Erasmus in Zadar can sing

February came, the month of love and screaming cats in search of their partners, but  in Erasmus world also the month of exams and goodbyes. Last year, February was one of the saddest months in my life. This year, not so much, although there is some melancholy in it. Maybe that's just the way how February has an effect on me, I don't know.

Anyway, a week ago we had a goodbye party for Erasmus students from the winter semester. Some of them have already left, but some were still here and we wanted to have a proper goodbye. We from ESN Zadar haven't been hanging out too much with the Erasmus students this semester, I know, I wish it was different but I can't change it now (and it's not only up to me, when it comes to that), but we really wanted to make them a party. Unfortunately, because of midterms and exams and other stuff, there was only 4 of us from ESN who went to the party.

The first plan was to go to Qbar, where we booked the tables and were supposed to go to around 10 pm. But, since it was Thursday, and everyone in Zadar knows that Thursdays is a karaoke night in Kult, we went there. At first everyone was just sitting, drinking, talking, laughing, but it wasn't long until the first singers tried out their vocal abilities. I've been to a couple of those karaoke nights and every time there were mostly people who couldn't sing and one or two who would sing good. This time, I felt like I was in some "Zadar's got talent" show or something. One Erasmus girl went to sing, she had an awesome voice. Then the other one went, she was incredible. The third one, even the guys were good. I couldn't believe, every Erasmus from our table that took the microphone was awesome. I don't know why, I felt proud. Like, look at those talented people being on exchange in Zadar. Crazy, it was like my Erasmus spirit woke up or something.

In the end, they won a bottle of Jameson in the finale, which was not a surprise since the two songs in the finale were both from Erasmus students. They took the bottle and we continued to Qbar. Somehow, I wonder how, the bottle reached Qbar empty... The content of it just disappeared. Everybody entered Qbar very happy.

Barbora and Ivana, who were the main organizers of the party, were already there, they put snacks on the tables and taped the pictures on the walls and windows. It was cool to look at all the pictures they took together. There were even some pictures from our 2nd ESN birthday. Everybody could take the pictures they liked, and everybody was signing them, writing some stuff... I took one, but unfortunately it got lost somewhere on the tables in this whole process of signing. I only realized that in the end of the evening, and there were no more photos left.

The night in Qbar was fun, there were not a lot of people which was great because there was plenty of room to dance. The dancing part was funny, I don't know with whom I actually didn't dance. I don't exactly remember when did everybody go home, but I got back around 6 am. Well, that was partly because I met two of my friends, one of whom I didn't see or hear from in quite a long time, so we had to make up for the lost time. It was raining outside, their friend was driving so the six of us (two other girls from ESN, my two friends, the driver and me) got into a small car, and went to the main bus station for some food. Ya, maybe we kind of drove across the pedestrian bridge on the way, maybe we didn't. No pictures of it, so it's almost like it didn't happen. Almost. 

We spent an hour at the main bus station, just sitting there, eating, talking about God knows what; six a.m. morning talks are rarely about something smart. After my friend had a coffee and everybody almost fell asleep at the tables, we finally drove home. After a while, it was a good night out. I'm just sorry I don't have any pictures from the party to put here, we didn't take any, at least I didn't. 

Well, my dear Erasmus students who spent the semester in Zadar, I hope you had lots of fun here and that your Erasmus time will always be an awesome memory: of the people you met, friends you made, crazy stuff that you did, nice stuff that you did, things that you learned and things that you taught others. And now it's time not to feel sad but to feel happy that you had the opportunity to experience this exchange and to be a part of the huge Erasmus family. Always keep the Erasmus spirit and never forget: once Erasmus, always Erasmus!