Dubrovnik International University is a small private school that flies in its professors from all over the world to teach us students. The professors choose when they will have class based on how long they can stay in Dubrovnik. Before classes started I had an idea of how professional and esteemed our professors would be from just looking at DIU's website. I have never been more impressed by professors and their teaching styles than I have been this past week.
Once we received the schedule for the semester I saw that I have European Union for 5 hours Monday-Saturday. 1. I have never sat in a class for 5 hours. 2. I have never had class on a Saturday. I was definitely a little hesitant about how this was going to play out. I am also taking Organizational Behavior, International Business, and Peace & Negotiations. My Peace & Negotiations class doesn't start until November 17th and it lasts 1 week long and each class is 6 hours long...we will see how that goes.
When I walked into my first class of the semester, European Union, I noticed a couple things. 1. Americans are usually early or on time, while Croatians are usually late. 2. Americans sat in the front of the class, while all the Croatians sat in the back. Our professor began right away. I have a tendency to always ask my professors their background that way I know who I am learning from and to build their credibility. He laughed a little because he felt bad for forgetting to do that in the first place. He begins pronouncing his name which none of us could understand so we all had to Google later. He proceeds by telling us that he used to be a professor at Harvard and has taught all over the world, along with having been in the Croatian Parliament and was an ambassador for Croatia and Montenegro. He also slipped in his introduction that he was a part of the team to help get Croatia to join the EU. No one in the room expected that introduction and you can bet that everyone's mouth dropped by the end. Yes, Professor Petar Turčinović definitely established credibility with the entire class. That is just a glimpse of one of my professors. My professor for international business, Janice McCormic (she likes us to call her Janice), just retired from 30 years of administrative and academic work at Harvard Business School. While classes are long, it is the first time I have actually enjoyed learning in a classroom setting.
This is the view outside of my classroom.
At
such a small university it is very easy to become friends with each
other. The main difference between my study abroad in Dubrovnik compared
to Florence is that I am actually able to interact with and get to know
locals in my classes. During our breaks and after class we all go to a
nearby cafe and hangout for hours. I have also become very close with
all of the American's at the university. All of them except for me are
on the API study abroad program so they became a tight knit community
very fast, but they were more than welcoming for me to join.Everyday after class my friends and I find a new way to entertain ourselves and just enjoy life. One day we went to a place called Buza, which means hole in the wall. It is actually a hole in the old city wall that leads to cliffs on the Adriatic Sea. Picture yourself walking along a wall and seeing a small arch that looks like it leads to a dark room, but when you walk through it imagine walking into another dimension. You walk through it and it is blue skies, cliffs locals use for cliff diving, a bar, and a lounge area all built into the rocks. After a long day of class we went to Buza to go cliff diving and to watch the sunset. The next day we went to a small set of cliffs that is just up the hill from the old city and we swam to a cave. The water was bright blue and ice cold, but when you have the opportunity to swim to a cave you take it!
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