Living in Hungary

AFS students are usually described as curious, open-minded and brave. They pack their bags and set off for a new experience, one year in their lives they often call a lifetime in a year. This period seems very long to many of them before it begins, but once the exchange is over, many think it was too short. Still, this exchange year, together with the preparatory period and the period after the exchange, offers a significant time for a student to go through the adaptation process supported by AFS volunteers, with enough reflection, many emotions and learning experiences.

The traditional year-long program is not the only way for students to participate in AFS exchanges. One of the alternatives is the class exchange program, whereby a group of students travels together to another country and spends a week there hosted by their peers and immersed in the local life. Seeing how short this time is, you could assume that the greatest take-away for class exchange participants is the fun they had during their travels. However, Italian students going on an exchange to Serbia recently strongly disproved this assumption. Demonstrating how proactive and creative they are, they made a video about their entire experience. These young people list deconstructing prejudice, adapting to new environments, learning about themselves and changing perspectives among their major intercultural learning points during the exchange experience. They have a long way to go and apply what they have learned in their daily lives, but the video they made shows us that they are on the right way.