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Admittedly, being placed in a city where two languages are commonly spoken has had it's frustrating moments. I know I've talked about it before, but it's one of those things that comes up daily - the question of which language to address someone in, the panic of not understanding a word of what a stranger on the street is obviously addressing to me, the fear of disappointing colleagues for focusing on one language over another, and the sorrow of being surrounded by good friends who are deep in a conversation that I can not partake in nor remotely understand due to my Hungarian inadequacies. As time goes by, however, I'm discovering that the divide running through my city reaches much deeper than just language. It involves culture, history, religion, food, everything. Of course, growing up so close to each other, there are definite similarities between the ethnic Hungarians and the Romanians, but in so many ways the two groups lead separate lives filled with different truths and who is to know which truths are more accurate. While eating dinner with a Hungarian family, I am told stories about how this land was originally theirs, how Romanians were brought into the region during communism to dilute the Hungarian potency and their collective power. How the teachers they hired were forced to teach lies disguised as history, further decreasing the Hungarian legacy. The next day I have Romanian tutoring and am told about how the Hungarians who ended up here were merely passing through, hundreds of years ago, and a few groups decided to stay, claiming stake to a land they had no right to and no connection with, prying it from hardworking Romanian hands. I'm sure I could look up what is considered the real history in some book out there, but I've always been under the impression that the best way to learn history is to hear it from the people whose ancestors actually lived through it. Even if I read it in a book, it would be the author's version of history and no matter how unbiased a person tries to be when looking at a situation, there is no way to erase themselves completely from their research. Who knows how many different histories exist for this region, let alone Europe, let alone the world. When you really think about it, it's difficult to believe anything, and easier to believe everything. It all happened, according to someone, and when you're an outsider talking to that someone, just listen to them and agree. Take in all the different histories possible and maybe one day you'll be able to put some pieces together and make something of it.