Today, 11 months to the day that I landed in Hungary last August, I passed my Hungarian language exam and submitted my application for Hungarian citizenship! Yes!!!
My Great-Aunt's Wedding
I guess maybe some dead relatives were hanging around helping out, because this man behind the desk asked me literally nothing about myself. I just spent almost a year preparing to answer any and all interview questions about my family, my life, Hungary, and/or my life in Hungary and he only took my papers and sent me on my way. I heard that sometimes people get asked things like “how do you say “lawnmower” in Hungarian?” so I did really my best to be prepared for anything!
Maybe chatting casually in Hungarian with my agent and cousin made a good impression? The desk man did say that my application was very thorough and complete, and why can’t they all be like that? so I suppose he was happy I wasn’t making more work for him and wasn’t about to look for a problem. Thank you desk man, whatever your reason I sure am glad you were there to receive me!
Unreal, I’m still a bit stunned. A year of my life, a big year too, summed up in a 20-minute appointment at a government office and a short stack of paperwork.
My amazing language teacher Szarvas Zsolt truly did prepare me excellently for a much more difficult interview, as did my wonderful tutor/conversation partner Klaudia Gehér – if anyone needs Hungarian instruction I can highly recommend those two! Thank you to all my friends and family putting up with me struggling to participate in basic conversation, that’s how you learn best and I am so grateful. Remélem, többet tudunk gyakorolni!
Thank you to all my family who helped me find and put together the documents for this application and who have supported me in this process. I couldn’t have done this without your help.
Now, it will be a 6-12 month wait to hear if my application is accepted. I have a residency visa here in Hungary good until next June, so will continue living here for the time being.
August will be a time for some fun, rest, reflection on this year and preparation for next steps. I will be going into a 3-week dieta (a plant medicine meditation practice) in September with a lot of material. I hope to do some writing in preparation now that I have more brain space, and will share it with you all if it’s any good.
Köszönöm szépen mindenkinek a segítséget, a támogatást és a szeretetet. Varázslatos volt ez az év.
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How did this begin? Check out this post.