GOTG 2015 - Round 2 - October 2015

Round 2 Winner - Jennifer Walker

Jennifer Walker is a British/Hungarian living in Budapest since August 2013 (although it's kind of a cheat cause she also grew up in Hungary). She's an ex-nuclear physicist who threw caution to the wind after finishing her doctorate in Madrid, Spain, and now works as a culture and travel journalist who works for the Budapest Times, and has published at CNN, Slate, Huffington Post. She has lived in the UK, Germany, Spain, Georgia and now returned to Budapest to return to her Hungarian roots. In her double life she writes fiction, dabbles in burlesque dancing, travels of offbeat places and chases surrealist art and art nouveau architecture.

Round 2 Speakers

Frank Carlin is a recent addition to the community in Budapest. After completing his BA at the university of Limerick in Journalism and new media where he spent his Erasmus in Budapest he returned to make a life in this beautiful city. Frank enjoys cooking, photography, music and having the craic.

Ildi Amon is an Australian/Hungarian broadcast and online journalist who has been living in Budapest since January. Now working at We Love Budapest, she used to get around a bit - Ildi has been to about 35 countries and has lived in the south of France and Jakarta, too. Now she lives and works in the Jewish Quarter and rarely ventures outside that little section between Andrassy and Dohany! Ildi was in a state public speaking competition once during high school...but that was about 10 years ago. She hasn't done anything like this since...

Balázs Tóth  is a Hungarian who has spent several years in English schools in Kuwait and Oxford. An Economics Bachelor from Oxford (Brookes) University, he is, in American terms, an Economist major, IT minor.  He  tried  several professional areas, such as pharmaceutical market analysis, reseller/partner relationship management, reseller program operations, market research, project management. before taking up the challenge of SAP jobs automation with an American multinational. Balázs is happily married and a proud father of Sandy (6 yrs) and Max (1 year). Keeping up the family tradition, he is a sportsman. A keen swimmer, he holds several Kuwaiti High School records and several championship titles. His new addition to his versatility is that he is a qualified swimming instructor and coach.

Tamás Kiss is a GOTG regular and a staunch supporter of the cause. For years he's been judging from the audience. In Round I he was called out by Gerard Lucey, and has risen to the challenge.  Tamás is qualified to teach English and Russian, and – after a short detour into the dark world of 'cloak and dagger' (he is prepared to talk in private to anyone interested about this part of his life, but then he will have to shoot them) – he went on to teach both languages at a secondary grammar school and at a Military Academy. From there he moved into the Hungarian Home Defence Forces to become a full-time civilian interpreter-translator, using  English as a working language. In 1995, he was sworn in as an active duty police officer. More translations and interpreting jobs both abroad and at home followed, including a one-year assignment with the FBI. Finally, he got fairly fed up with his job and went into early retirement in December 2006. He now amuses himself by  collecting and sharing puns,does some style pistol shooting, rides his bike, goes to English language pub quizzes and stand-up comedy nights in Budapest. What a life…