BELLSPIRATION CLUB - Sven Curiš, Croatia/Austria: Living abroad influences you to become an open-minded person and expand your comfort zone! (Part 2/4)

1. Sven, in a previous interview you mentioned that you have already lived in 3 states. Can you tell us a little more about that? In which countries and what did you do there?

No problem! Except for my home country Croatia, I lived through my life in Austria and Russia. After I grew up in a village in Croatian Zagorje and in Zagreb through high school and college, my life abroad began three years ago when I went to an exchange semester in Leoben, where I lived for the first time on my own. That experience taught me above all how to live independently and organize your life by yourself. I liked that they have an international study program which is taught in English so that was my language for lectures. For everyday situations, I used German as I speak it fluently. Meanwhile, I saw an advertisement for the Joint International Master Program in Petroleum Engineering where I’m studying right now. Regarding the chance that I can study at 2 known universities and I love Leoben and Moscow, I didn’t want to miss the chance. The plan was to spend the first semester and the whole second year in Leoben and the second semester in Moscow, which I was really looking forward to. Because of known circumstances, I returned back to Croatia and spent in Moscow unfortunately only one and a half months.

2. What is life like in general in those cities where you lived, and what do you like the most and what don't?

Leoben is a nice town surrounded by hills where you can hike. The town is known for the Gösser brewery and its university. My favorite place in Leoben is the gym with pools (Asia Spa) which I went to frequently until lockdown occurred. As Leoben is a small town, it doesn’t have a lot of possibilities to do various activities so it can sometimes be boring. There’s a joke that the town is perfect for studying as you sometimes don’t have anything smarter to do. In summary, I can tell that life there isn’t bad and I would recommend it for those who want a calm vibe. On the other hand, here is Moscow, one of the biggest cities in the world. Whenever I visited Moscow, it was an awesome experience. It has a lot of sights, from the Red Square and Bolshoi Theatre to the stalinistic skyscrapers (one of them is the famous Lomonosov university) and the Luzhniki Stadium, where the Croatian national football team played the semifinal and the final of the last world cup. The size of the city and the administration is what I don’t like in Moscow. When you combine lots of paperwork with the fact that wherever you wanna go, you’re going to need lots of time, then be ready that you’ll spend a lot of time traveling around the city. Out of all the visits and the short life in Moscow, my favorite thing about the city is good people which are always friendly and ready to help in any situation. Still, my favorite place to live in is Zagreb. I spent the years in which I formed myself and developed all my interests and hobbies which I have in my life. The city is big enough to provide a good variety of activities you may do there, but also it is not too big that you need a lot of time to go from one end of the city to another. For that reason, I’d like to find work in my profession where I would work for some time in the field, and after it, for the same period, I’d rest at home and enjoy that time with family and friends.

3. How did the process of adapting to new cultures, lifestyles, and other languages go?

I can tell that I had good pictures of the Austrian and Russian culture before I started to live there, so luckily it didn’t take me long to adapt to different lifestyles. I learned German by watching their cartoons and school. I also visited Graz a lot of times with my family throughout childhood. Regarding Russian language and culture, throughout college I went to the Russian language course and some of the topics in that course were about Russian culture. With it, the visits to Moscow also served as a preparation for the life there which lasted too short.

4. Are you nostalgic and how do you deal with the lack of homeland, family, and friends? Do you have any advice for anyone who is currently away from their homes?

I haven’t been in Croatia for half a year already due to the travel restrictions. Taking that into account, of course, I miss everything that I have there: family, friends, home city, etc. In that situation, the best thing would be to remind yourself why are you even here and that motivates me to somehow push further. With it, sport really helps me to forget everything and to focus only on that at the moment.

5. How much has this experience of living in other countries changed and influenced you as a young man who is still building his personality? What did you learn from all that?

It surely taught me to live on my own and contributed to my maturity. Also, travels and life abroad learn you to become an open-minded person and they expand your comfort zone. Also, you learn to appreciate your family more and everything that you have at home. The best thing about living abroad is that you may get to know various people and cultures and understand their lifestyles.

CONTACT:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/sven_curis_13/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/sven.curis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sven-curi%C5%A1-941754198/

Previous parts of Sven's interview:

Interview PART 1/4: https://bellspiration.blogspot.com/2021/05/bellspiration-club-sven-curis.html