Living and learning

I am sure most of you will think we were kind of crazy to think this (and perhaps those of you we told were nice enough not to tell us), but Jordan and I thought that Devin would attend a Hungarian pre-school here a few days a week. Although it was entirely Hungarian, she would be in class with the neighbor's boy, who is bilingual, and one of the teachers spoke some English.

It was, as we've said before, a lovely, lovely place, with wonderful teachers. It was, actually, a historic place, the first of a tradition of pre-schools created here 150 years ago. (I should add here that pre-school like this is free for Hungarian citizens -- American politicians, take note). It was, however, not somewhere Dev felt comfortable. She is an immensely adaptable child, but the language barrier was too much for her.

So we set out to find an English-language pre-school. We're living in Pest, the more urban half of the city, and the school we found is in Buda, the hillier, leafier, quieter section. Around the corner from the British Ambassador's lovely residence is Superkids. We three went to visit. We told Dev we were going to see whether it would be a nice school for her, and if we liked it she would go there. She struggled a bit to communicate this (I paraphrase): "But only if all three of us like it, will I go there?"

So we arrive, we meet the director (A Hungarian woman fluent in English), other people float by and chat with us (Americans, Canadians, Hungarians), and the director says to Devin as we talk, "Would you like to go in and see what they are doing in class?" She peeked in and they were making Easter Egg baskets -- in two minutes she was in a chair at a table making a basket. Next thing it was out to the garden to play (they have a spacious yard with two playgrounds pitched at different age groups and some garden space in between). We went too. There were slides, swings, riding toys, a sandbox, a playhouse, a wooden horse to ride. She ran around and played, checking back in with us frequently. Dev and I made "chocolate" and "strawberry" cakes with some of the girls in the sandbox.

The children at the school currently come from 24 different nations. Many have parents whose work brings them to Hungary for a few months or a few years. Some are Hungarians whose parents want them to be fluent in English. Although many speak English, some don't -- a Japanese parent working in Hungary for two years, for example, may prefer their child learn English than Hungarian.

We were going to leave after outside play, but Dev said she wanted to stay for lunch. They had soup (soup is really really big here), chicken and potatoes. You really couldn't plan a better meal for Devin. She had a second helping of soup before digging in to her chicken and potatoes.
Then we all said goodbye, promising to return for the next day's Easter festivities.

This morning, Dev woke at 7:30 for the first time in the trip I think. She was bouncing around, picking out clothes for school, reminding us to bring extra shoes. We got to school and she beelined for the classroom, leaving us sitting on the couch in the foyer. At 11, we told her we were going out for a while and would come back to get her. She whimpered a bit, but didn't seem too upset. When Christina, one of her teachers, said, but Devin, we're going to play a game and see who wins the sweets, we were very quickly left behind buttoning our coats. (Her other two teachers are Kevin and Robert).

She had a great time, and told us she wants to go there all the time (Not to say she doesn't miss Mosholu Montefiore, which she talks about all the time. Today she pretended she was calling Kira and Miss Alice and Miss Maria on her 'cell phone'). So we are thrilled to have found a place she is happy, even if we have to cross the Danube and scale a small hill every morning to get her there.