For the past 4 months I have been living on the city of Maribor in Slovenia. Many people are saying that Slovenia is shaped like a running chicken. And if Slovenia is chicken, Maribor is located at the neck.
My studies of electrical engineering in Maribor consisted of 30 ECTS and are the follwing:
– Industrial Electronics
– Electrical Circuits
– Electrical Power Conversion and Generation
– Media & Democracy
– Industrial Electronics
Most of the studying is done in self-studying in forms of reports and exams, which is very different compared to Finland. My courses were mainly about electrical engineering except for the course Media & Democracy which was more directed toward journalist studies. I certainly learned a lot about many concepts which are very important to electrical engineering and relying on self-study was a interesting change.
Maribor is a relatively small and compact city with around 130 000 population. Climate was quite great, about +10 degrees compared to Finnish temperature. Most amazing thing was that the city was full of Erasmus students. When I walked to my nearest shop on the way there I would meet at least 3 friends. Also the government supplied the students with 22 food coupons per month. With a food coupon you could go to any restaurant and get a 2.5 euro discount. The food was delicious as well as cheap.
I was living in a student dormitory near the city center called Tyrseva and sharing a room with another Erasmus student. There were over 100 Erasmus students living in that dormitory so you can imagine what it was like. The spare-time was spent together with all the great people I met during my Erasmus. I felt there was so much fun things to do: we went running, gymming, drinking coffee, traveling to neighboring countries and of course – partying.
The studying culture in Slovenia is much more formal and academic as we are required to do a lot of self-study and there is not that much practical work. In most of the courses I only saw the professors a few time in the whole semester. But for me this type of studying was new and refreshing.
It was a great trip and I will certainly miss many things from Slovenia and I am sure to go back there some day.
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