Failing exams
I just received yet another failed exam back from my teachers. So far I’ve failed the 1st mid-term from Principles of Economics and Organisation. I still haven’t received information about Marketing Innovation, but now I’m expecting the worst. The Principles of Economics was difficult for me straight from the beginning and I wasn’t so much surprised about the failed grade, but Organisation.. I studied hard and I was very confident in the subject and still didn’t manage to pass. Out of my 44 colleagues in the course, only 10 managed to get a passing grade. With Principles the ratio wasn’t all that different, out of 70 students, only 24 got a passing grade.
I’m starting to feel like this whole Erasmus exchange on my part was a huge mistake.
Extreme stress and frustration
Uncertainty of what will happen to me when I return to Finland as a possible failure has really gotten a grip on me. I still have a chance to re-take the tests, but my motivation to try anymore is fading by the day. I’ve always been quite a melancholy person, and while being here I’ve tried to stay positive in front of hardships, but now I just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. I’ve burned away a lot of my savings and if I will have to pay back the Erasmus grant as well, it will really bring problems for me. Also the thought of postponing my graduation because of this terrifies me even more.
The “funniest thing” is that everything that I’m studying here is going under my ‘elective studies’, so the courses that I’m taking here aren’t even part of my own degree programme. What I’m trying to say is that I’m struggling to get credits for courses that aren’t compulsory for me to pass. I just never thought that studying economics would be this difficult for me.
Trip to Sarajevo
Team Sarajevo in front of our hotel
On to a happier subject! Instead of seeing Wien and Bratislava like originally planned, we got another tempting offer to go see Sarajevo. Considering the history and the gruesome image I had of the city, I was extremely curious to see what the real thing looks like. Unfortunately, my expectations were quite a lot like real thing. There were buildings torn half from the war, bullet holes on the walls, most parks were filled with graves of war heroes, there were wild dogs fighting over territories in the central square and beggars sitting in the cold.
At the sight of it all, I truly felt lucky to be from Finland and started to miss home a lot again.
I took some pictures of the trip that you can see in the link below:
Click to see pictures
We went there by bus, which only cost 37,00€ there and back. However, the trip takes 9 hours, so be prepared for that! Packing some lunch and maybe a book to read is a good idea.
There are plenty of places to stay in Sarajevo and the prices are really cheap. Our hotel was called HAYAT, and to spend a night there was only 10,00 € with breakfast included. I was told that even this price was somewhat high, but I didn’t feel bad overpaying when it’s that small of an amount. I paid nearly twice as much per night during my first month when travelling around Croatia.
I brought some souvenirs back with me from Sarajevo, which really are not your typical mementos. I bought pens made from real bullet shells and a bullet key chains as well. They say that after the war, it became popular for people to make all sorts of memorabilia of the bullet shells that were left on the streets of Sarajevo. So I felt like it’s really good souvenir to bring back, a real part of history. Hopefully they won’t take them away from me at the air port when I return to Finland. There were quite a lot of different shops selling these bullet arts and the prices varied from seller to seller, so be aware of that if you decide to buy some. My four pens and two key chains cost me 10 €, which I thought was a reasonable price, yet I know that the seller got a really good deal. 
Even though there were things that shocked me to a certain level, I think Sarajevo is a great place to see and I don’t regret going there for a second. It was truly an eye-opening experience to visit there and I recommend it to anyone who is into that sort of scenery.
