Week 1 at the Erasmus Office

Guys i noticed how catchy a daily blog can be and i love to read somebody's else stories about what their day look like and what adventures and challenges they overcame during an Erasmus experience.

Even i am not so committed in writing every day my activities, i will try to make it a weekly blog post or as soon i feel like it or i have interesting stories to tell.

For those who read my first time my stories, long story short i am currently doing my Erasmus Internship at the Erasmus office in Firat University in Elazig, Turkey. I started in March and i have to complete a period of 7 months here, until end of September. It is not my first time in Turkey and also not my first time in Elazig or doing an internship. But by far is the most interesting and i have so many things i did learn from this experience, which in someway made me realize something, i may want to work on the nearest future at the International Office somewhere in Europe, why not?!

Terrorism threats

Usually and lately i get so often emails and questions from incoming students and friends of how is the situation in Turkey and especially is the region in which i am currently is a safe city to travel. Well considering the latest events situation is hard in all country.

In the last year Turkey suffered up to 4 or 5 terrorist attacks and last week it overcame a huge coup. Situation is never easy, for example yesterday i found out that now we are finding ourselves in a 3 month state of emergency alert. They did not close the borders but all the Turkish people who went in holidays or for different reasons now they must return back and of course no one can leave the country as well. Mass arrests, people, deans, judges, soldiers all fired or arrested, street protests and a country divided in half. This is the situation following last Friday's coup. Not to mention the 2 weeks ago Ataturk Airport attack.

We as students are indeed afraid and concerned for our life inside the country, and for me as doing my internship now at the Erasmus Office i have to deal every day with email from incoming students telling me how they are afraid to come now to Elazig. I tell them what they also tell me, that the city of Elazig has not suffered lately or in the past no threats or other attacks and that is not a target for any major incident. And indeed since i am here nothing happened and hopefully in the future as well.

But my personal opinion about all this is that nowadays does not matter if you are in Turkey or France or Bangladesh, USA or Irak, things happen every day, not a single day without an attack or an imminent danger. Where can we be safe now?!

I do want to underline the fact that some newspapers and the mass media abroad they exagerate a bit the situation on how is exactly. I do not by any means feel afraid in Turkey, really i do feel safe in Elazig and as long as i am okay that's all that matter, bottom line!

Week 1

My daily schedule is Monday to Friday from 9am to 17pm. Currently i am alone in the office during the summer, but before i shared an office with another intern from my university and another Romanian girl who was working here.

The Erasmus office in Firat University is situated inside the campus and is open all year around of course with exceptions for example during the Bairam week, which for those who don't know is the week following the end of Ramadan and this year we had one week off for celebration. And of course national holidays.

I am so lucky that our Erasmus apartment is 100 meters away from the office so i can easily wake up 30 minutes before work and ran back and fort during the one hour lunch break. Yes i do have a lunch break from 12 to 1 pm. During the year there is a cantine lunch open and we used to go there but now in the summer i just go home quick for a bite and return.

My biggest challenge since i am here i guess it must be the weather, the extreme dry hot desert weather, with temperatures over 40 degrees on a daily bases.

The office

This is the building hosting the International Office and where i am doing my internship as well. It's a nice cute building with two levels but we are mostly working just on the 1st level as the ground floor is used for conferences and official meetings.

A close up view at the office. Yes we do have the European Union flag up even if Turkey is not a part of the union, why? because Erasmus + is a an European program and Turkey is a part of that.

Inside the office, 1st floor where we do our daily activities.

Main hall with the waiting area.

The staff

At the Erasmus office currently there are five people working and me as an intern, so we are six. There is our main coordinator Mr. Sedat, Mr. Ayhan who is responsible for the internship placements incoming and outgoing, two ladies who are responsible for the study placements and me who i am all over the place.

Basically my job is to manage the Erasmus Facebook page, answer all the emails who are in English from universities, incoming students etc. take care of the new students, get all the paperwork in order, go with them sightseeing, fix their residence permit in case they need one, make reports, make phone calls abroad, trying to find new internship collaborations and all sort of types. For those who just taught that i may have an easy job this is by far extremely and demanding responsibility.

During the first week i just watch everybody what they were doing, helping with the photocopies, prints and started to learn the job day by day. Now that i am alone in the office i am basically doing all the work i can. And i did discovered that i like it a lot so hopefully in the future i may get a real job in this area.

My office where nowadays i spend most of my time. I cannot say one day is harder than another because at the Erasmus office there is always something happening, some days we have nothing to do so i just watch my serials but other days i am so busy answering emails and dealing with the students that i don't even have time to breath.

Some of the staff at the office and last semester's incoming students.

And here you may see all the staff from the office, head of the table our main coordinator, first two ladies responsible from studies and next to our coordinator Mr. Ayhan responsible for the internships. The rest of us all last semester's students.

Our activities

At the Erasmus office we have some traditions as well, one of them is our weekly breakfast which we always have with all the staff and the Erasmus students. But most of this i will write in a future post, so keep tune in!

Currently we have including myself 5 Erasmus students, 3 we are from Romania, 1 boy from Moldova and one boy from Kazahstan. I will tell you more about them soon.

Even though some days is so hard for me to wake up and come to the office i do realized when i am not here that i miss my activities and the office. Is such a cool plce to be, we are always laughing, drinking tea of course, talking and spend quality time together and we are all a nice team here in Firat University.

Conclusions after week 1

Week 1 was definitely a challenge, until you settle in the apartment and deal with all the paperwork, get to know the new people and students, explore the city it is a taught week. I did not liked at all my first week at the office, maybe because it was a bit overcrowded but now that i am alone i totally love it and i am free in doing my job nobody questioning me. And in my opinion i am good at what i do, i did not received so far complains.

Will see what the next weeks will bring and i will make sure to keep you all posted !

Photo gallery