INTERNATIONAL Have you ever had that feeling? When two months feel like a lifetime because you’ve been living to the fullest, engaging and thriving? I’m pretty sure that this is the HSLU/Switzerland effect for many International students like me… and it’s the best!

Hello everyone! My name is Ana Cristina and I am a Mexican woman currently studying a Master of Science in Business Administration at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU).

Today I realized that I arrived in Switzerland only two months ago, I still can’t believe it hasn’t been at least six months?! The intensity of the experience has been such, that I feel I’ve been here since forever and I’ll tell you why:

International network

Afghanistan, India, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Germany, French Guiana, Turkey, Cameroon: these are the countries of some of the people I’ve met so far! It is impressive how a week can’t pass by without meeting at least one new person.

Quickly discovering

Since Switzerland is a relatively small country, it has been very easy to move around without much planning. I’ve been to 10 different cities already; this is insane for someone coming from Mexico City where going out of the city requires way more planning and time!

Weather changes

When landing to Switzerland last September, it felt like summer. Little by little, beautiful autumn colors filled the country. Today, the mountains are white. How can weather changes happen so fast here?! It’s absolutely beautiful!

HSLU events

I’ve attended to events at HSLU: W Open, Business Ideas, Long Night of Careers. At these events I had the chance to make new friends, win prizes, and network with keynote speakers, former students, companies, and professors. I am so happy and thankful that the university organizes this for us!

Volunteering

Thanks to networking at HSLU’s events, I got the amazing opportunity of volunteering for the Blog team of the Studirat, as well as volunteering in the marketing setup of a Swiss startup. This represents more work and responsibilities, but also more learning and thriving!

Hiking

My physical condition is not the best and I always thought that hiking in the Swiss Alps is an extreme sport! However, since I arrived, I’ve been getting more and more into it. I started at a small hill where I live in Altdorf:

And it quickly scaled to an approximately 1,429mts high mountain in Isenthal!

Studies are the extreme sport!

I have classes only Mondays and Tuesdays; this sounds great right? I bet you’re thinking “wow, she must have so much free time!”. I thought this myself too before arriving to HSLU but, oh surprise! I’m still trying to figure out how to better manage my time in order to get everything done.

Seizing the benefits

As an HSLU student you get several benefits such as sports offers (maaany), discounts, access to libraries of other public universities in Switzerland, among many others. So far, I’ve taken Pilates, Body Toning and Zumba classes and visited HSLU’s library, the library of ETH in Zurich, the library of University of Lucerne, and the Library of Uri.

I am sure I am missing many more happenings, but the point is: if this has been 2 months… what will the rest 22 months bring?

Author: Ana Cristina Perez Carrillo