Trip to Mohács

This February, we headed to Mohács, a beautiful southern town to visit one of the oldest parades in Hungary, the Busó-walking. Many of our foreign students have joined to experience a historical segment of Hungarian culture. The carnival is basically a farewell to winter where locals and participants from all around the Central European region get together and say goodbye to freezing cold days and long nights. Handmade costumes and masks are worn to scare the cold season away. The festival is not only an important segment of Hungarian traditions but also qualified to the Cultural Heritage list of UNESCO.

Intercultural Evenings

Here they are, students from all around the world – but how should they start getting to know each other? Well, that’s exactly what PPCU’s program of Intercultural Eves were made for. In every two weeks, a group of the university’s foreigner students get together to prepare some of their homeland’s national dishes and snacks (with the help of their mentors). When the evening comes, all of our fellow students are invited to join for a snack, while the hosts hold a presentation on the culture of their nations. Intercultural Evenings have been held for years with great success – however, this semester was a bit different, as some of these events were open to the Hungarian students of PPCU as well.

Budapest Quiz

Being another tradition of PPCU’s International Office, this March we held our beloved Budapest Quiz again. The trivia was based on the happenings of the Hungarian revolution on the 15th of March, one of the most important national holidays and historical events in Hungary. Budapest Quiz is basically a competition: we create groups from our foreigner students, all of them led by at least two or three mentors. Following a map, all groups have to find sights and places from a list. Their group leaders give the historical background of each place they visit, while having a lovely walk around the city. After completing the list and getting to the final point of the competition, all of these groups fill in a quiz. The team with the best score wins a trip to a Hungarian city (this time to Szeged).

Castle Tour

This spring a group of mentors organized a tour to Buda Castle, showing students the historical sights of the Castle District such as Matthias Church, Fishermen’s Bastion and the Holy Trinity Square. After a walk around the district, the group visited the Hungarian National Gallery, spending the afternoon among the artworks of the greatest Hungarian artists.

And many, many more…

Our team at the International Office have organized a great number of events so far. This semester, we’ve also been to Szeged, held many special eves, and organized an Orientation Week in order to inform Pázmány’s Hungarian and incoming foreigner students on scholarships, partner universities, specialized courses and other opportunities waiting for them to take.