NH to Hungary
More on Luke Bonner, to accompany today’s feature story in print editions:
On the unknown of to a new culture in Hungary:
“I flew from Boston to Zurich, and as I was boarding the plane, I started to think, “This is it. I’m heading into a completely unknown situation on my own.’ Luckily, I sat next to another guy who was on his way to play in Spain. That was pretty nice, because I was immediately introduced to the level of camaraderie that exists between American players over here. Then on my flight from Zurich into Budapest, I happened to be sitting next to a girl from Maine who was going to Hungary to teach English. Strangely, these encounters made me more at ease with entering this new situation.
“I have to say that laying in bed that first night provided a feeling that I don’t think I will ever forget. I was just laying there in this new place in a different part of the world reflecting on how everything in my life had led up to that exact moment.”
On the language barrier:
“The language is nearly impossible to learn. I have such difficulty learning the most basic phrases — just as many of my Hungarian teammates cannot pronounce Massachusetts. Luckily, ‘Szia’ means hello and goodbye — pronounced ’see ya!’ — So that is pretty easy to remember. One funny thing here is that people say ‘hello’ as hello and goodbye. So you could have lunch with someone, then when they get up to leave, they will say ‘hello’ and be on their way.”
On other stuff:
“I have also been surprised that Hungarians know where New Hampshire is. I pump up New Hampshire so much when people ask me about it. I think I might end up increasing the amount of tourist dollars New Hampshire receives from Hungarians.
“I was really surprised one day after conditioning. We had just finished practice, and everyone immediately went to the locker room to drink beer, not exactly the most appealing beverage immediately following a workout.”
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
another bonner back side to kiss?
hard to learn a language, dah!
ya think?
come on jimmy, must be a slow news day!
Comment by THE POPE — October 23, 2009 @ 12:20 pm