Internship Blog Post 6, Final Post (May 19th)

Well it looks like this is it. This is our final blog posts. This moment actually feels a bit surreal right now. I was just getting accustomed to my new surroundings here at Edutus College and in Budapest just a few days ago, and now I'm sitting here writing my last blog entry. It's true, time really does fly when you have fun, and these last couple of weeks have been just that. For our flash mob dance group we finally nailed the choreography. We've been practicing twice a week for the last two and a half months and we're finally ready to perform. We haven't picked an exact date yet but we should be performing it sometime within the next week - I'm really starting to get excited!

Things had been a bit hectic during my regular working hours. A professor that I had befriended earlier in the semester had asked me if I could substitute for her so she could attend a conference in Italy. I filled in for a total of three classes for her, two tourism classes and a business class. She gave me some suggestions as to what I might want to include in my lessons, and while I included a few things she had insisted I cover, I ultimately took my own approach. I had never had to teach or substitute for a full class. I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to be a team player and help my colleague. Being that the students were in their last week just before their exams, I decided to show empathy. I had been in their shoes before and since it was the end of the semester, I knew they were probably a little burnt out. For the two tourism classes, I figured that since I had done a bit of traveling up until the point I would show them the world from a tourists point of view through the photos I had taken around the globe. With the grace of their professor, my colleague, my plan had been approved. Hungarians generally don't venture to far from Central Europe being that traveling far distances is not a luxury for most of them. I had been to a total of 29 countries on four continents so I thought they might want to see a few different parts of the world. I created a map displaying all the different points on the globe I and been too and created a slideshow of all the different photos I had compiled in my journeys. I tried to display the different types of tourism they had been learning about in class and asked them to keep in mind which different types of tourism were associated with the pictures they saw.

Just about a month earlier I gave a presentation in the business class I was supposed to substitute teach in. At the end of my presentation I remembered that I asked a question regarding what kind of presentation the students might want to see next. Luckily, one student had asked me if I could give a presentation on sports marketing and the business side of sports. I took this into mind when I was thinking about what I could possibly teach for their business class. I didn't know much about sports marketing or the business aspects involved in sports, but I knew one person who did - Jerry Maguire. My pitch to the professor was that the movie pertained to the business side of sports and that their was a love story involved so it would appeal to multiple groups within the class. Furthermore, it was a great movie and a lot of the words that were taught to the students earlier in the semester were in the movie. I wrote a good portion of the words they had learned through out the semester on the board right next to the over head projector and asked the students that these words would be brought up at some point in the movie and to see if they could hear them when they were said. We didn't finish the whole movie but a number of students asked me for the link which tells me that the movie had piqued their interest enough to watch it outside of class.

After the classes were finished I finally had finished the material that would be incorporated into Edutus's booklet for perspective students. Edutus is a small college so I thought it would be a great idea to include some testimonials from the current students about what it was like being a student at Edutus and why the chose to apply there. While I was completing the booklet my supervisor had walked in with a professor and they asked me to correct some documents that the dean of the college needed completed by the end of the business day. There were a total of three documents. The dean had met with a delegation of Chinese representatives from a university in China and now she was interested in making a few programs for Chinese students that covered wine production in Central Europe.

It's sad to say but I only have another couple of weeks left at my internship. Over these next couple weeks I will create a document stating what my duties were at Edutus College, what barriers I faced regarding those duties, and how I overcame them. This will help paint a better picture of what potential challenges incoming interns may face. Edutus is a fairly fast growing college so their expectations should grow in detail and less in number due to a more specified niche as Edutus hires more staff members to account for their growing size. I keep my work area clear and clear it every time before I leave home for the day, but I do expect for them to fill my desk with another staff member for the next semester.

Internship Blog Post 5 (May 5th)

Spring break is now over, however, just because we were on break, that doesn't mean I didn't take the opportunity to learn something new. We visited Milan and Rome, Italy, the Vatican, Athens, Greece, and Barcelona, Spain. As an intern here in the tourism department of Edutus College, I could now play the part of the tourist and apply a few things I've learned here in my travels. All cities have made great accomodations for english speakers regarding tourist information and public transportation. Typically I am the type of traveller that likes to simply book my plane ticket and hotel or hostel and be spontaneous, however, it never hurts to plan ahead of time either. This trip involved a little bit of both. We knew we didn't have too much time in the cities we visited so we planned on seeing just a few major attractions in each city and left whatever time we had remaning to be spontaneous and venture off where ever we deemed fit.

Here at Edutus I have learned that nearly every major city in Europe has various transportation options to get to the city center. These may seem a bit trivial to the well travelled, but helpful nonetheless. You may be swayed or hounded by taxi cab drivers upon entering the main terminal, but if you have patience, you will notice trains, trams, or shuttles that can take you close to where you want to be at a much cheaper cost. When looking up hostels, I knew that location was extremely important, but my colleagues here at Edutus told me that location should be considered first and foremost due to the short duration we were in each city. Although a particular hostel may cost 10 euros more per person per night, it may be the cheaper option if located closer to main attractions, public transportation, and drop off points of airport shuttles. If exchanging money, it will usually be cheaper to exchange cash in the city. Some hostels and hotels can exchange cash for you, and there are usually banks and currency exchange stores in larger cities that see many international tourists.

Returning back from spring break wasn't too difficult, I just started right where I left off. I planned on giving a presentation on the history and business practices of a Walmart a few weeks ago, but the professor was sick the day I was supposed to give my presentation so he postponed it for last tuesday. The presentation went very well. I still get a few butterflies in my stomach when I present in front of a class, especially one where I don't know any of the students, but this is great practice. I have also found out that I am not as nervous as I was at the beginning of the semester. I practice the presentations before I give them. Rather than making presentations static, I've tried to make them more interactive by involving the students with questions or short discussions about a topic conveyed in the presentation. I have also found that good visuals help to keep a class engaged. I know what it's like to be a student in class, and even if a professor or guest speaker is extremely knowledgeable, his or her presentation will probably not be too well received in front of a group of undergraduate students if the visuals are sparse - it always helps to know your audience! I will be giving a presentation on the Washington D.C. area as well later this week in the Hungarian language and culture class I take on Wednesdays. This will be a great chance to show some of the students the beauties of the Washington D.C. area and hopefully to erase any negative misconceptions. I have inserted pictures through out the presentation to show the different areas of D.C., and I have even found two youtube videos that highlight two bustling neighborhoods in D.C., the U street cooridor, and Columbia Heights.

One of the responsiblities I decided to undertake involves getting students involved with the college. I thought it was especially crucial to have the involvement of the Erasmus students - being that they are non Hungarian students and may feel a bit alienated at times during their studies here. One of the Erasmus students is from Turkey and is a professional dancer, and came to me and asked if I would like to be a part of a flash mob. Practices are held on Mondays and Wednesdays generally after most classes have finished. Currently we have Michael Jackson's "Beat it" well rehearsed, and are working on our second song right now. We hope to perform "Beat it" sometime within the next week.