Hello all,
My name is Elina Castrén, and I am spending a semester abroad in Chur in the Creative Media and Digital Innovation International Exchange Program at Fachhochschule Graubünden. I am from Finland and study journalism in my home university Haaga-Helia.
I chose Switzerland for my exchange semester because I wanted to enjoy the mountains, see some beautiful views and of course meet people with similar interests.
I am so grateful to have gotten to know all these amazing people here and we have done some sightseeing and traveling when we have time off from school. We visited a few lakes in the very beginning of our arrival when it was still summer weather. These were Lake Cauma and Lake Cresta which were both so beautiful and as a Finn I was blown away by the color of the water because it was really turquoise.
In September we also rode the world's longest toboggan in Grindelwald which was although scary, also really fun.
We also visited Bern for the course - Creative technology, and on our way back to Chur stopped to walk around Zürich. These days were very nice and were a good opportunity to see the two big cities.
I had a friend visit me in the beginning of October with whom we rented a car and drove around Switzerland. Our route started from Zürich and went on to Luzern→Interlaken→Schadaupark→Mürren, where we did the Via Ferrata hike→Zermatt, because as romantasy readers we had to see the ultimate booktok spot ourselves→and finally to Chur, but stopping on our way to see some sights. For example the James Bond street where they filmed a legendary scene from the movie Goldfinger.
Also a big effect for choosing Switzerland was ice hockey. I am a huge hockey fan and have been to four games already (NL and Swiss league games). The Swiss hockey culture is amazing and it's been so fun to see it myself.
I am so happy and grateful that I chose Chur as my exchange destination. I have fallen totally in love with the country and will never get enough of the mountain views. I have made some lifelong friends who I have had the pleasure to share this experience with.
The studies at FHGR, while have not been completely compatible with what I do at home, have been interesting and very educational. It has been a nice opportunity to be in classes that I would normally never take. For example, the course machine learning has been difficult, but I will walk away with so much new information that I never thought I would gain.
I have lived these months in the student housing, called Konvikt. Almost all the exchange students live here, and I have no regrets in choosing to live here with everybody because living together has made everyone closer with each other. Although the daily mountain climb is a sometimes a struggle, I would still say that it is worth it (and also good exercise).