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It’s been a month since I landed in Hungary, and there’s nothing quite like a worldwide Facebook and WhatsApp outage to make a girl sit down and write a blog post. I’m grateful for all the support I’ve received from around the globe over the last few weeks- it’s made this exciting (and culture-shock inducing) experience all the more enjoyable. Here are some highlights before I launch into the main subject of this post and my primary purpose for moving here: teaching!

Over the last month (and in no particular order), I have:

• Visited a winery and harvested grapes off the vine using pruning shears
• Experienced a mix of emotions about pálinka and unicum
• Learned how to order at restaurants in Hungarian
• Gained an affinity for carbonated lemonade
• Spent a day strolling and absorbing the beauty of Margaret Island
• Befriended a chameleon named Benjamin at a Zoo Cafe
• Rocked out at an electric LP concert in Budapest Park
• Taken a million pictures of the Eger Eye aglow with myriad vibrant colors
• Bonded with my coworkers in a private wine cellar over 10+ glasses of extremely good (finom!) wine
• Became a part of a solid community of international (and Hungarian) educators

As I mentioned in my last post, I live in Eger, a charming city a little less than two hours outside of Hungary’s capital, Budapest. It’s really a beautiful place to live, with gorgeous cobblestone streets, buildings with pastel facades brimming with history, and an actual castle. I am truly living out my Disney princess dreams here. To get to my office each morning, I walk past a stream lined with delicate flowers, and pass by the main square, Dobó István tér, bustling with people. Sometimes I stop and grab a csokis croissant (chocolate croissant) and latte and marvel at how the city feels like the epitome of tranquility and liveliness at the same time.

I teach at Eszterhazy Karoly Katolikus Egyetem (Eszterhazy Karoly Catholic University) as a member of the Department of Foreign Affairs. I teach two classes: Upper Intermediate English and Community Organizing. In my English course, we focus on higher level content creation: storytelling, sophisticated sentence structure, and irregular verb conjugation, all alongside developing critical thinking and researching skills. I also try to incorporate USA-based content, like geography, demographics/stereotypes, and American culture themes in my lesson plans. For example, today we talked about parts of speech that lend themselves to idioms and common expressions. When we discussed irony and sarcasm, I played Alanis Morrissette’s “Ironic” from Jagged Little Pill to talk about irony in action. Though my class of Gen-Zers swore they hadn’t heard the song, once Alanis was belting out “It’s like raiiiiiiiiiin on your wedding day,” in the chorus, the class let out a resounding, “Oh!” that uniroinically brightened my day.

Community Organizing is a bit more difficult to describe- I think it’s a required class for many on the BA track at the University, and we focus on foundational language in community-based careers. I treat it as a sociology 101-type course, discussing leadership models, communication styles, and different aspects of culture.

Students in Hungary are typically more reserved and more reluctant to speak freely in a discussion-style course. (My English course is the opposite, actually, but I think it’s a fluke- albeit a very welcome fluke with endless chatter.) Lecturing for an hour and a half straight isn’t really my style, but I also don’t like long, awkward pauses, so I’ve adapted to cold-calling in my Community Organizing class when necessary- which is effective. All of my students (and I do mean all, and I feel very lucky to say that honestly) have engaged with me at some point in the classroom, and have demonstrated to me how curious, thoughtful, and intelligent they are.

Language learning is stressful; I’ve found that across the board, it can be intimidating to speak with me, a native English speaker, especially as their teacher. I firmly believe and try to remind my students that a conversation with me and any of our classroom dialogues are spaces where mistakes are welcome, patience and kindness and guaranteed, and genuine effort will be rewarded. I’m not there to be intimidating; I’m there to help students learn English and figure out who they want to be once they get their degrees.

I teach 3 class sessions a week, hold office hours, and am figuring out my schedule and additional commitments. I also take a Hungarian language course taught by my colleague in the department- it is very fun being a student again! Duolingo has sort of helped me learn Hungarian, and I’m learning ten times more in the classroom, but there’s nothing quite as effective at solidifying vocabulary than having to recall it because you need to at the grocery store or on the train.

I’m very fortunate for this opportunity to work with creative, inquisitive, and overwhelmingly good-hearted students and colleagues at this University. Teaching over the past month has been an absolute blast- I love standing in front of a classroom, cracking jokes, answering mind-blowingly smart questions, and watching students’ writing improve over the weeks. Making mistakes as a Hungarian student has been humbling and helps me be a better teacher- I’m grateful for the space to make errors and to learn from them.

Teaching and mentoring has always been a passion of mine, so getting to spend a year doing that here in this gorgeous country has been rewarding and humbling. I cannot wait to grow as a teacher and use these integral communication and boundary-breaking skills as I go forward in my career.

Here are some pictures to show you all what I’ve been up to!

Szia from Magyarország!
The TLDR (too long, didn’t read): I’m so, so happy I’m here.

Last week, I was able to spend a week getting to familiarize myself with Hungary and my Fulbright cohort through orientation. First, I need to shout out the fantastic commission. Not all countries have their own Fulbright commission, but Hungary does. The commission acts as its own body that oversees the Fulbright program in their specific country, and while I admit I may be biased, I’m pretty sure that ours is the best ever.

I’ll admit, I was incredibly nervous for orientation. I’ve had Fulbright Imposter Syndrome since I first applied for the award (the first time) back in 2018- never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d actually get it and be here. To say I was excited to meet the cohort was an understatement- I was buzzing with anticipation to meet the brilliant minds from a range of fields that would be undertaking innovative academic endeavors from performing arts, scientific research, college lectures, and more. It took a lot to remind myself that I had rightfully earned my spot amongst them. But this crew… I feel so blessed to have a cohort full of bright, kindhearted, compassionate, and fun souls. I am so grateful to be one of them, and it has given me so much confidence in myself.

Through lectures about Hungary through historical, cultural, and musical lenses (I have the Treaty of Trianon burned into my brain), meals with far less paprika than I had been expecting, and walks along cobblestoned pathways, it gradually set in that this would be my life for the next year. Going to visit the Buda Castle and the preserved buildings in Visegrád made everything seem like a fairytale, like my life could be a page in a Disney animator’s sketchbook. The United States is full of history, but the hegemonic viewpoint eliminates the indigenous legacy that truly belongs to the land. I am a Jewish American from New York City. I recognize my roots in bagel stores and Seinfeld reruns on TV. Seeing a standing castle and a preserved medieval church was so moving for me; it simultaneously made me feel like an insignificant blip in the timeline, and a prominent part of history for having had the opportunity to be a part of it.

By the end of orientation week, I couldn’t believe it was time to say goodbye. In just a few short days, I felt so connected to my cohort. I’m having serious FOMO (fear of missing out) for all the great happenings over in Budapest (though I can totally pass on the pálinka- seriously, don’t save any for me. I am not strong enough) but am welcoming you all to Eger with open arms.

Speaking of which… I would like to publicly announce that I live in a town that could have come right out of the page of a Disney animator’s sketchbook. Eger is an incredibly charming town about two hours to the northeast of Budapest. While I haven’t been able to fully explore the town (even though it’s pretty small, I spent my first weekend here holed up in my flat with a cold), from what I’ve seen, it’s absolutely breathtaking. The buildings, from commercial to residential, are brightly colored, people are kind, and there are at least four different places for ice cream within a 10 minute walk from both my apartment and my office.

I’m looking forward to reporting more about the friends I make in my new home, all the food I get to try, the stunning landscape, and of course- how my classes are going! I will teach my first classes on Wednesday- I’m teaching an upper level English course and a community organizing course. I’m eager to get back into a classroom and an academic environment, and I just hope I do right by my students.

I’m sending my love to all my friends and family back in the US- I miss you dearly. x