The Butcher's Bridge

It's been a good month since my last post but without doubt I have been thinking every day about going. Right now I am in the middle of exams but I am not letting the thought of traveling interfere with my studies.

I've been doing more research in my spare time and have found out something I find interesting.
Recently, Ljubljana has added a new bridge to it's cityscape. It is a footbridge that crosses the river at the central market between the Triple Bridge and the Dragon Bridge.


It's called the Butcher's Bridge which in Slovenian is "Mesarski Most". It was proposed to be built back in the 1930s but had the plug pulled on it because of the invading Nazis. The bridge finally underwent construction quite recently after they discussed whether to modernize the plans or to stick to the original by architect Joze Plecnik. It was opened in July 2010 with a few sculptures from Greek and Biblical mythology.

What's more interesting about the bridge, I found, was the occurrence of love padlocks appearing on the steel wiring of the bridge after it opened.

The bottom padlock reads "Lili, ti si moje sonce! Metod" which translated goes along the lines of:

"Lili, you are my sunshine! Metod"

The padlocks are to symbolise eternal love between the two and have started to decorate the bridge. I think it's the perfect touch to the bridge and I want to make sure I have pictures taken of these whilst I'm there.

Paying for it

Today I start to think about my situation. I try to project realistically how far I can get in 9 months and I think about my financial position for my exchange.

I decided that I'm going to put aside money every month for my trip. Working two jobs I can comfortably save half a grand each month until departure. Also thinking about summer work, I can spend more time once I have finished semester studies to dedicate as much of myself as I can to earning money so I don't have to think about it when I'm over there.

It's not easy. I've set my target to be 12,000 for Slovenia in my own pocket. Dad's decided he would help and offered to provide a few hundred a month so I don't hit the deficit when I'm there. I think I may need more but I have to do more research. It's so hard to work out how much money I need to put aside when I have never lived there before. I think this is a good challenge though and I know there are good answers I just haven't yet found. Patience is needed.

This week I spoke to a lecturer of mine in a management unit. As I went to visit her in her office, I noticed a project model done by the student of a colleague of hers that she shares her office with. When he came into the room I asked him about the model and found out he does a construction unit that is similar to the elective that I am hoping to take up at Ljubljana. I asked him if he could have a look at the unit guide for the same subject I want to do at Ljubljana and he said he would. Now I may be able to get more academic credit than I thought.

I've not heard anymore from Mandy or the university. I'm still going around and asking some of my friends about exchange programs. One particular thing I ask them is home sickness and how they deal with it. Some of them have interesting responses but I don't want to elaborate right now. I may put them in a separate blog as I learn a little more.

I've lastly thought about brushing up on my Slovenian. I'm hoping to get text books soon and study a little during the summer period again. It's a lot harder trying to find a Slovenian text book than I thought. In the end I think it will all be worth it.

About Ljubljana

So a common question I get is "Where is Slovenia?"

Well, Slovenia is a small country in Europe lodged in between Austria and Croatia. It is barely touching the Adriatic sea.
It never plays a big role in politics these days. But it is a member of the European Union.

The capital is Ljubljana. You can see it right in the centre there of the larger chunk of the country. Right next to Domzale. It's a country of only 2 million people (actually about the same as Macedonia). The city itself is absolutely breathtaking.


This is near the Triple Bridge at the town centre. The red building in the background is a church and the statue on the right hand side is of France Preseren. He was a poet that the Slovenians hold in great respect.

This next one is one of my favourites.


It's the Dragon Bridge! It's one thing to see lions or horses guarding entrances but dragons is a whole other story. Some might not find it exciting or interesting but I love it.

If there is one thing you definitely cannot find in Australia that you can find in Slovenia, it's castles.


It sits at the top of the hill overlooking the city. It can be dated back to Roman times but was a prison and a military hospital for the past few hundred years. Now they hold festivals here.

And the place where I hope to study.


This is the University of Ljubljana (or one of it's many buildings around Ljubljana). Founded in 1919 there are over 60,000 students in the city who attend UL. Keep in mind, Ljubljana's population is over 510,000 including the metropolitan.

The distance between Ljubljana and Sydney is 16,130 kms. Sydney to Melbourne hits only 890 kms and Sydney to Beijing is around 8,950 kms. The time in Ljubljana is about 9 hours behind Sydney.

They use the Euro in Slovenia but it's still pretty cheap there. Renting an apartment in the city centre there is around $170 a week. Milk is over a dollar and a meal for two at a moderate restaurant sits at around $40.

Slovenian food is a real mixture. They have dishes from Austria and Hungary to some Balkan influences as well as their own. Soup is pretty popular though and they love their mushrooms.

There is a well known spot in Tivoli Park that sells horse burgers. They're actually made of horse meat. A lot of people have commented on how great it tastes though. I've added this to the "to do" list while I'm there.

The Current Situation

Okay, so here's where I started.

I'm living on student campus with a lot of other students who study at my univeristy. It's something like a dormitory but we don't share bedrooms. Instead we are given apartments where we share the lounge, kitchen and bathrooms. Our bedrooms are our private space.

As one would have guessed, there are many exchange students who stay on campus. Some for a semester, others for a few years. The thought never crossed my mind to go on exchange but as you begin to talk to some of them you start to hear their stories and their experiences of studying abroad. Suddenly the idea becomes very appealing and before you know it, you're wanting to pack your bags to the next flight to Rio.

Well. I don't know where the interest sparked from. But I think it came from one German girl I knew back in Autumn 2010. Her name was Anne. She told me she lived very close to the Dutch border in Germany but she studied at Hanze University. She was on exchange with my university for a semester but she had already been abroad to America before.

I started to become interested in spending time overseas to see what it's like to live in Europe. I've always been fond of Europe. Culture, music, film, art, architecture, food, everything. Anne helped my curiosity along by encouraging me to apply at Hanze University for exchange.

And so I did. But to my dismay, Hanze University was not a partner university with mine. This meant that I had to pay separate tuition to Hanze for their course, and I wasn't guaranteed that the subjects I study there would account for anything when I get back. To make it worse, my university began offering subjects only once a year and many of them are prerequisites of another. That would mean I would have to wait an entire year to complete a unit if it wasn't recognised by my university and I skip it. This was too much of a risk for me, so I chose to steer away from Hanze University.

During this time I was speaking to the international student office on my campus here. The woman I spoke to was named Debra. She was a very nice lady and always put on a huge smile. I asked her if she could help me find out if Hanze was a partner with my university. It took some time hearing back from her (I had to chase her up about it, in person), but I was disappointed when I found out it wasn't.

That didn't stop me however. I knew I had to go on exchange for the thrill and excitement. But the question now was "Where can I study?".

I had a list of criteria.

- The university had to be a partner of mine
(This meant my tuition fees were already covered under HECS)
- The university had to teach me in English
(Unfortunately, my German is not proficient and there were no available universities in Macedonia)
- The course had to be civil engineering related
(I worked out a lot of exchange students are business students this way)
- The university had to be in Europe
(My heart was set on it)

It was very long and very tedious. Sometimes I spent nights staying up late to 2 am looking for the right institute. It was all headaches and confusions. So many interesting places and so many drawbacks.

At first, I personally went to each university website myself to examine the courses offered. It was a challenge. Units became modules. Degrees became diplomas. Academic years started at different seasons. Semesters ranged in size and length. Credit points became ECTS. It was very tricky but you needed to think the same way a European student would. You had to learn their vocabulary. And that's just the beginning. It took time to filter through all the courses that were not related to mine.

It took so much time.

I don't know how I came about it, but I stumbled across a helpful manual that listed all the unversities that was partnered to mine that did courses in English. That was a great start! But to top it off, I could further narrow it down to courses as well.

This had taken me well into the Winter 2010, leading up to and right after Autumn semester exams.

My choices were the following; England, Sweden, Malta or Slovenia.

Now my family migrated to Australia in 1987 from Macedonia. Back in that time, Macedonia and Slovenia, together with a few other countries today, were part of a federation called Yugoslavia. So the idea of studying in Ljubljana started to sizzle in my head.

Well I asked my father what he thought about Ljubljana and he came back with a positive response.

"Great city. Great country. Great university."

That was all I needed to hear.

Macedonian culture and Slovenian culture are not too different. Slovenia was the richest of the republics and one of the first to break away from Yugoslavia. It has seen it's fair share in both world wars and was under the influence of the Austrian-Hungarian empire (which shows in some of their architecture). It is a relatively quiet country that keeps to itself in world politics. The language is similar to Macedonian and some of the cuisine and music is too. This was familiar territory and I started to toy with the thought more and more in my mind.

Everyone knows Wikipedia is the answer for everything.


At first sight I fell in love. I don't know how I missed this jewel. But this little city had me more and more curious everytime I looked a this picture. I had to find out more.

I went back to Debra to ask how I can find out if I can do my course in English in Slovenia. As helpful as she was, she couldn't assist me anymore but told me of a woman in Campbelltown who would be able to help me out. And so, with Debra's help, I chased up the new woman by the name of Mandy.

Mandy has helped me so much. I told her exactly what I wanted out of my experience and my criteria. I had even gone further to find out what the engineering course program was at Ljubljana and picked out the units I wanted to study. Again, this took time and effort, as I had to sit with my lecturers several times to discuss unit equivalence to make sure I would get recognition of completing the subjects overseas when I got back.

So Mandy helped me find out about the exchange relation with Slovenia. It turns out that only two Australian students from Melbourne had studied there before. This was exciting, as I would get to study in a city not many had been before. My experience would be completely different and interesting.

Well, I dropped off my application to Mandy in August. A good two months before the deadline. In the meantime, she helped me confirm with the head of program in Ljubljana that they could arrange English tutorials for me (these tutorials would be with the lecturers directly, face to face individual consultations).

Things are looking good for me. But there is still a long way to go with my application and exchange.

Currently, my exchange application has to be viewed and accepted before my university will formally nominate me to Ljubljana for exchange. This means I have to attend an interview with a panel that will decide if I am able to cope with the challenges that an exchange will bring.

I am not the brightest student but I know I can do this. So much time has passed and so much more time and pressure is yet to come before I find out the verdict. It is very much a roller coaster ride but for a semester abroad I believe it's worth it.

Intro

Hi. I'm Aleks and this is my blog.

I'm a full-time student with two jobs. Lately, I've been feeling very ambitious and adventurous.

I want to go overseas on exchange.

So I have set up this blog to follow my journey through the exchange process. From dropping off the application to the flight to and back.

I want to do this not just to keep a journal of my time spent over there but so that I can share my experience with others. Highs and lows. Hopefully, I will encourage others to go on exchange too by reading this blog.

My aim is to keep this blog updated with every event that happens in relation to my application. Then if I'm successful, I hope to update this blog daily with news and events of my study overseas.

Until then.