Posted 3 months ago by UTS Global Exchange DAB

My University is a Castle! Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Applying for exchange is only the beginning!! What’s to come is far more difficult, being in a country that doesn’t speak English and being completely on your own can be daunting but it’s all part of the experience!!

Well my trip actually began in Colombia, South America, where I had just been in the humid coastal city of Barranquilla so it was a big shock to arrive in winter at an averaging temperature of -10˚ to 10˚and snowing. I was fortunate enough to run into some other students on exchange on the plane – little did I know we would later all become friends.

Something I did not know previously is that European students seriously love to go out, and there are lots of events for exchange students no matter what day of the week. Knowing English, Spanish and Italian I am at a great advantage because I am able to communicate with people from all over the world! I have met and gotten to know so many amazing people.

It’s been a month now since I have arrived and I am already in love!!! It’s such a beautiful city, although very easy to get lost which I have done several times but Google Maps is a savior!! One thing I must say about Torino is that it takes getting used to crossing roads because even if there’s a green man cars still don’t let you pass.

Being in Europe makes it so easy to travel around to other countries at an affordable price. I was able to go to Barcelona for 5 days just before university started and that was amazing. Such a beautiful city and the weather was much nicer as well so I was able to enjoy the wonderful architecture that city contains and even decided to buy tickets on the day to go watch a football match between Barcelona Vs Atletico de Madrid.

Now having completed a few weeks I have noticed that content is extremely diverse. Being a predominantly engineering university, most of the subjects are extremely mathematical rather than creative and conceptual like at UTS, which I miss. It’s been a challenge because it’s physics, chemistry and mathematics that I have never seen so it’s been difficult to get used to.

Being a country of such rich history it allowed for the class to have a field trip to Milan and Como over last weekend. The objective was to be able to see precedents we looked at in class about the Fascist and Rationalist period as well as to do a site analysis of the site in which our design project will be based. This I thought was amazing to be able to actually visit places we have studied and look at the design process and actual drawings by the architects.