A Letter from My Son
SDA Union NSW Scholarship Winner__________________________________
Dear AFS Australia and the SDA Union.
Another three months have passed, and the fact that I have been here in Hungary for half my exchange program scares me greatly. I have become highly accustomed to the Hungarian culture, so much that I have forgotten many things about what the Australian culture is like. Although at first I thought it was terrible, how could I forget about the Australian way of life, but I think subconsciously I’m forgetting what life was like at home, to fully appreciate the Hungarian culture (or any other culture). As time goes on, I don’t compare and contrast as much the differences in the cultures, and instead I live life like a Hungarian. I’m imagining how shocked I will be when I go back to Australia and fully notice the difference.
One example of the biggest cultural differences that I’ve noticed is the food. The food in Hungary, although very delicious, is very limited in diversity. The meals are almost always made from Hungarian recipes and food. At first this was great, eating and tasting different Hungarian foods every day, but after five and a half months, it has become less exciting and a little repetitive. Over more, the restaurants in Hungary are also limited in diversity as well. In my city, Pecs, there are only three Asian restaurants (which are all Chinese) and a few Greek and other European restaurants; so finding some Japanese sushi, a Thai curry dish or a Turkish kebab is impossible. After having a conversation about food in Hungary with my host father, he asked me what I ate in Sydney. The only reply I could think of was “food”, as I have forgotten what I eat back home. All I can remember is that because Australia is a multicultural country, I can choose from a variety of cultural foods. But here in Pecs, I don’t have this luxury.
Other than the culture difference, so much has changed in the last three months in relation to how I spend my free time in Hungary. In the first eight weeks in Hungary, when I couldn’t really speak Hungarian, my afternoons and weekends were spent mostly at home and with my host family. However in the last couple of months, the final exams in Hungary for High School and extra-curricular programs were on and with two brothers in school (and highly involved in extra-curricular programs), a host father who is a High School teacher and a mother who owns her own law firm, I had to take the initiative to find things to do by myself. I knew I couldn’t ask my school friends because I knew they also had final exams to study for, so I decided to travel to Transylvania, which was organised for the AFS exchange students. During this tour, I met quite a few of the other year program exchange students from the northern hemisphere, who came to Hungary in August. Since I have made friends who were in the same boat as me – that is a lot of free time on their hands. I also searched for the other exchange students living in the same city as me, and as a result I found two AFS students (from Costa Rica and China) and two Rotary students (from Alaska and Mexico). My four friends and I have spent so much time together that they have become life-long friends. However saying goodbye to them recently (because their exchange program started in August) was very difficult and sad, but I know that in the near future I will go and visit them.
These past three weeks have been a little more different. The first week and a half, Americans from Wisconsin came to Hungary to teach English to Hungarians. Because English is my mother language, they decided to appoint me as a teacher. This was a great experience for me, and on top of that, the Americans said I was a great help because I helped translate when the students didn’t understand something. And as an added bonus, I made some life-long American friends. After this English camp, I had to participate for the past ten days in an AFS camp with more American exchange students; this time they were AFS students here in Hungary for the summer/five-week exchange program. They were a very nice group, and saying goodbye to them was very difficult. I know that in the future I will still be able to remember them and I will be able to go visit them. These past three weeks have been really great, meeting new people, however because I have been with Americans almost the entire time, I have not been able to practice my Hungarian as much lately, thus I have forgotten many words in Hungarian, but I still have five or so months before the Hungarian language test. It shouldn’t be too long before it comes back to me.
On a reflective note, I have met so many people from all over the world while I have been on exchange in Hungary. When I applied to go on exchange, I had the presumption that I would meet only Hungarians, with the exception of the other exchange students in my AFS chapter and a few native English-speaking tourists. But so far I have met so many people from all over the world, and I will most likely meet new exchange students that are coming in August. It has been a wonderful experience meeting these people, but I know saying goodbye will always be the hardest part of long-distance friendships. Thank you once again AFS and SDA for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and supporting me throughout my exchange. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn’t gone on exchange.
Kind Regards,
