I was in Budapest in June, met people at the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission and found an apartment (with a view of the Danube!). The Commission people introduced me to to my co-sponsor, the Hungarian Institute for International Affairs and to the Director of the National Institute for the Environment. Peter Marton, my Corvinus University host-- and the one who really helped me with the proposal--and I met and he introduced me to a very interesting grad student doing research on water in Central Asia. He also introduced me to the Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty.
I also took lessons in Hungarian, which I fear I have now forgotten even though I tried to review. A person who did manage to learn the language told me not to give up and, after all it was "Martian." Turns out Hungarian expats who helped the US during WWII and after were called "the Martians." At present I can say things like hello, I live in America, I live in Budapest, thank you, hello, beer, wine, and I know many of the names for fruits and vegetables. My grip on verbs is almost non-existent. No real personal pronouns and I have just barely begun to learn the many declensions of Hungarian. I cannot yet distinguish some of the vowels. But, I am determined to make progress. I'll get some review and new lessons at the Fulbright orientation and then I'll take an hour or two a week of lessons.
Juat as I remembered it from a short holiday, Budapest was lovely and lively.
