How is like to be an Erasmus student. The aspects and benefits

How is like to be an Erasmus student. The aspects and benefits.

Hello, everyone. My name is Monica, I am a fine art student from Romania, Bucharest and I used to be an Erasmus student twice. My first mobility took place in Szczecin, Poland at Akademia Sztuki Szczecin while the second Erasmus exchange happened in Saarbrucken, Germany at Hochschule der Bildenden der Kunste Saar.

After my two experiences I decided to come up with a list of aspects and benefits about how is like to be an Erasmus student. I hope that my thoughts will be helpful for the people who are curious and interested in such program and want to know more about it.

Go out of the comfort zone and learn how to live by yourself

Becoming an Erasmus student could be the starting point of learning how to be by yourself.

For young people, at the age of 20 to 25 years old who have never lived before by themselves, only with their parents, being an Erasmus student could be the best opportunity in developing skills, knowledge and experience about the common daily tasks that a human has to do in order to survive and live well such as finding a decent, appropriate place to live in and paying the rent monthly, providing foods for daily consumption, maintaining the living space clean and organised.

Slowly, since you can not take with you a lot of things from home, you feel how you are getting much more responsible for keeping the things that you own in a good condition.

In the beginning, the thoughts about it could be either full of excitement or scary and overwhelming, but there is a time when you have to step up of a comfort zone and allow yourself to take challenges that would contribute to your all developments. Usually, it takes up to 2 or 3 weeks to accommodate with a new place and form different habits according to the surroundings.

Yes, the initiation is hard but just until you get used to the new environment, people, way of living, language, transportation and so on.

From this point of view, an Erasmus exchange could be a large step forward in the adult life.

Get money for studying and travelling

If you didn’t knew this before, the Erasmus exchange program is offering people - students, graduates, teachers, etc - a grant to support the mobility. The amount of money varies according to the country, university’s absorption of funds, period of staying, but more about this topic you can surely find on the Erasmus website.

Instead of studying only at your home university without receiving any money, why not to take the Erasmus opportunity and study at many universities while also getting a bit paid for it? Plus, you are not just studying, but travelling too. For me this was the perfect match that I didn’t had to miss.

From my experience, I can tell that after I signed the contract and made all of the papers needed I received 80% of the entire grand, and the remaining 20% I got upon my return from the mobility.

For the mobility that took place in Szczecin, Poland I got 450 euros per month. Since Poland is quite a cheap country, the amount of money was enough to cover the rent which was about 125 euros a month, the journey there - the flight and bus tickets -, the daily costs, small intern travels.

On the other hand, for the Germany exchange I got 510 euros per month and even though the sum was higher, the money were not enough to cover all of my costs from travelling there to rent and daily needs. For example, the rent in Saarbrucken was 265 euros a month.

In this situation, is good to already have same money before the mobility or to get a job during it.

Is good to also know that, besides the student mobilities, after the graduation of a bachelor or master degree or during the summer, Erasmus offers grants for internships.

Learn how to travel

When you decide that the time has come for an Erasmus exchange, the things that are following are mostly linked with traveling there, to the new country in another part of the world. Google maps becomes your closest friend as well as the flights and accommodation websites or facebook groups.

Again, in the beginning it will be frustrating to search by yourself for everything from flying tickets to bus connections, places to stay, but don’t worry, after same time, all the things will get easier and you will master these travelling aspects.

Thus, next time you will go on vacation or anywhere, you already know where to find the information, which are the best and worst flying and bus companies, what to put in your suitcase.

Travelling after the end of an Erasmus mobility will get so much easier, less stressful and more pleasant.

Meet new people. Learn how to be more tolerant and empathize with dissimilar people

Definitely, a big part of the Erasmus mobility is about meeting new people, being either the fellows from the host university or the other international students as well as the teachers, roommates, neighbours, people on the streets.

Normally, and speaking from my own experience, the internationals tend to get closer to the other internationals. The Erasmus group can be formed of very open minded humans with which you spend a marvellous time together while studying, having fun, going out, sharing informations, stories, advices, life hacks, working in common projects, travelling to foreign places, developing friendships.

If you know how to listen, you can learn so much just from a simple conversation, if you how to explain you can teach people.

Meeting persons from various cultural, historical, social backgrounds with different opinions, lifestyles, fields of education is always a favorable chance to face with new unknown subjects, points of view from which you could get knowledge without making a big effort.

Take courses, seminars, workshops that you couldn’t take otherwise at your home university

The Erasmus mobility from a university to another is based on a Learning Agreement that is completed before the exchange with the courses which you want to take at the host university, this means that you can choose the future lectures, seminars, workshops.

Regarding to the field of study, a semester taken at a foreign university could indeed be a helpful period for gaining new knowledge, teaching distinctive skills, experiencing ways of learning and growing a level of adaptability in unexpected and uncommon situations.

Have fun. A lot of fun

There are a few ways in which you can have fun as an Erasmus student. On the first place there are the spontaneous parties in someone’s flat or the other hangouts in the spring and summer while sharing food and drinks, playing games, storytelling the most weird experiences. Also, going out in the club becomes the Friday night weekly activity.

The best parties I’ve been to are the international parties. Everybody is chill and ready to meet new persons. Strangers can have even more fun together then the closest friends.

Make friendships that are gonna last forever

Being a foreign student in a new country and uni gets you closer to the other students who are in the same situation as you. Something mysterious happens and soon you are spending most of your time with the other international people because you are helping each other with the courses, finding the teachers, classrooms and schedules, having lunch together or spreading the word about the best spot to eat and in the free time you are going out for having a drink. In about one month you know who to relay on and call or text when you are in need or just want to hang out.

Discover where you belong in the world

At a first thought, this aspect might sound a bit ironic. How can you discover where you belong if you are leaving from home and country?

The thing is like that: once you are in a new place the mind is starting to associate the various surroundings with the information that it has from past similar situations. Especially when in conversations with the other Erasmus student, you will find yourself saying very often “we do the same in my country” or “I never heard about this before”, “we are doing/ not doing stuff like this at home”.

When you are all the time home, you get used to things, routines, rules, lifestyles and you rather take everything for granted without even realising how lucky or unlucky you are. Anyway, the important meaning here is that you get to truly know your home when you are stepping temporarily out of it. Comparing new unknown places, people, culture lifestyles, foods, drinks with the ones from your home will lead you to a deeper understanding about your roots.

On the other hand, the studying and travelling experience could help you in finding where you would like to live or work in the future, what fits the most with your preferences, feelings, career goals, personality, choices of living.

The Erasmus mobility could be a guiding life experience for the humans who are not feeling settled yet and who are searching for the consciousness of belonging somewhere.

Miss your family and friends

After a while, usually a month, when you feel alone or dealing with uncomfortable difficult situations, you kind of start to miss the family and friends. Thanks, Godness that in today’s world we have many ways of connecting with the ones who are at a long distance from us via Internet, phone calls, etc. But I want to highlight something here: We, humans, are starting to appreciate our closest family members and friends when we are far away from them without having a direct touch. This aspect is to think about.

If you never felt the sensation of appreciation for the loved ones before, trust me, while you are on the Erasmus mobility, you will encounter it. Missing is good, beautiful and constructive.

Develop and grow your character

Any journey makes you become much more aware of your behaviours, acts, opinions, routines, habits, thoughts in a way that you can discover what’s good, bad and the "I have to work on things" which are within you. From this point a view, an Erasmus mobility could help to re-discover, re-educate and improve yourself on a personal and professional level.

Learn a new language and practice the one you already know

During the Erasmus mobility you must speak to handle everything. The English languages becomes like your mother tongue. Normally, the host universities are not obliging the foreign students to know or to learn the official language of the country, that’s why English is the best options. Although, it is a good opportunity to learn a new language.

The process will be much easier and fun because you will get to hear the language everyday at uni, in the supermarket, on the streets, plus, generally the host university offers language courses for the international students.

An Erasmus journey will definitely improve not only your English or other language, but your communication skills as well.

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