So where does this story go from here? Well like the crazy person I am, I sold my car, packed my bags, and went to Europe to try my luck. I really didn’t know what to expect. Hungary was a country I knew little about. I was excited but also nervous. Part of that reason came from my cousin who will be named as ‘G’.

Being Sri Lankan, I have a big family. I have cousins scattered all over the world, and many of them I’ve never even met. My mum is part of a family which had 11 siblings. And she had even more first cousins. When the civil war erupted in Sri Lanka in the 1980’s, all of my family found a way to flee the country. Many of them ended up in Australia, Canada, and the UK. So before I headed to Hungary, I made a pit-stop in old London town. And there I met for the first time, my cousin G. Now, my cousin, was someone who already went to this medical school in Hungary and spent 1 year there. So I thought, “Okay awesome. I can get some insight into this place before going and maybe some pointers on how I can get over this interview.” G kindly told me the interview would actually be okay and that it shouldn’t be a problem. That was a relief. Then with a smirk on his face he told me, “yeah but you gotta watch out for those Nazi’s though.”

My relief quickly turned into fear, although I tried not to show it. It would make sense in what he was saying. Hungary was a country that at the time, only recently separated from the Soviet Union. And I make no judgement in saying this, but the philosophies upon which the Soviet Union conducted itself appeared not to inspire the people in their jurisdiction. So I was worried.

Regardless, I made the trek there. I arrived at Budapest Airport with my father tagging along with me. My father loved me so much he wanted to make sure he was leaving me in a safe place, bless him. So off we went. The medical school was situated in a town approximately 220km east of Budapest. We hired a taxi service that would take us to the university hostels. As we were driving, I could see Hungarian writing on billboards, widespread grassland, and sunflowers. I knew I was in a different place, but it wasn’t anything confronting. It was peaceful and pleasant.

Then the motorway ended. The wide lanes of the freeway quickly turned to narrow dusty roads intersecting small villages. The driver chuckled and pointed to some ladies standing on the side of the road. They were sex workers who seemed to have come from an impoverished Gypsy-side village. To my understanding, Gypsies are a people that have traveled for centuries on the road, originating from what is today modern India and Pakistan. Across Europe, many of them live under lower socioeconomic circumstances, and some with no identity or birth records. From my observations, a good way for them to earn a living was through the sex-worker industry where a manager or ‘pimp’ would arrange locations for the girls to attract customers.

As we were driving through and seeing all of this, I became a bit overwhelmed. But I couldn’t turn back either. I’d come too far to give up now. “Maybe I would learn something out of this experience”, I thought to myself. After 4 hours of driving, we arrived at the university. I had fallen asleep during the ride so when I woke up, I found myself looking at a nice cottage-shaped building. We settled in the hostel apartment, and then decided to go for a walk in the town.

The university itself was massive, elegant, traditional, and beautiful. The roads were wide and clean, not like the ones I saw on our drive up. And the people appeared to be nice. They just didn’t speak English. As we walked around, I noticed that the place was also very quiet. I guess this was expected in a smaller town. All of this seemed okay to me, but that was because I had someone with me to share in this experience. The thought occurred to me that if I got offered a place to study here, I would actually have to live here by myself somewhere in the middle of Europe, with no knowledge of the local language.

The next day was the interview. I put on my best suit, went in, and was greeted by two members of the medical faculty. One was a lady from the Anatomy department, and the other from the Biochemistry department. They were quite nice to me, asked me a simple question on chemistry, and offered me a medical seat at the university. I couldn’t believe it. Just like that I was in. We spent most of the interview discussing the weather in Australia! This seems to fascinate Europeans a lot. I submitted the paperwork and the rest was complete. I was now a medical student. Little did I know what was to follow.

Before my dad and I left, we arranged for a rental apartment so I had a place to stay when I returned to the town. And then I headed back to London for a mini break before class began in September. Now I definitely knew there was no turning back. I had to face my fears.

The experience of studying six years of medical school in Hungary was an eye-opener. And every student that studied there has their own story to tell. In life, when we overcome one challenge, another seems to present itself. I had overcome my pursuit of getting into medical school, and I now had to back that up by successfully completing it. As I took on this task, I was presented with yet another challenge which I found myself juggling while I was studying there. It was at this point that something was about to take place back home in Australia. And this something was waiting to tear my family’s whole world apart.