Bettina Balla: My CEMS exchange semester in Rotterdam

I’ve spent my spring semester at RSM, Erasmus University in 2016 with Virág Barabás and I have to say it was a real „work hard, play hard”!

RSM has a block system, so we had one course per block but it was more than enough. Combined with the business project (for me „omni-channel marekting at the retailers” so I could analyze the famous and allmighty Albert Heijn) it gave us enough food for thought. Luckily, our 70 people cohort was more than just studying all night. We had great random theme parties at a Hungarian guy’s place as gangstars or nerdies, organized pub crawls and even a 5-day start-up tour in Berlin with 40 of us.

Despite the windy and sometimes rainy weather we managed to see the country, tulips, windmills, daytrips, we had it all. Not just the Netherlands, thanks to the cheap flights I could visit CEMS friends in Belgium and Lisbon as well.

I even had the chance to be part of the sustainability committee there, dress up like a polar bear and campaign for sustainability weeks, organize volunteering to a school for mentally disabled people, a charity bake sale, etc.

I am really grateful for my semester and my friends I got to know there. I remember that time as a very intense, useful, fun and loved semester I will never forget!