor, so I mentioned it to him. He reduced my rate to two thousand, saying he was not there to make himself rich. That was very gracious of him, but I still wish it would get better and I could quit going at all. When we were in South Africa, I bought a pair of shoes called Crocs. I thought they were made there, but found out differently later. I just started to wear them and they are by far the best thing I have done for my feet. They are so incredibly comfortable. It was not until Chris and Mark came over one night, that I had noticed they were wearing them too. After Googling Crocs, I found that they are from Boulder, CO. I ordered three more pair to be sent to a friend of mine who is coming over in May. At $39.00 a pair, you cannot have too many. www.crocs.com

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Brunch for the Gang

Ron decided he was going to use my horded Bisquik for a Sunday brunch. He had invited Lynn and Nicole, both Fulbrighters as well as his museum buddy, Mark and his partner Chris. Now, normally, I am a generous person, but when I started to think about the amount of Bisquik this was going to consume...hmmmm.... Bisquick is not available here and it is such a diverse product. I have to beg people to bring it over, not to mention maple syrup. These are second and third on my Wish List after peanut butter. As it turned out, Mark was sick with the flu, Chris had to nurse him, so it was only Lynn and Nicole who came over. Ron made enough pancakes for Cesar's army. He had some with pecans and bananas and others plain. The ladies enjoyed themselves as did we, so after the initial casualty tally to my stock of goodies, I was able to relax and have nice relaxing Sunday with good company too.

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Guinea Pigs

I received an e-mail informing me that a Hungarian doctoral student who had gone to MIT was looking for native English speakers for his doctoral research. I immediately sent him a note and Ron and I volunteered for whatever he needed us to do. Having gone through the process of needing and cajoling people into being part of you doctoral research, I could certainly sympathize. We arranged to meet this morning at his university here in Budapest, the Technical University. It was only minutes later that we realized where the Ministry of Education is allocating their funds for higher education. The buildings and the equipment were pristine. Tamas, the researcher, is a young, attractive, soft-spoken gentleman. He had two computers set up so both of us could go through the experiment simultaneously, not waiting around for the other. We had to listen to different patterns of speech and determine different qualities about the voices we heard. It only lasted for 45 minutes, though he warned us it could take up to an hour. After we were done, he gave each of us a box of chocolates as a thank you for participating. After us, he only 3 participants and his goal is 10. I continued to spread the word with Fulbrighters and others that I knew, but could not convince anyone else to give so little of their time for a good cause. What a shame!

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A Fulbrighter Returns

There has not been a whole lot of excitement going on. One of the former Fulbrighter exchange teachers returned for a week and stayed with us. She was here our first year here and it was through her and a professor at my alma mater that we became involved with the Fulbrighters originally. Jennifer is an interesting person. While she was here, she went to see 137 movies, some of them twice. Her excuse was not having a television, but OCD rings in my mind. Regardless, she is a wealth of information on movies and television shows, plus she is pretty bright in her own area of English literature. She is very entertaining to have around, but she does have an agenda to see many of the teachers and students she spend nine months with, so we may not see too much of her this week.

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ELTE is Moving

I received an e-mail from my department head at the university last night. We have to submit our course that we will teach to the secretary this week. The semester has just nearly begun and they are concerned about the next one in September already. There is a rumor, a strong one, that we will be moving our campus on April 1st. At first I thought this was a secret, but the students knew already and are planning for an extra long vacation come April. We are on break until April 9th, so if they planned ahead, they could have us situated in time, but then again, planning is not the strong point of upper administration. Most of my classes are so small; I could have them come to my home and may just do that for most of them. We cannot afford to lose another week's classes, when Tuesday classes only meet for ten sessions as it is.

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Assorted Thoughts

I received an e-mail from my department head at the university last night. We have to submit our course that we will teach to the secretary this week. The semester has just nearly begun and they are concerned about the next one in September already. There is a rumor, a strong one, that we will be moving our campus on April 1st. At first I thought this was a secret, but the students knew already and are planning for an extra long vacation come April. We are on break until April 9th, so if they planned ahead, they could have us situated in time, but then again, planning is not the strong point of upper administration. Most of my classes are so small, I could have them come to my home and may just do that for most of them. We cannot afford to lose another week's classes, when Tuesday classes only meet for ten sessions as it is. Changing direction, now that we have this lovely mural on our wall, we decided we could not stand the upholstery of the chairs any longer. Ron and I went fabric shopping today. We forgot to bring our little dictionary with us, so when we went into a shop, we had to call Balazs to translate for us by giving the phone to the clerk. The clerks were amused by this and actually were very helpful. The first shop explained that the material they carried was not for upholstery, but gave us the name and address of another shop. In the second shop, the clerk was highly entertained by the phone translation and very accommodating to our needs. We found the perfect material within minutes. She drew pictures to show us how to cut the material for our six chairs, the cut the piece in half to save us some cutting when we brought it home. Ron suggested that it would be mid-week before he got around to doing the work, but I convinced him that as a joint project, it could be completed in two hours at the most. We worked like a well oiled machine, cutting, ironing, and stapling on the material. After two hours exactly, we had all six chairs recovered and they look excellent! I love these joint projects; it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

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Another Chiropractor Appointment

This was my third appointment with the chiropractor. I had decided that if this was the final time if I did not see any drastic improvement. The first visit was 8,000 Huf, and each one after is 4,000. At this rate, I will need a second job just to afford the visits. He was as unimpressed with my improvements as I was and suggested an X-ray. He gave me the name of a clinic who provides them. He thinks it may be in the hip joint and more bone than muscle. Though he was encouraging that they could solve the issue once they knew what it was, it was still a bit upsetting contemplating the severity potential. Now, I have no choice but to get the X-ray and return yet again. Today, they did a number of different 'therapies' on me, more than in the last two visits. Hope runs eternal.

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Belated Valentine's Day

I am behind again. Yesterday was Valentine's Day or the hump day of the week, since it fell on Wednesday. When I made it home, there were some crocus on the kitchen table from Ron. Then there was an e-card in my mail. I was so consumed with school, I did not think to do anything for him. As young people say, "my bad".

We went out for dinner with Chris, Mark, Nicole, and Lynn to a small Hungarian restaurant in the 13th district. Lynn and Nicole gave Ron and I, as well as Mark and Chris, a homemade Valentine. I suspect it was Lynn who actually did the construction, but it was a cute idea.

Dinner was great, but the company was the best. All in all, it was a lovely evening.

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Comment from Szilvi

Dear Dr James, Here is a note of what I liked and disliked at the courses we had together, as you asked us to do that: GOOD -your clear speaking (some of the teachers at the major we can't really understand) -interactive lessons -you're always punctual (coming to class, ending the class, returning essays, etc.) -the feeling after the lesson that I've learned something new -the company:) -we always know what you expect from us, but if we don't, we can ask you freely -leading the discussion. I think it is the most effective way to learn; it is effective for the leader and for the others as well, as it is interactive -editing papers- I found it effective and new at the Critical Thinking class NOT THAT GOOD -presentations (mostly I found useful for myself the presentation only when I had to prepare for it; other student's presentation were not that useful to listen-even if they were enjoyable; they took a lot of time) -the great amount of printing; this semester I decided to buy the book Ragtime At the moment that's all I could collect. I hope you'll find them useful. Have a nice Sunday! Szilvi

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Victory in Publishing

One of my former Advanced Grammar students came to my office. She was overflowing with excitement. She shared with me that she had her article published that she had to write and submit for my class. She said she would never have believed she could get an article published if it had not been for me and my class. I am so proud of her. This is the second student who had an article published as a result of my Advanced Grammar class that I am no longer teaching.

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The University Started?

Last week was our "first week" of the semester. In all semesters past, the students would show up for classes if they were registered and others would show up if they weren't and plead to get in. This last Tuesday, I went prepared to meet my portion of the 300+ freshmen who are required to take one of the two sections of Survey of American Culture offered this semester. I was in the auditorium sized room early trying to figure out where the light switches were. The class is schedule for 8:00. By 8:15, I was still hunting for the light switches and for the students who were supposed to be there. When I went to our American Studies office, I found out that students did not have to attend the first week of the semester, just the faculty. Other than selling the CDs and DVDs I prepare for my students, it was a waste of time even going. The NEW improved system shows that 1,178 students have completed their registration and there are only 11 in my class, but then again, only 30 in my colleague's section. The old system, which I can access on my own, shows 729 students registered, but none for either of our Survey classes. Go figure. This Tuesday should prove interesting to say the least.

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Scott the Artist

Scott, our artist in residence left us today. After he finished the mural in the kitchen, he continued on to do a portion of the ceiling in the entry hallway. Yesterday, he tweaked the mural a bit more.

He was with us for the ten days we agreed upon for the mural, then two of the additional ten for the ceiling. He is returning to Istanbul, so we will give him an I.O.U. for the balance of the time.

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First Week of the Semester

Tuesday was our "first week" of the semester. In all semesters past, the students would show up for classes if they were registered and others would show up if they weren't and plead to get in. This last Tuesday, I went prepared to meet my portion of the 300+ freshmen who are required to take one of the two sections of Survey of American Culture offered this semester. I was in the auditorium sized room early trying to figure out where the light switches were. The class is schedule for 8:00. By 8:15, I was still hunting for the light switches and for the students who were supposed to be there. When I went to our American Studies office, I found out that students did not have to attend the first week of the semester, just the faculty. Other than selling the CDs and DVDs I prepare for my students, it was a waste of time even going. The NEW improved system shows that 1,178 students have completed their registration and there are only 11 in my class, but then again, only 30 in my colleague's section. The old system, which I can access on my own, shows 729 students registered, but none for either of our Survey classes. Go figure. This next Tuesday should prove interesting to say the least.

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Comment from Agape

This is in response to my request for comments transferred from my old/other blog. Hello Dr. James, here you go my feedback to your LP classes. To start with the very beginning, I did like your first class (of LP1) (when we had to describe an object, and it turned out that each and everybody was approaching ot from her own point of view). However, what i did not like in LP1 is that we had to do a presentation, we (most of us) had no previous experience on how it works, and we had no indications how we should do one. I did enjoy the topic of LP 3 (different ethnicities, or, sixties, or civil rights movements). I did like the last LP with you, sixties, seventies, fifties. the topic, and the various ways of presentations (music, video, dance) I think these should be in every LP classes. Overall experience is that it was very useful to write papers and to do presentations, but forcing the speaking was not necessarily a good idea (with the stamps) as in this was those of us were also speaking who should have been silent. anyway, thanks! and keep in touch for the TA duties. (We cannot take it once again on ETR, but it is all right) have a nice day agape

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The Chiropractor

After thirty minutes and 8,000 Huf later, I left the chiropractor's office. I have had years of experience with chiropractors in the past, so this method of health care was not new to me. I was interested to see what differences a chiropractor who is American would have working in Hungary. He is an older man and this was surprising since I thought I had seen his picture in ads where he appeared much younger. The office itself is three rooms in the basement of an apartment building. The male receptionist had me fill out a simple form, in English. Then the doctor's assistant took me into a small room where he questioned my reason for the visit. Back in the waiting room, I was called in to see the doctor after about five minutes. He asked if I had x-rays with me. No, where would I have them from? He checked my back and buttocks and said there were three layers of triangular muscles in that area and all three were swollen. This could have been caused by any number of things, including sleeping in the wrong position. After he did some 'therapy' with two different machines, I left that office with more information than I could process, but some of it was old knowledge. One should only sleep on one's back with the knees propped up and one should only swim the back stroke to keep the spine in correct alignment. My parents were chastised for not knowing this information and ruining my back health all of these years. The assistant took me to the original room for 'physical therapy' with yet another electric machine and I was told to come back with a certain tape to aid my problems with my feet. The range of motion has improved, but still not normal and not without pain.

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Comment from Luca

I had started a teaching blog/log and asked for comments, but the time factor did not work in my favor. Too many blogs, not enough time. This is a comment from that blog.

Dear Dr. James, I got your message about the blog. I'd like to "evaluate" your LP1-4 classes. There were more positive experiences than negative ones in your classes. I like the presentations, because the issues are (mostly) interesting. We can also see how we and our classmates improve. It is very useful. I also like the class discussion part. It is interesting to hear your opinion about different issues, but I like to see that we can already lead the discussion without long pauses. One of my favorite things is the stamp. First time I found it a bit old style, but after that I realized that it is effective inspiration and also great fun. Class discussion leading was really negative for the first time, but after that it turned out that it helps us improving our communication skills. What I do not like are the things you tell us at the beginning of each semester. These things sound too fearful, even if they are facts. For example it is really frustrating to hear that if we do not send our essay on time, we do not get the credit for the course. I do not like frustration. Moreover, I know that I have nothing to fear, because you are not a monster (as you once mentioned). I do not know how you could change this, but I feel you should. The other negative remark is that you are sometimes too harsh when criticizing our essays. You sometimes say things that I find demoralizing. (My personal experience was when you indicated that I have plagiarized, just because one paragraph had more developed vocabulary than the others. As we discussed it later, the thing is that I did not have elegant expressions to the other issues, only to that one.) I hope you can use these remarks. Have a nice week until the semester starts, Luca

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