Monday, 21 February 2022 Orientation days - Welcoming Erasmus students at UP
On Friday and Saturday (18 and 19 February 2022) both Koper and Škocjan Caves were filled with young international energy from students, that will attend lectures at our University during the spring semester. Orientation days welcomed more than 70 students from 23 countries – most come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey.
They were greeted by international offices as well as volunteers who decided to be a part of it because of their own experience: “We were inspired by the memory of our Orientation days, that was a great inspiration and a great experience, as we got to be out and around all day, meeting new people from different countries and it made the day really fun.” (Volunteers Marko from Macedonia and Luka from Serbia)
On Friday, they first got to know the University, the forms for the Administrative Unit, and a few words in Slovene. PSEN and ŠOUP gave them information about the system for student subsidized food and social activities. After refreshments with typical local food, they discovered Koper through the traditional Treasure Hunt.
We would like to thank the Primorska Exchange group who took over this Treasure Hunt this time. Their representative Inga was happy to help: “We are so happy that our participants explored Koper, interacted with locals, broke communication barriers between themselves and between locals, and had a fun time overall! It was a pleasure to organize, thank you to our volunteers for all their help and collaboration and to our university for supporting us."
The event was also well received by students, who, in addition to a helping hand for their beginnings, were given a great opportunity to meet and make new friends in a new environment. This is certainly not an easy task as the tasks of treasure hunting were not easy either: “The most difficult game was the one in which we had to combine pictures with dishes - even the Slovenian participants did not know them. I really don’t know how we managed to win, probably just because we were fast. The tasks were not easy, but they were certainly a lot of fun.” (Alessandro from Italy)
Pantelios from Greece also shared his impressions: “I liked the whole experience, it was nice to get a little better familiarity with the streets of Koper. It was also nice to meet new people and share the experience. The tasks were hard enough to challenge you, but not too hard to be too much Even though we didn't win, it was a great experience.”
Saturday was the time for students for an excursion to the Škocjan Caves Park, not only the only monument in Slovenia inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List but also a partner of the UNESCO chair of interpretation and education for enhancing integrated heritage approaches with the University of Primorska – which will be marked wit inauguration meeting on 22 February 2022.
