Magyar News, 2002. szeptember-2003. augusztus (13. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2002-12-01 / 4. szám
appears to have taken the place of "slang" in the Hungarian vocabulary. That really upsets me, because I happen to love my language and boy it is getting destroyed and blended with all sorts of foreign words, mostly from the English language.. .if at least they'd use them correctly ...- but that's an other story... School was tough for the boys, because although my reason for picking this school was, that I assumed if anyone, they would be able to help my English speaking little guys learn Hungarian, being the university's "practice ground". It didn't work out that way, but thanks to a few really great teachers and my little troopers' hard work, they were able to fully participate in learning and actually were doing great. I did not tell anyone that we are staying only for a year, because I didn't want them to treat us like a "temporary problem". I really wanted these guys to be treated like all the other kids were. And now I can tell you that they did fantastic! They worked hard, they played soccer and basketball and really grew a lot in that one year. I'm so proud of them, especially because they really did it for me. They learned the language, they made new friends, and they got stronger in many aspects. They each got a "perfect A" -jelesyear-end report card. And trust me it was all well deserved and earned by hard work and sweat... They had a chance to spend time with my parents, they went fishing with "Nagyapó", went spelunking, hiking, which normally we would all do together, but this time they could just take off and spend the weekend with the grandparents without me, have a sleepover with the Hungarian cousin and she could come for the weekend...and when Daddy came to visit we had him just for ourselves, he was on vacation... Unfortunately my grandma' "Dedike" had passed away while we were there, but at least we had the chance to spend some time with her before... In front of the Deri Museum after seeing the Munkácsy paintings There was real family bonding, what you don't get on summer vacations. "Nagymama" came to stay with us for days at a time and helped with the homework and made dozens of "palacsinta"...It was a lot more precious than my help, and my cooking... These were the reasons why I HAD TO DO IT... We were frequent visitors of the Nyíregyháza Zoo, Went to see "The Holy Right" of Saint Stephan, the first crowned king of Hungary, in Budapest, we've seen the famous "Flower Carnival" of Debrecen, we had a favorite Pro basketball team, we went to all of their games, we had the chance to see The Munkácsy Trilogy together in the Deri Museum in Debrecen, we've seen "Ludas Matyi" in the Csokonay Theater, hey we've even seen Jurassic Park 3 and Harry Potter in Hungarian!- Spiderman too!!! We visited a goose farm, potters and Below: Tom making friends with the giraffes at the Nyíregyháza zoo. Right: Waiting for the fight at the airport artisans, castles and fortresses and state of the art game centers. What is really unique about today's Hungary is that you can still find the ancient crafts practiced by wonderful masters, you can awe at some of the most gorgeous castles and architecture, yet if you are in the "City" you are definitely in the 21st century. People running around with the latest gadget mobile-cell-phones, driving the latest model cars, have state of the art kitchens, and appliances...-don't ask me from what... So I dare to differ with those, who think Hungary is ages behind our technology. The technology and the knowledge is all there it is only the financial aspect that keeps a lot of people from being able to live the life we live here. Even about that I must say many of my friends outdo us "big time". Since Hungary is in the heart of Europe we had the chance to visit a few countries while over there. The boys went to Slovakia to the ice cave of Dobsina, we all visited some of Bavaria's beautiful royal Castles, drove over to Venice for a weekend, and on our way back to the US we stopped in Genoa and drove to France to visit our friends in Grasse, at the South of France. So it was really a great adventure, got everyone interested in Europe - forgot to mention Thomas was an A+ in German at school... In the mean time I became an American citizen, and perfectly resigned to living my life here as a Hungarian- American. But I needed this one year in Hungary to be able to feel this way. I didn't want to become a US citizen until I felt that I was ready. I'm ready now. I'm thankful for my husband, because I know most men would never let their wife pull off something like this. But we knew we are strong enough to do this. And it worked... Photos by author
