Global May Hungary

Ryan Ams

Education Abroad

My STEP signature project was an Education Abroad trip to Budapest, Hungary. In the Global May Hungary program we spent the month of May studying the culture and history of Central Europe at the Metropolitan University in Budapest while also travelling to Slovakia, Poland and Austria. Led by Daniel Pratt, it was a month of trying new foods, meeting many locals and exploring the foreign culture.

Going into the trip I had travelled once abroad to London. That trip for me was mind blowing and made me intrigued by the possibility of going overseas again, hence my choice to participate in this program. At first I was nervous about spending this much time in a country that spoke a different language and had less similarities to the United States than the United Kingdom had had. What I found out about myself is that I am entirely capable of exploring a different culture alone. It was the uncomfortable situations that showed this to me. The interactions with a native who did not speak any English or the times travelling on public transit with friends or even booking a weekend in Bratislava without the guidance of our program advisor.

When I returned to the Chicago O’hare Airport in June I was full of emotions. I was excited in part to return to my home, to the things I was used to, to see friends and family again. But I was also incredibly sad because my time of freedom and exploration had come to an end. I wanted almost immediately to hop on another plane in the international terminal and see what was out there in the world for me to find.

I think a big influence on this change was our awesome leader, Daniel Pratt. He always encouraged us to explore the unknown. To check out that restaurant we had passed and were curious to try, to talk to the Hostile works and students at University about their lives and to think critically about the things we were seeing and experiencing and question how they were different and alike from our own lives back home. He always emphasized the importance of being abroad as a traveler rather than a tourist. To not just see the pretty sights, snap a picture and say, “that’s nice.” He wanted us to see this beautiful and historic sights and to ask why. Why it was built? What purpose did it serve then? What purpose does it serve now? How do locals interact with it? How do tourists?

Another big source of influence on the trip were all of my classmates and peers participating in the program alongside me. When you are away in a foreign country with a small group of people spending every minute together you become close quickly. A support system formed and everyone always encouraged one another to try new things and conquers fears and trepidations.

One particular moment that will be forever engrained in my mind is the evening my peers and I stayed up all night to watch the sunrise over Budapest. Late in the evening, or very, very early in the morning (it was hazy as to which was which at that point) we made the tiresome trek up to the Citadel atop the hillside on the Buda side of the city. The night lights quickly faded into the morning sky of light blues and yellows. As we sat there we reminiscenced on the memories of the near month that we had spent together. We discussed what we would miss about the city when we left and how much were going to despise not seeing one another every morning for the rest of the summer. We laughed at the funny moments, skipped over the moments of annoyance and frustration and hardly even stopped to realize just how much we had changed in less than a month.

I will always have a deep love for the city of Budapest and all the people in it for teaching me to be self-reliant and determined and helping me find a new piece of myself that I had yet to uncover. It is wild to think how drastically the program has changed the trajectory of my life. I cannot wait to explore and discover more places, learn more stories from far away people and to spend the rest of my life continuing to discover who I am.

I think this transformative experience will be something that sticks with me for a lifetime. The opportunity to travel and see the world is an incredibly motivating one. It makes me want to find success and to work for an engineering firm that reaches globally. I also think that I just pay more attention to the rest of the world now after spending time away from home creating a well-rounded individual.

As I leave the community of Ohio State and move into the professional world I will work with people from all sorts of background and cultures and I look forward to bringing this experience into that dynamic. I will move onto the next chapter a little more worldly, a little more empathetic and whole lot more curious and eager to try new things.

One thought on “Global May Hungary

  1. Thank you for sharing. It sounds like this education abroad trip was a fantastic experience for you. I hope your curiosity about the world stays with you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *