There are three traditions high school students in Hungary have pre-graduation.
1) Serenade - During this one, we visit our teachers homes and sing songs for them in front of their houses until they have enough and kindly ask us to stop, or else the neighbors will call the police. Or something like that...
Our wonderful class decided to serenade four teachers, with varying levels of success.
CASE A: Our Biology teacher. Some of my highly intelligent classmates decided to go drinking right before the serenade and as a result, by the time we got to her house, they were howling like hungry hounds at the moon, and our poor teacher hated it so much that she stopped us mid-song. This was the very same teacher who kindly asked us not to go there drunk, because her previous class threw up all over her dog and she had to pull out sleeping individuals from her doghouse at 5 a.m.. Yes, and despite that, the majority of my class decided to largely ignore her request and pee all over the streets prior to arriving, then pee all over her bathroom whilst taking selfies in the bathtub, and leave only after being kicked out by our poor Biology teacher. Because y'now, this is totally not disrespectful. I don't even know why I'm even putting this on the Internet. Our teacher even decorated the entire garden with candles (which was SO beautiful) and baked for us, and in the end...ugh. Needless to say, I didn't stay for too long. Two of my friends and I were the earliest ones to leave, and it was a shame, because I really like my biology teacher...
CASE B: Our History teacher. This was our second and final day of serenades and we had school the next day, so it was more tame. We walked up to her house, sang three songs, were invited in, had a sandwich and a cookie, played with her dog, and left. It started getting a little chilly outside, though, and we had two more places to go, and then it started raining and I was wearing nothing but a leather jacket, so the night started going a little downhill...
CASE C: Our Math teacher/tutor. Our tutor lives 10 minutes from me, so I asked my mom to bring me a sweater. And another sweater. And my ski jacket, as it was getting colder every minute. And I'm so glad she did, because when we got to her house at around 8, my ears were starting to freeze off. I put on a sweater AND my ski jacket, and gave my other sweater to my friend, who was already wearing two sweaters and a jacket. We serenaded our tutor and had cake and sausages, which was all great and everything, but we were sitting in her garden and did I already mention how cold it was??? Our tutor kept bringing us blankets and pillows as we huddled together in little groups around candles, trying to warm our hands. This is when the idea of carrying around a space blanket in my bag occurred to me. We were still sitting in the garden at around 10 p.m., about to fall asleep, when we decided to leave for the next serenade. The joys of life!
That's me on the far left. Yes, I really was wearing my ski jacket.
CASE D: Our German teacher. After getting off the bus and walking a the length of a Marathon, we arrived at her house and started singing. At 11 p.m.. The neighbors must have loved us. I already felt really bad about arriving so late, but when we went inside (because yes, she actually allowed us to go in), oh my goodness...it was like a fricking wedding reception! So. Much. Food. I repeat, FOOD! I mean, she had sculptures carved out of fruits, and five different types of cookies, and meatballs and I bet she even gave my class a five tier wedding cake after I left, because I left pretty early once again. And she gave each of us little German storybooks! I just wish we had gone there first...
2) "Thank You" Reception - This was just a little reception we held for our teachers to say thank you for everything. We gave them all food and gifts (mostly gift cards, because we're not very creative), sang a song and that was it.
Singin' in our classroom...
My wonderful class & tutor & assistant tutor.
3) Crazy graduation (this is the best translation I could come up with) - During crazy graduation, graduating students dress up and walk into classes yelling and laughing, and sometimes even destroy school property. I suggested we dress up in beach clothing, and throw around beach balls, mainly because summer never seemed to arrive in this country, but also because it's simple and fun. But no, our class decided to dress as bookworms. Like, actually. I don't know how anyone can actually dress up as a bookworm, but their idea was to basically dress as stereotypical nerds. We were told to wear knee socks and polka dot shirts and high waist skirts, which is, well, pretty much what I wear all the time, so I did feel a little offended that my everyday attire would be used for something called "crazy graduation". But who am I to complain?
Our plan was apparently to go into class and give everyone candy, while one of my classmates starts reading something out loud from one of their textbooks (but in German class all my classmate said was "Mein Kampf"), or parodies the teacher's teaching style, until he is interrupted by another one of my classmates, who hands him a Sexology textbook and asks him to teach from that. From there, it went as follows:
"You know kids, there are the bees, and there are the flowers. Bees pollinate flowers. Sometimes, a bee pollinates multiple flowers. This is called prostitution. Prostitution is wrong. Sometimes, flowers grow on street corners..."
...and you can all guess how offensive it got from there on. Oh dear. The worst part is, he was reading this to 14-year-olds, and we were the only ones laughing...But hey, at least we didn't opt for blackface, or dressing as runaway lunatics, like the other senior classes.
Minus the stupid, fake plastic glasses, the mismatched shoes and the pigtails, I literally wore that outfit the previous week. (I'm the one with the heart print shirt, if you couldn't tell).
Yeah, so that's it basically. The beautiful pre-graduation traditions of Hungary, completely desecrated by today's society. I hope you aren't too shaken by this post. If you are, I'm sorry. I wrote it because I wanted to remember all these things.
Photo credit: Luca, the photographer of our class.
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