Life After Break (or, Pushing the Karma Envelope)

I admit, I thought the first week back after break would be hellish; in reality, this week has been a pleasant surprise. Nothing like diving back in: back to normal classes at Kassai, private lessons, and the new adventure of teaching at Oxford (a private language school, which as far as I can tell has only a tenuous connection at best to the well-known Oxford). I think Oxford might be the best thing that’s happened to me in Szolnok; here’s the deal: they’re paying me 5000 Ft ($25) for a ninety-minute lesson. I’m teaching two lessons a week, which amounts to the fortune of an extra $200 a month (in comparison, I make about $520 a month at Kassai, teaching 19 lessons a week). And what do they expect of me in return? To do some photocopying, follow the lesson plans that Juli makes for me (which are amazing), and teach classes of adults (my “big” class has 9 students). And, just in case you’re not turning green yet, the teachers / directors Juli, Anita, and Tamás are three of the kindest, funniest, smartest people I have met here. How did I get so lucky? God alone knows. I’m going to stop bragging now before I bring 515 years of bad Hungarian karma down on my head.