Studying and football in Europe

My name is Nicolas Sanchez Sepulveda, I attended a three-week class called “The European Union: Challenges, Crises, and Solution Approaches” imparted by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in collaboration with Central European University in Vienna.

Two months before my trip, when looking at football calendars from multiple European leagues I noticed that the Italian Series A was back from their break the weekend before classes commenced. This was ideal with Munich’s proximity to Italy, as Munich is located in the South of Germany. After a completely bias search for flights, I realised that flights to Rome and then catching a train to Munich were in fact cheaper than getting on multiple planes to Munich.

I landed in Rome on a Wednesday night and by midday on Thursday, I already was on a train on my way to Turin, where I watched Juventus defeat Salernitana by 6-1, the day after that I was already at Bologna watching Bologna versus Genoa which ended in a tie, on Saturday I made my way to Milan to attend the game between Inter and Hellas Verona which Inter won 2-1, I also tried to make the most of the day walking over 30km in the city before leaving for Reggio Emilia to watch Sassuolo defeating Fiorentina by 1-0. After four football games in four different cities in three days I made my way to Munich to start my educational enrichment.

When I got to Munich I was struck by the fact that I had a roommate, when I got to my (our) room he was already there, and after a brief exchange of words we got along really well, we became friends almost instantly.

Munich is the coldest place I have ever been with temperatures reaching -12 degrees Celsius. I underestimated how cold it was going to be, I definitely should have packed warmer clothes.

The first couple of classes were a bit harder than expected, as it was a lot of information coming at me at once, but nothing that I couldn’t get used to if I tried, once I got the hang of it I started liking the topics even more (I was interested in them beforehand).

I went to two football games in Germany, first, it was Bayern München defeating Hoffenheim 3-0, and the second was Augsburg’s loss versus Bayer Leverkusen where I convinced my roommate to come with me.

One of the highlights of my trip was when they took us on a ski trip to the Alpes where I went downhill on a track of around 6-7km full curves on a sledge around 7-8 times.

While my week in Vienna I went on post-class afternoon trips to Hungary and Slovakia because of how close it was.

On the last day of classes I had to conduct a presentation and after working on a topic for a week I put it in the bin and started from scratch on a different topic the night before the presentation was due. After a long afternoon and night, I finished at 4 am (my roommate finished his 30 minutes before me). After conducting my presentation at 9 am, I was fully convinced that I made the right choice as I’m really happy with how it turned out, which a month later was ratified when I got my marks back.

I then went back to Rome for four days and watched Lazio vs. Napoli drawing 0-0, explored one of the most wonderful cities in the world and headed back home.

Long nights shared with my classmates created memories and friendships that I will never forget and will treasure forever, if I had the chance to go back and have this experience again I would take it a thousand times again, this was one of the best academically and life experiences of my life.

Nicolas Sanchez Sepulveda
Bachelor of Communication (Journalism)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Global Short Programs Travel Scholarship

For more information about the UTS Global Short Program visit: www.uts.edu.au/thinkglobal