University of Economics, Prague (VSE)

University of Economics, Prague (VSE) Lee Fung Yan Major in Finance and Economics (Year 3) Exchange Report Spring 2017

Monthly Activity Log February I arrived Prague on Feb 3 rd. My buddy picked me up at the airport and accompanied me to the dormitory. I met the other girl from UST at the dorm and we were staying at the same apartment. We spent some time exploring around the Old Town Square and had the traditional Czech cuisine goulash. The orientation week started from Feb 6 th till 12 th. All the activities during the orientation week were organized by the Buddy System. I made the student card, monthly transport pass, had a campus tour and some lectures about Czech culture as well as the Czech language. Some sightseeing tours were also available. I also joined the Ice-Breaking Trip on 10 th to 12 th. Around a hundred exchange students went on this trip. We went to a place called Kunzak in the Czech Republic. We did a lot of team games during the day and had themed parties at night. It was a nice opportunity to meet other exchange students. I visited Austria and Slovakia during this month. March I joined the ski trip organized by the Buddy System at the beginning of March. And my professors started giving out assignments so I spent more time in studying and homework. I also had two midterms in late March. I visited Finland and Italy during this month. April I continued to have assignments, midterms and an exam at the end of the month. But since lectures were only once per week, I still had some time to explore around the Czech Republic. I went to a few towns in the Czech Republic, such as Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary, and Pilsen. Cesky Krumlov is a famous town in the Czech Republic as it has a beautiful view. But for me, I actually enjoyed Prague more. There was also Easter holidays in April. However, this university only had four days of holiday instead of a week off like UST. During Easter, there were Easter markets that sold food and souvenirs. I visited the United Kingdom and Paris during this month. May I joined the skydiving activity organized by the Buddy System before the exams. We went to a place that was an hour away from Prague and skydived there. It was the nicest way to end my exchange with my exchange friends. Exchange students in this university could have all their exams done before May 12 th, which was the 13 th week of the semester. Even if you did not want to take your exam on the 13 th week, professors would still provide at least 2 more exam dates for you to pick. I took 3 exams on the 13 th week and decided to take the last exam on May 31 st. Then I went Northern Europe, Edinburgh, and Dublin. I came back Prague to study for 4 more days before I attended the exam. June After all the exams, I continued traveling. I went Croatia, Budapest, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Rome. I stayed in Prague for a few more days and I flew back to Hong Kong on June 23 rd.

General Information 1. Visa Procedures The visa application can be quite lengthy so make sure you start the process as soon as possible. Once you get the hard copy of the acceptance letter and other documents from VSE, you should send an email to the Czech Consulate immediately to tell them you are applying for a long-term study visa. Then, the Consul will issue a letter for you to get the non-criminal record at the Wan Chai District Police Headquarters. The application for non-criminal record takes around 2-3 weeks and they will send the record to the Consulate directly. After you apply for the non-criminal record, you might call the Consulate to ask about the documents you will need for the visa application and start preparing them. When the Consul contacts you, you can make an appointment for the visa application. The visa application takes 1.5 to 2 months. You only need to buy the Insurance when you go to the Consulate to collect your visa. I bought the insurance from Maxima. The Consul will provide all the information in the email. You can always call the Consulate whenever you have questions. 2. Cash It s nearly impossible to exchange for Czech Korunas in Hong Kong, so you can either bring Euros and exchange in the exchange store in Prague or bring an ATM card to withdraw money at the ATM machines. I used 2 ATM cards in Europe, Bank of China (UnionPay) and Citibank (Visa). It s super easy to find an ATM machine in Prague as they are everywhere on the streets. It s also easy to find a machine with UnionPay logo as well, which works for the BoC card. But in some countries, they only have ATM machines with Visa logo, so you must have an ATM card with a Visa logo at all time. For Bank of China, the transaction fee is $15 every time, while Citibank has no transaction fee but charges a spread of 2.35% on every transaction. Don t ever exchange money with some random guys on the street as they sell tourists fake money. 3. Course Registration There are detailed instructions on VSE s exchange website. The registration is not a first-come-firstserved basis. You can add the Bachelor courses that you want to study in the system. If you want to enroll in Master courses, you have to ask for the approval from the professor who will be teaching this course in Prague. And I also attached the screen shot of our credit transfer database to prove that Master course is equivalent to a course in UST. If the course is not in the credit transfer database, you can email your major department to see if the course could be approved. Then, attach the approval from UST s professors to get the approval from VSE s professors. Once you get all the approvals, you can email the exchange office to request for manual course registration. You have to attach both approvals from UST and VSE s professors so the exchange office can proceed with the Master courses registration.

4. Accommodation There are 2 dormitories for exchange students, Jarov III. F and G. Dorm G looks more modern on the outside but the interior in dorm F is a lot better than dorm G. Most rooms in dorm F have been renovated. I stayed in an apartment with 2 single rooms with another girl from UST in dorm F. We shared the kitchen, bathroom, and the living room. You have to fill in a form for the police station when you check in the dorm. If you failed to fill that in, you would have to go to the police station by yourself and Czech police do not speak English. The cleaning lady only comes once during the semester, so you have to do the cleaning by yourself. The dormitory reception is 24/7 so you can always get help from the reception. The dormitory is well-equipped. The washing machines and drying machines are in the basement. There is a gym on the 7 th floor and 2 study rooms on every floor. There is also a printing machine on the ground floor next to the reception. It helps when you need to print out your boarding passes but it was always out of order. 5. Buddy System The Buddy System assigns a local student to be your buddy and organizes activities for exchange students. During the orientation week, they helped with all the documents such as student card, transport pass, and other documents. They also organized campus tour, sightseeing tours, lectures about the Czech Republic and the Ice-Breaking Trip. During the semester, the Buddy System organized a lot of activities every week. On Monday, they had a movie night once showing a movie about the Czech culture. They also had Country Showtime on other Mondays which they invited exchange students to do a presentation about their home country and prepare traditional food from their country. On every Tuesday, they held N2N Party (Nation to Nation) in different clubs in Prague. There was a different theme for each party, they had Canada, Australia, and the United States You could purchase an N2N card during the orientation week which allowed free admission for all 12 parties if you got into the club before 11:30 pm. On Wednesday, they held Buddy Language Café which Czech students and exchange students would meet in a café. They would chat and practice languages like Spanish or French. During the weekend, they would organize day trips to some small towns in the Czech Republic or a 3-day trip to nearby countries such as Germany and Hungary. Other than these activities, they also organized skiing, skydiving, horseback riding and volunteering activities. I joined Cooking4Homeless which we made a lot of food and distributed to the homeless people. 6. Studied Courses The European style of learning is more focused on understanding instead of getting the right answer. Professors were quite lenient in marking the papers. Sometimes, I didn t get the whole question correct but they would still give me full marks.

i. 1BP426 Financial Derivatives I (J. Witzany) (2 Assignments 20%, Midterm 30%, Final exam 50%) This course teaches about the mechanisms of financial derivatives. It focuses a lot on the calculation of futures prices, forward prices and option prices. You will also learn about the hedging mechanisms using futures or swaps. Almost all the questions in the assignments are about calculations. In midterm and final exam, there are questions that ask you the meaning of something so you only need to state the definition. Most of the other questions will be about calculation. ii. 1BP425 International Financial Markets (J. Witzany) (2 Assignments 20%, Midterm 30%, Final exam 50%) This course is an introduction to the financial markets. Professor introduces markets like the foreign exchange markets, bond markets and derivative markets. The content is similar to what we learned in the previous finance courses we had in UST and also the Financial Derivatives I course. But there aren t as many calculations as the Financial Derivatives I course. You can expect a lot of questions asking you to state the meaning or the difference between something. There are calculations as well but they are not as difficult as the ones in Financial Derivatives I. iii. 5IE470 International Trade (S. van Koten) (Final exam 100%) This course teaches different trade theories like the Ricardian model, specific factors model, and Heckscher-Ohlin model. There is simple calculus involved in the lecture notes. All you need to know is how to do the Lagrangian. Everything in this course is intuitive and the professor also explained the theories clearly. There were only 4 long questions in the final exam. iv. 4EK610 Introductory Econometrics (J. Zouhar) (3 Assignments 30%, Midterm 20%, Final exam 50%) This course teaches simple and multiple regression models for both discrete and time series data. During the lecture, the professor talked about the theories and the assumptions of the regression model. During the seminar (exercise class), we used the program R to run the regressions on datasets provided by the professor. For the assignments, you have to use the program R to do it. For the midterm, there were questions about the assumptions and analysis of regression results. For the final exam, we had to run all the regressions on R. I was allowed to use my own laptop as the computers in the university are in Czech. v. 3PE665 Valuation and Financing of Investment Projects (P. Sieber) (Project 40%, Final exam 60%) This course teaches you how to value a company. The project is to prepare at least 5 years of financial statements and use different valuation models to decide if the company is worth investing in. The professor teaches you all the skills you need for the project during the lecture.

But his lecture notes do not contain a lot of explanations. The lecture notes only contain equations and I didn t understand the equations as I skipped class. You will have a presentation for the project at the end of the semester but it s rather simple and causal. For the final exam, they are mostly conceptual questions. 7. Expenses (in HKD) Flight ticket 6,500 Visa application 484 Accommodation (5 months) 12,000 Cards - Student card - ESN card+n2n+sim card - Transport pass (5 months) - ISIC card 100 200 400 100 Insurance 900 Mobile plan 550 Living expenses 9,000 Traveling expenses 33,000 Total 63,234 8. Health & Safety Prague is actually quite safe but of course, you should be aware of the environment and belongings at all time. There is a doctor across the street from the dormitory but the doctor only speaks Czech. If you got sick, you could ask the person at the reception to help translate your symptoms into Czech and go to the doctor. But I brought medicines with me to Prague, so I didn t go to the doctor. 9. Food Traditional Czech food is potato dumplings, roasted duck and pork knuckle. The potato dumplings are not like the Chinese dumplings, they are like bread. You can find a lot of restaurants serving these dishes in the old town square, but they are usually more expensive and not as good as restaurants in less touristy places. You can search the blogs online to see which restaurant they recommend. There are also a lot of Vietnamese restaurants as there are a lot of Vietnamese immigrants in Prague. You can visit any Viet restaurants whenever you miss Chinese food. If you want to cook in your dorm, the closest supermarket will be Kaufland and Albert, I usually went to Kaufland as it s a superstore and offered a lot more varieties of products than Albert. 10. Transportation The transportation in Prague is very convenient and punctual. With the student transport pass, you can take trams, metros, and buses, but it does not include the airport express bus. I bought a 3- month pass at first and went to the Central Train Station to extend my transport pass for 1 month afterward. You would usually take tram no. 9. The station for dormitory is Chmelnice, Husinecka for the university, Vaclavske Namesti for downtown and Spojovaci for supermarket Kaufland,

which is also the last station for tram no. 9. If you want to go to Ikea, there are two Ikeas in Prague located at the end stations of metro line B (yellow line). I usually went to the one in Cerny Most. 11. Climate The weather in Prague would be around 0 degrees during February. It gets warmer in April but the weather fluctuates. It could be 15 degrees on a day and 25 degrees on the next. And in May, Prague starts to get really warm and reach around 28 degrees by the end of May. So, if you are staying until June, you should bring clothes for both cold and hot weather. Prague is also very dry compared to Hong Kong, so always have lotion with you. If you are out of it, you can go to a personal care chain store called DM, you can find every personal care products there. 12. Communication The young generation in Prague can speak English but the older generation usually doesn t. I didn t study Czech so most of the time I used body gestures. I also used Google translate to translate the words on the label or on the menu. Useful Links VSE s Exchange Program website: http://ozs.vse.cz/english/incoming-students/exchange-programme/ You can find all the details such as school calendar, offered courses and housing on this website. Honest Prague Guide (videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/uct7oj318jvqi7vrbc1bnjja This channel provides a lot of information about Prague, such as places to go in Prague, Czech cuisines and how to get away from crooks. GoEuro: https://www.goeuro.com/ You can search and compare the fare for intercity trains and buses in this website. But for flights, it s better to use Skyscanner. Checklist of items 1. Passport Besides your passport, photocopy and take a photo of your it so you still have a copy if you lost it. You won t be able to travel if you don t have your passport with you, not even taking a bus to another town. 2. Rice cooker It s easy to buy rice in Prague, so you can cook Chinese food easily whenever you miss home. 3. Travellers router I used a router to set up my own wifi as the wifi provided by the dormitory is eduroam and sometimes it did not have a good connection. It s better if you set up the router in Hong Kong first but you still have to enter some information on a website provided by the internet provider in the dormitory.

4. LAN cable (at least 2m long) The socket was on one end of the bed while the socket for the LAN cable was on the other end. So, you must bring a LAN cable that is at least 2 meters. Even if you plug in the LAN cable into your laptop directly, the desk in my room was opposite to the bed, which was not close to the LAN cable socket at all. 5. Passport photos Bring a few passport photos with you as you will need them when you apply for different cards like the dormitory card and the Erasmus student card (ESN card). 6. Adaptors I brought 3 adaptors with me so I avoided bringing a huge multi-plug. 7. Lock I travelled with a huge backpack and I always locked it to avoid pickpockets. 8. Medicines Bring the meds you usually take in Hong Kong is more effective than getting meds in Prague. 9. Calculator They use a different calculator. 10. Copies of documents Photocopy and take photos of the documents so you still have them if you lost the original copy. 11. Chopsticks You can find chopsticks in supermarkets but they are always in a package of 5 pairs. 12. Food from Hong Kong You can find instant noodles in supermarkets in Prague for sure but they don t taste the same as the ones in Hong Kong. Bring some food like noodles with you so you can eat it when you are homesick. Last word Going on exchange is about stepping out of your comfort zone and having the courage to do things that you dreamed about. Amid all the excitements and laughter, there are also challenges. Enjoy every bit of your exchange and this would be a journey that you reminisce.