Sharon Scabin of Italy

Sharon Scabin is an Erasmus student with the Ioan Alexandru University in Iasi, north-eastern Romania. She first came to Romania while she was a student of the University of Padova, and the University of Iasi organised summer courses for those who wanted to learn Romanian. Her first experience there was a very pleasant one, hat is why she has taken every opportunity to come back:

"At the University of Padua I was learning Russian, and when I realised Russian was not really my thing, I started looking for something else. I had some Italian friends who were working in Romania, and they suggested I should learn Romanian. I realised right away that I liked the Romanian language and literature and I wanted to study it. I've also learnt something about the Romanian education system, which is quite different from the Italian one. For instance, although in Romania students spend less time in class, they are so well prepared. Also, the bibliography is much more comprehensive than the one used in Italy. In Italy, education focuses more on what is happening during classes. As I said, I think Romanian students are better trained than the Italian ones and when I saw the bibliography for the first time, I was a bit surprised. I then realised that the most important thing for the Romanian students is reading, and debates in class focus on what they have read. In this way the student feels included in the life of the university."

Learning Romanian, Sharon has also started to read major Romanian authors:

"One love at first sight for me was Mircea Eliade. I first heard about him at a conference in Italy. An extraordinary professor had a course on Mircea Eliade and cultural diplomacy. I loved it and I wanted to learn more about him. This is how I started reading his works. I liked his writings so much that I decided to do my graduation paper on him. I called it Cosmogony in Mircea Eliade's Work. So now I can say I love Romanian literature even more. And the opportunity to walk around Iasi, a city where great writers like Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creanga, I. L. Caragiale also used to walk, feels me with emotion."

Sharon says that she also loves Romania because of its people and that Iasi has become a second home to her.