Question (Ferenc Simon, TTK): Please tell us a few words about yourself, where are you from, in which academic year are you in and which is your study programme?

Answer: Szia! My name is David and I study Energy Science in the fourth year at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Q: Why did you decide to come to Hungary and to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in particular?

A: My university has an exchange program with the BME. A lot of students who visited the BME in the past had only praise, especially for the openness Budapest has to international students.

Q: What did you study at the BME?

A: I attended a number of physics courses which fits well my studies in Germany, e.q. semiconductors physics, particle and nuclear physics, statistical physics, and modern condensed matter physics. Eventually, I am finishing my BSc in an optical laboratory. The experimental work is done, now I am busy writing it up

Q: How do you think that this Erasmus stay helps you with your future carrier?

A: I do not think that the Erasmus stay is beneficial when it is only something noted in your CV. The way it benefitted me personally is that it made me aware just how many possibilities there are career wise, meaning that it showed me that there are seemingly countless different places to work at and career paths to choose from abroad. I think I would have never looked further than the next city otherwise.

Q: Did you manage to be involved socially with the local students?

Sadly I did not, but I managed to get in touch with lots of younger people who work here full time from other European and South American countries.

A: Did the Erasmus programme fulfill your expectations?

I do not know what I expected, but these expectations were overshot beyond imagination. I never expected Budapest to be such a welcoming city, filled with people from all over the world. I met people from every continent (except Antartica, but maybe I just did not look close enough) there is. There were events everywhere and anytime, be it culinary events, art exhibitions, live music, you name it.  As I said before, meeting people from all these different cultures really did broaden my horizon in a way that I cannot imagine a life with the mindset I had before coming here.

Q: Do you have any message for a prospective foreign student, who considers to enroll in the Erasmus program for the BME?

Get out of your comfort zone and really try to make connections with the people you meet here.  You will only be greeted with open arms and possibly form friendships with people where before you thought you may never even meet a person from such a background.

A photo with my parents (when they visited me in Budapest) with the nicely lit BME in the background.

A photo taken by a lab-mate, with me busy working in the optical lab, together with the obligatory large cup of coffee. I am wearing protective goggles due to some intensive laser.