During her four years of undergraduate studies in Lima, Belén did not manage to go abroad, but just before graduation she applied for the Human Rights and International Law Winter School. And she is very happy that Masaryk University chose her; she says she would have been very sorry to lose her last chance to experience studying abroad.
“In Peru, it works a bit differently than in the Czech Republic. The Bachelor of Law programme lasts five or six years. However, to officially work as a lawyer, I need to complete one of three requirements like finishing another thesis, etc. These septs are done within the university, but we are no longer students. We work full-time and finish our master's thesis while working. So, I definitely wouldn't be able to go abroad during my master’s. I'm very glad that I did get to see how law is taught elsewhere in the world, even if it was only for three weeks. But it was three very intense and challenging weeks; we were at school for about four hours every day, and then we worked on homework and group projects all afternoon,” says Belén.
From summer to winter
Belén received a scholarship to study at the winter school. Without it, she probably wouldn't have been able to travel halfway around the world for the winter school. So, right after Christmas, which is celebrated in Peru during the summer, she flew to Brno at the beginning of January. The extreme cold and temperature of minus five degrees took her by surprise; in Lima, the coldest temperature in winter is 8 degrees. She had never expected or experienced such cold, but on the other hand, she saw snow for the first time in her life. At home, snow is only in the Andes.
“This January was full of surprises and great experiences that I will never forget. Not only the snow-covered landscape, but I will never forget many new classmates and friends from all over the world, such as Australia, Germany, and Argentina, with whom I immediately got along. It was very interesting to hear how our field of law is approached in their countries. You immediately start to see your field differently and in a broader context. I also realized how beneficial the European Union is for law in Europe. We don't have something like that in Latin America at all,” she says.
Belén was excited not only about gaining a new perspective on her field but also about seeing some places in Europe, as Masaryk University organized trips to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest for the winter school students. For the Peruvian student, Central European architecture was something completely new compared to the colonial buildings in South America.
“I also really liked the building of the Red Church and the karst caves just outside Brno. I also fell in love with Czech fried cheese like the rest of my classmates. It was delicious, and I must have had it at least three times. The Czech Republic was just a big surprise for me. I was surprised, for example, by the fascination with beer and how many Ukrainian flags I saw on buildings in Brno. And also the different way of teaching. In our country, the teaching is very theoretical. We read all the time and work with books in the library. Here, on the other hand, we worked a lot with electronic resources and decisions of the European courts. We also learned a lot of things from various cases that the courts have dealt with in the past. It was very inspiring,” she says.
Belén is very happy that she participated in the winter school. She highly praises the teaching and the three teachers from the law school who taught her for three weeks, as well as the diverse topics they discussed during the course. The broad thematic focus of the winter school helped her to better grasp the topic of her future thesis, for which she is currently writing a project, but most importantly, to think about what she would like to do in the future.
“I am very interested in working in international law, but also in diplomacy, for example. I can imagine working abroad for a while, for instance, in Africa, which doesn’t get much attention. But then I would also like to return to Peru and contribute to the development of our country. So, we'll see where I go from here. In that sense, I'm really glad I went to MU. It was at this point that I needed to see the career options that are in front of me and then direct my future accordingly. So, who knows where I'll end up. Maybe I'll return to the Czech Republic to finish another degree and then go international,” says Belén, laughing.
