WELCOME TO BUDAPEST

I have now begun the last leg of my study abroad experience in Europe. Leaving France behind I chose to go to Budapest, Hungary and study with some students from my school in the U.S. We are studying at the Zrinyi Miklos National Defense University in Budapest (pronounced "Budapesht"). It's a combined Military and civilian college located on the edge of the city; specifically the eastern side of the river. However before I give you too much of my opinion you should know some brief history about Hungary and its people.

Hungary's official name is the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Koztarsasag) becoming a member of the European Union on May 1, 2004. The population of Hungary is 10,097,945 as of 2005. There are some 5,000,000 Hungarians who live abroad in the world with the majority living in the United States. The rest live mostly in the lands that used to belong to Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon; which broke up the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after WWI. The government is a parliamentary democracy with a single-chamber parliament. Half of the legislature is elected by the people while the other half is elected by a list system. The head of state is the President; however, the head of government is the Prime Minister.

Hungary is considered to be a "linguistically island" by European standards. The language is completely foreign to all the other European languages which are Latin, Germanic, or Slavic based. However, it does share some similarities with the Finish language. Hungarian or "Magyar" is spoken by most of the 15million Hungarians living either in Hungary or abroad. There are still a few who speak it but are not Hungarian. The Magyar tribe is an Asian tribe. However no one is exactly sure where the Magyars came from other than east of the Ural Mountains. They are not to be confused with the Huns for they are not Huns. Over the thousand years or so since Hungary has existed, the Hungarians have stayed the main ethnic group of Hungary. Others include the Roma (gypsies), the Germans, and Slovaks. They are a very intelligent people and very much enjoy learning and feeding their brains with as much information as they can.

Having been in Budapest for two days has been quite enlightening since it's nothing like Paris. It still looks very much like an old Soviet Republic under communism, even 20 years after the fact. However, in a way, it is a refreshing change from Paris. Since the economy hasn't recovered yet from the communist regime, the people have low incomes and are just trying to make ends meet. While in Paris people, though they complain about it constantly, make much more money, buy more material things than they know what to do with, and have a much better living standard. They can afford to go on long vacations, live in nice apartments, and buy the latest fashion in clothes.

The Hungarians don't seem to have those luxuries, though there are large malls and people do material things. Unlike France and Western Europe where there is a middle class, Hungary has a wide gap between the rich and poor with almost no middle class. There is still corruption and annual salaries are therefore lower than they should be. Despite all this though the Hungarians are friendly and don't seem to be too upset and angry at foreigners for not speaking their language. In fact they are just happy that you try.

Last night four of us went exploring and found the Danube River and we explored some of the Pest side of the river on our own. It's very fascinating to see how different the architecture and city layout is from Paris. Though perhaps not as clean and high tech as Paris, Budapest is just as historical and important of a city of the world as Paris. I can't wait to see more of it in the month to come!