Erasmus in Maribor

I participated in the Erasmus + program in Maribor, Slovenia between October and February. Maribor is a small city a little far from the capital city of Slovenia. Life in Maribor was usually calm, and the city was beautiful, especially its nature. Before going there I had no friends or acquaintances who went to Maribor for Erasmus so I was clueless about a lot of things. At first, it was hard to adapt there but after a few days, I was all fine. Seeing other Erasmus students experiencing the same things as me was a relief, and I think it helped us connect quicker and at a deeper level.

I studied at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business. In the period I was there, the University of Maribor had more than 200 Erasmus students and most of them were from my faculty. Because of that, pretty much everyone whom I took classes with was also an Erasmus student. In some of my classes we worked on group projects, which I enjoyed very much. I think this environment made the group projects a medium for socializing with other international students.

With the Erasmus + program, I found a chance to travel to many countries and met amazing people along the way. Slovenia shares borders with Italy, Croatia, and Austria. Because of its location, it was very easy to travel to other countries. I choose to spend a good amount of my time and energy on Erasmus while traveling, which is exhausting from time to time, but definitely worth it. I have learned plenty of things both from the process of traveling and the countries I have been to. I feel like aside from moving to another country, my travels helped my personal growth a lot. I was able to experience different holidays, cuisines, and cultures while traveling, and those experiences are valuable to me.

Being constantly in an international environment taught me a lot about other countries, not just about their cultural values and way of living but also their way of thinking. Moving to another country is not always easy. Even though such disruptive change seems like a scary thing, it is worth going through all those processes. In that sense, my Erasmus experience made me step out of my comfort zone and explore what is beyond it.