The many ways Budapest captivated me
By: Silviya Valeva
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Perspectives
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In the fall, I joined the Budapest Semester in Mathematics (BSM), a program designed especially for math undergraduates from the U.S. and Canada. The term had 69 students, most of whom had never been to Europe before. As we found ourselves in a foreign country with a different culture and language, it was easy and fast to build friendships. We were rarely bored—weekends were full of sightseeing, traveling and partying. What’s more, the city’s location enabled us to travel around Europe and see places like Prague, Vienna and Krakow.
We got a sense of both the historical heritage of the city and its lively social character. Budapest has everything a young person might need from efficient public transportation, big shopping malls and restaurants to cute coffee shops and night clubs. International students, many of whom attend the Central European University and the Budapest campus of McDaniel College, feel at home in the Budapest. Hungarians are used to having foreign students and tourists around, so one can get by with English almost everywhere. Knowing a few things in Hungarian, however, can really help as locals appreciate one’s effort to learn their language.
At first, we had to learn from experience whether a product on the shelf in the supermarket was yoghurt or sour cream. A few times when we were in a hurry, we inhaled hot coffee in the shop because we could not explain that we wanted it “to go.” As we took the regular language class, however, things fell more or less into place—we learned how to order food and drinks and what to buy in the store, even though the neighborhood kids still laughed at us as we made silly mistakes trying to speak Hungarian.
In school, classes were taught entirely in English. Most professors came from the Budapest Technical University and Renyi Institute for Mathematics with experience teaching in the U.S. Thus, the classroom experience wasn’t much different from what we knew. What made it exciting, though, was our group of math majors who held in-depth discussions and solved challenging assignments.
Budapest captured me with its low living expenses, historical heritage and vibrant social life. I will be sure to visit again.