A Tokaj getaway...

This weekend Ildi and I decided to something a little different, so we booked an InterCity train to head off to Tokaj. For those of you who do not what where or what Tokaj is, it is a small village/town to the North East of Budapest (close to the Slovakia and Ukraine borders), and also happens to be the center of probably the best wine region in Hungary.

As always the trip was logistically and financially well-planned thanks to the talents of Ildi. (And of course the trip went overbudget at the end of it because of the overspending talents of noneother than myself... hehe).

We were picked up from the train station by the hotel as part of the service, as Tokaj doesn't have taxis, and got taken to our hotel, which also serves as a Wellness Centre. The weekend was awesome, with huge meals; an interesting trek to find a winetasting place open on a winter Saturday night (which we found eventually); relaxing times in the pool; jacuzzi and sauna, aromatherapy and muscle relaxing massages; another trek to get to the top of a hill to see the panorama of the area only to end up slipping in mud in the graveyard and not making it to the top; and of course more wine :).

Had an uncanny experience as well during our Sunday lunch, as we were talking about our AIESEC International team, and then we get a phonecall from Amit and Petroula (our former teammates) in Switzerland.

And then it was time to come home, and do what we do every weekend. Watch an episode of Smallville. Go Clark Kent!

Welcome to the new Rildi blog!

Where shall we start?

Let us introduce ourselves: Rildi – Ryan and Ildi – a New Zealander guy and a Hungarian girl who met in the Netherlands, at an AIESEC conference (IPM 2006), lived and worked together in the AIESEC International team in the Netherlands, fell in love, got engaged in March 2007, and currently live happily in Budapest, Hungary.

How did we start out in our new home, in Budapest?

House:

On the 1^st August I moved to Budapest, moved everything into the new Rildi residence (our new, own flat at Keleti – in the city centre, next to one of the major train stations of the city), furnished it, while Ryan went to New Zealand to visit family, to sort out paperwork and to collect all his stuff to be able to move his entire life to Hungary. And he joined me on the 15^th August in Budapest, and our new life began.

Our first home in Budapest - slideshow!

Jobs:

At that stage I was still looking for a job, and luckily I found it very quickly – a Financial Analyst position at Morgan Stanley Hungary, where I get to use a combination of my knowledge learnt at the university in ‘Financial Investments and Risk Management’, of my AIESEC Vice President Finance positions and of my AI Non-Corporate Relations Manager role, as my new job is about account reconciliation for financial investments, and reporting to our global clients.

Relationships with old friends:

When I got back to Budapest, I called up almost all my friends and went out with almost all of them, to refresh what happened with each of us over the course of 1-2 years. Sometimes I met my friends alone, without Ryan (especially when meeting a bunch of girls together), and sometimes it was cool to have Ryan there, too, and him getting to know my friends and vice versa. Sometimes it was difficult, to be honest, because he – of course - doesn’t have that type of background with my friends that I have, but it’s definitely a great experience to rediscover Budapest, my relationships, everything, in a different way: this time together with Ryan.

Studying:

We both study nowadays. Ryan’s just finished his two courses for his postgraduate diploma and the level 1A of his Hungarian studies, and I’m completing my university studies that I couldn’t do due to being abroad for the last 2 years. Hopefully I’ll finally get my Masters degree in February 2008.

Holidays:

After an extremely tiring year, we thought we deserved a really good rest!

We had the opportunity to go on holidays in Istanbul, Turkey, have the best host of the world – Pinar, and attend the famous AI handover session at IC (International Congress in Turkey), which we both dreamt of throughout our AIESEC careers. Couldn’t wish for any better!!!!!

Our cultural shock in Hungary / reintegration shock in my case:

Hmmm…it’s difficult to share it….because most of the frustrations are coming from such a deep level that you can’t really explain – sometimes you, yourself don’t even know what’s going on… But after 3 months I think I can summarize it, and I can say that we both got over it. At least that’s what I feel right now.

In Ryan’s case there are several little things, e.g. his irritation about the Hungarian bureaucracy, the language difficulties, the lack of people that he could connect to…

But the number one source of the shock was definitely the language issue. The fact that people here don’t speak (or don’t want to speak) English. This meant that – especially in the beginning - Ryan was completely dependent on me when trying to buy something, find out any information or just getting from A to B. But now, since he’s learnt to speak a bit of Hungarian, and his progress is really really really impressive, he’s getting around better and better every day!

In my case, the main source of frustration was the closeness of my family. The fact that they want updates, they want to meet us, they want attention every day, and sometimes they consider me as a child, again, which is difficult to accept after having had a completely independent life abroad in the past 2 years. On the other hand, I also got over it, because I’ve found a way of keeping a good balance with my family, and if we consider all the support that Ryan and myself get from them, we can only be grateful for everything they’ve done.

But I remember, my cultural shock in South Africa only came after 4 months, which might also mean that my reintegration shock might have other aspects, too, in the near future.