Proud of the Pack

Last night my journalism students held their blogs and websites presentation; these are the ones they created for the class I teach. They start the semester with a blog and need to have eleven posts minimum. Half way through the semester, they have to create a website with 5 pages.  This is the 3rd year of the journalism program, but I must say, as a group, they really took the task seriously. 


I nearly fell off my chair when one of the students announced she had over 900 hits on her blog. That is amazing for such a short time. Others have had people writing them from various countries in regard to their contents from Hungarian cooking to explaining microbiology to the non-scientist. 


Considering I had sent an e-mail invite to the entire faculty, not just the American Studies department, I was sorely disappointed not one faculty member showed up other than myself. There were signs all over the school, I  advertised it in the two English newsletters, on the Creativity group website, Facebook page, and Twitter page. There were only ten attendees other than the presenters. 


Regardless, they presented like they were speaking to the masses. They did an excellent job. Here is a snap of their sites if you have time. If you do check one out, please comment on their site. It is encouragement for them to continue. If you click on it, it should be readable.

Pin It Now!

My Students' Blogs

In my journalism program, I teach a Blogging and Website course. The goal is to get students somewhat exposed to 21st century journalism. One would guess this generation is beyond blogging; however, it is not true here. This is a new experience for many of them at least writing in English. As such, I would like to post their sites here and encourage any and all to visit them, share them, but most importantly COMMENT. Comments will give them the boost to improve knowing there are others reading the blog besides their classmates, friends, and family. With that knowledge, they will take the blog more seriously and hopefully continue beyond this semester. Even if you only visit each one once, a few minutes of your time will be an immeasurable help.

Hungarian cooking: http://sprinkleofhungary.blogspot.com

Modern Art reviews: http://artrecycler.blogspot.com

Stories about a town: http://truthaboutquiver.blogspot.com

Pub Reviews: http://barfly-pubreviews.blogspot.com

Gay and Lesbian Europe News: http://grayrightsineurope.blogspot.com

Unclassified: http://brainscrapstories.blogspot.com

Biology: http://kickassmicrobes.blogspot.com

Literature: http://lithiumeaters.blogspot.com

Sports for the Blind: http://runningoutsight.blogspot.com

Rock and Roll Review Budapest: http://rockinandrollinthroughbudapest.blogspot.com

Film Reviews: http://35mmfilm-threadoflife.blogspot.com

Related articles

• Blogging: Journalism Tool of the 21st Century (journalistjan.wordpress.com)
• Metamorphs Journal: To Twitter or to Blog ? (metamorphs.blogspot.com)

Pin It Now!

You Know the Vacation is Over...

You know the vacation is over as soon as you step foot in the home airport planning your transportation home again. Then you open the fridge to find it either empty or a lab for nutritional biologists.

Having having access to the Internet was more relaxing than stressful, which I had anticipated. Once home and connected, I was especially grateful for not checking e-mails while gone. There were over 500 fairly legitimate e-mails, with another few hundred in the Spam filter.

Students are starting to think about school again, which is encouraging. There were over a dozen e-mails from various groups of my kids. My newest group do not know they are soon to be my kids. Of course there are university problems, but not student initiated. Classes that overlap each other, but are still required for all, problems with accessing the registration online, and the list goes on. Fortunately, there are some responsive people at school who have helped out with some of this. It just makes me wonder how Trinity handles their 16,000 students when registration comes around, but better yet, how did they handle it before computers?

So later today, I will meet with students who are writing their thesis this semester and I am their adviser. I will meet with a new substitute teacher who is replacing colleague on maternity leave. I will meet with some new students to give them the CDs for the upcoming classes. When I am done for the day, I will come home and look at my pictures from Ireland and try to recapture those feelings of relaxation and peace. 
 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Budget Vacations: Five Easy Ways to Make Them a Dreamy Reality! (cheapvacations.net)
• Vacation without a Net (boston.com)
• The Real World (and Post-Vacation Vertigo) (blogs.hbr.org)
• 4 Ways To Afford A Vacation (hellobeautiful.com)

Pin It Now!

Bleary Eyes and Sundays Really Get Me Down

As all US Americans are probably aware, April 15th is T-Day, the day when federal income tax returns are due. Chuckle, chuckle, I have not had to file a return for 8 years, since I have no US income of note. 

But I bet no one knew the other big event deadline that also falls on April 15th this year. The ELTE Masters theses are due in their final version, bound, and ready to be read or red with a reader's pen. Yes, this last part does not make sense to me as it won't to other US Americans. Why bind the thesis if it is going to be marked up. Mark it up, let the student revise it, and then bind it for posterity. Nope! Not here. 

With this in mind, what I have been doing for the last four days is reading theses for the students that I am advising. During some moment of insanity or numerical amnesia, I had lost count of how many times I had said "Yes" when asked "Will you be my adviser?"

It was not until students who I don't think I have ever set eyes on before, approached me in the hall to tell me some tidbit about their thesis. While my face is loudly projecting "Who are you and why are you telling me this?" the student would stop in mid-sentence to say "You do remember you are my thesis adviser, don't you?" Saving Grace is more than a movie title, I had to say "Of course I do. It is just then I had a drop in my blood sugar, so drifted for a moment. I am back now." 

It escalated on my concern barometer when I am in the grocery store, at the park, or in the dentist's chair and people start discussing their thesis topic and research. There is larger cast of advisees than there were Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Just call me Glenda.


One of the reasons I am so popular is because I do give of my time. I want them to be the best of the best. If their name as well as mine will be on this, we both need to be proud of this fact. The fortunate thing about advising Hungarians is that they never finish in the semester you or they expect they will. Last semester, by all counts, I had a list of twelve Masters students to advise along with 3 BA students. The end result was Masters 4  / BA 1. Fearful of an overflow problem like a flooding river of students floating into this semester, the levy held: it only let a few seep through - 3 Masters / 2 BA.


However, did any of the MA people follow my rule of every time they write 5 pages to send it to me. I want to nip any problems in the bud early on. Get that pruning done early and you have a shapely tree. If you wait too long and it grows out of control, you could kill the thing trying to get it into its proper form. Well, the answer is no, they did not follow the rules. Two of the MA people sent me their entire thesis, one this last week. So, I had to kill a tree, heavily prune another, but the one who followed the rules somewhat, only had minor pruning that needed to be done.

Pin It Now!

Thanksgiving by Marriott

Ron used to have a connection through the museum docent program who could get us a turkey at the US Embassy commissary. Her husband was transferred and along with it, our turkey connection. For US readers who can find a freezer case stocked with Butterball or no name turkeys year round in the grocer's meat department, it may seem strange. Here in Hungary, getting a whole turkey is similar to the proverbial hen's teeth. 

One of my journalism students is doing her internship covering food news for an English language portal, so I put her on the scent for a whole turkey to roast for Thanksgiving. A week later, she responded with the fact that all of the poultry butchers in the Great Market receive their turkeys whole and cut them themselves before putting them out for sale. This may have been a no brainer for a Hungarian speaker, but I was not satisfied with the response, so pushed her further. I think the tears were the persuading factor.

She e-mailed me last week. She was by the Great Market, so stopped at a butcher. They are only getting 15-20 kilo turkeys in right now. If you don't know the math, there are 2.2 pounds to a kilo. Those turkeys could be Thanksgiving Day floats in the Macy's parade. Even after she promised to try to find us a reasonable turkey, I thanked her, but no thanks at the same time. 

Thanksgiving is the holiday I miss the most not living in the US. I am a traditionalist when it comes to this holiday and want it to be as 'authentic' as possible in my terms of authenticity. In the US, after appetizers, the dinner started with cream of pumpkin soup, turkey, homemade chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes, glazed yams with mini-marshmallows, stuffed mushrooms, a green vegetable, lots of gravy, and other fixings, followed by pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake (I loved making this), and another type of pie. 

Our tradition was to always invite those who did not have family or friends close by to celebrate with and would otherwise be alone.

Each year here, it has been a hit or miss trying to find the ingredients needed. Pumpkin is the toughest. However, after posting it on our website, we now have three cans of pumpkin and two cans of evaporated milk. Pumpkin pie anyone?

For the rest, we broke down and ordered from the Marriott. On Thursday, they will deliver a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, glazed carrots, a bottle of wine, plus a pumpkin and walnut pie serving four to six, for $125.

Just to make it a holiday, I will supplement it with my baked artichoke dip for an appetizer, make my stuffed mushrooms, and another pie. It is not a holiday if you cannot smell it walking in the door.

Pin It Now!

Another Intern Gets Her Time in the Spotlight

Hi Dr. James! I hope you are very well and enjoying the summer sun! I have had my first review published on Xpatloop, you can read it here: http://www.xpatloop.com/news/61727 I have been to another event since, to celebrate the Queen's birthday at the English Ambassador's residence- very nice, was a bit nervous though! Having a lot of fun going to these events though, so looking forward to being an intern!! Hope to see you sometime during the summer, all the best, Anna

Pin It Now!

My Pride in My Students

One of my journalism students started his internship early. He secured a position at Time Out magazine, a tourism publication that is produced in all major cities in the US and Europe. His first work, a listing of cultural events, appeared in the June issue and he e-mailed me. I am so very proud of him. Next month, he will have a full article to his credit. What could make a teacher more excited than to see their prodigy achieve and succeed?

Pin It Now!

How I Spent My Sunday

I received this e-mail from a former student who is now in the doctoral program and is writing his dissertation.

Dear Ryan,
I know you are probably very busy with all of your projects and have little time. Still, I am asking for a great favor. I would like you to read two chapters of my dissertation, give me your opinion, and help me to correct the American English that I seem to have lost. It is only 35 pages total. Really, I appreciate your help with this.
Zoli

True, I have B and B guests, Ron is away, I have Frommer's research to do, I just finished a project for the NileGuide online at www.nileguide.com, and missed the wedding of two other former students due to a headache all day yesterday, so what else do I have to do? Guess I will read Zoli's chapters.

If the topic were interesting, it would have gone a whole lot faster, but it had as much interest for me as how snails produce their slime fluids to aid their locomotion. It literally took me four hours to edit, while all of the time I am not certain who I was more angry at. Was it Zoli for asking or me for doing it? At the same time, I was questioning whether it was my ego that was being stroked by his asking so that is what motivated me or if it was the fact that students get so little support from their own professors that I feel the need to model for them what a professor should be like. None of the answers have been clarified to my satisfaction.

Perhaps a reflection of part of the above is that just this weekend alone, I have received seven requests from BA students, five of whom I do not even know, who have asked me to be their thesis adviser for spring 2010. Learning my lesson from having ten to twelve MA and BA advisees in one semester and now with the university changing our teaching load to eighteen hours a week, I have had to limit myself to five. There used to be a rule that for every two advising students, you were relieved from teaching one class. I never took advantage of this, because there was never a class I was willing to relinquish. That rule has been made null and void; the offer is no longer on the table.

Pin It Now!