International students’ Farewell party

International students’ Farewell party:

Quarantine showed things don’t always go as planned and that’s perfectly fine

Wednesday, June 17th, right after the official end of the Quarantine period in Lithuania, international students of Vilniaus Kolegija / University of Applied Sciences gathered in Vilnius University Botanical garden to celebrate the end of the Quarantine as well as the last days of their Exchange studies adventure. Although the Global Pandemic caused unique challenges and changed most of the students’ plans, the overall emotions were full of gratefulness while the experience helped the students to get better in their study field, improve inter-cultural competencies as well as create lifelong friendships.

This year the students faced a unique challenge: a global pandemic followed by the Quarantine were announced in most countries. The quarantine period in Lithuania lasted for three months meaning that students had to follow the quarantine rules, including online classes and avoid leaving the dormitory without a good reason. Despite the challenging Quarantine period, students found their ways to explore Vilnius as well as some of the neighbouring countries before and after the Quarantine was cancelled:

“I can describe my Erasmus experience in Lithuania as amazing and enriching. I enjoyed my stay in the country, I explored Vilnius and I also travelled in other parts of Lithuania. I can say that the nature is great, there are a lot of lakes and forests and nice walking trails. I visited Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki, but Vilnius remains as #1 in my heart. The unexpected Quarantine allowed me to see the world from a different perspective. It showed me that things don’t always go as planned and that’s perfectly fine!”- Sletena Angelova, Erasmus exchange student from Sofia, Bulgaria, said.

Students also shared their gratefulness for the assistance of the personnel and the teachers  during the Quarantine:

„My Erasmus journey is filled with so many experiences and taught me so much. VIKO has been so supportive even during the phase of the Quarantine and organized a lot of fun activities for us so that we didn’t get bored. Starting our Erasmus at the Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies, I got to interact with great mentors, they have been so supportive during the time of the Quarantine,”Agniv Chakraborty, Parul university student from India, said.

The most valuable feature of Erasmus experience for students was all the connections and friendships made:

“My most memorable moments would be for sure all the times that I spent with my Erasmus friends. They are the best part of my Erasmus! – Stelena said.

“I am glad that I got this opportunity to come over here in Lithuania for studies and it was worth every moment of this time and I’ll cherish these moments of life forever. Thank you so much for all the love, support and affection by Viko and also Parul University that gave me this great opportunity to study abroad and know the country and the culture of Lithuania,” Parul university student Agniv shared.

For more pictures from Vilniaus kolegija Erasmus Farewell party, visit VIKO International Facebook page.