With Tamas’ Extended Family

Tamas: I was born in Budapest, Hungary. My father is a biologist, mother is a teacher of literature and history and I have a younger sister, who is a psychologist. I remember my childhood as a very happy one. We had a small house with a garden where I played a lot with my sister and our friends. My dad was one of those popular fathers whom every child knew and liked; he joined our football games, and played with us a lot. We spent the summer holidays in grandma's lakeside house with uncles, aunts and numerous cousins - and we still get together there every year. Nowadays, we live far from each other: my parents live in Hungary and my sister in Norway with her husband and two kids, but every year we get together for Christmas and a few weeks in the summer in Hungary. Bence can hardly wait to see his cousins time and again. Also, my parents visit us in Switzerland as much as they can.

With Judit’s Extended Family

Judit: I was born in Hungary in a small town, Szolnok. My mother is a librarian in a children's library. I spent much time there when I was a child and I even did summer jobs as a teenager at the library. My father works as a consultant in the National Institute for Culture. I have a younger brother who works as a sales manager and has yet to make up his mind to marry his long-term girlfriend. My childhood was very happy, I played a lot with kids in the neighborhood and after school I danced in a folk dance group and sang in the school choir. My grandparents lived in the same town so my brother and I spent a lot of time at their house. I had a particularly close relationship with my maternal grandmother. Later, as a young housewife, I mostly learned to cook and bake from her. My father and brother are passionate for fishing and now even our son, Bence, is getting interested in joining them. My parents have a small lakeside weekend-house in Hungary and when we go there all the men from the family gather on the jetty to fish. My parents come to visit us in Geneva for several weeks every year.

Our Home

We live in Geneva, Switzerland, which is an international and multicultural medium-sized city with a colorful mixture of different people from around the world. Many people, like Judit, ride a bike to work; this takes her just 15 minutes. We live in a district not far from the center, on the third floor, in a big and very comfortable 3 bedroom apartment with a big kitchen, a dining room and a huge living room. Our balcony has plenty of flowers and herbs from early spring until late fall. Geneva is famous for its parks and playgrounds. Just behind our house there is a lovely, quiet park with a small museum and a playground in the shadows of chestnut trees, completely isolated from traffic; parents chat while the kids are playing. This is a nice small community: we celebrate birthday parties and organize egg hunting at Easter. Every facility of interest is within walking distance: supermarket and pharmacy are a 3 minute walk, a children's library is 10 minutes away. We have plenty of theaters, cinemas, concerts and puppet theaters to choose from in this wonderful city.

Tamas and Bence are Playing Ping-Pong at the Geneva Lakeside after Work

Geneva is beautifully situated with its scenic lake and the magnificent mountains, the Alps and the Jura, nearby. During the summer we swim in the lake after work, on weekends we drive to the mountains to climb or ski. Often, we just ride our bikes down to the lake to have fun and admire the view of the Europe's highest peak, the Mont Blanc behind the city skyline.