As usual, we started our brand new term with an international welcome week, which is very popular among Erasmus students. Let me tell you why. They have a great opportunity to get to know each other better and to take a part in our interesting events. On Monday, we gathered in the university auditorium and provided Erasmus students with all needed information about Slovakia, our wonderful city Banská Bystrica and dorms. Erasmus students got a welcome package, a small gift from us. In the evening, we played funny City game, a way to get to know the city. I am glad to say, that Erasmus students are really active this term, there were eleven teams playing this game. People enjoyed searching famous places in Banská Bystrica using only map and addresses of key locations. When they found them, there were two buddies waiting for them near the objects to tell them short info about the structure that they had to remember, which they eventually did pretty well. At each place, every group had to perform a task given by buddies. At the end of the day, we all met in pub Smädný mních in order to celebrate the victory! On Tuesday, there was a welcome party in Njoy club. People got a card at the entrance and their task was to find a person, who owns the same one. Who did so, gained free drink. The night was so much fun!
Since we really want to stay fit and healthy, we played Erasmus games on Wednesday. Approximately 30 people signed up for volleyball, football and basketball. Erasmus students appreciated this sport event and they are looking forward to another one. The fourth day belonged to bowling and karaoke. What a night! Who cares you can´t play bowling or sing well? We were up all night singing the well-known hits. This event was a success! It was for sure not last karaoke night. We really try to promote one of our projects called SocialErasmus, that´s why we decided to go to the dog shelter in Zvolen. There were 18 Erasmus students and 4 ESNrs who joined this event. The great atmosphere was accompanied by nice sunny weather and pleasant temperature. The ladies in the shelter were really kind and they showed us some cute puppies and answered all the questions we had. They were happy to have some volunteers to take their dogs for a walk. This activity belongs to one of the favourites among Erasmus students. When we were on our way back, they said they would love to visit the dog shelter again.
On Saturday, we visited Urpín, the hill in Banská Bystrica. We had a picnic there and we also walked to the astronomical observatory. The guy who works there told us short, but interesting information about the building and showed us two telescopes. Promised look on the sun via telescope was, unfortunately, impossible due to the clouds covering the sky. Maybe next time we will be lucky. For the end of very successful, interesting and funny Welcome week, we prepared for Erasmus students a pub quiz. Our quiz took place on Sunday in a student V-club and contained 40 questions in 8 topics, so everyone could have found something interesting for them, like movies, music, or art. We also made some questions about Slovakia and Banská Bystrica, hoping that they would learn something about our city during first week here. We hope that Erasmus students had as much fun as we did and enjoyed our Welcome week. We are getting ready for other events and you? Your ESN UMB Banská Bystrica
