When I first arrived in Budapest, one of the first things that I noticed was that Hungarian people are very different from Americans. Americans tend to be very loud, welcoming, and willing to start conversations. Hungarian people are quite the opposite. They tend to be very quiet, not as welcoming, and unwilling to pick up a random conversation on the street. This became a challenge at first, but I quickly overcame it.
One of the first things that I learned in my Hungarian history class was that Hungary went through many hardships during the period of communism after World War II. Communism created an interesting tension between Hungary and the outside world, which is still seen in some ways even today. Hungary was once a huge superpower of the world, sharing an empire in the 1800s to early 1900s with Austria; the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled a lot of central Europe. After losing in both WWI and WWII, Hungary was very displaced. I believe may be why Hungarian people are much more reserved than people in the United States.
Overall, I have been able to integrate into Hungarian culture fairly quickly. I have to thank my roommate Miklós for helping me get started with this process. He is half Ukrainian, half Hungarian and has lived in Budapest for three years.
