IUC Students, Class of 2012
A weekend trip to the mountains wrapped up Orientation Week for the 2011-2012 class and proved to be an amazing experience, bringing together students from all over the world. After five days of orientation, students and staff escaped to the mountains to create a comfortable space where students could get to know each other. The wide range of languages, cultures, social backgrounds and political influences contributed to lively discourse. After two days away from the hustle of Turin city life, our IUC team is back and ready to begin a new year of research and study!
An extreme test is one of the oldest ways to unite and to become closer. It has been well known for a long time to be the best way to understand one another. 1 October 2011 became a starting point for our team, who had already began to get to know each other during orientation week. No one could imagine the scale of the difficulty when the IUC announced the trip to mountains.
Our group arrived to the Pragelato village, left our bags in the hostel and went to explore the Alps for the first time. Everyone was happy to go about their way leisurely, to talk and take pictures while enjoying the scenery. When the already tired group came back, the simple, but very tasty dinner was waiting on the tables. After a short rest, our team spent the whole evening playing ping-pong, talking and laughing, and waiting eagerly for the morning hike.
When morning came and we moved towards high peaks, everybody was still thinking about that light walk under the warm autumn sun. Just imagine that most of the travelers were completely sure that the asphalt road leading up to the mountains was the extent of the hiking. Only when the group reached the first village did our leader – Antonio - say: “Well, from this village we will start hiking!”
The team began to hike along a small dirt path, climbing over stones and sticks to cross it. The group persistently went further, concentrated on the road and barely speaking, in an attempt to retain our strength. Our leader helped us become stronger with jokes and funny stories. We took a lot of short breaks, to wait for every member of our group and attempt to catch our breath along the way. The valley was breathtaking and worth every single step. The real lessons we learned were captured in the ways we helped each other and supported one another on the journey. It was an awesome adventure and now our friendly team is ready to start a new challenging year of study at the International University College of Turin!
IUC news team
