Fall 2014 Exchange Report Tsoi Ching Man Major in Operation Management and Management Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

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1 Fall 2014 Exchange Report Tsoi Ching Man Major in Operation Management and Management Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary This exchange study in Budapest was the magical moment of my life. Budapest is so beautiful and special. I have met so many nice people from all the different culture and background. And the study here really granted me to international insight and exposed to new knowledge and perspectives. And the expense here was more affordable and allowed me to have more travel experiences.

2 A. Monthly Activity Log September I arrived Budapest in the first day of September. My dearest exchange buddy picked me up in the airport and helped me to settle down in the dormitory. She is a really nice Hungarian girl. The airport is not very far away from the dormitory that you can get there by public transport in one hour. But it is a little bit hard to find especially when you are carrying big luggage and it rain heavily that day. Classes started at the second week of September so I can have some time to settle down and join some orientation activity organized by ESN. I also went to opening ceremony of the school in the campus in Buda side. It was very formal but I found it quite interesting because one session is people dancing Hungarian traditional dance in the stage. I made some Chinese and Russian friends there. At the middle of September, I went to Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Munich, Fussen). Oktoberfest in Munich was amazing and I am glad I didn t miss it! And there are many interesting people I have met in the trip. Unfortunately, I was sick in the trip so remember to bring enough medicine for travel. October I decided to spend more time in Hungary to explore the place and spend more time with friends. I didn t travel in this month instead I studied for the midterm exams and hang out with friends and classmates. Probably because my last trip to Germany was too tiring and my inexperience in travel planning, I found planning for trips quite exhausting. Luckily I had quite a lot of fun in Budapest. I went to caving in Budapest, which is quite special to Hong Kong traveler. The midterm exams were usually quite straightforward and easy so actually you can relax. I studied 7 courses that was quite a lot compare to others but it was not hard to handle if you spend some time on them. There was a national holiday in October in Hungary. You can visit parliament or museum for free although you have to wait in the line. It would nice chance to go out with your friends to experience this special day November I had some Hong Kong and Korean friends come to visit Budapest so I have some enjoyable days with them. It is really good to reunion with your close friends. And there are some group projects or presentation to work on. I also traveled to Prague in this month with a friend from Laos. It was not very big city so you may want to travel across

3 another beautiful town in Czech as well. It is nice to travel with your exchange friend. The weather started to get quite cold which is a bit too cold for travel. December The earlier part of the months is getting busy because final exams are coming and I also wanted to grasp the chance to enjoy Budapest more. I visited some famous restaurant and cafe in Budapest that are beautiful and with excellent service. I prepared for the exam for most of the time in the exam week so I can get really nice grade. And after the exam, I met my dear exchange friends lastly before my travel. It is sad that I don't have the time to meet all of them and I need to spend time to shop for thing I need in travelling. I travel with my Hong Kong friends to Amsterdam, Belgium and Paris. All these places were brilliant and breathtaking. But it was so cold!!! January I continued my Journey in Chamonix in France, and Switzerland. I flew back to Budapest and pack all my stuff to go home. I do took the chance to enjoy some of my favorite food in Budapest and met my dear friends before I left. B. General Exchange Information I. Visa Application As a HKSAR passport holder, we are eligible to stay at Hungary without a visa up to 90 days. However, we had to go to the embassy to apply for the residence permit within the first 15 days after your arrival. Applying a residence permit in Hungary is not difficult. The school will tell you what to prepare for the visa application by sending you with details. You must make sure you have got everything you need for the application. But be careful for what you need. For example, if you are using your rents financial statement to prove you have sufficient money to use, you need to prepare a letter with their signature. Otherwise, they don t except it. The new office of the Office of Immigration: Karoly korut 11 (between Deak Ferenc ter and Astoria). And the waiting

4 time is ridiculously long so get there earlier would be great. It also takes a few weeks to get your card ready. Below is the list for required documentaries: Two passport photos Corvinus Student ID card Passport and its copy School Attendance form Form for noneu/eea citizens ( it will be attached in the ) Accommodation reporting form (you will get it on the orientation day / in the International Office) Original proprietorship register and its copy( in case you are not living in the dorm) Lease contract Bank account statement (official certification from your bank about the sum on your account that covers all your expense during your stay in Budapest; it can be your own bank account or one of your parents ) and its copy Health insurance and its copy Charge of the process is HUF that must be paid off in fee stamps II. Accommodation 3 months before my arrival, I received if I would like to stay in school dormitory. There were 4 dormitories you are allowed to choose. I chose to live in Földes Ferenc (Ráday) Dormitory that is quite close to the school. Honestly, the living condition is quite bad but the price was the cheapest you could possibly get. I was assign to 4 person room and shared a bathroom with 6 more residents. There had basic furniture, fridge and lamp inside. There were pantry, gym, study room and laundry room for free in the building. The worst thing was the WiFi connection in my room so you have to use the cable to connect with the Internet. There were only 3 or 4 person rooms in this dormitory and you are not allow to choose the room size. There are so many exchange students from America staying in that dormitory and they are very nice! I would say if you have a limited budget or you want to save the trouble of looking for apartment, this is a good option for you. On the other hand, renting an apartment is not so expensive in Budapest. You may research on it before and enjoy a more comfortable living. III. Transportation Once you have received the student ID card, which is just a piece of paper, you can go to the metro station to apply for the student monthly ticket, which costs HUF3850. With this student monthly ticket, you can take all the public transportation unlimited, including ferry. It is quite economical to get one if you need to take transportation frequently. Or you may buy single tickets for one single journey and activate them in a

5 orange machine inside the public transport. Remember to bring the student ID with you when you take the public transport because sometimes the staff may require you to show them. The transportation system in Budapest is actually very convenient and easy to take so you don't have to worry about it. They have tram, metro and bus throughout the city. Taking taxi in Budapest is quite expensive but you should know the number to call one in case you need it. For international connections, Hungary has an extensive transportation network. Bus: Eurolines, Student Agency Bus, Orangeways Train: MAV ( Plane: you can check the cheapest flight at Budget Airlines: WizzAir, Easyjet, Ryanair It is better for you to have your book earlier in order to get a cheap fare. And the budget airline can be surprising cheap sometimes but be awake of the location of the airport there. It can be really far away from the city center. IV. Orientation Activities Corvinus has very developed Erasmus Student Network (ESN), which is a student organization responsible to organize parties and tours for exchange students. You have lots of opportunities to meet other exchange students on this platform. In the orientation week, I joined some sightseeing tour in Budapest to help me know more about Budapest. And there you can meet many exchange students from mainly European country and USA. It would be nice to make some friends there. ESN organizes parties frequently for exchange students. If you like drinking, they also organize pub Crawl in their orientation week. You may find people in western culture enjoy drinking wine and beer so much and they love going to bar and pub at midnight. They also organized some trip to other city or country later, for example, Poland, Prague and Lake Belaton. V. Course registration After nominated by SBM, you will be able to receive an by Corvinus inform you about the course registration period. At the beginning you can log in the MOB system to see what courses would be offered but no exact time of those courses is disclosed. However, I found that the information in MOB system might to be exactly matched with the course you want to take later. You are not allow to register for master course in the Neptun system so be aware of that. After that, you can submit Course Assessment Forms to SBM to check whether courses that you are interested are equivalent to courses offered by UST or not. You are suggested to ask for the course syllabus from course coordinator of your faculty in Corvinus if you like to transfer it as a core course of your major. Course registration takes place in Neptun system. First come first served, register your ideal courses as soon as possible. The local student usually register for course before exchange student, therefore, if the same course have different timeslots, you are likely to have the unfavorable choice. You have a course registration limit that only 30 ECTS you can register if you want to exceed this limit you may need to request for it and the course coordinator will help you. And the

6 adddrop period is just one week so make sure you make all the changes in the first week. VI. Courses and Teaching Don't expect the workload is very light. For some courses, there was quite a lot of essay writing and project. But in generally they are much easier and you can have enough time to enjoy, travel and explore. However, participation of classes is very important that you can t miss more than 3 courses to pass the course. Attendance are recorded every seminars. For the midterms and final exams, they are not challenging when compared to those in UST. There are the courses I have taken: International Corporate Final exam, Individual essay, group essay Strategy (4 ECTS) Not very beneficial and professor was not very responsible that no one knew the exam date until that day! The grading was lenient. Business Ethics (6 ECTS) Midterm exam, Final exam, essay, presentation Very interesting and interactive. Easy and inspiring course. Recommended! Introduction to International Business Midterm exam, Final exam, group project, presentation (6 ECTS) Borden my knowledge about international business and EU but relatively difficult Decision Techniques (6 ECTS) Midterm exam, Final exam, group presentation Easy and interesting, light workload The professor is nice and funny sometimes Operation and Process Management (3 ECTS) Human Resource Management (6 ECTS) Economics Policy (3 ECTS) Final exams, 2 homework essay The professor is nice and helpful but too strong Hungarian accent that make me hard to understand her Course content are quite easy but quite a lot to recite for the essay question Midterm exam, Final exam, light assignment Exams are easy but the tension in class is intense Professor is a good presenter but many students don t like his attitude and find found him quite offensive Midterm and final exam Quite a lot of course content, exam is not very easy that require you fully understand the

7 content. Professor is helpful and gives bonus point in final exams. VII. Health & Safety I suggest you bring medicine prescribed by your personal doctor because they are very crucial in case you get sick. Be prepared for every trip. And be careful of all your belongings. Bring locks with you if you are going to stay in youth hostel so you can keep you stuff safe. Budapest is quite safe in general as long as you avoid some dangerous districts that you generally have no reason to go. If you go out at midnight, you should have some accompany because there is really not much people in the street. VIII. Food Supermarkets such as Tesco and Spar are almost everywhere. Just next to the old building of Corvinus, there is Central Market Hall that you can buy cheap fresh vegetables, meat there. There are also many grocery shops and some of them sell Asian food and seasoning. Dining outside in Budapest is really cheap and you can have all sort of cuisine. There are lots of nice restaurant just in the street my dormitory located. (Raday Street). You should also go to some famous restaurant recommended by trip advisor to taste the traditional Hungarian food. There are also quite a lot of cheap Chinese restaurants as well that you can have Asian food! However, I find quite a lot of food are too salty that usually I prefer to cook by myself. Traditional Hungarian cuisines: Goulash, Paprika chicken with dumpling, goose liver with beef. And Chimney cake is something that you should try! IX. Climate Heaters are everywhere in indoor areas. Therefore, in winter it is warmer than Hong Kong if you stay indoor. It is good if you wear very light inside with a thick jacket that you can put off easily. It starts getting freezing cold at the end of November. A pair of gloves is definitely needed. Yet, the daily temperature range is quite large in Budapest. In September, it is still feel like summer. Temperature at noon can be as hot as Hong Kong. Therefore you should bring summer clothes too. X. Communication People inside Corvinus can speak English and your classmates can speak English very well too. Many Hungarians cannot speak English. But younger generations and some sales in bigger store can usually speak fair English. Therefore, you may have to learn to handle problems yourself sometimes. Although some Hungarians are not as friendly as people from northern European, I do met lots of nice people and help me out in Budapest many times. Therefore, dun afraid to ask if you need any help.

8 XI. Other notes If you would like to cook in the pantry of the dormitory, you have to buy the cooking utensil yourself. I suggest you should go the IKEA in Budapest after your arrival that you can find everything to need in your dormitory there with a really nice price. You may want to buy mineral water for daily drink because the water quality of tap water. If you don't want carbonated water, only drink the water with pink bottle cap. C. Items to Bring Documents needed for applying for residence permit (Check carefully before you go) Swimming suit for thermal bath Summer and winter clothes Waterproof boots for winter Adapters and Chargers Notebook Bed sheet Medicine ISIC card (you can get discount sometimes) ATM card (remember to check if it has the plus sign. Better if you have a citibank card because there s a citibank atm machine near the school. You can withdraw money without any additional service charge.) Passport photo Gifts for your European friends