Semester in Budapest

Over the last week I have just gone to class and gone to some of the smaller towns in Hungary. Classes are interesting because since all the students are on exchange the discussions provide insights on business views from around the world. Even outside class it is amazing how different the students from each country behave. While on a trip to the town of Eger in the north of Hungary, we visited a large cathedral. A Chinese girl I was with, Ada (pictured above on the horse), completely surprised me when she said that she had never been inside a church before. She kept asking questions on how to act and what she should do next. She also had never had alcohol before so we quickly changed that. I've also exposed a few of my friend here to Mexican food at a reasturant here in Budapest and it was so much fun trying to explain to a Polish girl the difference between an encilada, quesadilla and burrito.

Another area where I have learned a lot over the past month is in discovering what the rest of the world thinks of America. Of course there were the questions about whether Americans all carry guns on them at all times and if girls flash like they do in the movies, but more concerning is the presumption by almost every European I have met here that Americans are really just not smart. The first few weeks here I agreed with them in that most Americans do not know a lot of world geography and we tend to be a bit ethnocentric. However, I can say that after spending almost six weeks living here now that Europeans are just as bad as Americans when it comes to being ethnocentric. Few of my European classmates know where Chicago is on a map and it is surprising how many think that China has the largest economy in the world. One girl even told me that all Americans do in high school is play games. Moreover, the most arrogant person I have met here was not an American and surprisingly not even from France (however two of the French boys are a very close second) but a German who thinks that Germany should never have reunified or joined the EU. So, my major epiphany on the trip has been that Americans should not feel so bad for our stupidity because we aren't any worse than the rest of the world.

posted by Maggie @ 6:17 AM