When I was fifteen years old I came home from school to find my Mum really excited. She managed to blurt out that we were moving to Hungary while my dad cautiously said it wasn’t definite yet.
My dad worked for Ford and they were opening a new plant there. I was excited at this new challenge. I had only ever lived in Essex. I told my best friend but she didn’t seem as excited as me.
First day of school
The next day Dad went to work and it was left to Mum and I to visit the American School. It was assumed that it was just a visit but the school had other ideas. They weren’t happy that I wasn’t very good at Maths. They ended up telling me I wasn’t going to fit into their school. I was being rejected. The school I had spent all summer imagining myself at was rejecting me. I was devastated. So my first full day in Hungary and Mum and I had a big problem to solve. They suggested I try the Christian school. For some reason I did not like this idea. I imagined some kind of nunnery convent type school. I was determined I was going to hate this school. Mum arranged for us to go there.
The Christian school was in the heart of the Buda hills in the middle of a forest. It was not accessible by public transport. The taxi driver who took us there wasn’t quite sure where it was. As he drove deeper and deeper into the forest he looked at us as if to say ‘are you sure about this?’ We finally made it. The school was in a big house which was previously used by the Russians for their soldiers during the Communist occupation.
More about school:
As we walked down the steps American voices wafted out of the window. The school only had 100 students from age 5 to 18. Despite my determination to hate it as I walked around it I found myself loving the family feel to it. Of course I wasn’t going to admit this to my Mum just yet. Fortunately I was accepted and started the week after. It turned out to be the best choice of school as I had a great time there.
The seasons:
I loved the fact that there were set seasons in Hungary. In the winter we had huge amounts of snow from November till February or March. Quite often we were able to persuade our teachers to take us out on a snowy walk or go sledging down the hill opposite. Sometimes the school was shut and we went ice skating instead. In spring time there were these little bugs that wandered up our path to our house. They looked a bit like ladybirds but longer. We were told they were called cemetery bugs. The summers were very hot except for the last two weeks in August when it always rained.
I loved it- especially the fact that that it was a safe place. As a teenager I could easily go around the city and meet my friends. Everything was so cheap. You could go around and eat out and go to the cinema for next to nothing. The tram ticket cost 18p.
The hard thing about living there was the language. Hungarian is very hard with more letters in their alphabet than English and multiple exceptions to rules. To start with we had lessons with this crazy Hungarian lady who sang us songs and didn’t speak much English. I learnt the numbers and some phrases and keywords. I was very proud that I learnt how to say my address in Hungarian. I would say it in a taxi thinking how great I sounded and they would still try to charge me double as I was a foreigner.
Living in Hungary was a truly unforgettable experience.
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