Hanna Nichols, official tour guide for cute boys visiting Budapest...

Ok, no...I lied. I'm not any sort of official tour guide in Budapest for attractive boys (although I'm sure a few of you got your hopes up). But over the weekend I did in fact have the privilege of showing a super awesome (and yes, very cute) boy around my "'hood". I must say too, that it will be a hard weekend to top on the list of "Awesome Weekends in the Life of Hanna Nichols". I won't give a complete run-down of the weekend, as I'm sure some of you might have to excuse yourselves to vomit during reading, but I'll give you a few highlights and some pictures to give you the idea...you might puke anyways though...sorry! :-)

• Got to experience every girl's ultimate dream of seeing a guy in the distance at a train station with a huge smile on his face...for me. I can think of a few of you who are done already. Mwahahaha.
• A lovely stroll around Castle Hill at night (the best thing to do in Budapest, according to this esteemed tour guide), along with some Forralt Bor and Bartok to top it off!
• Saturday was spent at Statue Park with Lauren and Jules, her visitor. Statue Park is where Hungary decided to toss all the statues put up around Budapest during the Soviet Era. Of course, they didn't see much need to make it very convenient to get to, but I loved it! We had fun accosting statues all day.

I get to go visit Alvin's (see above reference to "cute boy") digs next weekend, so more to come. :-)

Newest Akos-ism....

(Please refer to last weeks entry entitled "Akos-isms" for complete story...) So last week's Akos-ism was "Welcome to the town center!" The new one for this week? Well, it's an eye-opener for sure...today he said, "We have now arrived at the ski lodge!", with immense excitement. As there was no ski lodge ACTUALLY in sight at that moment in the school hallway, I began to wonder. Last week was the first normal week after the "Ski Week" the week before. "Ski Week" means that all the teachers get to stay in school and teach while kids have the option of going somewhere totally rad to ski all week, or just go to Grandma's house (which is with no doubt, also rad). I know Akos was missing that week. Therefore, there is only one solution to the question of where these new phrases emerged: Obviously, Akos went to Grandma's house that week. They drank tea, made cookies, played cards, watched "Wheel of Fortune", everything. He then met her next door neighbor, who was very busy practicing his lines, as he was about to start his new job as an international tour guide at an exclusive ski resort in the mountains of Kazakstan. As they got to chatting, the neighbor (let's call him Zoltan) learned Akos is a thriving student of the English language (it's true, he's one of my best!). Akos told Zoltan that he'd really love to impress his awesome American teacher with some English. Since Zoltan only knows enough English to give tours of ski resorts, those are the two phrases he taught Akos. Then they ate salami sandwiches as good Hungarians do....THE END.

"Akos-isms"

I seriously have so many fun kid stories lately...I could write a book I bet. So, Akos...he's one of my 2nd graders, and he is just a character. He's always excited and happy, he's kind to everyone, and he just has a good sense of humor. Lately, he makes me laugh on a daily basis because of what I like to call "Akos-isms". Every week, Akos seems to come to my class with a new, totally random English saying that he did not know the week before. Then he proceeds to say them at random times...and they never relate to what we are learning, of course. They are always short and sweet....but they have kick. Most of these sayings are probably sayings he won't say often (or ever again in some cases), but they never cease to make me laugh my butt off. I am starting to think that maybe he has signed up for some "Weekly English Phrases" email list...an email list that likes to play crude jokes on English learners. Here are a few "Akos-isms" for you:

• "Come to my igloo!"
• "Let's have a party at my place."
• "Good game!"
• "Welcome to the town center!"
• "See you later, dude!"

What makes it even better is that he has a little sister who is one of my 1st graders...every once in awhile she'll throw them in there too and tell me Akos told her to say it. Look out for the newest Akos-ism, which will hopefully be coming out next week.

Yet another cute kid story that will melt your heart....

Yup, I have plenty of these ones saved up in my head for rainy days when I need a pick-me-up. Here's just one kid story that happened today: Through the end of this week, I will be making Valentines with my little ones, and it all started today. My personal favorite way to make Valentines is to make "heart people". It is just like it sounds. You cut out a big heart. You make a face on it with heart eyes and a heart nose. You make arms with heart hands...legs with heart feet...you get the idea. Anyways, I made a whole lesson out of it with the kiddos and I was helping them write out notes on the back of their heart people. Most of the kids were making them for their mothers. I was having them write a simple message..."Happy Valentine's Day, Mom! I love you." One of my little ones, Aron...who has a new baby sister (named Hanna actually...he loves to tell me that and he even sent me pictures in the form of an email once). He decided to make his for her, and he wanted to write his own special note on the back. He approached me during class (keep in mind, I didn't know who he was making it for at the time), and here's what he said...

• Aron: "How to spell 'I love you'?"
• Hanna: writes it on the board
• Aron, a few minutes later: "Ok, now how to spell 'mine beautiful Valentine'?"
• Hanna, before even noticing the grammar mistake: "That's nice! Who is it for?"
• Aron: "Mine beautiful Valentine sister, Hanna."
• Hanna: melts, then proceeds to give him a hug for being so dang cute
• Aron: awkwardly hugs me, gives me a weird look, then returns to his work
• Hanna: Recovers, then quickly makes sure he writes "my" and not "mine" :-)

How to find a way to Hanna's heart...according to my 1st graders

I have never found myself as swept off my feet and melted into puddles of Hanna as often as I do at school everyday. If I am ever insecure about myself again, slap me, and remind me of these times. Because I have many boys who know just the right ways to my heart. So, here is a list of the ways to impress the heck out of me, as I imagine it would be, according to my 1st grade boys...

• Give Hanna lots of hugs- Hanna loves hugs...anytime, any place.
• Laugh at her jokes- Hanna is funny...really! Laugh at her jokes, and it makes her extremely happy. If you laugh to the point of snot coming out of your nose (which is a daily occurrence in our world), it might make her laugh even more.
• Make her homemade presents- Hanna gets very excited when you work hard on something, and then present it as a gift. She doesn't seem to be the fancy dinner, diamond rings, fancy car type of girl...little things make her happiest.
• Dance, dance, dance- Hanna loves a guy who will dance, even if all he knows how to do is wiggle his butt and jump around like us first graders do.
• Little acts of love- If Hanna is carrying multiple bags, it will make her swoon to the point of melting in a puddle if you take the biggest bag and proceed to drag it up the stairs to your classroom for her. She might even hug you for it.
• Tell her she's awesome- Hanna loves to hear nice things about herself, as most girls do. We tell her multiple times a day how beautiful and kind she is, and it seems to make her incredibly happy all the time.
• Ask her to play games all the time- We like fun adventures, and so does Hanna. She enjoys spending break time playing hide and go seek and helping us fly paper airplanes. If there is an adventure to be had, take Hanna along.

So now you can see why 1) I love my job so much, and 2) a huge part of why I am happy all the time is my students. 1st graders know where its at when it comes to impressing girls!

Eger Adventures

A view of beautiful Eger from the top of the Minaret.

We went to the "Valley of Beautiful Women", which is actually just a series of caves which hold a lot of wine cellars...so we drank.

This is me, looking down from the tall Minaret.