Class Year: 2024
Program: McDaniel Budapest, Hungary
Email: muriti01@gettysburg.edu
Hometown: Norwalk, CT
Major/Minor: Business
Campus Activities: Gettysburg Finance and Investment club, and Ski and Snowboard club
Favorite Experience: My favorite experience was the boat tour on the Danube River. At the beginning of the semester, McDaniel College held a ceremony for the college president who visits Budapest once a year. This ceremony ended with a big boat ride on the Danube River. This was an amazing experience because we got to socialize and get close with a lot of McDaniel students. On the boat, we passed by Parliament, which was my first time seeing it in person. This was a breathtaking experience since all the lights were on, making it seem like it glowed. Although the boat tour was only for 2 hours, we were able to build connections and friendships that made us feel less like outsiders and more like a part of the McDaniel community.
New/Exciting Course Abroad: One of my favorite classes I took was called "Garden to Table". This class allowed us to explore different restaurants around the city. While in these restaurants we were allowed to interview the owners, and ask them questions on how they run their business. Questions such as "who is your market base", "why did you chose Budapest", and many other questions were asked so we could get a grasp on what it takes to build a business from the ground up. This gave us interesting information as well as a better grasp on the Hungarian culture. My favorite restaurant was a small vegan place. This place stood out because a lot of Hungarian dishes have meat in it which made it seem like Hungarians would not be enough of a consumer base to maintain a business in the city. But this small vegan place was thriving because of the delicious food they served. They also had environmental concerns since they encouraged customers to bring their own tupperware for takeout since it'll produce less pollution.