A Party for our Friend, Barrister Àgi!

So, our friends Loren and Àgi are a fantastic couple - a power couple - and this last weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating a great success in Àgi's life. She recently passed the Hungarian Bar exam in order to become a barrister. Now, I always thought the American bar exams were strenuous (and they are) but this series of tests that Àgi went through make the American Bar seem like an elementary school spelling bee. She had to fly back to Hungary for over a month at a time when she would study 12-16 hours a day.  Anyway, this Hungarian bar exam is a 3 part torture series with thousands and thousands of pages to be memorized for each exam....which is not a written one but an oral examination in front of a panel. Three separate times! Can you imagine?! In the U.S., for these huge post-grad-type exams, we study for 6 months (or more) and then you sit in front of a computer screen for 3-4 hours for the actual exam. The stress of that nearly makes you (me) vomit. I cannot even fathom the level of fear I would feel sitting in front of a panel of Hungarian lawyers who are there simply to punish you. The one silver lining (or perhaps even more terrifying piece) is that they tell you right there if you passed or failed. Needless to say, Àgi passed each of the three and is now a full Barrister.
I don't know if you all know about this term but I was fully ignorant. I thought this was a more "European" term for a lawyer - I was wrong. She became a lawyer years ago, has worked for several years and now qualified to become a full Barrister. Did I mention that she is 28?

 Àgi and a toast from Loren

(Some of the group anyway)



The best part about Àgi's surprise evening to congratulate her was that we got a babysitter! Other than when Vickie, Pete, and Trysh were visiting, this is the only time we have been away from Norah (in over 6 months). It was so lovely. Our other friends, Kirsten (from Oregon) and her husband, Goran, watched Norah (along with their 19 month old, Lilia). They had a great time watching the two girls for an extended play-date and we had an even better time with a couple drinks and a great night for Àgi.

"We went on a date! We went on a date!"