Don’t let the name fool you, the ominous lady is a well respected member of the hungarian ruin pub* society! She is talented, smart, pretty, and blessed with a great sense of humour! She was studying hard in one of Hungary’s most prominent universities to earn pocketmoney for the rest of her life! (Well hopefully not, if her plans succeed, and she can flew the country as her other hungarian immigrant friends-or win the lottery) Monkey lady studied landscape architecture for 5 hard years, and then got a job in the second most famous architect office in Budapest (and in Hungary). As we met a few weeks ago, and were walking towards the drinking fountain on Elisabeth square (just opposite Deák square, with the beautyful Danubius fountain in the middle of it) she just pointed out a few things, which she and her colleagues designed. Impressive! We met, because I din’t see her for quite a while- You know, I spent my erasmus year in Sweden, Västerås- and wanted to catch up. Also she needed some useful friendly shoulder-tapping, because she got fired. She wanted also my help, and useful information, because her plan was, to pack her stuff, and go to London, just like so many of her young and talented hungarian fellows (I also worked there for a while in 2007). As she was telling me her story, turned out, that her teacher from the university, will move to England with her whole family, because they cannot afford a living here(both of the parents university teachers, with high degrees, and 2 kids). She elaborated, that they fired her, because the company didn’t have enough work. She worked for them for 3 years, and won many tenders and competitions. No doubt she is blessed with talent! She didn’t get severance pay (I mean 3 years, that’s so short isn’t it..) but instead after thorough asking and begging, they got their last month off. So she and her other workmates got fired in July, and still got paid for August, but didn’t have to work it off. How lucky!
So her plan B was getting filthy rich by sewing sock monkies by hand. This is a good idea, but Uncle Government doesn’t think so. But this is another story, I will tell you later about hungarian enterprise options, I dont wanna fill you up with too much information at once! You probably need time to digest all this!
The story ended in a fortunate (?) way, because last time we talked, she already got a new job (very fast, within 1 week time), where she gets paid 100.000 Forint, but she isn’t working legally for the new company…(AKA the tax office doesn’t know that she is working, therefore she won’t get a pension, and has no health insurance, but don’t be too greedy! I don’t think you wanna go to an SZTK doctor in Hungary anyway! You have to wait a few hours to hear that you are not even sick (!), unless your eyeballs are hanging out of their place or something;-)). This is very common in Hungary, that your employer does not report you to the tax-office, and if they do, they report you for less salary, so they don’t have to pay that much after you. Her rent cost her 50.000, the travel card is 10.000 and she has to pay back 10.000 Forint per month for her student loan***. At the end she has 25-30.000 Forint left to live (1 trip to the shop, cost you at least a few thousands Forints, if you are stingy, and don’t buy such luxurious things as meat, cream cheese, etc.) She is wondering, why her friends keep asking her, what is the reason why she wants to leave her home country..
*Ruin pub = a speciality of Budapest, creative young lads (mostly university students)arranging great free(!) concerts and events in between houses (no, really, this pubs,or clubs are set up in huge old style few storie houses, in the middle of the city, they tear down the middle part, put chairs and set up a bar in it, etc etc.) They are really fun places, and host exhibitions, quite affordable brew, and zsírosdeszka fröccsel. Check them out here: http://ruinpubs.com/index.php
**Zsírosdeszka fröccsel: zsírosdeszka is-please don’t be disgusted dear vegan friends of mine-bread with fat spread on it, accessorized with onion rings. Yes in the old times our great grandmothers were eating pure animal fat instead of margarine. Fröccs is a wine spritzer, made by mixing cheap wine, and soda water (bubbly mineral water).
***for many young people, who does not get support from their family, the last chance to get education, is to pick a student loan, with horrible pay back conditions, just like 10 % interest rates.
The Danubius fountain MR. Sock monkey
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