Hello everyone :)
I want to start by saying that my third semester at KLU was awesome and I can't wait to tell you all about it!
The best word to describe the time between September and December is “intense.” There was basically no time to sit around and be bored since in addition to studying, I had a student job. But let me first tell you about the studying part.
My third semester and coming to terms with “dry subjects” with the help of Julia Roberts
My third semester at KLU involved the following courses: Corporate Finance, Human Resource Management, Macroeconomics and International Business Law. Sounds a bit tough, right? Well, it definitely wasn't the easiest combination of courses. Not only because the content and the workload were difficult, but our lecturers also had very different approaches. It was a challenge, but I believe that we all managed to get through it successfully. My personal favorites from this semester were the courses in corporate finance and macroeconomics, two subjects which are usually referred to as “dry.” But thanks to our professors, I managed to get a broader insight into the material than I would have gotten just from the textbooks. The last thing I would have expected from a macroeconomics class is to listen to “educational rap,” or to learn new corporate finance terms with the help of movie references such as “Pretty Woman,” but this is what we did. Sounds ridiculous – but it really helped to make the subjects interesting and a bit easier to understand.Exams period - From lone learner to group lover
Right now I can’t help but think of the exams results, which we’re all still waiting for. This takes me to another subject I want to tell you about – exams period.Since I took on a student job – which I will tell you about below – this semester was tough for me. I had plans to study regularly as we got further into the material, but for some reason they remained just plans. Do you know the feeling when you realize there is less than a month left until exams and you haven’t even started studying seriously? Even though you feel stressed and pressured, you don’t start studying anyway. And finally, there are only two weeks left and you have nowhere to run anymore. This is what happened to me.
But I wanted to tell you about the good side of exams period at KLU! Back home, we didn’t have much group work in school and we don’t have the culture of studying together in a group. I was used to do everything on my own and thought that studying by myself is the best for me. This semester I decided to try something new – since I realized that studying on my own actually means even more procrastination and unsatisfying results. So I found myself a study group. Despite the stress and the fact that we would spend more than 12 hours daily studying in a small breakout room, there were still moments that made everything seem not so bad after all. We shared brunches, dinners, even small naps – and lots of knowledge! It is just cool to be able to ask someone for help when you don’t understand something. It might not sound too exciting, but for me it was a brand new experience and I would advise future or current KLU students who are “lone learners” to try out a study group because it is definitely part of KLU’s magic.
Studying and working at Yourfone
Outside of the university, life was just as full of events: I decided to take on the challenge of having a student job. I was lucky enough to be offered one at the company where I had done my summer internship: Yourfone. Whenever I had no classes in the morning, I was in the office working. My job was similar to my internship but this time I focused more on dealing with the online campaigns for Yourfone customers. I was responsible for communication with the advertising agency, which helped me to improve my German a lot, since I had to write all the e-mails in German. I really enjoyed working there; the only problem was the distance from my home and the university. A typical day of mine would be leaving my dorm at 7:20 a.m. and after work, university and doing sports – and with the travel time – I would be home at around 10 p.m. This might sound tiring, but I absolutely love this way of living.New Erasmus exchange students
During the third semester, our class had a few new members who added even more international feeling. We were very happy to welcome eight new classmates from four different countries, thanks to the Erasmus program. In less than a month, it is my turn to have an exchange semester. This is one of the reasons I chose KLU in the first place – the exchange semester is part of the program and is mandatory for each student. When it was my turn to apply for this semester, KLU had partner universities for the bachelor’s program on three continents. Now the university is working hard to get more partners so that students can have a wide variety of institutions to choose from. I wanted to stay in Europe, although Latin America was also quite attractive. My first choice was the University of Trieste in Italy. I am really excited to be going there since I have been interested in the history and culture of this country for a long time. I hope the experience is as amazing as everyone says the Erasmus program is!Next time I write, I will be away from KLU and Hamburg, but I am sure that I will still have a lot of interesting things to say about my exchange semester! Thanks for reading and see you soon.
Yana
