I started as an intern at FinnAgora in August 2019 and now my time at the institute has come to an end. It’s a bizarre coincidence that this big change is happening in my personal life and at the same time Hungary has chosen a new leadership after 16 years with Viktor Orbán. I guess both the country and myself will now have a new start.
Looking back at my time in Hungary it can only be described with one word: Tumultuous. Starting from the pandemic and going with masks to Lidl and showing vaccination certificates to enter pubs. After the pandemic ended, Russia started the horrendous war of aggression in Ukraine. We witnessed the Ukrainian refugees on the streets of Budapest before they took the trains further into Europe. And after that: the inflation. Living in Budapest turned from a stable situation to a very unstable one in a short amount of time. And now ending in Magyar’s win, this time has been anything but calm and boring.
And the tumultuous time in Hungary was surely mirrored by an equally unboring time at the institute. I have had many directors during my time, many colleagues, many stories, many impacts due to the financial and political developments in Finland.
Anything but boring, would be my best description.
In this stormy weather, I remained a constant sailor on our boat, which I did not mind, I love the sea.
My greatest joy during this time has been to organise the Finnish Film Days, Finn Filmnapok. This was always a creative, interesting and challenging task. I can not thank Tamás Liszka enough for the collaboration and András Horváth for all the interesting conversations on films and good laughs.
I have met truly incredible people here in Hungary: kind, resilient and creative. They are passionate and have worked in a system that wanted nothing more than them to give up.
I want to thank all of you for your kindness and wish you strength for the future.
I do not know how to end such a text of farewells and thank yous except that I leave Hungary with a sense of continued confusion, a mix of feelings of pride, happiness, fear, admiration, anger and sadness. All these emotions combined reflect my time here but also my farewell, because Hungary as a country continues to be a complicated place.
Now I will do the most Finnish thing, which is to return to the forest. I have felt a call from the trees to come home, something about the silence is welcoming after a somewhat noisy half a decade.
Thank you all for these years. Köszönöm szépen és sziasztok!
Rebecka Vilhonen