New Zealand 2007

Done! The flight and the school are both paid for.

For the ticket, I first walked into the Singapore Airlines office in Budapest, next to the Komjádi swimming pool. It was a small office, and with today's head I'm not sure I'd buy a 320,000-forint plane ticket there. That amount is somehow burned into my memory. I think it was tied to the dollar exchange rate, and I remember worrying that if I waited and the rate changed, the price would go up. But I bought it: departure on 2 February 2007! The die is cast. I'm going!

Naturally, I arranged the school through an agency here in Budapest, because with zero English (okay, "I am, you are" level) it would have been quite a challenge. The most important question was accommodation. With a host family? Good God, no! More expensive, and how would I even talk to them? The other option was an apartment provided by the school, and it was cheaper too. Of course that's the one I chose. Because money is money.

But I still didn't tell anyone. A countdown timer appeared on my old website, but I didn't tell my friends what it was, just that something was coming. I can't even imagine what they must have thought. At 29 I didn't care at all, but looking back now, I'd actually be curious.

I can't really pin it to a specific day. It's one of those parts that has faded to grey, or maybe the brain gremlins simply deleted it. If I had to say something, it was probably early 2006. Something must have happened in my life that pushed me towards the decision: I have to go.

Why New Zealand of all places? Basically, I wanted to learn English. I was fed up with the endless "I am, you are" lessons from a Hungarian teacher back home. I knew myself well enough: I don't like rules, especially learning them. I need to learn on the spot, by actually using the language.

Then came the question of the country. England? For some reason I thought there were so many immigrants there, Hungarians, Poles, that I'd never properly learn the language. Malta and the USA didn't appeal to me as places. Australia? Three of the world's ten most dangerous animals live there. That left New Zealand.

With the destination settled, it was time to start saving. I worked out the cost of the flight and living expenses, and saw that on a student visa I could stay for three months at most. I chewed it over, then started putting money aside: I lived on bologna sandwiches and turned down holiday invitations. All of this while I'd decided I wouldn't tell anyone. Maybe just before leaving.

At that point I didn't know exactly when I'd go. But by around September I had enough money to pay for the school and the flight, and I could see that with a few more months of saving I'd also scrape together enough to live on for three months over there. My maternal grandfather's inheritance, which I sold within the family, went into this trip too.