Submitted by Victoria Kaminski on the 2014 winter session program in Budapest, Hungary sponsored by the School of Education…
This final week has been heartbreaking and bittersweet. There have been times when flying home to Delaware sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world, but this final week has made me realize that Budapest is my third home (UD placing second). This past month, I have grown so comfortable with the way of life here that returning to the States seems like such an odd phenomenon. Upon arriving home, I will certainly be appreciative of free water at restaurants and my parents’ home cooked meals, but there are so many little things about Hungary that I will miss – like chimney cake, a hollow cylinder of hot dough coated in sugar and cinnamon, which I enjoyed at the Budapest Zoo this weekend.
In addition to missing all the amazing Hungarian foods, I will greatly miss all the people I have met on this program. My last day at the Britannica School was painfully upsetting as I said good-bye to 23 of the best first graders and the amazing staff. A few tears and a hundred hugs later, I can safely say that I will never forget these wonderful students or the many things they have taught me.
Not only will I miss my first graders, but also the high school students we met in Heves and Eger, Hungary on this final weekend. During the trip to Eger, we visited a high school where two Hungarian students (3rd and 4th from the left in the picture below) led us to several classes throughout the day.
We spent the day talking about similarities and differences between ourselves and our countries and we became very close despite the short period of time we spent together. At the end of the day, we all exchanged e-mail addresses, promised to send post-cards, and began a wonderful friendship with our Hungarian pen pals! (Several of them want to study abroad in America so hopefully we will be able to meet them again!)
This past month has been a truly amazing, humbling and astounding experience. I have grown accustomed to and have become completely comfortable with a culture and language that seemed so foreign and distant not even 5 weeks ago. I know that when I return home, I will be opening doors the wrong way, automatically converting prices to the Hungarian Forint, and saying köszönöm instead of thank you and bocsánat instead of I’m sorry. It is going to be difficult to forget these little things I have become so used to. Though the program will be ending in a few days, I will always come back to my memories of this once in a lifetime experience.
Köszönöm szépen, szívesen. Viszlát! (Thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart. Good-bye!)