I'm Abigael Jerop Kiprono a student in the School of Environmental Studies taking a bachelors in Environmental Resource Conservation. I travelled to Hungary under Erasmus Credit Mobility under the European Union. Hungary is a country in Central Europe along with Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic with a great history during the World war.
I went to Szent Istvan University in a small town called Godollo which is 30kms away from the capital-Budapest. The University is close to the Godollo palace which was used as a home for the Soviet Union during the second world war after the royal family stopped visiting the palace due to the broken kingdom after world war. The University was a Monastery in the early 90s before it became an institution.
Szent Istvan is easily accessible by train which is an excellent transport system with a subsidized fare for students that is paid on monthly basis. It has the best practical courses in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Our classes had a maximum of 25 students thus making it easy for the lecturer to focus on the students. Our confidence was built through presentations and discussions in class and the field trips gave us a real picture of what we were taught in class especially Forest Management systems in Hungary. I took the following courses:
Water Management
Waste Management
GIS for Natural Resource Management
Basics of Forestry
Fresh water and Fisheries
The exchange programme was a life changing experience especially for the fact that it was a completely different environment contrary to what I was used to. Interacting with students from other countries brought the aspect of open mindedness as you realize how different and vast our cultures are and I learnt to embrace people the way they are.
I was able to visit 3 other countries namely Austria, Slovakia and Turkey. Being my first time to go out of the of the country, I enjoyed my stay. I would love if some day our county would have such excellent transport systems, good governance and proper management of resources and most importantly improve on our time keeping.