The final days of the first week were more relaxed and we all had more time to focus on ourselves, equipping our new places, doing shopping and cooking, but there were some exciting events planned for us as well!
Thursday
Apart from all the necessary shopping, I went for yet another bike tour around Padova, this time focusing on shops and shopping centres. It’s always great when you find out that there’s Lidl close to your place (!) as well as some nice shops and bars.
In the evening, there was a European quiz for all the Erasmus students; we formed teams of four and using Kahoot, we were trying to answer questions about Italy, its culture and history, as well as other European states. One of the questions about the UK was asking about the current prime minister. Unsurprisingly, some of the students did not know the right answer. I was very pleased to see that some questions about the Czech Republic came up as well, and was really happy about the extra points for answering them!
Friday
On Friday, there was a big event hosted by the UniPd called VenetoNight; it’s an annual exhibition of all university departments. The students, researchers and lecturers present their work and create activities for both children and adults to show them what they are doing. As a psychology student, I thoroughly enjoyed the VR games section of the Neurocognitive Psychology Department and the Nutella vs ‘fake Nutella’ chi square experiment by the Department of Statistics.
In the evening, there was another event hosted by the ESN – we were taken to a very nice pizza restaurant to try out different types of pizza. There was, of course, a lot of Aperol Spritz (which, by the way, was created in Padova), wine, and beer.
Weekend
The ESN team have kept their word; every day of the Welcome week, there was something interesting to do. On Saturday, they took us for a walk around Padova and showed us the most important places: Prato della Valle, the famous Padova square (except it’s not really a square , rather an oval) with the statues, UniPd’s botanical garden accessible to the public, Il Santo, a church with relics of St Anthony, Piazza Antenore with a tomb that was once thought to belong the the founder of Padova, and Piazza dei Signori with its, astronomical clock connected to an old myth, a slope reminding people of the foundation of the Italian Republic and the Napoleonic Wars.
The welcome week concluded with a Neon party on Sunday – there was a lot of people, good music and snacks from the ESN.