Rewards Worth the Leap

My family and I have been living abroad in Budapest through a placement with CETP for the past two years. Overall our experiences have been positive and the support of CETP has been invaluable. Naturally there have been some difficulties and challenges along the way, the three most common we and many others have encountered are:

1) Low Salary: Bottom line - don’t come to Hungary if you are looking to make money. The salary native English teachers receive is above what the average Hungarian teacher makes and sufficient for day to day expenses and modest travel. However, it is not enough to fill your pockets before you leave! Do you have to budget carefully? Absolutely! Do you have to give up the creature comforts of home? Definitely some them, but for our family the rewards of humble living have far outweighed any monetary gain.

2) Frustration with Administration: CETP itself does its best with the resources it has but it is often pitted against a system that is both unorganized and unsympathetic. Hungarian administration is very inconsistent to say the least and can indeed be frustrating when you are used to a more ordered way of doing things. If you are open-minded and flexible you’ll do just fine, if not…well, be prepared to be discontent and unhappy.

3) Placement Fee: CETP is a well respected organization here in Hungary. Paying the fee for association alone is well worth it. Our family experienced very little difficulty in wading through the red tape of immigration, however colleagues and friends of ours not with CETP have had nothing but trouble with Hungarian bureaucracy.

The key thing to keep in mind (we cannot stress this enough) do not come to Hungary with the expectation that things will be anything like what you are used to. It is a FOREIGN country! Its people speak a different language, adhere to different cultural traditions/customs and have a completely different mindset based on their collective historical experiences. But isn’t that the beauty of living in another country, experiencing that which is unfamiliar and in doing so learning more about ourselves and the world? You may find yourself longing for the next new discovery or learn that travelling is not your ‘bag’. Whatever you take with you will be worth that first leap into the unknown, with CETP or otherwise.