When we arrived in Hungary, it seemed like we had plenty of time. Four and a half months felt like eons — we believed it would enable us to explore Hungary and take some side trips, and still leave us time in Debrecen to experience and be part of the everyday life of the University and the city itself, not to mention long weekends with the cousins in Budapest. In the last few weeks, time has accelerated. The reunion in Fribourg, which we began planning before we left the US, is now a memory.
This coming Tuesday is my final class in Hungary; that is to say, I meet with my last class one final time to hand back their papers, give them their grades, and sign their registration books. We will rendez-vous with the kids in Prague, travel with them back to Debrecen and Budapest, and then in two weeks, we depart. It seems incredible to me. It is time to say good bye.
We already started the process. We have already had a few “lasts”–the last renewal of the monthly pass for the trams, the last time we had to pay for the cable or fill the phone. I have already had the final meeting with the students in Miskolc and with one of my classes at Unideb.
My thoughts are already turning to the logistics of getting home….I am making lists. I wonder about my garden and my little fishes; whether or not we will have to jump my car. I am already being cc’d on email communications at Providence College so that when I take over as department chair on July 1, I will be iin the loop regarding new policies and procedures. At one level, my mind is filing these details. But at another level, I am thinking of leave-taking.
Many of my first cousins are in their seventies. They are retired and there are no trips to the US being planned. So I realized that I must begin to say good bye to them, not au revoir. That is hard and I don’t really want to think about the implications.
On Saturday we took a tour of Auschwtitz and Birkenau–which are located about an hour and a half bus ride outside of Krakow, Poland. It was sobering and defied my ability to imagine. Bernard and I were discussing that despite the fact that we have been to the Holocaust Museums in Washington, DC and in Berlin, and now to two of the concentration camps, we still cannot understand how so many people could commit so much evil against their fellow humans. We spoke with our tour guide, a Polish woman in her mid-forties, who gave us a wealth of information and background as we walked through first Auschwitz, then Birkenau. Bernard asked her how she keeps from getting depressed or desensitized after repeatedly doing the tour. She responded that it was important work — she always reminds the people in her tours to go home and enjoy their lives…to thank God that they were alive.
So that’s what we are doing…not taking anything for granted and appreciating every last moment.
Thanks for tuning in and best regards,
Marcsi
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