The Second Badger

Melanie arrived safe and sound Tuesday, the anticipated arrival of Wisco law student #2 to hit Budapest this summer. We didn’t have any classes together last year – and she knows a whole different law school crew than I know – but we got to know each other a little through the Wisconsin International Law Society and pre-Hungary excitement. I failed in an attempt to give her a Hungarian-language base before she arrived, but I’ll do a better job of being an on-the-ground tour guide.

Noemi and I met her for supper her first night here. I was so full afterward that I could hardly make it home, but it was a good intro to Hungary. By Friday, I was helping her and Kalli, a Brooklyn Law Schooler rightfully proud of her Greek heritage, look for an apartment.

They lucked into a beautiful place, recently renovated, no more than six blocks away. Kalli’s parents started talking to a man on a train and he knew a friend who had a friend with a solution to the problem. The Serbian man now works with an Irish invest who renovates flats in Budapest. (And I learned a trick that’s happening across the city. Building “associations” are selling the rights to renovate the 4th or 5th story attics that have gone unused since the building was built decades or a century ago. They use the proceeds to renovate the entire courtyard/outside entrance, etc.)

They’re both working at the European Roma Rights Centre this summer. I enjoyed, tragically, Melanie’s reaction when she talked to her first Central European about the Roma. At a cozy courtyard bar after the ladies signed a handwritten contract Friday night, the Serbian-born landlord treated Melanie to the traditional tirade of Roma stereotypes and disdain. Melanie was shocked, I think, to walk into the uphill battle of public opinion in these parts of the world. But of course I should be cynical, I used to teach at a segregated high school…

Since then, the ladies have hardly stopped shopping, pausing just long enough for a dusk-lit tour of Castle Hill and the Fisherman’s Bastion. They took loads of pictures, maybe someday they’ll land online. Occasionally they call in to evening gatherings as too tired to arrive, but we’ll see if a short stay in Eger next weekend can jumpstart their late-night performance!