Wetskills Hungary 2019 – by Linda Maseti
Alarm bells rang at 05:30. We rised but I’m not so sure if I can say I shined.
It was 07:48 and the streets were buzzing, the pigeons cooing and the Wetskills teams were at the train station ready to embark on what the day’s journey to Gödöllő had in store for us.
We boarded the train and headed for the charming town of Gödöllő which is 30km northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. On arrival we were escorted to Szent Istvan University’s main campus where we worked on our case studies for the day. We feasted our eyes on the vast and enchanting gardens as we made our way to our work room. We made ourselves comfortable and got straight to business. Ideas were flying, solutions were manifesting and keyboards were furiously at work.
Later on, each group presented its ideas to the others to receive feedback on how innovative the solutions are and how they could be further improved. We were lucky enough to be joined by Professor Sandor Szalai who happens to be one of the judges on the panel we will present our solutions to. He gave us insight into the history of the water management and how flooding and irrigation structures have been done in the past and some insight into what is already planned for the future. After lunch Professor Szalai took us on a private tour of the building, showing us an exhibition of the posters which showed the development of flood control measures in Hungary dating back from the 19th century.
17:30 struck and it was time to make our way to the long awaited International Dinner where we were invited to taste dishes prepared by students from about 23 different countries, including Ecuador, Turkey, Brazil and India.
As we walked into the hall we were greeted by the lovely aroma of food from all around the world. My favourite dish had to be
the cake from Syria, followed by the Ethiopian chicken dish which was accompanied by Ethiopian coffee. We danced, we clapped and sang along as we were entertained by South American dancers, a Vietnamese singer and Hungarian folk dancing.
After a wonderful evening tasting the food of the world, we hopped on a train and headed back to Budapest.
