Yorkshire water

I feel like I did four years ago when I finished work at my school and prepared to move to Poland. Now that there are three weeks of work left, the students also know that I plan to move to Budapest and live there by myself. They are amazed that I would move to a place where I don't know anyone, but I feel that to not give in to my sense of adventure would be selling myself short. I know that things will be fine when I get there because I have done this before.

It is sports day today and the grey clouds are stubbornly peering at the kids from up in the sky, I don't think the kids are going to last the day without getting soaked. Some of Yorkshire is under several feet of water, so our school in one of the lucky ones that gets an actual sports day. As for me, there has been lots of blogging about language learning and sending parcels, and there will be more, because packing and Hungarian are filling the moments that I am not working.

The countdown is now at 4 weeks and some days before I board my flight and as today is payday I will add getting currency and booking flights between Warsaw and Budapest to my list of things to do. In amongst the clouds, the stress and the sports days, getting stuff done reminds me that I get to go somewhere amazing in a little while.

Four seasons in one day

Tavasztól vagy ősz vagy tél vagy nyár
In the spring, or autumn, or winter, or summer

I am quite enjoying the whole language week thing, and I am back on Hungarian for today as that is the current language learning going on in prep for the move. Yesterday I spent some time translating some more songs. This is a good tool for my learning as I like singing along and find that my vocab improves quite quickly.

It takes quite a long time as I am cross referencing my dictionary and grammar book, to try and get the right verb ending. The upshot is that I can now seduce some-one with beautiful words, but am not able to order a coffee. Translating the songs is good for working out grammar rules and getting used to high frequency words. It is also meaning that the language and the sounds themselves are feeling a bit familiar. I will definitly try and see the band once I get to Budapest, but for now I have another twenty something songs to translate. I think that I will be able to say at least a few words before I get there that will actually help me communicate.

Po Polski

Ja nie się bardzo dobry język polski kiedy żyję w Polsce. Rozumiem partie ale mówią nie dużo. Ja tylko mogę mówić:
Czy moge po prosze jeszse kawa z mlekiem?

I didn't learn good Polish while I lived in Poland. I can understand well, but can't speak that good. I can only say:
Can I have another coffee with milk?

Hol van (Where is)

It is still language week and my shiny new Hungarian/English dictionary arrived and so instead of trying to write two sentences in Hungarian I am going to try and translate a verse of a Heaven Street Seven song. Hungarian first, Annes translation next.

Mond,hol van az a krézi srác?
És az a régi lány?
jó helyen vannak már
tavasztól vagy ősz vagy tél vagy nyár
nem emlékszem már
tudja a halál.

Tell me, where is that krézi guy?
and that old girl?
If I were you I'd be fine already
In the spring or autumn or winter or summer
I can't remember already
I know the demise

This was actually harder than I thought, it wasn't just finding the words, but also trying to get the right tense and colloquialisms. I love the new dictionary, it is brilliant, no idea what the word krézi means though, nothing in the dictionary and nothing on any translation sites. It took me a while to translate this song, Zsolt and Zannie, is it right?

Semain de Langue

J'avais pensé à Paris et maintenant c'est semaine de langue. J'ai eu plaisir l'étude du français quand j'étais en France, mais je pense que j'ai oublié tout. J'essayerai et visiterai Paris avant que Noël et m'assure que je peux immobile parler un peu du Français.

Cette semaine j'emploierai mon dictionnaire pour essayer et signaler quelques phrases dans le Hongrois et peut-être un peu d'italien trop si je bois du vin rouge. Avoir une bonne semaine chacun !

Sunday secrets

Every Sunday morning when I wake up the first thing that I do is make a cup of tea. Once the bleariness is removed from my eyes I turn on the computer and while away some time checking on my favourite blogs. The one that I enjoy the most is Post Secret. This initially started as a community art project when Frank Warren sent a few thousand postcards into the world asking people to create a postcard sized piece of art showing a secret and then sending it anonymously.

Frank now collects the postcards that are sent from all over the world with different types of secrets and a new set are posted every Sunday. One of the things that I love best is the fact that when the new Sunday secrets are posted, the old ones are sent into cyber space never to be seen again. The idea that you can send your secret and free yourself , show the world and then the secret is gone forever is one that I thing encompases the way that the project is run.

I have bought the books for various friends and am always keen to tell people what an amazing website it is, but more than that, I love to discuss the secrets with the people that I show it to. I often see secrets that make me cry, or I see other peoples secrets, sometimes I see my own.

Move along

The rain is falling in big fat drops, and the drains in northallerton looked like little fountains shooting water into the air. On my way home I went to the pub and having walked 40 metres to the door I already had streaks of water down my face and hair that was dripping down my back. Now that the weekend is here, I can observe the weather, as I like to do, as oppose to observing how the weather affects the staff and students at the school.

I am safe inside, but still soaking wet. A busy weekend beckons, time with S and later, with N too. Most of the weekend will be spent inside, which is madness, as it is nearly the end of June. Again, at times like these I let my mind wander and start to daydream about where I will be. As Dolly Parton once said ' If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain'.