Réka Szentirmay lives near Amsterdam, in Haarlem. She works as a photographer and part time desktop publisher to support her dream job. “In Hungary I guess I would never have a three-day-job that would support my photography.”
Reka comes from Hungary and she left to the Netherlands in 2008. She wasn’t happy with the life in Hungary and followed her love, back-then-boyfriend. “Everything we needed was in a tiny little car and it really looked like Eastern-Europeans moving, you know - the rubbish bags filled with clothes and stuff like that,” remembers Reka her moving to the Netherlands where she and her boyfriend spent the first night in Ikea parking lot, because the rent lease started the just the next day.
Reka admits she never felt guilty about leaving Hungary. “Of course the government payed a lot of things in my life like my education, but on the other side I also think they kind of owe us to give us better chances and better opportunities,” tells Reka and adds, “What’s most bothering for me in Hungary is how people approach problems and each other and the general ambience.”
Reka has three sisters and two of them live in Germany. “So it was not so new to my parents, that I was also leaving, but of course they were not very happy, especially my mother was upset about it, but they accepted it quite fast.”
She now sees definitely herself living in the Netherlands for the next five years. “And possibly much longer,” she adds.
In the video, Reka speaks about the beginning of living abroad.
