Report December - Business and Engineering
I’ll never forget the view when opening my curtains in the morning to discover the just snowed Schweinfurt. That’s how the month started, cold and bright, but with a feeling of being waken up in another world. Must admit that I skipped some classes just to stroll around and discover again the city in white, with tons of Christmas decorations and a charming Christmas market where the main plaza stands. Taking a Glühwein with friends at the evenings, carrying gloves and heavy winter clothes, and see the snow fall; got to confess that winter have never hit me harder, not in the sense of cold, indeed in the sense of feeling that the winter arrived.
Another important event also happened at the beginning of the month, the i-Campus day. It consisted on an international gastronomical student fair, with the objective of letting the students know each other sharing food from their homeland and dialogs about themselves and their origins. In my case, my team consisted of a Latin-American mix between Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, and we opted for the name “The Soul of America“. We designed and printed two gigantic posters, put some national music and decorated the table. The sales were outstanding, as the amount of chatting, laughs and new people we met. The whole team agreed it was one of the best initiatives of the university so far, and we appreciate the hard work of the staff and the possibility of being part of the festivity. As time passed by, I felt that the classrooms look emptier, and that the student life in the city started to vanish. Later I understood that the reason was because mostly of the international students go back home for the celebrations and many spend the whole holidays until January with their families. In my case unfortunately, traveling back to Argentina was impossible and pointless for such a few days; so me and some friends decided to cook a big Christmas banquet and spend the night together drinking and playing games. In case you’ll find yourself in the same situation as me, I would simply advise to stick with your group, plan and made the best of it as possible. Sure, it won’t feel like home, but at least you’ll be glad to have experienced the festivities surrounded by caring people and laughs.
Luckily, for new year we decided to party big and planned a two-weeks long trip to Italy. Searching for cheap accommodations, transportation and destinations surely took a big chunk of our time but it was unimaginable worth it. The most memorable experiences include “The Path of the Gods”, a five-hour hiking around the Amalfi coast; living the New year’s countdown in Circo Massismo in Rome and visiting it many attractions; Driving around Tuscany and doing a daytrip to San Marino with the gang. Happy to say that I did my first backpacking experience in Europe, and anxious to do it on the near future again, to keep on discovering new places and to meet new people on the way.
To conclude, this month flew like crazy. So much free time, but so many things to do. On one hand sad to say that I missed the festivities with my loved ones, but on the other, so happy to have experienced them somewhere else and tried something different. I totally recommend it, for this new incoming year I feel more motived than ever before.
