Fulbright 75th Anniversary Event

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright commission and the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian Fulbright program. To celebrate this anniversary, the commission put on a full day conference on Friday for Fulbright alumni and delegates from several countries. There was also a program at the Parliament for the current Fulbrighters and a reception Thursday evening for current and alumni Fulbrighters, government and embassy delegates, and Fulbright groups from other countries. Here are several pictures of the Fulbright group from the two-day event.

On Thursday, they took the current Fulbrighters to parliament to meet with several delegates and the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the Hungarian Parliament. They spoke about the current state of international relations, particularly between the United States and Hungary and how current legislation may affect international affairs. After the session, we had a tour of the Parliament building.

The main hallway of the Parliament is a beautiful double staircase with red carpeting. This leads up to the room that holds the Holy Crown of Hungary, which is a huge sixteen-sided central hall right under the central dome of the building. The Crown was the coronation crown used since Saint Stephen, the first king of Hungary, and it is said that a king is not the true king until the Crown was placed upon his head. At the end of WWII, the Crown was taken to Austria and given to the US Army to keep it from the Soviets. The Crown was kept in Fort Knox until it was returned to Hungary in 1978, and it has been on display in the central hall since 2000. There are special guards for the Crown who stand at attention and switch every hour. We saw them do the processional in and out of the room and it was a complete ceremony and very serious and elaborate. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in this room, but it was definitely an experience.

The building is as beautiful inside as it is outside. Two chambers attach to each side of the central hall—one for the Lower House and one for the Upper House. The Upper House (originally for the nobility) is the blue room, which now leads to the conference and meeting rooms, while the Lower House (originally for the politicians) is red and leads to the National Assembly room.

We walked past the prime minister’s office, although we were told he is rarely actually working from here. As discussed in my previous posts, the elections are in the spring, and this year it will be a very contentious race. Who knows who will be sitting in this office a year from now?!?

The tours usually go to the other side of the parliament building, but since there was an event over there we got the unique opportunity to visit the National Assembly room. The room is circular, and each seat has a button that the delegates use to vote. The big seat in the front is where the speaker of the house sits. It is a pretty impressive room! There is a tv screen that projects what is going on in the big room to the red room shown above so that if people step out for a bit they can come back in for the important stuff.  

After the tour we made our way over to the Buda side of the river for a reception. I was originally surprised because I wasn’t expecting so many people, but there were people from the Fulbright Association, former Fulbrighters, guests from the host institutions, and Fulbright delegates and former Fulbrighters from other countries. It was a full room, and the wine was definitely flowing!

After the reception some of the current Fulbrighter scholars and students went out to get a nightcap, and as the old lady in the bunch I was pleasantly surprised to get an invitation. We had a nice time, but had to get up early the next morning for a full day of events.

On Friday we had a full day of speakers. First the founding president, current president, and executive director of the Hungarian Fulbright Association said a few words, then the Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy and the Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology gave the keynote address. Next, a panel of former foreign ministers, ambassadors, secretary of state, president of the Fulbright board discussed how to strengthen the transatlantic alliance based on shared values. After lunch, there was a panel discussing the establishment of the Fulbright Association and the alumni network across Hungary, Germany, and Austria. Finally, there were two breakout sessions on American and European scientific cooperation and former Fulbrighter’s testimonies about how they have used the Fulbright experience to further their careers and research.

Many of these sessions were interesting, some were dull, but the thing that stood out was the lack of diversity, both racial and gender, across the panelists, presenters, and the attendees. However, this was a good display of how the Fulbright program is so influential in so many people’s lives and the importance of continuing these connections.

When I got home from the conference, I saw the kids drawing on a big roll of paper that JonPaul had found in one of the closets. They had a blast making their pictures, and we will hang their creations up in their room.

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