how much do I love these kids?

It can't even be described... so today Joel out of the blue brought me some home-made cheesecake, which I have to say was pretty darn tasty. and during study hall, Han Jing said, "Ms. Hardy, do you want a back massage?" Well, ok! cheesescake and backrubs -- and it isn't even the end of the grading period! This is such a great job.

Tonight is my ELL class, and I realized I never talked about their help last week. Here's the backstory first: Just before we went to Salzburg, Heather and I were in our apartment, when the two Hungarian Neighbor Ladies came to the door. Jo napot kivanok, they said, with hands folded. I replied back with the same ultra-formal greeting....and then they barged in! With my extremely limited Hungarian, I understood only that something was very, very wrong with the red handle we had turned next to the radiators, and the following words: Not good! Closed! Not open! Ten Minutes Only! Then they turned the handle and left, still sputtering over our ignorance.

Heather and I were mystified as to what in the world had just happened, and no one was able to explain. No one else, apparently, even has red handles.

Well, thanks to ELL, the mystery is now solved! One of the Hungarians lives in the building next to me and explained that only the top floor has red handles next to the radiators. Yeah, when we turned the handle, we cut off the heat to all the apartments underneath! Oops! We asked them to please apologize to everyone for us :)

Speaking of Heather, check out her blog and see some more pictures. Her link is to the right!