November 2011 - Round 3

Winner - Julian Ingram

As a professional opera singer in the USA, Spain and Argentina, Julian Ingram has found an approachability for being on stage. After nearly a decade of opera, he completely changed careers and found himself living and working in Hungary. To hear him tell it, you'd think it happened by Divine intervention. A few stories and a few years later, he's still here and is now an active leader in Budapest's growing Argentine tango community as a teacher, dancer, singer, music historian and DJ. Tango is one of his life's longest passions; he has taken the reins as Artistic Director of Orquesta Tipica Budapest (Hungary's very own authentic tango orchestra) and has begun travelling around Europe with it.  

November 2011 Competitors

Judy Nix arrived in Budapest in early June 2011 and has fallen in love with the city - hook, line, and sinker. A native of Cork, Ireland, she has lived in Dublin for more than 30 years. She enjoys travelling (naturally), reading, walking and knitting and has been known to do all at the same time.

Hailing from a small town in the large, but grossly under populated state of South Dakota, David McCall escaped first to the Nation’s Capital, then to Vienna before pitching his tent in Budapest, which he has called home for over twenty years now. Before landing here, he took at trip to Cork, where he actually kissed the Blarney Stone! Presently he runs a small group of waste management companies, determined to right the wrongs of Mankind. His trials and tributes in this ever-changing country have caused a lot of tears to flow, fortunately most of them due to laughter.

Emese Jankó is Hungarian and has lived Budapest for more than 15 years but still loses her way at Deak tér in the underground.  Originally from the country,  Emese decided to move to the city when the only cinema in  town closed down - she wanted other possibilities for a night out than a hamburger place and a choice of 125 local pubs.  She finished her teacher training college Eger and had the misfortune to practise her profession for years and years ... well more like exactly 16 months. When she pulled her nerves together,  and could talk to a kid without wanting to behead it with a blunt knife, she got a job at an advertising agency as a receptionist. She worked herself up to the position of Account Director. And she says that if this title doesn't mean anything to you, you must be a happy person with nothing to do with marketing or advertising! Emese lives with two cats and is trying very hard not to get another one but to get a boyfriend without allergy to cat hair instead.

_In 2009, a crack commando was sent to prison by a military court for a crime he didn't commit. This man promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Budapest underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire... Steve Collison. Catch him in a rare public appearance at the Gift of the Gab Nomber 2011!