Every once in a while – just when I begin to feel really comfortable – life throws the same challenge at me – I go to live abroad, all by myself. I was barely 16 when I went to NY for a semester, then 18 when I got on a plane to Paris and now, when after 4 years life in Bulgaria became all-too-comfortable, I came to Budapest. I will be working here for 6 months.

Ah, the joy of living in a language you don’t understand… Hungarians are not famous for their knowledge of foreign languages, and add to that: Hungarian is almost in a group of its own. Bottom line: I understand absolutely nothing. Some times it is annoying (for example in the metro they say something – and you have no idea whether for example your stop is closed for the day…) but most of times some pretty humorous situations arise.

When I got here last Saturday, I had to go to the supermarket (conveniently located next-door) to get some food. One of the things I needed was salt. Now picture this: identical packages containing white powdery stuff: salt, flour, powdered sugar, baking soda, God knows what else. And me sitting in front of the shelf, looking totally helpless. I asked just about everyone I saw, no one spoke English. So I just started laughing out loud, in the middle of the supermarket. Again, not a soul felt sorry for me, but luckily, with supreme powers of deduction I managed to pinpoint the salt.

Oh yeah, I have no idea what Dirty-long is. It is a Google Translate made-up word for something in my bathroom – the website of the place I am staying at did not have an English version at the time, so I had to translate it online