Semester Abroad 2020

The first week of lectures

The week began for me with a lecture in the morning at 08:00. In general, two blocks of a lecture take place one after the other. This means that the Operations Management course takes place from 08:00 to 11:00. In contrast to other universities in Germany, a block here lasts “only” one hour and 15 minutes and not 1.5 hours. After a theoretical lecture block, there is always a practical block, where calculations or case studies are worked out. Attendance is also compulsory and there are grades for participation, homework and presentations in addition to the exams. While in Emden there is usually an exam at the end of a semester, most subjects here have two, if not more exams.
I spent the remaining Monday after the lecture with shopping and my roommate Marion. She is French and we share a room. Because of this I speak English or Hungarian every day and actually the whole day. Only towards evening, when I am talking to my boyfriend or my family on the phone, I speak German for the first and only time during the day. It is generally very interesting and exciting how different in some points and how equal in other points Germany and France are.
On Tuesdays I have lecture only from 13:00 o’clock, so that I could sleep late. Human Resource Management (HRM) was on the daily schedule until 16:00. The lecturer is very strict and demands presentations every week. For this we divided into groups and were allowed to choose a company. Each week a different topic is dealt with, e.g. values of a company, then we have to analyse “our” companies with regard to this topic and present it in the following week. I personally think this is a very practical and good method to internalize the learning material. From 17:00 on, the Hungarian language course will take place for me. I was almost the most excited about this course. But first I had to cross the city, because the lessons are not held in the building for economy, but in the building for languages and medicine. I looked at the bus connections on my mobile phone and set off there in time. Unfortunately the bus I got on (which according to my mobile phone was the right one) did not go in the right direction. So I got off somewhere and walked 1.5 km up the hill to be on time for class. But the way turned out to be beautiful and I suddenly didn’t mind walking anymore. The doubts I had had before the lesson vanished into thin air. Among all the participants I could express myself best and I actually felt a bit underchallenged. Luckily, a course is still being held at a higher language level. It will start next week.

The back of the cathedral- there I found myself after I got lost

Right after the course I met up with lovely Anabell. We met last week on the pub crawl. She is also German and is currently doing her federal volunteer service in Pécs in the kindergarten. In fact she is also the only German I have contact with in Pécs. Together we went to the city centre, chose a restaurant and had a delicious meal. Be it Marion, Anabell or others I met here in the last two weeks, by doing so much together and seeing so much of each other, it feels as if we have known each other for much longer.

The marketplace at night
On the way back home from the restaurant on Tuesday

The following day was unfortunately less beautiful. It must have been about 08:00 o’clock when the fire alarm rudely woke me up. It went off three times in a row. The alarm is triggered very easily and really doesn’t last long. Because it is actually triggered daily, nobody takes it seriously. At nine o’clock my alarm clock rang because the dormitory supervisor had announced a room inspection. But they did and did not show up. At half past ten I jumped into the shower, because I had to be at the university at 11:30 am. Just the second I got out of the shower, put my towel on and went into our room, there was a knock, the door opened and five more people were standing in our block. They turned bright red, just babbling something about “room inspection and we just want to have a quick look” and within 20 seconds they were gone again. I was exquisitely amused by their facial expressions and by the fact that they were much more uncomfortable than I was. At half past eleven I met with the others from my HRM group to prepare the presentation. Actually we managed to finish before my lecture and there was even some time left to eat something. Afterwards four events followed until 20:30. First Leadership Management and then Business Consulting were on the agenda. I must honestly admit that towards the end it became more and more difficult to stay focused, although I find both subjects very interesting. When I finally got home around nine o’clock, I just made myself something to eat and fell into bed afterwards.
The alarm clock woke me up at six the next morning. At 08:00 o’clock the second Hungarian lesson took place. This time I did not get lost. Unfortunately there is no direct bus connection there, so I guess I am not spared the “mountaineering”, but so be it. Since I still had a few things to do at my grandma’s place, I went back to her after the event. There are some things planned for the weekend, so I will go back to Pécs on Sunday. Next week I have to do some organizational stuff, I will also register at the gym and explore the city a little bit more and of course I will attend the lectures again.

Until then,

your Patrizia.

I had to climb one of the parallel roads
The building my Hungarian lessons are taking place
In the morning on the way to class

One Comment

  • Elke Bontjer-Dobertin

    Mit Vergnügen habe ich auch diesen Bericht gelesen. Es ist doll, was Du alles erlebst, Patrizia. Du kommst mit einem reichen Erinnerungsschatz zurück!
    Es ist ja ein Glück, dass Du nette Kolleginnen hast und dadurch nicht alleine durch die Gegend stromern musst. Pass nur gut auf Dich auf!
    Ich wünsche Dir interessantes Weiterkommen. Bleib gesund!
    Fühl dich umarmt von Deiner Oma Elke

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