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It’s been some time since May passed and since I’ve written anything here, but things have been crazy this past month. At the speed I am going, by the time I finish this post, June will be over already. Once again, I have a bunch of other unfinished posts waiting to be published, but I don’t want to leave May unreported. It’s amazing we are almost halfway through the year, isn’t it? May has been the busiest month in my year so far, mostly in terms of my job. I’ve spent most of it so sleep-deprived it was hard to…

My first trip after a long time of not going anywhere led to my favourite city in the world, London. It took me a long time to write this one, but better late than never. More than a month had passed, but I barely spent a whole week in one place since, and that along with being busy at work was tiring after such a long time of rarely going anywhere. I’ve spent four days in London from 19th of March to the 22nd, but it was more like three, because the last day was only travelling home. It was…

April was busy and slow at the same time, and I can’t believe we’re past one-third of the year already! I started April at home in Nagykálló preparing for the elections. The weather was terrible (it was snowing on the 3rd!) and I was having a cold anyway. Election day (April 3rd) also happened to be the only day this year, when I haven’t done any yoga and haven’t read a book, since I was on my feet from 3:45am to 2:00am the next morning, having other things to do. I’ve had four days off of work, from Thursday to…

As I mentioned in earlier posts (here and here), I was a counting officer on the April 3 parliamentary elections and referendum. It was hard to even start writing this post, I gave it a lot of thought in the past three weeks, because it’s almost impossible writing about this topic in a neutral tone, and that’s the only tone I should use here. I am not (never was, never intend to be) involved in party politics. I went to great lengths during this whole thing to emphasise that although I was delegated by “the opposition”, I am not affiliated…

I was saddened by the news of the death of the first woman who served as Secretary of State of the United States whom as a foreign diplomacy enthusiast, I considered one of my idols. Ever since I read her first book and became familiar with her work and her personality, I was always looking forward to learning her take on whatever happened in the world. The last time she shared her thoughts was about the war in Ukraine, published one day before it started, and about a month before she passed away. Though I have never met her in…

This March was busier than my past two years altogether and still feels like it went by in a blink. I did still go on making the 1 second videos every day, and amazingly enough, even though so many things happened, it was the hardest month to keep doing it so far. There were days when it was obvious what to include, but other times I could forget about it altogether. First of all, we went back to work from the office full time from March 1. The next week from March 7 all Covid restrictions were lifted in Hungary,…

In Hungary we get to vote on elections after the age of 18, and I’ve taken voting very seriously from the beginning. I can’t say I was very consistent with my party preference over the years, although I can definitely say that I was and still am consistent with the principles I follow. It’s the specificity of Hungarian party politics that certain parties changed colours. Of course I will not share how I voted, but here is a quick account of my memories of all the elections I’ve voted on. The first ever elections I’ve voted on was the 2002…

In Hungary the elections are carried out by Vote Counting Committees consisting of counting officers. On election day (parliamentary elections, municipal elections and referendums alike) in Hungary we vote in a very old-fashioned and not very sustainable way. The ballots are on paper with the alternatives (parties, representatives, questions) listed and you have to use a pen to mark your vote. This of course requires a good number of personnel not just to oversee the voting procedure, but to do all the paperwork it entails (registering the voters, counting the ballots, keeping a record of all the happenings of the…

I’ve been planning to write about my favourite destinations before I’ll be able to resume traveling, but that came sooner than I thought, so ahead of my next trip to London I’m sharing why I love this very cosmopolitan city so much. First of all, although this trip was planned and paid before the war broke out Russia invaded Ukraine, I am having second thoughts ever since the news broke. The other day I went to a book launch event of a famous Hungarian writer (highly recommend!) and he shared that he was having second thoughts about the event too:…

Many of my favourite international law/world affairs podcasts dealt with the war in Ukraine in the past two weeks, here’s what’s worth a listen. It feels kind of insensitive to indulge in brilliant professional conversations or clever writings when it’s on the account of millions of people suffering, but at the same time it’s more important than ever to find trusted sources and be well informed. When the situation is unfolding and things can change by the hour, news items have a pretty short expriation span, and I think the ones that stay useful even after the facts change are…