3rd adventure: Lina

Name: Lina Yunli Liu
Age: 20
Languages: German, English and Chinese
Weirdest Hungarian word: Közgazdász
What would you take from Hungary: Relaxed life-rhythm
What would you change about Hungary/Budapest: I wish to see more happy faces in the tram, I mean you live in the most beatiful city of Europe!
Favourite place in Hungary/Budapest: Bridges over the Danube, Gellert Hill
Favourite Hungarian dishes: Ehhh... Something with no onions
Pálinka, Hot or Not? No Palinka!

Budapest storyboard

Today we have a guestpost from Budapest storyboard. Follow them on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/budapeststoryboard?fref=ts

Weronika from Warsaw


Weronika Ukleja is an Erasmus student from Warsaw, Poland. She’s been studying at Corvinus University for a few months now. We were interested in what her impressions, feelings about Budapest are so we sat down with her with a nice cup of coffee.

- Why did you choose Hungary?

- It’s pretty easy. I’ve already been to Budapest, I visited the city previous summer for a short, 5-day vacation. There was an opportunity to buy Warsaw-Budapest flight tickets at a very low price, so I immediately called my best friend, said „we can buy cheap tickets, just give me yes or no and we’re going”. We were staying somewhere next to the Great Synagogue at Dohány utca. Even if the weather was a bit too hot for sightseeing, for me it was love for the first sight. It kind of reminds me of Warsaw so it feels like home but it still has a different atmosphere in a way. We were living at the city centre, which was perfect for two tourists to get to know the city. We were first scared that we would have to pay a lot for transport but finally we were walking all the time – everything that is interesting from a touristic point of view was within walking distance. So when I got the opportunity to choose which city I want to go to in the Erasmus program it was obvious. That trip was amazing and as a student it was also important for me that Budapest was financially affordable. As I mentioned the flight tickets are cheap, too, so my friends can fly back and forth, visit me anytime.

- Has any of them visited you already? Did they like the city, too?

- Yes, two of my friends have been here already and two are yet to come. They loved Budapest, too. One of them even stayed for a whole week so I had the chance to show her plenty of interesting places. It’s funny but she called the city „a little Paris”, mainly because of the pieces of architecture. The city centre of Warsaw was totally destroyed during World War II, but Budapest still has some of her beautiful, old buildings in a pretty nice shape. Andrássy Street was for example like a „little Champs-Élysées” for her, or part of a church reminded her of Notre Dame.

- Do you already have a favourite place in our capital city?

- I’m living next to the Parliament now, so it’s always the first I show my friends who arrive here. In fact, it is wonderful, but right now it’s under construction so you can hardly see anything. But there’s an incredible monument, art composition of shoes made next to the Parliament that I adore. Whenever I see a monument dedicated to The Holocaust it’s always kind of obvious what it says, the message is out in the open. And here you can only see these shoes made of steel and can imagine the rest which makes it special. The artist was really clever. Anyway, we can say that I have a lot of favourite places by now. Not only sights, but restaurants, pubs, cafes as well. I love that you can get a beer for a few hundred Forints at some places!

- Is there any negative things you would emphasize, bad experiences you’ve had in Budapest at all?

- Well, there is a friend of mine who came to Budapest and loved the city, but his apartment was robbed – and the scary thing is that it happened while he was sleeping. He’s not so excited about Hungary anymore which is really sad for me. But fortunately nothing bad has happened to me yet. The only thing I would share with Hungarians that the language seems to be kind of a nightmare for me, so I really respect all of you guys for being able to pronounce all of these „strange” sounds and for speaking Hungarian.

2nd adventure: Megan

NAME: Megan Talboom
AGE: 21
MAJOR: Health and Society (at Wageningen University)
LANGUAGES: Dutch, English
TIME SPENT IN HUNGARY: 2 months
WEIRDEST HUNGARIAN WORD: You have so many :D But the weirdest Hungarian word is the name of the tram stop 4-6: Harminckettesek tere, it's such a long name and way too hard to pronounce! ;) I always have to laugh when the name is called in the tram.
WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE FROM HUNGARY?
The country gave me a totally new view on Hungary, I didn't know it was so 'Western' and that you have so many wineries as well. Some products like beer are really cheap and everything is well arranged. I will take the peace and freedom with me, and the nice people. People in Hungary are more relaxed in everything they do, than people in the Netherlands and I guess they are more 'honest' and 'true' when they speak to you.
WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT BUDAPEST?
There is really a lot of traffic, what is quite normal for a capital city of course, but I don't like the smell of the cars and busses. So maybe more 'traffic free' places in the city and more big city parks to enjoy the nice weather and of course the beautiful city!
FAVOURITE PLACES IN BUDAPEST: Citadella, Bazilika and the Castle District because of the beautiful view.
FAVORITE HUNGARIAN DISH: Goulash
PÁLINKA: HOT OR NOT? Definitely not hot, it’s too strong!

1st adventure: Aneyas

NAME: Aneyas Moghe (India)
AGE: 27
MAJOR: Communication and Media Studies
LANGUAGES: English, Hindi and Marathi
TIME SPENT IN HUNGARY: 7 years
WEIRDEST HUNGARIAN WORD: élelmiszer
WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE HOME FROM HUNGARY? All the pork, bacon and all the Somloi Galuska !
WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT BUDAPEST? Smile people, smile! And a complete overhaul in the hospitality/customer care sector.
FAVOURITE PLACE IN BUDAPEST? Hármashatár-hegy, right beside the communication towers.
FAVOURITE HUNGARIAN DISH? Marha Porkolt and brassói aprópecsenye
PÁLINKA: HOT OR NOT? Nagyon Hot es Finom !

Welcome to DiverCity!

We are a new society at the Corvinus University of Budapest, formed in September 2013. We started our intercultural adventures with the name ‘Intercultural Working Group’ but as we wanted express our multicultural profile we are now called DiverCity. 

The idea originates from a German blog reporting the experiences of Erasmus students:
http://absolutely-intercultural.blogspot.de/
We would like to say thank you for their support.

Our project consists of three parts. First of all, as our predecessors, we will share videos interviewing Erasmus students and students of different nationalities and different cultural backgrounds, who started their bachelor studies of ‘communication and media’ in English this year at Corvinus. Secondly, we organize a mentor/tutor program for students mentioned above to make sure they fit in and help them in any way we can. The third part of our project is a research conducted on the experience of Hungarian professors of Corvinus teaching in English. Additionally, we will also organize events with an intercultural theme such as film screenings and lectures. These events are open for everyone as our aim is to create opportunities to meet new people and get to know other cultures.

We hope you will enjoy the adventures of Divercitizens! :)

For further information visit our Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/divercitybce