MDM at VHL @ 01.05.2009 @ 20.00

Actually, it was a bit of luck that I applied finally, in the last moment. Exactly 3 years has gone since that very late Thursday night when the best friend of mine and I prepared our applications. Actually, we were so fed up with all the bureaucratic stuff that we were just about not to send all the papers. But finally, we did.

1,5 years later, in academic year 2008/2009 I spent the spring semester in Groningen, in the Netherlands with the Erasmus scholarship at the University of Groningen. After arranging everything, like study papers, finding accommodation, booking tickets, packing, saying good bye to everyone, finally on the 1^st of February the purple plane took off from Budapest towards a new life according to me, but according to the pilot in direction of Eindhoven Airport.

It 's such a strange feeling to say good bye to everyone for 6 months. And almost as strange as arriving to a new city, to a new country, to a new life. It was something special to see the city at the first time at our arrival. I still remember all the pictures, but I’ve never seen that Groningen again in that aspect, because finally as it became my city it started to look different day by day.

On the day of our arrival we moved into a student house called Van Houtenlaan in the house of 150 international students. Although it’s one of the crappiest student houses of Holland, after a couple of weeks I started to see the advantages: great company, cheap living, huge common room and amazing student life. If you are living together with 150 students, something is always happening.

Choosing this dorm wasn’t my decision, but going to Groningen was. Rijksuniversitat Groningen also known as University of Groningen is a 396 years old university, many profz say the best in the Netherlands. I decided for Groningen and the Netherlands, because I wanted to study and live where everybody speaks English and the study facilities are good. At home I study economics and international relations, so Faculty of Economics and Business of University of Groningen was the perfect choice. An old, professional, high-quality standard, huge and famous West-European university, which has a bigger budget than the whole higher education system of Hungary.

In the first days I had realized that the Dutch weather is really not creative: it’s always raining. If not, it has just stopped or it is just about to rain. One of the most important elements of living in Holland is a bike. Everybody got a bike, even grandmothers are cycling every day. After two weeks of searching finally I bought one on the Dutch ebay, a purple one. From that moment on my bike was my best friend. Riding a bike is a lifestyle on Holland. It means that you are traveling by yourself, you are free and independent, you have your own mobility. Even in heavy rain, in snowstorm, in thunderstorm, even at night and even when you are a bit drunk. Riding a bike helps a lot by the way – you just have to follow the red road! :-) The whole country is flat, it is easy to cycle everywhere – maybe the Dutch are cycling not because they are so green-minded, but because they are lazy.

The first days and weeks passed quickly, there were so many things to do. Cleaning the room, registration at the University, at the City Hall, Welcome Ceremony, shopping furniture and many other stuff, and before the semester has started, the great Introduction Week of the ESN. (ESN is the association which organizes activities, trips and events for international students.) That couple of days were just amazing, all the international students formed groups with Dutch groupleaders. Everyday there were dinners, lectures, activities, cityrally, games, pub crawl and of course theme parties.

It took some time to get used to a really new environment: new city, new country, new people, new university, new food, biking and after a couple of weeks; new friends. I honestly say that I have met amazing people in Groningen, mostly Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian, Spanish, Catalan, Greek, German, Polish, Turkish, American, Romanian, Brazilian, French, Italian, Latvian, Finnish, Armenian, Chinese and of course some Dutch as well! Not to forget also the great Hungarian people I have met there during the semester. I keep in touch till today with most of the international and also with the Hungarian friends. I guess almost everybody have heard about the conflict between Slovakia and Hungary these years. It was the first time in my life that I had met Slovaks, and as I read in the media I had to expect monsters – honestly, the Slovaks I have met in Groningen were one of the best people in Groningen I have met in the whole semester. 100% positive disappointment. Since the end of Groningen we have met many times, as Bratislava and Budapest are really close to each other – last time previous week.

Imagine a country, where everything is closed on Sunday, or where there are thousands of bikes everywhere, or where for lunch they got a small sandwich – nothing warm. Yes, this is Holland, where they prepare soup from mustard and they eat raw haring. After a long period I started to discover the Dutch food, and started to improve my skills in the kitchen, of course there were some bad experiences about my knowledge, but I never starved. One thing that everybody has to know about the Dutch kitchen is that it’s not a Dutch food if it takes more than 10 minutes to prepare it. In a normal supermarket you can find plenty of pre-cooked and pre-prepared meals, of course with many known and unknown tastes, as the supermarkets have to offer their products to everybody in the country.

At the end of the first month some of us visited London for a couple of days. Erasmus is an excellent opportunity to travel, to discover Europe around us. By this trip a long journey has begun since I tried to travel as much as I could. With new friends, of course, we organized short and long trips and excursions not just abroad, but inland as well.

The first month was the first time when we had seen real sunshine. At the beginning I felt a little bit lonely, I didn’t have so much things to do, but this changed rapidly. At the end of March I participated a project week in Cagliari, Italy organized by AEGEE, the student association I’m a member of. Although, it was a wonderful place and a great event, I already really missed Groningen, my friends and the Erasmus life. The life that everybody wants to have once in a lifetime. From week to week we organized movie nights, birthdays, each of us did prepared national dinner, trips, table soccer competitions, and of course we went out at least 5 times a week. Let me just illustrate it with a short schedule: ESN International Student night in Rumba on Monday; watching How I met your mother in the common room of our house on Tuesday, Champions League and table soccer on Wednesday, Palace on Thursday, Movie Night on Friday, than usually Kasteel and Warhol, Saturday night = VERA night starting in Winschoterdiep and finishing of course in Warhol, and finally Sunday-Döner-Dinner at Big Danas.

Slowly, but the weather got better and there were more options what to do in Groningen. We and (also the ESN) have already organized international dinners already many times before, but soon we started to transform it into picnics, or just a nice BBQ in one of the parks of Groningen. These events are one of my best memories; the German dinner, the Slovak dinner, the Czech dinner, the Greek dinner, the legendary Turkish dinner, the Hungarian dinner and of course the lovely Catalan picnic.

In April, we created The Perfect Czech Team to celebrate Easter in the Czech way. The Perfect Czech Team means a guy from the States, one from Brazil, one from Poland, one from the Czech Republic and me. In the Czech Republic (and as far as I know in Slovakia also) they make wooden sticks and the boys should sing a song and meanwhile hit the girls to celebrate the bunny holiday. And, yes, we did. We had visited many student houses and we hit the girls. At every place we had to drink a shot of some traditional national liquor and try some food. That was the legendary day of how we had 21 shots in less than 10 hours.

Of course not every day is fun during Erasmus. At the University we had to learn a lot, I spent many days learning in the Library or working with groupmates on various projects. We had really good and high-qualified professors, for example there was one professor who finished his studies at the MIT. After some weeks I realized, that I shouldn’t skip any lectures, because in case of skipping I would lose chance of listening to lectures I will never have the opportunity to repeat again – also, many people would study abroad, but have no chance, when I have the chance, I shouldn’t waste any time of it. Not even if we have finished the party in the morning. During the semester, I skipped just 2-3 classes, when I was in Italy and back home in Hungary. The time I spent at the University gave me a lot in aspect of improving my own skills, my knowledge and also my English.

Studying and exams are nothing bad comparing to one point of the Erasmus. At the end of April, the first bad moment came. For some of us the Erasmus came to an end. They were staying in Groningen just for 3 months. On the last days of April, the Queen of the Netherlands is celebrating her birthday, that is the Queen’s Day. For this occasion we all traveled by train (the Lithus hitch-hiked, well done!) early in the morning to Amsterdam, to participate such a genius and awesome festival there with millions of orange Dutchies. Orange is the color of the Kingdom, which means that on that day everybody should wear something orange. We spent an amazing and exhausting day in A’dam, which was followed by one of the craziest night ever. We created the MDM party! The MDM party stands for: Martin, David and Marton. Martin was about to leave Groningen at the beginning of May, David had birthday on the 1^st of May, and I had birthday at the end of April. Such a great opportunity to have an amazing last night together. For this party we created a marketing campaign to invite as much people as we could. We launched a blog (Check the first posts of http://mdmvhl.blogspot.com ) , a Facebook page, surprise movie and we also put dozens of posters everywhere. A birthday that I will never forget. ;-) Next day as our friend was leaving, we had a final city tour and a final dinner, and in the morning of his departure we started a tradition that every time when somebody was about to leave Groningen we all went together to the station and said good bye there. One of the worst things of Erasmus. Really. But I was already sure at the moment that we are going to meet again soon, and in the summer, some of us met and we spent a couple of days together in Budapest.

I should not forget her Majesty, Beatrix, the Queen of the Netherlands. In 2009 the University celebrated its 395^th birthday, which meant a long festival during the whole year. Because of this occasion, her Majesty and the King of Sweden visited the University. First time in my life I saw some kings and queens. Actually, I didn’t meet the Queen, but the Queen met me. :-) (Since that I have met also the King of Belgium during a normal daily walk in Antwerpen when suddenly he just appeared right next to a friend of mine and me.)

Before and also after exams many things happened in May. Unforgettable nights out in Groningen’s amazing student night life, bike tours, new people, new experiences, new friends, new love, many crazy events and of course many trips. We all watched together the Champions League when Barcelona, the team of our Catalan won the final. Some days later some of us traveled to Berlin, Germany to visit the city of Knut and Joachim. Lovely trip with nice company and spring weather, also with many new things to see and experience. Berlin is one of the most sparking cities of Europe. The city is full with energy, it is always moving and changing, something is always happening. The couple of days we spent there got us closer to each other, we spent some days together in a different environment like before. Of course 3-4 days aren’t enough to enjoy Berlin entirely, but it is enough to feel the city’s unique atmosphere. Some of us couldn’t join the trip, because they organized the Exchange day, which was an event about studying abroad organized by two of our Lithuanians and one of our Hungarian girls. I liked the event, because it was an option not just to meet each other but to learn from each other as well. The event finished in Rumba, in a totally crazy (?) party – the only problem was just the exam next morning. :-)

The end of May and the beginning of June I spent back home in Budapest, because I had the most important and most difficult exams of my studies. Arriving back home after exactly 4 months was nothing but strange. Friends waiting at the airport and then surprise dinner were the first things waiting at home for me. The first morning I woke up in my own bed, I didn’t know where I was for some seconds. It was strange that I understood what the people were talking on the streets, it was strange to be back again. Two weeks back in Budapest were enough that time, after my exams I was really waiting to travel back to Groningen and enjoy the last moments of my Erasmus. Exactly 30 days, a whole month was till its end.

Maybe the last month was the worst and the best at the same time. Every day somebody left, every day we had a good bye dinner, every day we had to say good bye to one of our friends. Now I think that was the reason why we organized something, dinner, movie night, pub, clubbing or just studying together really for every day, anything to spend together as much time as we just could. The last days we had to face how important we were for each other, and that we would do everything to make the Erasmus longer. In June, some of us traveled to Belgium, to Gent, to Brussels, to Antwerp-highway, to Brugge (meeting Heleen there), and to Den Haag. Every day we had lived as if it would be the last day for one of us. Every day, every night was meaningful. In the last days, most of our little group was gone, just few of us were still there. In the last days I wanted to do as many things as possible to do everything for the last time again: visiting many places, eating favorite kebab and FEBO, going out to my favorite VERA, drinking Euroshopper beer, eating Ah croissant and of course meeting the closest and best friends. Before the last days I got a lovely visitor from Hungary. Showing around the city and telling everything to her summed up the whole semester for me. After finishing and thanks God passing all the exams there was nothing else to do, I had to go home. Still, there were some days, till my parents arrived to Groningen to pick me and my purple bike up.

The last days I caught cold and was a little bit ill, which made the departure just worse. The last days I wanted to show my new life, my new city and my new home to my parents. I wanted them to know everything about me and Groningen. They saw where I lived, studied, spent my free time and went out. They even met my friends, and accidently one of my professors as well. I wanted them to know this part of my life, what they missed actually. Remembering the last nights, especially one of them was hard to remember even after Groningen for a long time. There is no exact recipe how to finish such a period, how to say good bye to friends, to a city and to period of lifetime. Maybe I should have done it in a different way. We shouldn’t be sad that it is over, but we should be happy that we had been there.

On the 14^th of July finally after a long shopping we started our journey back to Budapest, spending one day in Germany during the trip. 1504 km seemed to be the longest journey of my life, although it wasn’t. On the 4^th of February, at the Welcome Ceremony of the University, G.J. Ashworth, Professor of Faculty of Spatial Sciences had a speech. What he said had a really big impression on me. He said that first we will notice the changes and differences between Groningen and home. Then we will have a new, changed life there. We will go home and we will recognize that home has changes and differences comparing to our life in Groningen. We might not like it. And we will recognize soon that not just home changed, but we have changed. He was so right!

It is possible that I might forget to add and include something important – not a wonder, since so many things have happened in that semester, really incredible. On the last day I had to sign off from the University and the officer lady told me something: I should take care of myself more from now on. That time I didn’t know what she meant, but I’m almost sure that she meant the so called PostErasmus-trauma, which is a simple word for that negative mood after arriving home and trying to integrate back into the old life. On the Welcome Ceremony we have been told that this exists, first I didn’t believe, but now I know. It does.

On the 16^th of July me and my family, we arrived back to Budapest after spending the best period of my life full of the fresh memories of trips, events, games, movie nights, nights out, rain, biking, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cagliari, homesick, friends, love, university, exams and adventures.
This is Groningen for me.

Almost two years after the beginning of this life experience, next week I’m traveling back to Groningen.

Leonardo Da Vinci said, that every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Now I know, it does.

Marton Demeter

06.12.2010, Budapest

Ps.: One year after Groningen I moved to Slovenia to study in Koper sponsored by CEEPUS grant, but that is an another story.

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You can watch my video I made about the Erasmus during and after the semester:

The MDM party: