Online buzz, press conferences, speeches in German...

When I spent my very first night in Remagen, I was wondering how I would survive the following four months here. I remember that I was missing my family and friends so badly, the lights of the city and even the noisy traffic of Budapest. Then everything changed and I fell in love with the city of Remagen, with all of the cute cafés, friendly people and stunning landscape. I found my “German family” straight away and I am sure that my friendship with Lucy and Gintare won’t end with our goodbye to Remagen - our German experiences have bound us to each other for life.

The planned four months turned into ten, but the time flew by so fast, I didn’t even realise that this is almost a YEAR. No wonder: I was really busy at the university and had luckily no time to get bored. I didn’t only take part in the courses of the English program, but also completed an internship at the same time. In the first semester, it was a brand new experience, really different from being an “ordinary” student. I was used to only participate in the classes and write the exams at the end of the semester. With the internship, this is completely different: the first thing that I learnt that you must not lean back, but grab the opportunities immediately!

I gained some new skills that contributed a lot to my learning curve (and will look good in my resume!) I could experiment with some online platforms, improved my English and German skills at the same time (this semester, the daily language in the office was mainly German) and improved my attitude to social media (realising the importance of this tool). Last, but not least we had the chance to film some scenes of RheinAhrCampus from the exchange students point of view (check it out on YouTube soon).

In the second semester I became familiar with the teaching method of the English courses: they are really practical, the students feel themselves as “business people” and learn how to behave in business situations, how to handle responsibility (I don’t have to stress, how important these skills are, concerning their future career). This semester, I was lucky enough to participate on the “Strategic Business Communications” master class, we contributed to the organization of the International Day 2011 and managed to get some fame with my presentation. Also, the students of the “International Business Simulations” course created some online buzz in a project and I was one of the PR Managers of our “company”. With this position came the responsibility to update our clients regularly and to organise the press conference at the end of our project (and made a short speech in German!). All in all: the summer semester was an unforgettable experience that provided knowledge that I wouldn’t have been able to learn from books and I will be benefit from it in my professional life.

I am extremely thankful for all of the members of Sprachen/ Internationales for providing a lot of help and all of my friends to make my stay in Germany absolutely unforgettable. Even though the goodbye is approaching, I am sure that this will not be the last time when I eat the famous Pommes of RheinAhrCampus’ Mensa and will come back one day…

Emese