Hi, my name is Greta, I am 17 years old and I come from Italy. I am participating in an Erasmus in Maribor, Slovenia. I decided to take this path for a better future in my life.

Participating in this type of project has many positive aspects. First of all, I decided to participate to learn better the English language that is now spoken all over the world. Then, being a girl who adapts to everything, open and looking for adventures and new experiences, I left to learn about new cultures and the differences in the world of work. Having already participated in similar experiences, I met and got to know people from all over the world, and coming here is another opportunity to meet new people and open my mind more for other cultures and have a different mentality.

Another reason for which I participated, in addition to a personal experience, which will help me to be independent in the future, is that this will help me improve my CV and look for work abroad, without remaining in my country.

I like travelling a lot and unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity in my family, and when opportunities like this arise, I take them without thinking.

Being a young girl, I still have various fears, which I don't consider negative, because we all have them; one is that of not being able to understand or make myself understandable around or at work, another is to find myself missing my new friends from abroad when i come back. But this is absolutely not happening, we are a group of 8 people, plus the tutor, in a few days we have done a lot, they want to do many things and they are all really very nice. The tutor is always very helpful and is always there for everything and helps us, cares and protects us like a mother.

When I return to Italy, I hope to have become a more mature and independent girl and to have learned new things in my work and personal life, to learn how to better manage money and to live outside of the home walls of my parents and with a great desire to leave again for another similar experience.

A few months ago I was selected to participate in the Erasmus+ project, organized by Eurocentro in collaboration with the ZNI. I left Italy on March 17th, and lived in Maribor for a month, until April 17th. In this article I would like to talk about travel, work, feelings, all the positive aspects and my personal growth, and more in general about this experience, wishing anyone to be able to live it.
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 The city and typical food
Couple days after my arrival in Maribor I met my tutors, Vita and Neja, who immediately showed themselves to be very kind and willing to help me and the rest of my group. In those days I had chance to visit the city and all the most characteristic points, such as the main square, the castle or the Franciscan church.
Despite the small size of the center, I found it really nice, and I recommend everyone to visit it. In addition, I tasted various foods such as Cevapčiči, a dish of minced meat, variously spiced, typical for the cuisine of countries of the Balkan peninsula, or Gulasch, a typical Hungarian soup based on meat, spices and various vegetables .
Also I was really amazed by the cuisine of Slovenia, certainly different from the one I was used to, but no less good.

The work
As was explained to me in the early days, the ZNI would have played an intermediary role between the organizers of this project and the various companies for which I and the rest of my group would have worked. I worked at the Center Eksperimentov, a place where many scientific experiments are shown to children and young people between the ages of 5 and 15/16, and several birthdays are organized in the afternoon. Here I got to know the staff, who proved to be very skilled in science subjects, explaining to me some topics I've already treated at school, but which I hadn't remembered or which I hadn't studied well. They also showed me how different tools and experiments work.
Fortunately they were all very kind to me, and with them I was able to practice and improve my knowledge of English language.
During my stay I helped the staff in the preparation of several experiments, but also by carrying out various maintenance, cleaning, and preparing games that would later be used by children during birthdays, working both manually and on the computer. I was really satisfied with this because it allowed me to receive a preparation for every type of work.

The travels
For two weekends, the ZNI organized trips and trips to help us get to know Slovenia better. The first was a trip to Mountain Pohorje, where I could see the entire city of Maribor from above.
The second one was a guided tour of the capital Ljubljana. I could visit the castle there, and several tourist spots in the city center, such as the Triple Bridge, or the beautiful Dragon Bridge, although the thing I preferred was Metelkova, a very particular neighborhood where the buildings present many drawings on the external walls.
On the free weekends my group and I decided to visit several cities, such as Zagreb and Budapest. In the first case I was very impressed by the history of the city, and the strange fusion between old and modern, easily visible from the buildings.
Instead in Budapest we had the opportunity to visit one of the largest and most important European capitals. We could see several tourist destinations, such as the Buda Castle, or the Heroes Square. This trip also served me well to learn how to move in a city so big with transport.

Conclusions
Obviously it was not easy to immediately abide by the Slovenian life, but I believe that this experience was very important for me. I learned to look after myself, to live away from home and more generally to be more mature. So I can do nothing but thank the ZNI and the Center Eksperimentov for giving me this opportunity, and I wish everyone to have chance to experience all this.

My first impression about Slovenia. When I first came to Slovenia I've noticed the hilly landscape. The nature in Slovenia looks a lot different than in Ireland. There are a lot of foliage trees, a lot more than in Ireland. Also the cultural life and architecture are different, especially Maribor city left good impression. Because the city looks great built, has nice oldtown, great river view either from the bridges and shore. Also, it's noticeable that in Slovenia there are many churches on the hills, this gives impression that Slovenians are passionate Christians. Moreover, a majority of Slovenians looks healthy and nature friendly people because they have access to outdoor activities so they have to look after the nature to keep it clean.

Lucie is our participant from Czech Republic, who started her work practice in an Elderly home "Dom Danice Vogrinec Maribor" on 27.9.2018 and she is staying until 27.4.2019. In this time she already experienced a lot, gained many new working related skills, got to know new people and places and became very familiar with Slovenia in general. Bellow are Lucie's thoughts on her time here.
"In my first weeks of work practice in the Elderly home I had a presentation about my country and I even taught one client how to dance Czech Polka. For me, having a presentation made me step out of my comfort zone. I received positive feedback from my college and was very happy to hear it. In December, I changed location of work to another unit. I was a little bit afraid of new place, new people, but on the other hand I knew it was good for me, as I would be working with my mentor as a social worker. At the beginning I was struggling with Slovene language, as  the elderly wanted to share their experience with me and I couldn't understand everything. But they were always supportive and understanding. I had Slovene language lessons which was perfect! In the last lesson me and the teacher, Luka, drank coffee and talked about everyday things - most of the chat was in Slovene language, so I was really proud of myself. I began to understand the administration at work and became more independent with organising all the documentation. I am also practicing the language in my free time, as I get in contact with local people. In daily centre we prepare many events and I think it is really perfect that there are good intergenerational relationships - sometimes children come to visit us, we have concerts etc. I am looking forward to next weeks, because we have prepared lots of interesting events!" 

My name is Soukaina, I am an Italian student attending the fifth class in the Rosselli-Rasetti Institute of Castiglione del Lago in the province of Perugia (Italy) and in February I had the opportunity to participate in an international project called Erasmus +. It allowed me to live for three weeks in Maribor in Slovenia, where I was doing my internship in a Slovenian company Orca Energija d.o.o..

Orca Energija is well known for the production of heat pumps for heating , heat pumps for domestic water, pellet stoves and ventilation systems. It contains several employees between offices, production and the logistics center. The company has several English and Austrian partners, who they are  cooperating with.

During my internship in Orca Energija , which unfortunately did not last long, I had the opportunity to perform various tasks. I was the most enthusiastic about those, which allow me to work with the computer, as using a site called '' Bizi.si '' and creating tables with the Excel program. One week, when I was sick and  not able to work in the office  my company tutor gave me an interesting project, which I could do from home. After I recovered I went back to work. I was happy to be able to learn new things every day thanks to the availability of both of my tutors and their colleagues.

I have always dreamed of being able to work in an international company and now more than ever I hope to be able to create my future job by following this way.

I thank to everyone who have allowed me to participate this project. But above all I thank my tutor, because despite my English, she managed to understand and make me feel as a part of their team.


​Soukaina  

​Zdravo! This is my last post here in ZNI’s webpage and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand it’s cool to come back and see my friends and family, and on the other hand Slovenian adventure passed so fast, that I didn’t enjoy it enough. I mean, I am satisfied with everything what happened to me, but I wish it would be longer. Well, not everything will be as I wish So I need to go on Wednesday. My trip is going to be real challenge, I will use train and then 2 buses (scholarship is gone and no money for plane ), but on the other hand I will see one more city – will have a stop in Vienna. I am looking forward to carry my enormous luggage and have a sleepless night hahaha.
This weekend in ZNI we have said goodbye to participants from Italy. I have my own experience with them. I was asked to prepare a video about their stay and they gladly helped me. I was really happy to see, that they are enthusiastic on the same level about it as I am. Today I finally put all the pieces together and found out that it is lovely movie-memory for both of us, participants and ZNI. And also one little thing, which has made my day better – one of the girls, whom I was filming, left a letter for me in the office with warm words about our little “Hollywood” adventure. I was very touched and pleased by it. I am happy that my last days in Slovenia and in ZNI are bringing some good results.
​ I will miss this time: new places, new people, new job. Challenging and exciting. Good luck to the next blog-writer and I think she will also have something to tell you.