I’m studying automation engineering at University of Maribor. Maribor is the second biggest city in Slovenia, but it isn’t very big. It’s even smaller than my home city Tampere in Finland, but like Tampere also Maribor is a very active student city. Today over 300 exchange students are studying at University of Maribor.
I came to Maribor 25th of September and the academic year in our University started on 1th of October. Truly I can say that I haven’t studied anything yet. It really takes time to get everything started! I have five courses, but only two courses are held in English. I’ve to make some individual studies in other courses which are held in Slovene. I’m the only exchange student in Industrial electronics course and I’ve to go make laboratory works with locals. I’ve also noticed that communicating with teachers is here little bit more formal than in Finland.
Erasmus student network (ESN) is very active in Maribor. Our student life in Maribor started with Welcome weeks. It means unstoppable fun in many events for the first two weeks in Maribor. I got some unforgettable memories, when we had a chance to attend Timber raft and Zorbing tournament. Of course we had parties every night somewhere in the city. Zorbing was as fun as you can imagine. It looks a bit unsafe but I think it’s safe. Over 100 students tried it and we did not suffer any accidents.
I’m living in a private flat with a German and a Polish flat mates. I’m sharing my room with the Polish guy. Both of my flat mates are studying business and economics, which is the biggest faculty here. And of course, I have to tell to you, that my flat mates are awesome. I’m very luckily that I can live in a private flat, which is in excellent location, very good condition and the rent is quite cheap.
I want to tell you something about Slovene student food system. It’s great and quite unique. Every month government gives 20 to 22 food coupons to each student. Food coupons can be used in most restaurants. It’s funny, because with these coupons, going to eat something in a good restaurant is cheaper than cooking at home. When you are using food coupons you will always receive a starter, a salad and a main dish and some restaurants also offer desserts.
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