From the Hi­malayas to the Alps

When I landed in Switzerland in April 2022, the prospect of getting back into formal
education after 10 years, was nowhere on my horizon. However, I quickly realised that in order to be able to work here, especially in my chosen industry, this would be the best way forward.

I am Saurabh Mishra. I am 32, and have worked as an actor, standup comedian and
writer in India and Ukraine. I am currently attending a guest semester in the Creative
Media and Digital Innovation at the UAS Grisons. The thing I like to do most in my life is tell stories… and eat! More storytelling than eating, but my fondness for different cuisines exposes me to
interesting information and experiences, which gives me good stories to tell. Food for
thought? 😆 I am going to be a filmmaker, and it is this journey towards filmmaking
that brought me to UAS Grisons.

Chur is a beautiful and historically significant city with a lot of churches and a great museum, however
it could do better with a little less wind and rain! Jokes apart, it resonated really well
with me, because I did my schooling in a similar setting in India, in the Himalayas.
Bündnerdeutsch, a dialect in Swiss German, is spoken by most people in Chur. It was
quite amusing to hear it after having gotten used to Berndeutsch from the Canton Bern,
where I live. I can currently speak German at A2 level, so I occasionally had some nice
conversations in German with people in the city.
I am staying at the student residence "Konvikt" with all the other international exchange students, which
was very conveniently arranged for me by the international office. We have a lot of
fun playing pool in the lounge and watching movies in the Cinema at Konvikt. It is
located at an elevation above the rest of the city, which offers really great sunsets
and a good bird’s-eye view of Chur. I love the walks to and from Konvikt to the
train station, because it serves as my “zen time”. It is full of beautiful views and those 15
minutes have always been insightful.

In terms of academics, I liked most of the courses that were offered and the way they
were taught. My two favourite courses are definitely Digital Storytelling, and Game
Design & Interactive Storytelling. The teachers are great and the course content is
really good. The Game Design course completely changed my perspective on games
and added a lot of depth in my appreciation for this form of storytelling. With Digital
Storytelling, I am getting to relearn what I already knew about the subject, with
added layers of novel technicalities and concepts.
Overall, it has been a positive experience for me at UAS Grisons and I’m glad that I got the
opportunity to attend this guest semester here.