Before going on erasmus...

The Erasmus experience is unique and unforgettable. But before you go, there are things you have to know so that your arrival in the new city where you are going to spend a few months of your life, feels easier:

• Book your flights as early as possible. This way they will be much cheaper. Look around for airlines that you could use; look at the prices of each but also look for what is included in the price. For example, if an airline only allows hand-luggage and then each suitcase costs a lot, maybe the price of another airline that includes the 'normal' suitcase is ultimately better. You have to shop around. Or decide if you are going to send over your suitcases another way (I'll explain this later on). Also, it would be better to go to your Erasmus city before classes start. In Valencia, on the web-page of the university, they recommend that Erasmus students arrive a week before classes start. That way you will have more time to know the city, find accommodation and meet new people.
• Do not rent a room over the internet. You can search around to look at the prices and the best areas to live, but it's definitely better to go and see the room to decide. Photos can be very different to reality. There's lots of student housing and it's for certain that you won't end up homeless, at least in Valencia where I was. Places are limited in the university student accommodation, that's what they told me. So, if you are going to a city where there are these accommodations and you want to live there, your situation is different and and you have to reserve your room early on. Before that, you will have to make sure that it's worth you living there (and by 'worth' I mean that sometimes university accommodations cost too much despite being the same size as a room in a shared flat or sometimes even more small).
• Look up information about your host university on their website so you can have all the papers and documents prepared that they ask of you. You will already have some things, but each university has their own way of operating and they may ask you for some things different. So it's much better to have all of the documents upon arrival because if you don't it'll be much more difficult to find them from your Erasmus placement. The bureaucracy of Erasmus is not a myth but a reality that each Erasmus student knows very well.
• Be careful with what you pack in your suitcase. I had 30kg in total (20 in the suitcase and 10kg of hand-luggage). Think about what is absolutely necessary to take with you (like clothes, shoes, coats and jackets, camera) and think equally about what you can buy in your Erasmus city without spending too much money (plates, pans, cushions, a lamp for your desk, more clothes during your placement etc. ). When your Erasmus ends, it'll be much more difficult to choose what things to take back home with you and what to leave behind. The things you won't need anymore (plates, glasses etc) you can leave with your friends that are staying for longer or with those that are on a full year placement. If you have to leave clothes, there are companies that send them to you and they cost much more than the extra kilos for the suitcase at the airport.
• Look for a student at your home university that has been on Erasmus at your host university. That person will know things really well and will help you a lot. Before you go, you will have lots of questions - sometimes too many or silly - and the answers on the internet won't seem satisfying. But that person will have also at one point had these same questions and the same stress that you now have. The Faculty of Law of the University of Athens only offers an Erasmus place at the University of Valencia once a year, so my university classmate called Angelikí that had been to the UV (University of Valencia) the year before, during the semester 2011-2012 had to listen to all of my worries. He always replied to me quickly and I was always a lot calmer after his messages.
• Try to be calm during your first days abroad. Living in a city in another country can be really difficult, especially if you - like me - are studying in your home city and have never lived away from home. It's normal if you need to take your time and it's also normal to miss your family and your friends. But everyone that has already been an Erasmus student will assure you that this period will be the best time of your life. And after a week, or at most, ten days, you will realise that this is true.
• Enjoy every day of your Erasmus. You will have the opportunity to meet new friends, engage in a language - or more than one - and know many cultures that you've never gotten to know before... and yes, I'll say it again: it will be the best experience of your life. Have a good trip!