It occurred to me yesterday that I was leaving something very important out of my story. I forgot to tell everyone how in the world I met this wonderful Hungarian family.
Here we have Zsolt, Laci, Zoli and one American kid, my Joshua
Several years ago (I already had my
International Real Estate Certification) my local Realtor Board decided to participate with a group of Hungarian real estate/developer people who wanted to visit Colorado and find out more about the opportunities here. Our groups job was to plan activites for their four day stay. We managed to keep everyone very busy with tours, parties, information (translated) and general get acquainted times.
Our visit meeting was very formal and stiff. Of course everyone was on their best behaviour! By the end of the tour, we had all become friends. In the middle of all this activity I was fortunate to establish a connection with Zsuzsa who was accompanying her husband, Laci. The interesting thing about our interaction is that she spoke very little English and I spoke no Hungarian.
Somehow we learned about one another's children and grandchildren. She and I arranged for her oldest son Zoli to come stay with the me following summer so that he could improve his English. He was then beginning law school. We worked this all out between us and during the intervening months enlisted the help of my buddy Pete who speaks fluent Hungarian since he is one!
As we raise our children and they go off to begin their adult lives a bit of a hole is left in our homes. What an opportunity for me this was! I had a young person to feed, entertain and get to know. Zoli proved to be an exceptional young man. My past clients served us well as one of them got him the chance to work with local law enforcement and another took him on a "ride around". He also went up in the mountains to observe a transaction with my son-in-law who is a real estate attorney.
One of Zoli's favorite things to do was drive my Jeep so I gladly left that chore to him. One of his first comments was "could we take a few days trip to California". Since he had never been in the States he had no idea of distance. Obviously he was interested in California so I sent him to stay with my grandson for a week who was doing an internship there. They got acquainted and had a great time. It came time for him to leave and I had to re-adjust again to an empty nest.
In the meantime, thankfully, there was another child still left, Akos. I got him the next year. He didn't stay quite as long but he also was a delight. He is in school in Switzerland for hotel and restaurant management. He loves to cook so there was a local restaurant right across from my office and he got to work in the kitchen (no salary but plenty of good food). He is a quieter young man than Zoli but warms up as he gets to know you. He was back in Colorado last year working in an internship at the Broadmoor. Here are Akos and his friend, Fanny.
There is one child left so perhaps I will get to host Zsolt in the coming years but he does have to grow up a little bit since he is just 15 now. As a consequence of all this interaction, we have kept in touch. The boys call me on Skype (sp?) and we e-mail. I got a call this past winter from Zoli explaining that his mom and Laci were sending me an airline ticket to come to Hungary and when would I like to make the trip? I was floored. The plan was a week in Hungary and a week sailing down the coast of Croatia. After I recovered from my shock, I said yes and the trip was set from August 1st to August 17th. Hence the travelogue that I am currently doing. Who says
real estate doesn't pay you back and in more ways than one!
Isn't he a cute one!
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Jacqui Jeffress
Denver and Points North REALTOR®
Infinity Real Estate Services
(303) 887-4210
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# posted by
Jacqui Jeffress @ 9:56 AM
