A few weeks after the Erasmus + contract had been signed by my University and me, I landed in one of the most popular summer-vacation-cities in Europe. Barcelona. Four months have never flown by so quickly. I spent my time taking walks by the Mediterranean Sea guessing which languages were spoken by people who were passing by, driving with metro to my favorite locations like the crowded parks in front of the Sagrada Familia, the outdoor library by the Glories Tower and to a small restaurant Montaditos, by the Placa de Catalunya, where me and my Slovenian coworker would occasionally enjoy Sangria. Since I had already known Italian language, I understood Spanish good enough. Me and my landlady had this kind of italian-spanish language exchange with some body mimicry involved to help us understand each other better. Quite a fun experience. I guess I also learned some words of Turkish since I had a roommate and coworkers from Turkey. In this time in Catalonia, as far as the events go, I went to the Summer Festival and Gracia Festival, joined the celebration of the National Day of Catalonia, traveled to Andorra, Montserrat, Tarragona and Tossa de Mar. I couldn’t wish for a better first, long term, experience abroad. Hopefully, the journey over the Slovenian hills has just begun.

During the summer, I went to northern Germany to work as an intern at the NGO AFG Spirit. I spent three months in a little village called Schipshorst, working and helping out the group with the daily administrative tasks.

AGF Spirit is an art collective, they manage a local festival and organize various cultural events in their village as well as abroad. They are a self-established group focusing on decentralized, alternative happenings. AGF Spirit works with all kinds of media: performance, film, site-specific installations and music.

Their attitude and line of work very much coincide with mine, so I am glad for the opportunity to work with them. I gained a lot of practical experiences, I learned about the obstacles and I learned how to overcome them. Beside the knowledge on the work front, it was very inspiring to be a part of the creative processes that ran in the background. The collective taught me some valuable lessons on aesthetics and politics of the contemporary cultural industry. Looking forward to further collaboration!

Summer of 2018, I got an opportunity for a two months internship under the Erasmus+ programme. As global environmental issues, animal liberation and veganism are mostly the core of my artistic expression, I wanted to use this opportunity to learn from an organisation working on these issues. Apart from that, I wanted to learn more about how film-making and activism can be aligned together.

I found and applied for internship at ProVeg Netherlands, a branch of leading international food awareness organisation working across four continents, with a mission of reducing the global consumption of animals by 50% by the year 2040. With a positive encouragement from the dean at School of Arts and support from the International office at the University of Nova Gorica, I started the internship on 13th August, 2018.

In the course of the internship, I helped with film/video-making services required by the organisation as well as worked on a 2 minutes long animation explanatory video titled “5 pros of being ProVeg”. This included pre-production, shooting and editing of the audio-visual materials. I gained hands-on experience by attaining the process while completing tasks appropriate for my skills. I also acquired working experience with the international voluntary organisation and gained knowledge on film production + animation process as well as activism through film. Overall, it was a great learning experience and I am looking forward to more opportunities as such in future.

Finally, I would like to thanks to Erasmus+ programme, International office and School of Arts of University of Nova Gorica for this opportunity and experience.

Sagar Gahatraj

Italy is a really beautiful place with mesmerizing historic sights and stunning seasides especially during summer. I was at Trieste for my Erasmus programme for three months and I enjoyed every part of my mobility period, starting from my arrival, the weather, friendly employees at the institute, location of the institute to the culture. I learnt few words especially with greetings which helped in my day-to-day activities. The mobility contributed to my personal and professional development as I gained a lot from the employees and experiments carried out. I discovered a lot of potential in myself through interactions and shared ideas with people at the institute and outside workplace. It was really worthwhile participating in this programme and not to forget, the OLS programme was interesting and very educative through which I improved in my language skills. Thanks to Erasmus, Italy, the host institute and also to my institution for the opportunity and support. I look forward to another exciting and informative mobility programme. 

Grazie mille!!!!!

Sandra

What a wonderful experience!!!!!!