And thank you very much for your patience. It was a long trip back from Budapest. I hope that none of you all were too stressed out/worried about my delayed response…thinking that I had gone missing over the mid Atlantic because I am a few days late. It’s mostly the jet lag that is kicking my butt these few days back!
Besides that , school keeps carrying on (at a progressively faster rate). We are again in the height of midterm season. Two today, one next Thursday, and one the next Monday. Meanwhile, it’s almost the response deadline for colleges……April 1! Get stoked….finally the wait is nearly over! Well done to all of those who have managed to so patiently wait ….for hopefully great news!
I wanted to talk a bit about my experiences in Budapest during Spring break. It was really a rich experience both as an engineer, an economist, and just in general as a regular person. That is, we had the opportunity to learn a lot and to explore a relatively different culture at the same time.
Most of our mornings and afternoons were meetings with business and strategy departments of firms from a variety of different sectors. Off the top of my mind, we met with National Instruments (computer programming) MOL (the largest energy and oil producing company in Hungary), Suzuki Cars and Toyo Seats (As the name suggests, with particular emphasis on logistics), and Dakoya Studios (Largest Hungarian Movie Production Firm). It really did feel like a tour de force in going to these different firms, and talking about the economy of Hungary, international marketplace prospects, technological innovation, and other engineering related challenges.
For a person from a small town in Texas, doing nearly anything in Budapest in my free time was an adventure, even going to find a decent place to eat (yes, I am not that adventerous of an eater….so after a few days of mediocre food {esp Goulash} I reverted to eating nearly all my meals at Burger King}.
Beyond that though, we really did have a great time. We went to visit the Tokay wine region in Northeastern Hungary, visit the national palaces in Budapest, and even go to bathe in a few of the local spas (geothermically heated bodies of water). Our time on the River Danju is not to be forgotten either!
I am really happy I went on this trip. It was a really rewarding experience, and goes to show you how engineers can get the opportunity to study/travel abroad with USC.
“Kosonan!” That’s about how you would say thanks in Hungarian!
