4th International Afternoon
Colours, flavours, experiences and fun. These words describe the atmosphere of the 4th International Afternoon, which was organised on 27 February. The event aimed to present students various opportunities to go abroad including study-abroad scholarships, internships within and outside Europe, shorter courses and summer programmes.
While the international fair was on in the main hall, the conference room hosted presentations on scholarships, which were followed by Hungarian students presenting their experiences from travelling abroad. Thus, we heard about the beauties and the difficulties of studying abroad. We learned that while we are happy with a grade 4 in Hungary, it would mean a fail in Portugal on the 20 grade scale. We also got some insight into the student life in the French capital, Paris. Not only the Hungarian but the university’s international students gave presentations about their own countries and they have confirmed or disproved some typical stereotypes: e.g. Finnish people really keep 2 metres distance apart while waiting for the bus, and the Czech Republic is not only the country for tasty beers but also offers lots of cultural opportunities.
What about the flavours? The international students prepared some delicious food for the visitors. The most exotic meal was the so called “Puff-Puff and Beans”, a Cameroonian breakfast which refers to a spicy bean sauce with a special kind of sweet donut. We also tasted Italian lasagne, Greek feta cheese pie, Turkish eggplant kebab, Finnish pancake, Czech cake and British orange-carrot cookies.
The World Travellers’ Club, the closing event of the afternoon, took us on a trip to Cameroon. Have you ever thought that the International Women’s Day is one of the biggest festivals in Cameroon when men and women are celebrating together?! The audience also learned that Cameroon produces coffee, tea and cocoa in large quantities but the locals only drink tea and they export almost the full amount of the produced coffee and cocoa to Europe.
The afternoon was both about the meeting of different cultures, and about the opportunities that we can take now while we are students.
Written by Janka Huják