Trip to Lithuania

 

One of the best ways to get to know people is to travel with them. We, the students from Ghent and the students from Edinburgh, just met up in Lund so we needed something to break the ice.

The common passion of all students of IMFSE is of course traveling! We had a great idea to have a trip to Lithuania. Unfortunately not all my classmates joined the trip, but one “OLD” student, Mohammed (second year student), came with us. The organizer of he trip was Max (Wuquan, the name is too difficult so for us he is Max!). If you are going to travel with Max when he is the organizer, just remember to stop him at some point, otherwise he will organize a trip that lasts for at least 20 days. We tried to stop him but still, in one trip we passed by 4 different airports because Max wanted to see everything but also make it easy for us to travel from place to place. This can give you an idea about Max.

We spent the weekend in the two main cities of Lithuania: Kaunas and Vilnius. I would recommend it to everyone who loves cheap travels, since it is so inexpensive there (We are used to Sweden, which is not cheap at all). During that weekend, students from Ghent got the results of the exams and it was not a good starting point honestly. We were trying to think about something else so some of us went to watch a basketball match, while others tried to test their I.Q. with a logic game. Of course they didn’t get a good score, the best ones were watching the match!

We visited Kaunas the next day and it didn’t take that much time so we decided to give a try to the local food, and if you imagine Italians, South Americans and Arabs all in one table I can assure you that the waiter will have a hard work. Later that day, we left Kaunas for Vilnius. During the bus trip, we noticed the difference between the main cities and the outskirts of Lithuania. It is such a big difference and you wouldn’t like to be there at night. Vilnius is a really nice city, during our holiday there was a city festival, where we had the opportunity of trying all different local dishes and wines. But second year student Mohammed can never betray his lovely KFC, so we had to go there.

Of course in each hostel where we visited, we left a message. It’s quite clear that they are from us and I hope no one will erase them. After all, Max spent a lot of time on drawing the monkey in order to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Those days went so fast, like all nice periods in  life. It has been a great way to get to know the classmates and to see the difference between us. The differences in people from all over the world were quite clear in that weekend. But everyone got closer to each other and from there on, there was no different group of people from Ghent and people from Edinburgh, it was just IMFSE.

Skiing in Sweden

We had no classes on that day, so we thought “why not go skiing for one day?!” Nine of us decided to go; we rented a van and left early in the morning, ready for a two and a half hour drive up to Isaberg.

We finally arrived in Isaberg around 11 am, and by the time we were ready it was so late that we decided to skip lunch and take advantage of the time we had on the slopes, which closed at 4pm. Four of us opted for the snowboard, and the rest for skis. Jan and I are the only ones who know how to ski/snowboard, but for the others it was the first time! There were many falls, but everybody had so much fun! By the end of the day Nemer, David and Andres also went down a red slope, which was a big accomplishment, considering they had never skied before.

Of course, by the time the slopes closed, we were all very hungry and decided to go to eat at Max, a Swedish fast food restaurant, without knowing that the closest one was about one and a half hour away. So we finally had lunch (which became lunch + dinner) at 6 o’clock.

It was a great day, and we can’t wait to do it again!

Here is a picture of the nine of us, with the red slope in the background. It is wonderful that with IMFSE, besides getting a great education, we get to have unforgettable adventures as well!

Have you known IMFSE quite well?!!

Welcome to IMFSE where you can enjoy two years as you get a master degree…

What is interesting about this programme is literally everything. One and a half years have passed and I still do not need these two years to finish, simply it is a beneficial joy.

Edinburgh, Gent, and Lund are the best universities which give you a FIREY knowledge! While Gent makes you understand the fire. Edinburgh and Lund give you its effect. Edinburgh has a state-of-the-art knowledge on the thermal reaction of structures, and Lund introduces you to the world of human behaviour and its contradictories

The combination which comes out of the universities cannot be described in few lines, but every single detail in it is awesome.

The cities? Well, as I could not describe how awesome are the universities, how I can depict the places. Edinburgh is a must-see city, it has all the features that make it on the top. It is a collection of history and civilization. I just want to say that wherever you go in Edinburgh, you will be impressed. Gent is awesome as well, kind people and good weather are waiting for you there. The historical active centre is a unique place that gives you a picture of standard European cities. Still Lund has a mixing of all the above, but the most identifiable feature is the kindness of people.

As it is an Erasmus programme, people from all around the world are involved. Just 18 nationalities in our year group!! It is a matchless experience that a person will have in his lifetime. Different generations, languages, cultures, and habits that inspire the life of Erasmus students.

Having different characteristics among the universities is a big advantage of the programme. Students can choose what they like to see and gain in a semester. Not only three universities, but with the ability to pick a place from out of Europe as well! I chose the University of Maryland in the USA, while others went to Queensland, Australia. To say the least, it is something that satisfy every preference…

If you like to see new places, travel. If you like to have more knowledge, seek for education. If you like to enjoy your time, meet new people. But if you like all, just go IMFSE

Sami

A normal day with IMFSE

Being completely honest, when the teacher told us that we were going to a container which would be put on fire while we were in it, I didn’t really care about it that much. I thought it will be one of those boring tests that everyone takes not-so-eagerly, because, who wants to put themselves on fire on purpose?
When the great day was close, Karel, our teacher, started pointing out some suggestions to keep in mind before the test took place. We had to drink way too much water to keep our bodies hydrated because otherwise, the consequences would had not been that great. Also, we had to dig up our oldest clothes that we wanted to sacrifice for the experiment. Keep in mind, being an exchange student you really don’t carry old and not wearable clothes with you. But in the end, it wasn’t a problem.
The class was formed by six of us. And honestly, no one was brave enough to deal with it anymore. We went to the lab in the morning and we saw all the buildings that they had burnt down for the previous experiments. In that moment, we understood that it was not going to be such an easy-breezy situation as we thought it would have been.
After getting ready, meaning that we all put on some firefighter suits and protections (which were not comfortable, by the way), Karel took us to the container. We were scared. There were two other firefighters in the container and it didn’t really help at that point because we were the only ones who did not know what was going on. Then the stacking wood started burning and we started feeling the heat. I can sure you, it was not the best feeling in the world. During the fire experiment in the container, Karel showed us all the phenomena which we had studied during the semester in Gent. We were finally able to see everything clearly and to understand them in real life. But our biggest thought was, what if he will lose control of the fire? What if something will go wrong? Of course our teacher knew what he was doing, afterall, he is one of the best ones in his field for a reason and he kept us safe for the whole experiment.
This one has been one of the best experiences I have ever had and really helpful to make me, and the others, understand what we are studying. Unfortunately, we didn’t capture this moment of us that day, but I can bet that no one of us students will never forget that day! Never!

Arrival in Lund – Start of the second semester

Most of us arrived in Lund on the 11th of January, because the second years told us that “if you arrive on Arrival Day they will do everything for you, even carry your luggage”. And so it was. That day was so foggy, I started missing the rainy Edinburgh. At the check in I met Veronica, we had been flat mates in Edinburgh already, and it was really nice to see her again after almost 3 weeks of vacation. She helped me to carry the suitcases up the stairs to my room (the no-elevator thing was not so fun!). Many of us IMFSE students live in the same area, so the first night in Lund most of us met in Max and Mohamed’s kitchen. That was also the first time we really got to talk to the others who were in Gent for the first semester. We had already met in London once for Fire Safety Day, but didn’t have much time to talk to each other in that occasion. Of course we compared the way things were done in Edinburgh and Gent, if there were any differences or any common things. I guess all students did that on the start of the second semester. And the second year students were there also, giving us advice and telling us about their previous experience in Lund. It was so nice to finally be all together!

The first week was introduction week, we got to know the university of Lund and we also got to know each other better. The weather had gotten better, at least for me. The fog was gone, replaced by snow. I don’t usually like snow, but here in Lund it was not too bad, and at least we could see past our nose!

The second week classes started, and we got back into the routine of waking up early and going to the lecture. The schedule here is different form the one in Edinburgh, we definitely have more lecture hours, and, very weird for us, it changes every week!

To finish our first week of classes, 8 of us decided to take a trip to Copenhagen on Saturday. The city is very nice, but it was so cold that day! We decided to do a free walking tour of the city center, and then we went to see the statue of the little mermaid. Here’s a picture of us, plus Pasquale’s friend Erika, in Little Amsterdam.

IMFSE is starting up a blog!

Dear visitors,

We would like to welcome you all to our brand new blog! As nowadays everyone is writing a blog, we had the feeling here at the IMFSE secretariat we couldn’t fall behind of course. So here it finally is: the first IMFSE blog!

You will be able to read all kinds of IMFSE-related things here, ranging from interesting articles written by us, to wonderful stories written by our 3 IMFSE ambassadors! These 3 IMFSE students will be blogging about their student life and FSE-related matters while following the IMFSE programme.

Do you want to find out more about what IMFSE is all about? Please visit our website, our Facebook page or our Twitter account (@IntMaFSE). And you can always email us at IMFSE@UGent.be, we will be happy to answer any of your questions!

Have lots of fun reading our blog posts here, and don’t be shy to like, comment and share 🙂

Best wishes,

The IMFSE Team