I spent the last two weeks at CreteLing Summer School and I recommend it to everyone.
The teachers are prepared and ready to answer any questions, both during lessons and in their free time. Students can present posters of their work and two very interesting workshops with internationally renowned professors are planned. Furthermore, the Summer School organizes evenings with games for students and dinners to spend an evening in the company of students and/or teachers.

Rethymno is a beautiful seaside town. There you can eat excellent Greek food and you can spend your free time at the beach or walk through the vibrant streets of the city.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend this experience. Erasmus + has made my wish come true.

Pripravništvo v Bruslju v smeri grafičnega oblikovanja

Letos sem sedem mesecev preživela pri odlični svetovalni agenciji v Bruslju, kjer so me mentorirali v načelih dizajna, ki se osredotoča na komunikacije, še posebaj preko družbenih omrežij. Kot študentka animacije, na akademiji umetnosti, sem v tem času lahko globoko utemeljila svoje znanje adobe programov in tega tudi močno nadgradila. Naugila sem se novih načel oblikovanja, bila mi je predstavljena nora novva tehnologija in ves čas sem imela tudi možnost dela v pisarni (s čudoitim razgledom na mesto) ali pa od doma. Ekipa je bila zelo odprta in prijazna, pomoč sem dobila tudi ob najbolj nespametnih vprašanjih.

Mesto kot samo mi je super. Je dom techno glasbe in pa stripov, kar se po ulicah tudi kaže, saj so bolj ‘umetniške’ (in pa malce umazane), a so tudi polne čudovite energije in pustolovskega duha. Vreme je kdaj slabo, ampak pomladi, ko končno zasije sonce se lokali in parki napolnijo z ogromno obrazi polnimi nasmeškov.

Zame je bila izkušnja super, ne le, da sem lahko s pripravništvom dobila ogromno novega znanja, ki mi bo zagotovo močno pomagalo pri iskanju zaposlite, ampak sem lahko tudi živela v elikem evropskem mestu, ki je poln skritih kotičkov, presenečenj in kjer je vedno, vedno, vedno kaj za početi.

From the 26th until the 30th of July we were a part of a summer school programme at ERAM University school in Girona, Spain – Staging in public spaces. Since acting isn’t really our primary interest, we were all curious and maybe a bit anxious to see how the workshop would unfold. We were placed in a group of thirty people or so, so one might think that it would be difficult for all of us to get along, let alone connect. But Carla, our mentor, made sure to hit the nail right on the head since day one of the workshop, so all of us felt comfortable to create and express right away.

Everyday was a complete new experience. We started of with telling a bit about ourselves but then straight away jumeped to excercises. Most of the first day we spent inside, exploring movements and seing how we can move together as a group. Sometimes it felt like dancing but sometimes just like a strong bond with the group that was established really quickly. We finished off the day with the game of hide and seek outside the school but to stay on topic, anyone who was found had to join the seeker and they had to move as a group, without words. The movements of the bodies were the tool for comunication on where to go next.

Second day came as a bit of a shock to all of us. We woke up in the morning and left for Barcelona. What we thought will be more of a turistic day in a big city was all of a sudden a public performance. We walked to a view point and started doing simmilar excercises as the day before. A street musician found his spot right next to us and we were encouraged by our mentor to respond to our surroundings which now also included the music. The more excercises we did, more people started observing a big group of young people doing weird stuff. When we already thought we finished, we moved to a more crowded space and had to, as a group, interact with our new found public. It felt like we are on a playground and it wasn’t a big problem to do bunch of stuff in front of complete strangers because you knew there is 30 more people there with you doing exactly the same thing.

It would probably be an even better feeling if Barcelona day happened a bit later in the week so the group would really be connected as we were at the end of the workshop. After that we got the rest of the day to roam free around Barcelona but had to do a short video for whitch we got 3 words that somehow needed to be shown in the clip. We formed smaller groups, did the excercise and got the opportunity to get to know the people in the group a bit better. The next day we watched all the videos from all groups and really saw the creativity of everyone participating in the workshop.

The rest of the workshop we were exploring more exercises that would make us closer as a group, plus finding out new ways of expressing ourselves with just gestures or movements instead of the words. For the last two days we were mostly preparing for the final performance, for which we first divided into smaller groups (5-6 people). All of the groups were supposed to choose a place around ERAM building and try to incorporate some interesting performance idea into the space and the surrounding environment. All four of us were in different groups, so we had different experiences of preparations and performing, as all of the teams chose a completely different subject and way to build up their own performance.

The last day was dedicated completely to performances, each group was performing for all the other people from the workshop, we made the plan with the convenient order of groups so we would be able to see everything and had enough time to prepare for each performance. At the end we all shared our experience with the group and the mentor, from our point of view the whole workshop was an extremely interesting and moving experience to go out from your comfort zone and explore yourself with the way we don’t usually do it. We are really thankful for all the organisers of the workshop for such an experience and appreciate our chances of joining this kind of a project.

Arta Kroni, Ana Logar, Tamara Kirina, Milena Brkić

From March to June 2023, I completed a three-month internship under the Erasmus+ programme in Leoben, Austria, at the Department of General and Analytical Chemistry at the Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL).

My work there, as a PhD student at the University of Nova Gorica and a young researcher at the Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS), was related to the activities within the international project MURmap, in which GeoZS and MUL, in collaboration with the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC), are trying to obtain data on the environmental geochemistry of conventional and modern inorganic pollutants in a European river basin – the Mur/Mura river.

More information about MURmap project you can find here: https://www.murmap.at/en/

During this time I gained knowledge and improved my skills in analytical chemistry, laboratory work, and social skills. After joining the university, I visited the department and laboratories of the Department of General and Analytical Chemistry and familiarised myself with the rules for safe work, especially in the clean room and the limitations of working with chemicals. I spent most of my time in the lab, where I learned abound the process of cleaning lab equipment and sample preparation procedures (e.g., measuring analytes). After acquiring the basic knowledge, I participated in the measurement of the chemical composition of the Mur/Mura water using inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In addition to determining the chemical composition of the water, I was also involved in preparing samples for Sr isotope ratio measurements and calibrating them, using state-of-the-art equipment. In May, I also had the opportunity to participate in the Junganalytiker*innen Forum, where I presented a poster with the results of the MURmap project.

The whole experience was excellent. The people at the university are very friendly and the city is cosy and beautiful. I am very grateful for the excellent integration into the department group and participation in all their activities. I learned new skills that will help me improve my PhD, met new people and made contacts. I had the opportunity to work with renowned scientists, improve my English and get to know a new city.

Barbara Čeplak