American Corner

I've been spending a lot of my time in a really cool building downtown, in an office called the American Corner, run by the American embassy, Debrecen University, and Debrecen city council.  They have lots of programs, including a conversational English class, where Hungarians come to practice chatting with native speakers.  I went there to volunteer as a native speaker.  They let me in, despite being Canadian.  The first night, everyone in my group of about a dozen people turned to me for a topic. Not sure where this came from, but I proposed these questions: Why does disease exist?  Was it created by a loving creator, and if so, for what purpose?  What a great conversation we had!  Many concepts from the Baha'i Faith came in very handy, including the purpose of our material existence, and the life of our spirit.

Here I am with two of my new friends from the American Corner.  Tamas is in the middle.  He's a 5th or 6th year student of the medical program and we've become good friends.  Unfortunately for me, he's off to Budapest today for a 5 week practicum, much of which he says will be in a prison, since his thesis regards the criminal mind.  Dori is on the right.  She runs the office, which is also a library of English books and DVDs. She speaks english beautifully and is very helpful.  Gabor (not in the photo) is another fine lad who works there.

They let me use their computers to update my blog!