Letter home - Susanna Leppänen

Being as an Erasmus student on summer semester 2018.

1. In what country and University are you studying?
I was in Czech Republic, Pilsen (Plzeň) in University of West Bohemia.

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?
Business Administration in Finnish.

3. What are the courses like at the host University?
I was studying at faculty of economics. I took courses mostly about marketing. 
A habit of way teaching was sometimes quiet boring. Some courses was lectures so only listening and looking at the board where was PowerPoint. I had two courses where professors were asking many questions, I like it but I didnt want to be involved in conversations because something always happened in lessons and I totally forgot how to speak English. 😁

4. Describe the study culture? / What is the corporate culture like?
I think czech people are very dedicated to study. I didn't meet many Czech people at classes because many czech students hadn't take courses in English. I met some Czech girls and guys and they are very shy about speaking English. Otherwise, I think Czech people are pretty similar with Finnish people. Like we do have our personal spaces. We don't hug people when we meet at the first time. But I did this to my buddy (tutor) because I thought it's polite but she was surprised. 

In markets and shops it depends how they act. In markets i got first hey from the cashier, but of course they spoke to my in Czech. I started to say greetings in Czech and I was able to answer for the questions yes or no. Czech is so hard! 😅

5. What is your study group like?
We had a very multicultural Group. From Europe and Asia. I think there was around 100 Exchange students, part of winter semester and we new students for the summer semester. There was 5 students from Finland included me. Two from Turku and two from Oulu.

I recommended to go for abroad not with the friend. You'll have change to get more friends and you are not hanging out only with your friend there. Unfortunately there was people who came with friend(s) and they were only groups and barely i saw them.

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?
I had three days of week lessons (from monday to wednesday). So my weekends started much earlier. Everything was close in Pilsen. Public transportation was easy to use. Tramstation and bus stops were next to our dormitory. We had a pub next to our dormitory, so we were there every monday. playing table soccer, talking and drinking. There was ESN Pilsen = Erasmus Student Network, which organized to use some events for example trip to Prague and bowling, and events which I liked the most was Culture Evening. Winter wasn't long in Czech Republic so after snow and temperature gets more warmer, we went to park which was also next to dormitory. Borsky park is so big and there is so much Place to play soccer, baseball and frisbee and much more. We also did picnics.

Cathedral of St. Bartholomew

In Pilsen

Okay this sounds I havent studied there. But yes, I studied there and i spent so many hours with my laptop just doing assignments. We had Group tasks almost in every course so we needed to meet at library and do presentations and seminar papers. 

7. What has been challenging? Why? 
During  the whole exhange the difficulties was the Czech launguage itself. In the capital city, Prague, everyone speaks English there but when you are going to another city or town, they hardly speaks English. This situation made many things harder. Only in restaurants they spoke English but it was also struggeling sometimes. Professors spoke very good English except for a few. Anyway we always survived somehow. Luckily I had my own buddy like a tutor who helped me with everything what I asked. 

Sitter in the dormitory didn't speak english if you wanted to wash the laundy, I needed to use a google translator or to ask my roommate for help me with the Czech part. Sometimes sitters were angry at me because I didn't understand Czech and they didn't understand English. 

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far?
The highlight in my Exchange period was to have so many friends from so many countries. I got also two best friends from there. I haven't been this glad ever. You get to know them and their culture which was one of my wishes to have in abroad.