Hey there,
I’m Laura van de Wijdeven and in my third-year of the BSc-tourism program. I’m currently studying in Budapest, Hungary for one semester. After two years of studying in Breda, I got the opportunity to do a minor. The best thing about a minor is that one can allocate his/her time and credits as one wishes. You can either do a minor at Wageningen University, a different university in the Netherlands or choose a partner university abroad and do it there.
When I heard about the minor, it seemed both a challenge and an adventure to be abroad for half a year. I decided to do a minor abroad and started looking for subjects and places. One should keep in mind though, that creating your own minor abroad is not that easy. It takes quite some time and effort to get it all settled. But when it’s settled, it’s awesome, I can tell you!
I started to look around on Internet. There are a many partner universities of NHTV and Wageningen University. I first looked at the cities that interested me most. Studying in France, Spain or Italy did not work out for me as courses are delivered in their native language. At that time I did not master these languages well enough. For that reason, destinations in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Germany remained. It seemed really attractive to me to go to a capital city. I looked at what the universities in the capital cities had to offer and that is how I arrived at Corvinus University in Budapest.
Corvinus University is centrally located in Budapest. It has its expertise in business and economics. During the courses in the BSc Tourism program, the management and business subjects always triggered my curiosity. Therefore I wanted to do a minor in which I focussed and narrowed-down my perspective in this area. The subjects that I have chosen are Brand Management, Project Management, Human Resources Management, International Business, and Business Communication. The courses are interesting but also require quite some time, as I did not have much prior knowledge in this area.
When I arrived in Budapest, I was totally overwhelmed by the city. Its atmosphere, its centre, bridges and architecture are gorgeous. This city is alive every day of the week and every hour of the day. I sometimes go running next to the Danube and every time I’m surprised again about its beauty. The bridges and the historic building lighten up and are impressive to see. I start to notice now that I’m not a tourist, but just an inhabitant, which is a crazy idea.
In the beginning I had to get used to Hungarian culture though. Don’t expect people to speak English as good as in Western Europe. Only the people in university do which is sometimes hard in supermarkets and metros. From day one onwards I met a lot of people. Most of them are Erasmus exchange students who are here on their own and eager to meet new people. Within a couple of weeks I started to know people quite well. There are parties every day of the week and the student organisation organizes many parties and events for the Erasmus students. This is great, I have seen and done a lot in Budapest so far and it is a good opportunity to meet new people. They also organize trips to Krakow and Prague from here.
So far, everything worked out pretty well. I’m here for more than 1.5 month now and I had not expected to do so many nice things. Courses are not easy, but the lecturers are good and assistance is always available. Most people on exchange are very sociable and there are a lot of activities. I’m always busy and on my way… and I’m Loving It!
