I started my journey with IAESTE in Serbia. I had a 10-week internship in Serbia’s 3d biggest city, Niš. Serbia is an eastern Europe country which shares similarities with countries like Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Hungary. The capital Belgrade is a rather big city with glorious buildings, two rivers Danube and Sava meeting in front of “Kalemegdan”, city’s big fortress remained from years ago and beautiful streets in which you can always spot a red trauma heading. Novi Sad is the second biggest city in Serbia which is 2 hours far on northwest of Belgrade by train. It’s a romantic scenic city, not as crowded as capital but still beautiful and memorable. Niš, my city is in Nišava region, southeast of country. Totally different from the capital, it’s a small peaceful city holding Nišava river in the middle and you can reach any part of the city in maximum of 45 minutes’ walk. Serbian people are kind and helpful specially when they realize that you are a foreigner; they are always warm and smiling.
My internship was due in University of Niš, faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. I met my supreme Professor three days after I arrived in Niš. I worked on an architectural research throughout my stay in Serbia, which later on helped me to get in touch with some senior students whom I could work with in my field of interest, Urban Design.
Beside all those amazing new things about visiting a foreign country and working in a foreign University, my best advantage was getting a chance to meet so many new people from all around the world and making new friends from East to West, from Asia – China, Thailand, Korea, India, Russia – to Europe – Romania, Poland, Germany, Spain – to Africa and America. We went on trips and tours around Serbia and the IAESTE Serbia was having hangout programs for almost every weekend. Playing games, summer festivals, sightseeing and all those group activities gave us the great opportunity of connecting different cultures, sharing Ideas and customs and enjoying each others’ companies.
To sum it up, I have to say that my IAESTE experience was not only about working and learning but meeting world-around cultures, expanding views, sharing peace and happiness and making the best friends in a period of almost two months which is actually a lifetime experience and worth me a world.
Written By: Mahtab Baghaiepoor