…when buying things, you no longer convert Hungarian forints to the currency of your home country in your head.…you get stopped on the street by Magyars from the countryside asking for directions, and you can actually help them – while speaking in Hungarian.…it no longer seems cheap to rent a downtown apartment.
…you can look at the Buda skyline and tell the difference between Széchenyi Hill, János Hill, and Hármashatár Hill.…your first job here was teaching English, and then you got an office job, and then you started your own business in Hungary, and now you miss the time when you simply taught English.…at the market hall, you can immediately distinguish between Debreceni, Csabai, and Gyulai sausages.…you can not only properly pair different Hungarian wines with foods, but you can even recommend the same type of wine from a different Hungarian region.…you automatically say “elnézést” when bumping into someone, “hoppá” when dropping something, and “foo-ey!” when you are disgusted – even when you’re away from Hungary.
…at the Sziget Festival, you find yourself complaining that there are too many foreigners there nowadays.…when visiting your home country for the holidays, you bring bottles of Unicum as presents for family members and friends, knowing fully well that they will usually only drink one shot of it and refuse the rest, and then you can drink it.…you have a favorite bar in the terminal of Budapest Airport.…after years of dodging public-transportation ticket inspectors, you can immediately identify undercover “kontroll” officers, but it doesn’t matter because nowadays you always buy a BKK pass.
…you get sweet-tooth cravings for Turo Rudi.…you spot mistakes in Budapest guidebooks.
…when buying a computer, you purposefully get one that has a Hungarian-language keyboard.…you only go to Szimpla when showing it to friends from outside of Hungary who are visiting Budapest.…you generally prefer the company of Hungarians over fellow Budapest expats.
