Transitions

""During my teaching career at home, beginning in early August  I would start having dreams of school.  A usual theme was of walking into a classroom and finding that I had the class from hell.  I always figured that was the way I was preparing on a subconscious level for my summer to end and the preparations for another school year to begin.

Last night I dreamed that I was in the Portland airport and was checking my wallet to see if I had enough money for the taxi.  When I opened it, all I could see was colorful currency (the forint is quite colorful) but no dollars.  I must be preparing for the transition home.

I have been observing that besides being tired to the bone and yet not sleeping well (it's currently 2:54 AM) there are some things which are really annoying me.  These are not new, I have been tolerating them for months, but now they have become annoying.  Our flat is the first one on the left side of the hall, so that our bathroom wall is where the hallway ends.  There is a heavy metal fire door there.  You can shut this door quietly with a little care.  Sometimes (like when the kid down the hall blasts through it) it slams so hard that the walls in our flat vibrate.  It seems that no one is taking care to shut it quietly lately and that is really bugging me.  The toilet seat is too small for the toilet and has begun to shift to the left.  If you sit down too hard, it will jerk and slide.  I am tired of that.  Our glorious spring weather has gone to sh@%!!  It has been raining hard for several days and the weather forecast shows more of the same this week.  The paths where I walk the dogs have turned to mud holes and when the rain stops, the mosquitos quickly rise in the woods.  It has been so unpleasant that there was no dog walking session all week.  It is as if Budapest is telling us that it is time to go home.

On a lighter note. On Thursday, I returned to school late in the afternoon for a private tutoring session with a couple of kids who do not go to our school.  My classes at KFAMK had ended for the day several hours earlier and I had turned in my keys to the porter who speaks not a word of english. I don't have a classroom, so my classes are held in different rooms throughout the day and each time, I have to fetch a key from him.
 He is always pleasant and smiles but that is the limit of our conversation.  I was not in need of a key because we meet with these kids in Jack's classroom and were issued keys to that room in the fall.  I was preoccupied as I walked by the porter's station, going over my plans for Tundi and Balasz.  I had passed his window without even looking in to greet him.  Just as I got past I heard "Koti" which is how Hungarians usually pronounce my name.  He had never called me by name before.  I turned around and returned to his window.  He gave me a smile. "Kolch"?  (not the correct spelling, but that is how the word "key" sounds to me).    I think he thought that he was saving me a return trip down the stairs to retrieve the key to the classroom that I use the most often.  I shook my head, "nem" and showed him the key ring with the key on it. "O.K." he replied.  At that point I felt more like a true member of the staff than ever before.