Berit Johnson

Photos

Berit is 20 years old and from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. She is an Electrical and Computer Engineering major at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

Why did you decide to study abroad with AIT-Budapest?

I don't speak any languages other than English and my school doesn't offer a lot of hard-core computer science classes. AIT offers both-- in addition to a slightly later application deadline which was perfect! Hungary is well known for the quality of its mathematics education (which I thought might also apply to CS). I also wanted to get a unique cultural experience, and I thought that I would have better luck outside of Western Europe.

How has this experience impacted your future?

The first time I ever had to pay rent and cook for myself was in Budapest. In this sense, I became much more independent. It's nice to know that I can live on my own in a country where I don't speak the language and survive.

I met a lot of great people and hopefully, I'll be able to stay in contact with them in the future.

Academically, I found the classes to be interesting and very different from what I would have at my home school. Hopefully, the classes will give me a new perspective on problems I tackle in the future, but that remains to be seen.

Tell us about an experience you had that you could not have had at home.

I went to the aftermath of a pig slaughter held by a local university, (ie the feast). I ate the most delicious, freshest sausage imaginable with a mix of American and Hungarian AIT students and a Gypsy band playing in the background. I was vegetarian before coming to Budapest but I still pine for the taste of that hurka.

Tell us about any interesting cultural tidbits you noticed about your country.

Most everything in Hungary has a slight tang of communism. There are also a lot of areas where Hungarian attitudes are very different from American attitudes. I think they tend to be more open and straightforward than Americans and not as anxious about bending rules.

They also like before-and-after maps in which they refer to the once-great Austria-Hungarian Empire as "Hungary". Also meat. On our last day, we had the one Hungarian vegetable dish lecsó. It was full of hot dog slices!