Erasmus+

Erasmus Lessons

Changing the country that you used to live in is not always easy, especially for a minimum of 4–5 months. The Erasmus program is an opportunity to do that during university years. Bureaucratic processes with universities and countries can be long and difficult to cope with, but at the end a new world is waiting for ‘’Erasmusians’’.

Every person has his/her own story about this life changing program. This article was written based on personal experience.

‘’Where is my home?’’

The ‘home’ is not just made up of walls. It takes some time to say home, to call a place where we just started living a ’home’. This process depends on what we feel towards locals or neighbourhoods or our friendships or problems or memories... When we feel ourselves adapted to the place we live in, the Erasmus experience is moved to a different point. We learn to build a life from the scratch. When it is time to return to the country we came from, it is possible that a bitterness will occur. In the near or distant future, we have another house where we have moments that we will remember with good or bad sides if we cross our path again. Learning to experience language and culture in a different place away from family is an invaluable life experience.

Openness to New Cultures

Erasmus program increases the diversity. Listening to different perspectives on the same issues can be difficult, even for the people who see themselves ‘humanist’ at the beginning. In time, it is possible to see that differences are richness and there is a chance to learn by living. It is also possible to make our own generalizations by seeing how inclusive the generalizations about countries and societies are.

Which Rules

While settling in another country, facing with daily life is not a thing that we can see while just touristic visiting for a few days. Rules of dormitories, flats, academic life or even crossing the road... They might be different from our previous life. Adaptation process can be hard. However, as young people, we were already knew that. Different life brings different rules. Adapting to them definitely improves our quality of life.

Discovering Your Limits

Erasmus is convenient in terms of seeing our situation mentally and physically. This happens in different ways. When we are faced with racism or homesickness, we learn how to deal with it. We can see physically how many kilograms we can carry while going on holiday during weekends with backpack. What is more, how much croissant-sandwich is enough to not starving? How much money we can save for the next day?
It is a step for civilization that people who start learning about this multicultural and multilingual life at a young age will use their perspectives and skills to look at things from a different perspective in the rest of their lives.

Written By Gürkan Gümüş

The Positives And Negatives Of Erasmus+

Erasmus+ is once in a lifetime experience where you get to see another European country, experience their culture and study in a university in that country. It sounds like a dream, it may sound as if nothing can go wrong but you should always keep in mind that it is an experience with both positive and negative effects.

You are in your home university, you are thinking about packing up your stuff, but first you need to make your “Transcript of Records” This step can be stressing even by itself, checking the subjects and finding their equivalence is important if you don't want to re-take some of the courses when you return back. It can be very frustrating to re-take an important course even though you technically passed.  I do not remember how many times I had to print out this document. Thankfully I do not have to do this in a near future *phew*

Probably one of the most exciting feeling is to pack up your luggage. Choosing clothes to put inside the luggage, looking at YouTube tutorials for efficient ways to fold them, so you have more space, looking at the weather when you have your flight, weighing your luggage over and over again to make sure you do not exceed the limit... You may feel as if everything is set when you are done with it however before packing your stuff and buying your plane tickets always keep in mind that every country has a different visa process. One country can give your visa in a week while in another country you can wait months to receive it. This can change by how many documents they require, how many documents that are in process and if they changed a condition recently. So always keep in mind that everything is not going to go as you planned. Do not get upset easily, this is also an experience so enjoy

The moment you step on the plane your Erasmus+ experience is going to start, so buckle up for an emotional roller-coaster. While on the plane do not get surprised if you see people around your age and excited as you are, they are also on their way to their Erasmus+ experience. On my flight there were at least 10 people like this, do not be shy and go say hello! For me the best part of Erasmus was the first weeks after my flight. You are on your own on a different country, you are trying to learn how to survive and everything is happening so fast. One moment you are searching for a public Wi-Fi to text your parents and the next you know you start acting like a local, know which place is the best to hang out with your friends and know when the next event is.  These little things make you realise that you have another place that you can call “home”. These experiences are priceless, everybody is going to say that too but like I said before Erasmus is an experience with ups and downs. You can experience some unfortunate things that can even make you want to go back home. I thought about all kinds of stuff that could have happened to me during Erasmus, some happened some did not (thankfully). There were times I felt like I was not going to be able to handle the situation, with “Covid-19” and lock-down I thought about returning back. In the end after looking back I am glad that I did not. The things that worried me during my stay seem funny to me now. I spend a lot of time with my friends in the dorm, we tried everything to entertain ourselves and I believe that my bond with them became stronger during the quarantine. Plus I have a cool stamp on my passport which says “Emergency Situation Covid-19”

During your stay you are going to be able to meet people from all parts of the world and get together with the locals as well. This means being exposed to all kinds of new cultural values and even new languages. One word, one dish, one holiday you have can be very new and exciting for some people and for some people you might realise they have something similar in their country too. The excitement in their face when they recognize something that is also done in their country is priceless. You get together to do fun activities for some holidays and eat all kinds of different food made by friends. During my stay I had friends who could bake and cook all kinds of delicious meals, even tried their experimental food. We spend a lot of time together and learned some new words in their language too. One of the hardest part is coming to the end of Erasmus, you know you have to say goodbye to your friends and watch them take the bus but one thing you do not know is how hard it is going to be. It makes you realise that this adventure had ended and makes you feel empty after they are gone. However, we made promises to visit each other, and hopefully we might in the near future.

Written By Elif Güleç

                                             Why Turkish Culture Rocks

  As in many other countries, Turkey has its own characteristics. And if someone asked me what comes to my mind when saying “Turkey” I would definitely answer “Tea”. If anyone thought the British were the biggest tea drinkers, they just haven't lived in turkey yet. Seriously, here tea is drunk in liters! Walking along the streets you can see small tables not only next to cafes, but also next to hairdressers, shops where uncles sit, drink tea and leisurely communicate with each other. You will be offered tea everywhere. Also, some cafes here offer tea for free. For me, as a tea lover, its one of the nicest things to experience in a new country.

  From the above it can be understood that the Turks are not particularly afraid to allocate a lot of time for tea. Here, people don’t live according to a certain schedule, no one is in a hurry. That gives a sense of calmness and harmony and reduces the likelihood of stress. Even in big cities like Ankara people don’t move quickly without noticing anything around. Moreover, people here are very attentive and polite to passer-by. That is another thing that makes Turkish Culture rock – their helpfulness. I still remember the day I just arrived to Turkey and had lots of challenges to be passed. After my endless calls to my friend with a request to help solve another problem, I heard on the phone: “Listen, you’re now in a country where every passer-by will gladly help you and then pour some tea for you.”. And she was right. In Turkey it is not scary to be alone because in their culture it is customary to help each other. Sometimes it comes to comical cases when you ask someone for directions and they point to a random way just not to seem unhelpful.

  In the end, it’s a sin not to mention their food culture. Turkish cuisine is one of the biggest cuisines of the world. Here, the table is set more varied for breakfast than during a gala dinner. It is so varied that there is a choice even for vegans. I, being vegan, did not have to search for a suitable dish and monitor the ingredients for a long time which made hanging out with friends in cafes more pleasant. Living in Turkey also added a few favorites to my list such as chi kofte and sarma. This is a small part of what can be said about the culture of Turkey, as it is very rich. One should definitely visit the country to really understand the culture and feel its atmosphere.

Written By Zarina Zholdoshova

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM ERASMUS?

Erasmus was always a thing that I want to experience. Learning new cultures, having new friend, travel to new places, and much more… In my 3’rd year of university, I went to Santander, Spain for Erasmus. It was an amazing experience for me, I learned so many things during my Erasmus mobility. I want to share a few of them with you.

I NOTICED OF THAT I’M STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT

 I couldn’t find a home to live in at the beginning, They stoled my money, my phone fell into the water and needed to be repaired, I was in a country where the high population doesn’t know how to speak English, I found a home, then quarantine started and my friends wanted to return back their countries. Guess who was homeless again  But you know what? If I had a chance, I prefer to live these again. I learned that in one way or another, life continues and I have to keep living. No matter how to finish that day. As long as time passes, you are one step closer to better days.

DON’T AFRAID TO MAKE A MISTAKES

I was going to English courses since I was a kid. I learned so many things as a theory, but there is one thing that I learned in Erasmus which different from the English courses I went to; MAKE MISTAKE. Use wrong words, make a sentence with wrong tenses, talk slow, don’t remember the word you want to say… This is how you will learn true ones. Believe me, nobody will judge you. You are an Erasmus student there and there are more students who are excited to meet you around you. You have a good opportunity to talk, to improve your grammar, to make friends and of course to make a mistake. Use this opportunity :)

STAY IN THE MOMENT

During my Erasmus process, I lived so many challenges and I was stressed about many things. However, I understood that my stress won’t help anything. As I told you, life continues; If I can’t live the moment right now, when will I live it again? So, I started living the moment. I met amazing people, traveled to amazing places, learned amazing things about my degree, and I understood that this is Erasmus with that way; that's why I am in here. There are many challenges you will live but don’t need to be stress that much. Without thinking about your problems just for a while, Try to meet new people and learn their culture, try to learn their languages, to taste their foods, to listen to their music, to explore new touristic places, to learn different opinions about your degree. This is Erasmus, live it!  

 I was not regretting even a second for doing Erasmus. Every passing day, I learned new things and I can clearly say that It changed my life and my perspective about life. I strongly recommend you to have this experience.

Santander, Spain

Written by Setenay Alpay

ERASMUSDutch humanist and theologian who was the leading Renaissance scholar of northern Europe; although his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Reformation, he opposed violence and condemned Martin Luther (1466-1536)More (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation)