Tomorrow is the 200 Forint Day

Starting tomorrow, the Hungarian government will begin issuing the new 200 forint coin, replacing the 200 forint bank note. Similar to the 100 forint coin, it will be minted in two metals with an outer and inner ring, made of 75% copper. The last date to be able to use the current 200 forint paper currency will be November 16, 2009. According to the central bank, the reasons are two-fold. The coins will have a longer life expectancy as the bills wear out faster and this is also to prepare people for the eventual adoption of the Euro. That will not be happening in the near future, but it is still interesting to think about the currency exchange identification between 100 or 200 forints and 1 or 2 Euros. Yikes, what a rate that would be sending inflation skyrocketing. The forint's name comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. Hungary's florentinus (later forint), was also a gold-based currency, which was used from 1325 under King Charles Robert

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Votes Are In - The Chain Bridge Wins

The National Bank has received some 200,000 votes for the Chain Bridge to appear on the tails side of the new Ft 200 coin. About half of the votes cast were for the bridge, which appeared on a shortlist of five symbols. The coin will replace the 200 Forint bill in 2009.

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If One Door Closes...

When my students apply for a scholarship and do not get it, I always tell them when one door closes another opens, so perhaps it is for the best. This is a lesson I need to remember for myself as I teach it to others. I was totally infuriated over the fact that an American Studies department at the largest university in Central Europe could even think of cutting the position of their native speakers. As the universe responds to needs, the ultimate head of the English department forwarded an e-mail he received asking me to respond to it. This gentleman from an institute in Washington state was looking for a university to make a cooperative connection with in Budapest. Up to now, he has been hitting brick walls with no one giving a positive response before he was even able to explain what he wanted. I was not sure what powers my head of department was instilling on me; why would I be the one to write him back? I was given the warning though that the university had absolutely no money for anything new. How well I knew this mantra having my job threatened every two years. I wrote the writer back and it turned out we have extensive pages long 'discussions' in the course of the afternoon. He is currently in London. He represents a program that confers an MFA degree for Creative Writing. That is their only position in academia. Currently, they are working on accreditation. The US Embassy in both Finland and Portugal have flown him to universities in those countries to give seminars and lectures, thus he is trying to set up cooperative agreements in each region. By chance, he and his wife came to Budapest for a vacation and not surprisingly, he fell in love with the city and wanted to establish some working relationship here. Our students have been crying for a creative writing option for years. This would be a match made in heaven if we could do something like this. Before making any further exploratory commitments, I forwarded a note to the ultimate department head as well as my department chair who has been resistant to any creative writing possibilities. The suggestion was that this could fit into the new journalism, media program. With the ultimate head on my side, I knew that the department head had to be swayed to concede to our side. It worked! I received the affirmation that this indeed could be a bonus for our program. We are in the thralls of excitement, but first the institute needs to get the final go from their Board of Directors to actually make this happen. If it does, then our university will be paid for room rental, another coup. No money put out, but money coming in. This point brings me to another reason why I was angered over the positions being cut. It was due to me and my contacts that our department received eight brand new computers and a grant of two million forints ($12,600) for infrastructure from an American company based here in Budapest. Without my endeavors, this would never have happened. That amount is more than I earn in a year, so I have paid for my salary and still earned the department money.

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From Pestiside.hu

March 13, 2008

US Dollar Achieves New Level of Sucktitude With Forint

The Almighty Dollar? Not so mighty these days. Hell, not even remotely so, with just about every currency taunting it like the freckled redhead who can't throw a ball properly. Checking out the dollar to forint exchange rate yesterday, we were shocked to discover that $1 = Ft 167. The last time the exchange rate was this low a Democratic US president was in office with with a Democratic congress, only half of the former Yugoslavia had seceded, and Ace of Base were topping worldwide charts. But in a different form of comparison, a beer in a Budapest pub will run you $3 and a pack of smokes nearly $3.50 these days. Back then when the exchange rate was the same, a beer in a pub cost you a buck at most, and smokers could hotbox a basement bar on the cheap, as they were practically giving away the damn things for free.

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Yesterday and Today

I received e-mails yesterday from students who did not intend to return to Budapest yesterday for fear of the news on TV. We stayed in all day to avoid problems. Today, half of my classes were missing in action or lack thereof. On a different, but interesting note, I just read today that the Hungarian government is doing away with the 1 and 2 forint coins as of March 2008. Anyone harboring a bag of those coins can bring them to the National bank for redemption, but to save time you should count them yourself. There is a going to be a long line at the one counting machine. This will have a minor impact on exchange rates too.

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