Halfway through the second semester

Time flies when you’re having fun! I cannot believe my second semester in Kaunas already reached the half way milestone. Slowly but steady the first signs of spring carefully appear. It has been a long, dark winter, but actually I expected it would be worse. I remember well how temperatures occasionally dropped till around -30 when I lived in Estonia as well as Latvia previous years. I haven’t experienced that this winter. 

 

I’ve not been writing too many study related blog posts lately so therefore a little update on my personal life in Lithuania right now. At university everything goes following plan. I’m still very thankful that I conquered my hesitation and simply applied for my Journalism and Media Analysis Master degree here in Kaunas. The five courses I take leave a lot of space for my own creativity and I value that a lot. These are by the way the classes I’m attending:

- Communication Cultures

- Audiovisual Journalism

- Research Project in Audiovisual Journalism

- Media Economics

- Risk and Crisis Communication

This must be the first time ever I actually like a course concerning economics. Yippee!

This semester is socially a bit differently organized than the first. I really miss the people I met during that time. Astrid from Denmark was a wonderful roommate. She’s very bright and has an awesome sense of humor. It was always good to have her around. I really hope to visit her in Copenhagen later on this summer. Melissa from Germany is also intensely missed. She shares the same passion for adventure as I do and also the ‘Sparfuchs’ syndrome is something we have in common ;-). After the upcoming summer holiday she’ll spend half a year in Sweden so there will probably be enough possibilities to finally see her again. Also without Jenny and Sofie from Sweden, Aneta from the Czech Republic, Sophie from Belgium and Simon from Denmark the dormitory lost some of its energetic spirit. The good memories remain though.

Melissa, Nienke, Jenny, Sofie, Sophie, Astrid, Aneta

Because I didn’t join the spring semester introduction week I didn’t really have the chance to easily get in touch with the new Erasmus students. Actually I’m ok with that, since I cannot identify myself at all with their ‘OMG we are Erasmus students so we HAVE TO party as much as possible’- mentality. Luckily this semester I have the opportunity to get to know two very special persons a bit better. Yi, my roommate from China, and Jun, a journalism student from South Korea. It’s so beautiful that even though our cultural backgrounds are so diverse, we still share so many views of life. Yi is a Master degree student in Social Work and that definitely shows off. She’s a great listener with a heart of gold and she’s incredibly fun too. Jun on the other hand seems to me like the most fearless and curious human being on earth. It’s wonderful how he soaks up people’s personal stories and dreams. Yeah, it’s good to have those two around.  

Calm travel companions somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Poland. Jun and Yi.

Till so far my little study update. I just finished three midterm exams so it's time for a well deserved Easter holiday.