Jan. 25th, 2018, MRU Erasmus+ exchange student Fabrizio Stroscio from Italy, will be returning home to Sardinia after spending the fall 2017 semester at Mykolas Romeris University.
An Economics major at the University of Cagliari, he said he learned much, made many friends from throughout the world at MRU. Now he is very sad to be departing. However, he plans to return to Vilnius in April to meet with fellow Erasmus+ students from France, Belgium and Sicily and reconnect.
"I'm hoping to come back," he said.
Fabrizio decided to come to MRU Vilnius after his brother, who had studied in Kaunas 8 years ago, recommended that he go to Lithuania.
He checked university websites, found that the MRU English website "was very good," and packed with information and applied.
"It's an interesting place. The centre, the city (Vilnius) is small. I lived here for 5 months and it was good. The weather is bad," added Fabrizio who was wearing a sweater from Zara to keep warm, during January's subzero temperatures.
The Italian student said that he was excited about being part of Erasmus+. "The secret of Erasmus is to understand people, meet people. I met a lot of people from all over the world here - from Korea, from Japan," he added.
At MRU there were more international students than at his University in Italy, Fabrizio noted. During the spring 2018 semester there are more than 120 international exchange students from 30 countries studying at MRU.
The Erasmus+ exchange semester also helped fuel his interest in various cuisines. He said he was not particularly enamoured with Lithuanian cuisine, where potato is king. "There's too much garlic, too many fried foods in Lithuanian cuisine," he said.
"I like to try new foods, different cuisine," he explained saying that he tried Asian food and Indian, while in Vilnius.
He said Italian interest in the Baltic region is growing. Planes flying from Italian cities to Vilnius are filled not only with Lithuanian tourists returning home, but with Italians trying to find out more about the small Baltic country of Lithuania.
"You know, when people are 30 years old and the job is not ok (boring), they want to change life, " he said. It helps that Lithuania is also cheaper than many other European Union country capitals, Fabrizio noted.