Internship Blog Post 4 (April 7th)

International Week (IW) turned out to be a great success. We had 59 students and eight professors representing seven different countries who paricipated in our IW. I had the opportunity to play a few different parts as I wore a few different hats during our IW and had a great time fulfilling my various roles. I was a part time photographer, guest speaker, greeter, tour guide, entertainer, and representative. My goal was to give the students a good introduction to the city and to show them a great time through out the week - a task I knew that would require me to work beyond the normal hours of my internship.

IW began with opening presentations that were given by participating students and a welcome dinner. During this first day of IW, I greeted students, passed out their weekly schedules, took pictures for the Edutus website and booklet, and gave a presentation about my home institution - A.K.A. the prestigious George Mason University. It felt great to be the sole representative from the USA and to stand up there in front of such a large and diverse crowd. During our IW, the international students were required to attend classes that were taught by either their professors or other foreign professors. After their classes were complete they had the opportunity to participate in cultural excursions through out the week. I was absent from the classes as I was working on the booklet. I did however, participate in all of the culural programs that were held after classes.

The first cultural program was the most entertaining in my opinion. We traveled via bus from Budapest to a castle about an hour away called Visegrad which was located on a bend on the Danube (Duna in Hungarian) river. A small side note, our bus driver turned out to be the same bus driver that drove me to Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina for my GMU winter break program last year. It's always great to see a familiar face! Visegrad was a once in a life time experience. The location of the castle being situated atop a hill and at the bend of the river was spectacular. Aside from the natural beauty of its location, the castle served a more practical role during its era. Through out our tour of the castle we learned that the castle at visegrad was constructed to serve as a defensive outpost from the invading Mongols reigning from the east. Our guests, the IW students and professors, absolutely loved their time there. Following our tour of the castle we were entertained by a "royal court" of knights demonstrating their skills in various medieval games. After they finished, we were then split into different teams and participated in the games ourselves! The games were followed by a delightful Hungarian feast, a feast that was fit for a king! I recognized that this was the best time to get to know as many students as possible during IW as Visegrad was the only complulsory event that the students had to attend. Apart from taking photos through out the day and convsersing with the different groups of students, I also invited them out to a venue that hosted a night for international students.