Merry Christmas!!!

It's my last day teaching before Christmas, and I woke up to six inches of snow and still falling. One cultural difference I'll never get used to is the fact that, staring out my window at that blanket of snow, I still have to get dressed and get ready to walk through the blizzard to school. Okay, if it were truly a blizzard maybe they would close the schools, but nothing short of it. What perks does being a teacher have if not snow days?? At least they don't have school year-round. I still get summers off. As I was walking through the winter wonderland, I got to thinking of other cultural differences I'll never get used to. I believe it was my friends Julie and Dave who wanted to know all the weirdest and queerest differences, so I'll attempt to make a short list off the top of my head today.
1. Tomorrow, to celebrate Christmas, our school is going to church together. We'll go to the local yellow Catholic church, that every town has, but no one attends except on Christmas.
2. Nobody hugs, everybody kisses. I'm still not very comfortable with it, even on the cheek, and I miss hugs!!!
3. Outdoor shoes, indoor shoes
4. Closets for bathroom stalls, and "lookout tower" toilets. You don't want me to explain, but let's just say it doesn't smell pretty.
5. Pingvin Szucrázda, literally translated: Penguin Coffee and Sweets shop. I don't know what Penguins and coffee have to do with each other, but the coffee and sweets shops are my favorite things EVER!!! I go there every day.
6. Manual transmissions. Even the buses, which equals some wild rides when you have to stand.
7. Fellow teachers who waited 3 months to start talking to me in English, hiding the fact they knew English all this time, but I guess it takes three months for them to accept me as a real teacher.
8. The popularity of poppyseeds, paprika, and sour craut
9. When leaving a room, "Szia, Hello!" Hello? I'm leaving!
10. Chasing down the waiters to pay. You could sit there all night if you didn't ask for a check.
11. Namedays, like a birthday. Every day is a name, and when the calendar falls on your nameday, you celebrate and get presents. In other words, you have to have a name on the calendar, or you miss out. Everyone has the same names! Originality? Creativity? Forget it! Bruce Willis would have a hard time naming his children. He'd probably still call one of his kids Poppyseed if he lived here.
12. Traditional holiday celebrations: visiting the graveyard on Halloween instead of houses for candy, fish soup for Christmas, "little Jesus" brings the presents, not Santa Claus.
Those are just a few of the things that will always feel a little crazy. Another is the shuffling of the teachers instead of the kids, and the everso "optional bell." Guess I'll go to class now