How to begin?

Hey you! Welcome to the first step of your new journey. I'm Oyku and I will try my best to help you by giving all the information about ERASMUS in Poland. I'm 3rd year computer engineering student in TED University in Ankara and rightnow I am in Lodz in the Lodz University of Technology in Poland. As I said in the description of the blog my knowledge is only limited with my experience so there may be some little differeneces for your school so as your experience. However, I am pretty sure that most of them will be quite similar. So lets begin..

1.) How to begin?

 Okey, you decided to have an Erasmus experience. Trust me, it is the first and the biggest step. Before applying for Erasmus you have to decide to where to go. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the web site of the international programmes offices to find out all the possible opportunities of your host university that your home university had already have an agreement. (By the way you can also find your own university but it means that you have to start searching earlier and follow other steps)
2. Look for all the host-universities which has your department because the education system differs from country to country and make sure that the university is able to provide all the classes you have to take. You have to be really carefull with this step if you don't want to risk one year or term.
3. After making sure the host university provides all the classes you have to talk with the Erasmus supervisor of your department. S/he has to make sure that all the classes are equivalent to each other. 

After following these steps you may apply for the ERASMUS+ because while applying you have to give a list and provide the name of the universities according to ascending order. 

 2.) Currency !

As you know there is an enormous difference between TRY and Euro so becareful with the country you pick. I mean ERASMUS provides you money however if you want to travel the country (which is one of the most important part to learn the culture), you also need a bit more money. So my greatest advice for a Turkish Student is to carefully pick the country according to currency. For that reason Poland may be a really good choice since the Turkish currency and Poland currency are so close to each other.

3.) Semester  

Also, please be careful with the semester you want to go. I mean ofcourse the classes will decide this however,I can advise you to have the Erasmus in spring semester. Because in the winter it is not possible to travel as you can in spring. Therefore, try to pick spring instead of fall. 

4.) Location

Location of the city is also important. If it is not in the middle of the country then you may not be able to travel a lot. Also please don't forget that if the city is next to see than it means that I may be too cold in the winter. 

5.) Friends

As a last advice for you. Please stop caring about your friends. You don't have to stick together and you don't have to go to same place. This is ERASMUS you have to talk in different laguage and you have to talk with people having different languages. Feel free to say no to your friends and apply to the university you want.

For now this is all I can write in order to describe the baby steps of all ERASMUS journey. I will try my best to write all my experiences to help you guys.

Thanks for reading this one.