Civil law specialist María Esther Rovira Sueiro has been teaching at the Universidade da Coruna in Galicia for over twenty-five years, but it was only this year that she managed to undergo the mobility that her university offers thanks to the long-term partnership with Masaryk. Therefore she approached Masaryk University to see if she could come to Brno for a week as a guest lecturer. The Faculty of Law enthusiastically accepted her offer and in the first week of December opened a specialised course entitled Introduction to Spanish Succession Law, which attracted more than 30 students. Her daughter María also attended the course and saw her mother teach for the first time.
“I was a bit worried about how the course would go because I have no experience with Czech students, but in the end I was excited. They interacted with me throughout the lesson and had lots of questions, so the week went by very quickly. Plus, it wasn't just them learning, but me too – I learnt a lot of interesting information about the Czech legal system. It was a great experience for me and I regret that I didn't come to Erasmus at MU earlier. But I think I will come back next year and I am already looking forward to it,” says the lecturer from the Universidade da Coruna.
Moreover, the scheduled lessons took place in the week when the first snow fell in Brno, so the teacher from the Universidade da Coruna experienced a real Czech winter, including sub-zero temperatures. “I'm glad it was so nice – I've never seen snow before in my life. It was a big temperature shock for me to go from twenty degrees Celsius to minus five, but the Christmas atmosphere and the Christmas markets completely enchanted me. We don't have anything like that in Spain and I'm glad I had the chance to experience it. Last year, thanks to my teaching placement in the USA, I saw what a real Halloween looks like, and this year I've experienced a real winter. My work is beautiful that way,” says María Esther Rovira Sueiro.
Specialised courses are my favourite
María Esther Rovira Sueiro is not the only member of her family who is enthusiastic about Brno and Masaryk University. Her daughter María Peón Rovira, a third-year law student at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, came to Brno in September for a year-long Erasmus at the MU Faculty of Law. She had high expectations of her placement at Masaryk University based on the experiences of other international students, but the reality exceeded them.
“I had heard that there were several universities in Brno and that it was a university city with a lot of international students, which sounded very attractive to me. I also liked its central location in Europe and the opportunity to travel around the neighbouring countries, so I didn’t think twice. I’ve been in Brno for four months now and I still have more than half a year to go, but I already know that I’m going to miss the city a lot. We have a great group of friends here, we are always doing something interesting and travelling somewhere new, the time really does fly here,” says the law student.
Twenty-year-old María also loves the Faculty of Law itself – she likes the modern environment, the cosy library and the fact that the Faculty building has everything a student needs, from the canteen to various corners where you can sit with classmates between lessons or work on team projects.
“Erasmus at Masaryk has changed my view of the subject. It's great that the faculty has courses on many different topics, for example, competition law or cyber law. We don’t have that at our university, we have more general subjects. So, thanks to my Erasmus at Masaryk University, I started thinking about specialising in cyber law after my studies. I am very interested in this subject. And if it wasn’t for my Erasmus, I wouldn’t have considered it at all, so I’m really grateful for the experience,” says María.
