An internship during interesting times

Looking back at my first days in here I recall I had certain doubts, and who wouldn’t? Moving all the way across Europe, away from everything I’d ever known and loved for the last twenty years, to a country, which location I wasn’t even sure of.

I had doubts about the people I would meet here, about the overall situation the world went through in 2020 and is still ongoing, about the work I’d have to do at Academia, as I’ve never been any sort of teacher…  The only thing pushing me forward was an unprecedented desire to explore the world (probably in the worst of times though), to challenge myself to my limits and learn what this world had to offer to me.

And when the opportunity to do so came from my college friend working at Academia and their team, I didn’t take much time to decide, except to look at a map and see where this “Maribor city” really was. I knew then in a moment that I would love the country and, however things went, learn a lot from the upcoming experience.

And from that point things went surprisingly smooth for me. Even as the restrictions got worse each passing week, I wouldn’t let myself be discouraged by it. I fell in love with the quiet Drava, the sunsets at Piramida Hill and was amazed like a child the first time I saw snow through my window glass. And even better than that was all the food and people I was getting to know each new day.

Four months have passed now, seemingly in the blink of an eye. I’ve been a teacher, student, a photographer, a designer, a writer… I can say with all confidence I have learned more than I expected, met more people than I could’ve imagined and had my piece of traveling, although not as much as I’d have in a regular Erasmus, for obvious reasons.

I leave Maribor now with a friend in each country and the memories of all the good times that I’ve come to experience in such a short period. When I came here I wouldn’t have known where to place this country in a map, now I can’t wait to come back to show this unknown paradise to my people.

See you again Slovenia.

Soon, I hope.

Guillermo Peces