IRELAND-DUBLIN

When I first started thinking about doing an Erasmus exchange semester, I talked to several people who had already done a semester abroad and searched the internet for different testimonials. One thing that was almost always the same is that the level of difficulty of the study programme is really low compared to our home university. I wasn't sure what to think about that, because of course you want to have enough free time on an exchange to see the foreign country or do something with your new friends, but you also want to learn something abroad, right? So I didn't really think it could be that different from my home university, certainly it will be easier because Switzerland and Liechtenstein are among the most difficult countries to study in, along with the Scandinavian countries, but it can't be that different. 

So the first three weeks of the architecture program were quite easy as it was mainly a research assignment on our building site on the island of Clare. So I couldn't really tell any difference, but I felt quite intimidated by the others because they seemed to know what to do from the start. We had a group project, so I was in a group with three other Irish students, so I could see the difference exactly. Then when we started the main project of the semester, I was shocked. I was so shocked because it seemed like they didn't know anything about architecture, planning and design, and this was in the fifth semester. I mean, of course there are big differences from student to student, but they were all the same, which was insane to me. Also, the workload they usually get there is nothing compared to our workload. They get a weekly assignment that we have to do in an afternoon, so that's a big difference. 

One time we met as a group at 10am and started working. We had a two-hour lunch break and we finished around 4pm. So we worked for about four hours, but we were only productive for two hours. At 4pm everyone said, "Okay, that was a great job, guys, and a very productive day, but I think we've done enough for today and we should go home". That sentence caught me off guard. I'm used to spending several nights in a row at the university until 2 or 3 in the morning, and they can't even work that much. So yes, the difference in level and workload was very different for me and it was really shocking. 

As the semester went on, the curriculum became more and more rigorous. But I only noticed that with our group. After noticing that they didn't really know how to start a project, I decided to help them a little bit and take the lead in the first week so that we had all our preliminaries done and could start properly. That really helped us because as the weeks went on I noticed that our group was the one that worked together the best and did the most work because I showed them how to start properly and they saw that it made sense and it really helped them get into the project. 

So in the end we had a really good project and a nice presentation that all the tutors thought was exceptional and they even told us we were the best group. Other tutors often took our work as a good example for other groups. Just because I gave them a basic knowledge that we learned in the first semester. In the end, they told me that they were so happy that I was in their group because they felt that they now understood better how to approach architectural problems and projects. 

I really enjoyed this semester and the group work, I learned a lot from the tutors and especially from my team members and I am grateful that I did it.