As we walked into a large building with dim lighting I was surprised to see it buzzing with activity including several tables of older men in the corner playing chess.
The class was setting up in kind of a multi-purpose room with very tall ceilings with the heating vents exposed and running every direction. There was a stage and folding chairs pulled to the side and women in various stages of undress partially veiled by a particition. The floor was ancient parchet with flimsy rugs haphazardly placed in the center of the room. My host took me up to introduce me to the instructor who was fully dressed and setting up the music. Then they began to chatter and Koti turned to me and said that the instructor would like to trade me classes in return for English lessons. I was hesitant since I had never taught an adult and got the impression that Llona was a total beginner. But since I was on the spot, I agreed.
At that point Llona started to strip off her top and change into her workout gear right there in front of the class. Whoa, I had heard that the Hungarians had a different cultural take on nudity and here was a woman of about 45 with the usual lumps and bumps of our age stripping to her underwear in front of a group of women (and one guy). (Jack and I had experienced one of the pubic baths in the city a few weeks prior and I had the impression from that experience that there isn't the super body conscientiousness that we have in the states, quite refreshing).
So I took a spot in the second row where I could see the teacher because of course, all of her instructions were in Hungarian. She proceeded to lead a low impact workout with lots of reps on the floor work. I left thinking it was not going to be a serious workout for me and was quite surprised when I woke up the next morning with my gluts screaming at me. I guess if you do enough leg lifts you do work the muscle even without using weights.
That Friday, I returned to the center to start our english lessons. Turns out she is not a true beginning speaker. She spent 6 months a few years ago in the UK as an nanny, but and wants to improve her meager vocabulary. She is so sincere and wants so badly to learn. It is quite a different experience for me than working with the kids. At the end of the lesson she always kisses me on both cheeks and says, "Tank you Katie". Yes, we are working on pronounciation of the th sound as it does not exist in their language. We giggle alot because she just can't seem to make her mouth form the sound. But then she will turn it on me and ask me to say a Hungarian word that has a sound that is kind of like dg in edge. There is no way I can produce it correctly, so we are even.
I have been back several times to the class and the music is just awful. Llona is sincere but kind of turns into a drill sergent when she is leading the class . The last time I went she had on some awful Hungarian rap music. The class must have complained because there was a lot of discussion with her as we were doing our thing. Pretty soon she dug into her purse and pulled out some keys which she handed to the lone male in the class. I was clueless as to what was going on at this point wondering if maybe she left her water bottle in her car or something. He returned with a flurish holding a CD which she popped into the player and out blasted this awful folk music all accordians and Hungarian singing. Uhgg! After a couple of songs where she was trying her best to make the moves match the music she comes over to me bends down and says "Hungarian Gypsy King music" and smiles.
It was a very long class!
That's hilarious, Cathie! Maybe you should bring in a music CD as a "gift" for your instructor, something you would actually want to listen to during class. Are you still going?
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