Teachers Exchange Programme, Tancsics Mihaly Gimnazium, Ungarn
Mari Rantalainen, Iitin lukio, Finland

My name is Mari Rantalainen and I`m a P.E. and health science teacher in our gymnasium in Iitti. I was lucky to be a part of Comenius project and visit Hungary with two of our students Vilma Valolahti and Jemina Virtanen. We took off with the girls on the 14th of May and flew from Helsinki to Budapest.

At the airport in Budapest Hejni Talabert (teacher of Germany) picked us up and took us to Dabas, where the school was situated. The school was called Tancsics Mihaly Gimnazium. The students had made a welcome sign for us with things from Finland and Hungary. First we were taken into the principal´s office. Principal´s name was Gergely Pasteur and he welcomed us very sincerely. He showed us around the school building and the surrounding areas. The school building had just been renovated, so everything was nice and new. In Hungary there is a law that all the classrooms have to have windows facing the corridor. So the principal can walk around and check how the classes are doing.

We had lunch at the school and it was a little bit different than what we are used to in Finland. First there was a starter soup with macaroni, potatoes and carrots and after that the main soup with peas and pork. Interesting.

My host for the stay was Barbara Abai (teacher of Germany and Russian). She lived in Budapest and the girls stayed in Dabas with families. We participated in different classes during the week. I was in P.E. classes, English classes and German classes. P.E. classes were very similar to classes in Finland. Very good order, nice atmosphere and a lot of activities. Looked like the girls were having fun! During the brakes there was a whole lot of noise because all the students stayed indoors. There were a lot of activities for the students during the brakes: for example table tennis, fuuzball, music and so on.

We visited the Dabas Tower, were interviewed by the local radio station, went for horse carriage ride on the fields. We also visited local strawberry farm and flower garden. One of the highlights of the week was folk dancing evening. The principal Gergely is also a folk dancer and folk dancing teacher. Small children presented a dance routine for us and after that we all learned some Hungarian folk dancing. We also visited Gergely`s house, a typical Hungarian home. One of the days was reserved to visit Budapest. Gergely is a history teacher so we got a really good tour in the city. We travelled by subway and walking. The most impressive place was the Parliament. The building was so beautiful and it was situated by the Donau.

In my mind it was really interesting to find out how similar people we Finns and Hungarians are! It was really enjoyable five days. All the teachers had such a good sense of humor and we laughed so much during the stay. Another thing was that there are so many words in Finnish and Hungarian that mean exactly the same. The languages are really related even though they don`t sound similar when spoken. It really was a pleasure to visit Hungary!