Wereldtalentblog
Via het Wereldtalentfonds komen buitenlandse studenten met een gebrek aan eigen financiële middelen een jaar aan de faculteit studeren. Ze houden een blog bij over hun studie, het leven in Amsterdam en hun veldwerk.
Peter Csardas is from Budapest, Hungary and is a student in de masters'
programme Political Science at the VU University. He has studied for one semester at the University of Konstanz, Germany as an Erasmus exchange student and is admitted to MA program in Economic Policy at the Central European University, too which he will start next September.
29-03-2011: My life in the Netherlands
Time passes by so fast that after my entry in November it is already spring now! It is great and sad at the same time, because it means the short grey days are over, and eventually we can see the sun sometimes, but it means that my stay in Amsterdam is approaching its end, too. I have promised at the end of my last post that I will write about my life in the Netherlands, so I will do so on, and I will write about academics again.
Without any doubts I think Amsterdam is one of the best city to live in Western Europe. It has an optimal size, a very favorable location and a strong character. Of course as a lot of people do, I could complain about the weather, the prices and some other stuff, but it is easy to forget these when you enjoy your favorite band’s concert, visit to one of the museums or run along the Amstel river. So I love the city and try to take advantage of it pros and forget its cons. If I have a little free time which is rare in this masters program (but with effective time management it is feasible to find), I make an effort to do as much things as possible.
At the beginning of the program, in August and September I’ve travelled around the country to see the main towns and to have an overall impression about the Dutch countryside. I have been in the Netherlands for one week in 2006 with my family, but it was good to do some trips again. I visited Eindhoven, Utrecht, Haarlem, Zandvoort and Leiden, and I am planning to travel around the northern part of the country, as well. I always wanted to go to Belgium, so on one weekend in September on sat on a train at Amsterdam Centraal and after a few hours I arrived in the capital of Europe. I loved the city very much and the fact that in a very short time I could be in a different country.
If my schedule and/or the weather does not allow me travel I just take my bike, cycle into the city with my museumkaart in my pocket and visit a museum downtown. The mentioned museumkaart is one of the best thing what a young art lover can get here, because it is affordable and allows you to visit nearly all of the museums for free for one year. I am particularly interested in photography so my favorite museums are Huis Marseille and FOAM where I have returned several times, but I liked van Gogh museum as well. And of course Nemo is so much fun, too, but sometimes it is crowded with kids who always occupy the best experiments, but I am still a big fan of it. My card is valid until this fall which means I have plenty of time to visit all of the museums which I could not visit so far.
And yes, spring which does not only mean that the trees are blossoming and the days getting longer but that we have to start to write our MSc thesis soon and hand it in until 24.6. Besides of that we have some assignments to finish in these days, too, so the university keeps us busy. The subjects in the last period were very interesting and challenging at the same time, and they work as solid basis for the further studies.
02-12-2010: The courses I visited in the first period
Beste Lezer, welkom again on my blog. Nearly two months have passed since the last entry, and a lot of things have happened in the past seven weeks. In this post I would like to introduce you my courses I visited in the first period: I am trying to present the aims, the contents and the assignments of them.
In September and October Political Science MA students have three mandatory lectures which are designed to serve as theoretical fundaments of the further studies. The class of ‘Philosophy Political Science and Research Methods’ aims to identify the most important streams of the philosophy of social sciences from the 19th century to our days, and to make know the different methods of research in political science and related fields. During the period we read book chapters and philosophical articles connected to class material, and prepared a “thesis” for every seminar which reflects a careful analysis of the readings and is a starting point for more discussion. To get a grade, we had to compare a two scientific articles based on their philosophical schools, their knowledge aims and the methods. This assignment was one of the most difficult works in the first two months, but I think now we can recognize the ideas behind scientific works and treat them differently than before.
In the course of ‘Theories and Approaches in International Relations’ we got to know the key concepts of worlds politics from the traditional propositions like realism and liberalism to the most recent approaches, for example feminism and green politics. Just like the philosophy class, we had two sessions in one week and we had to read the related book chapters and scientific articles to be able to understand the theoretical foundations and get involved in discussions about the particular topics. In the course of the period we had to read a book in the field of IR and write a brief review about. I found it interesting and motivating, because we had a free choice and we had enough time to work on it. In the final paper our task was to analyze an international political phenomena, applying one of the theories which we explored in the classes. This assignment was our longest so far: we had to write 12-15 pages which required the careful managing of one of the scarcest resources of an MA student which is the time for research and writing.
Our third class of the first period was ‘Political Concepts and Processes’ which aims to familiarize us with core concepts relevant to both International Relations and Political Science research. We read and prepared presentations about the most important ideas of political science, such as power, democracy, citizenship and integration. The fact that we had to prepare presentations about selected topics, was an extra motivational factor: we went more into detail in the particular subject and it enhanced the teamwork among the presenters. We finished the course with a short paper about power and a long book review.
In November we had the possibility to choose three courses out of five which have started three weeks ago. More on that and about the life inside as well outside the VU will be the the topic of my next entry.
19-10-2010: Who is Peter Csardas?
Goedendag Everybody, let me introduce myself. My name Peter Csardas and I’m from Budapest, Hungary. I finished my three years long bachelor studies in political science and management at the Corvinus University of Budapest in June 2010. I’ll spend the next ten months in Amsterdam and write about my studies and my life here on this page. Since September I’m a student of the international master’s program in Political Science at the VU University.
I’ve studied one semester at the University of Konstanz, Germany as an Erasmus exchange student. A good friend of mine there, Kacper (he is from Poland, and a PhD candidate and researcher in Konstanz), finished his master here at the VU as well, and he told me about the academic excellence, the high ranking of the faculty and the good atmosphere of the university. I wanted to continue my studies in an international environment, so I didn’t hesitate and applied for the MA program in Amsterdam and I was very happy to be admitted.
The structure of the program is very competitive, because it enables students to get involved in fields they’ are really interested in. The Department of Political Science offers three ‘streams’ (Comparative and European Politics; International Relations; Global Environmental Governance) for specialization in the second semester of our studies. Since the past years I became interested in sustainable development and the political economy of renewable energy resources, I will choose the global environmental governance stream to deepen my knowledge in green issues.
I was admitted to MA program in Economic Policy at the Central European University, too which I’ll start next September. After finishing these masters I would like to specialize on the policy-making of sustainable development in an interdisciplinary approach. With these degrees I’ll have the possibilities to work for a future in which we can enjoy a life with high quality of living standards and a clean and diverse environment at the same time.
