Culture Café at HSE: Belgium
Higher School of Economics is an international university. Here study more than 3400 foreign students. They all come from different places, share different values and have different studying and life experiences. It is always fascinating learning about new cultures, their history, peculiarities and traditions. Erasmus Student Network (ESN) HSE in Moscow regularly organizes culture cafes - an event where you can get to know HSE foreign students, hear about their home countries, taste their traditional dishes, practice your English and spend a good time.
Let us tell you a bit more about Erasmus Student Network (ESN). It is the biggest volunteer student organization in Europe, which was founded in 1989. It is represented in more than 900 universities in 39 European countries.
ESN HSE Moscow helps foreign students to get used to new culture and social life there. It organizes many events for foreign students at HSE including culture cafes, meetings about student mobility and exchange, language practices, parties, charity events and a lot more! It is a place that will welcome any foreign student and help them to find new friends and adapt to studying and living in Russia.
Culture café is one the events that will do all those things. Now we will tell you more about it.
Culture café takes place every 2 weeks on Wednesdays. It is a joint project of ESN HSE and the Centre of International Mobility. This time the culture café was about Belgium. The event started at 18:30 on Pokrovsky Boulevard. When we came in, the first thing we saw was a lot of food! The organizers were very caring and they made and bought mini-sandwiches, croissants, juices, tea, some fresh bakery and all of it looked amazing! Everyone grabbed a snack and started waiting for the presentation about Belgium to begin. There were foreign students from the Netherlands, Malaysia and some other places and Russian students. Everyone talked, ate, shared their thoughts about the food and laughed. Then, the presentation began.
The presentation was made by a very cheerful Belgian exchange student Febe Goethals who came for half a year to study at HSE. She told us everything about Belgium: from history to the most curious facts about her country. We learned that Belgium has 3 national languages: Dutch, French and German. And their passports are written in all 3 languages as well! She also organized a quiz where we answered some interesting questions about Belgium and learned a lot of fun facts. Did you know that in Belgium there is a different glass for every type of beer? Now we know where to travel in Belgium (the country with the biggest amount of castles in the world), what their traditional food is (French fries, waffles, chocolate, mussels, beer and more), what they are really proud of (their national football team- the Red Devils) and what students’ life looks like (the most insane student baptism, living in student cities). An unforgettable experience!
During and after the presentation you can always ask any questions to a speaker, they are always happy to answer them. Not only students from HSE can visit this event. You can always invite friends from other universities, but be sure that they filled a registration form before that.
It was also nice to take a picture together to memorize this day.
We really enjoyed our time in this culture café! It was a very entertaining and pleasant evening. We hope that we encouraged you to visit this wonderful event and join this big HSE community of foreign students.
You can check on any upcoming events from ESN HSE Moscow here: https://esn-hse-moscow.timepad.ru/events/ and here: https://vk.com/esnhsemsk
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