To dive straight in the first blog I'd like to comment on is Jaime's, who has been working at The Walt Disney Company. My first thoughts being how cool but also how different to my own experiences in Finland. Upon reading his blog it’s become apparent to me how much he enjoys his position and how much confidence he’s gotten from undertaking different roles at the company. This resonated with me somewhat as I’ve found myself slowly gaining confidence in different ways during my own year abroad. He also noted that during his interview he realised how much his course at university had helped him. Although we are doing wildly different things, (one of us working as an Asset Production Intern, the other living in Finland studying art) I related to this SO much more than I knew. My time at ULapland has made me realise how much my course has equipped me.
The next blog I’d like to talk about is Irina’s. She spent semester one studying at the Minerva Academy in the Netherlands and is spending semester two completing a work placement in Bucharest, Romania. I was attracted to Irina’s blog as like me she spent some of her enhancement year studying fine arts. As I read her blog more and more, some of her experiences seemed to mirror mine in a way. As in Lapland, cycling is a major form of transportation in Groningen which she had to adapt into her routine and lifestyle whilst living there, similarly whilst living in Rovaniemi, I’ve had to incorporate cycling into my daily life in order to get around. Like Irina, and as I mentioned earlier, I’ve also been studying fine art. Whilst the subjects we study at Coventry (Photography and Media Production) are different, the feelings of uncertainty in how to adjust that Irina expressed were similar to my own. For her main module Irina has had creative freedom, which I feel is comparable to my Art Practice in Context module in Lapland.
Lastly, I’d like to talk about Liam’s blog. Being my coursemate and friend I’ve been able to keep track of his year abroad and reading his blog, his personality shines through. Throughout his blog posts it’s become clear to me that our Erasmus experiences are wildly different despite the fact that we study the same course in Coventry. Firstly, our locations are wildly different meaning that for Liam, travelling is a great deal easier than it is for me. Despite the fact we saw each other in Poland his travelling days were significantly shorter than mine, something I greatly envy. Academically the courses we’ve chosen are quite different, with his main module being about media and publishing, something I’m quite jealous of because I’d be very interested in that. However, I’m grateful for education I’ve received in Finland as I feel I can apply what I’ve learnt effectively to my practice at home.