Magyar News, 2003. szeptember-2004. augusztus (14. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-03-01 / 7. szám
A big step from Hosszúhetény This is an interview of Tímea Takács (known to her friends as Maya) by Robert Havery. Maya is a Hungarian exchange student, studying at Westover School, an independent boarding school for girls, grades 9 - 12, in Middlebury Connecticut, where Robert Havery is Director of Music and Head of the Arts Department. Maya came to the US after being selected by ASSIST, a foreign exchange program used in independent (i.e. not public) schools. RH: Where is your home Maya? Maya: My home is in Hungary, in the southern part of Hungary. I live near a city called Pécs, in a village called Hosszúhetény. RH: What is your school like? Is it a coed school? Maya: Yes, it is a coed school. It is not a boarding school. I live in a dorm but the dorm is in a different part of the city, away from the school. RH: How did you hear of this program that brought you here to Westover? Maya: I had an English teacher who is qualified to offer students the scholarship; she taught me English, the first year of English. I had two new teachers (in subsequent years) but at the beginning of my third year of English, she knew about this scholarship and she offered to sponsor me. I wrote an essay containing between 700 and 1000 words; that was the first part of the selection process. And then after two months I got a letter that I was chosen as one of 43 students who had to go to an interview held in Budapest. And so we had an interview in Budapest in groups of four students. And then after three months I got another letter that I am in the ten remaining students, and then I had to send pictures of my family and I had to fill in some forms. Then I got another e-mail that I am in the top five, and then after a month I was selected as one of the three students chosen to come to America.. RH: Wow, that's quite a selection process. Maya: Yes, it took a long time. RH: What is your home like; is it country or city? Maya: It's really beautiful, because this village is a the foot of a mountain called Zengő and it's really, really beautiful. In our village there are a lot of people living in a small area so our village is alive and colorful. It's still country, with many hills. RH: Are there farms? Maya: Small farms, like in the backyards. Farms are not characteristic of my area as they are in the plains. RH: What kind of work do your parents do? Maya: My father works in a porcelain factory. Have you ever heard of Zsolnay porcelain? RH: I've heard the name. Maya: It's kind of famous and he works there. And my mom, she's a librarian in a primary school that I went to in the village. RH: Is your father a craftsman who makes the porcelain? Maya: Yes. There are several processes in making the porcelain and he puts the porcelain into the ovens after it's been painted. RH: Do you know if that porcelain is sold in America? Maya: I'm not sure ... maybe. It's very famous in Europe and very expensive. RH: I'm curious, in your school in history classes, do they teach you at all about the Revolution of 1956? Maya: They do teach it but I haven't had it yet because it's in the Senior class. Of course, I have heard about it but I haven't learned about it in a class yet. RH: Have you heard from your parents if it affected your area of Hungary? Maya: My father used to talk about it, but for me and my sisters it wasn't really interesting so they stopped talking about it at dinners when the family came together. Sometime my dad would tell stories because he was bom in '56. He told us that his father was taken into a prison and he survived. And later, the police Tímea Takács at Westover came to take my father when my mother was pregnant with me in Pécs, but they didn't find my father. It was a scary time. My father told me that, when my mother was pregnant with me they were home alone and the police came and were knocking on the door and were shouting my father's name and the neighbors came and said "they're not home". The police asked "where are they?" and they said "we don’t know." So the neighbors helped us. It was very scary, but the police never came back again. The eozin-ceramic Zsolnay figure on a fountain at the main square of the city The Széchényi Square in Pécs. On the left stands the Holy Trinity Monument. On theright a church in a Turkish building Page 2
