Week 2 Breakfast and Apartment tour

Week 2

Second week definitely comes as an adjustment week, getting to know my co workers at the Erasmus Office, settle in the apartment, apply for residence permit and our very own first breakfast together.

In my first week i show you guys the people working in the Erasmus office and i have told you briefly what my internship consists in. Well in this part 2 of my experience i want to give you a more detailed presentation of how the apartment looks like and what were the activities ruling the second week.

Accommodation

In case you did not read my post about the city of Elazig in which i write about how Erasmus life and the city looks like, long story short i have spoke about how the accommodation here is provided free for all the Erasmus students inside the campus, but i have not yet to show you some pictures from how actually this apartments look like.

There are 3 apartments for Erasmus students, apartment for girls and for boys, because this is such a conservator country and city they don't allow us to share a mix apartment with boys and girls together. Usually this apartments are standard, around 80 square meters and consists of :

• 2 bedroom apartment
• 1 living room
• kitchen
• 2 bathrooms
• balcony

Currently i live alone but last semester i shared the apartment with another girl, which will happen again starting September when another student she will join Firat University for internship. I do hate sharing my apartment with flat mates, i feel like in my past i had so bad incidents with room mates that now i just need my own space free from all the drama and uninvited guests.

Above you may see the apartment block in which i currently spend my Erasmus days, i sit at the 3rd floor and next to my apartment is the boys apartment which currently is hosting 4 students : 2 of them from Romania, 1 from Moldova and 1 from Kazakhstan.

Usually the view from my balcony apartment is pretty strange considering i live inside the campus but whenever i look over the hills far away they give me this feeling of being somewhere in the Middle East, yes i am already in the Middle East but i don't know is a strange feeling in trying to explain. And this is a strange city to be in!

I catch this picture about 3 weeks ago or so when a rain was about to hit the city and strangely a nice rainbow appeared on the sky.

During the day picture

Some of the students complain about the apartments but in my opinion they are fine for a place you don't need to pay rent. And they have indeed everything inside from furniture to dishes and washing machine and just today i found out in the office that next week or so they will bring us also plasma televisions and ventilators. The only problem is for sure the heat and there is no air conditioning inside this flats, today my Iphone app is telling me there is 37 degrees outside and it can go until 45 degrees so it's no joke we need those ventilators.

The living room

The Kitchen

The main hallway

The Bathroom

As i told you before there is another bathroom but is very small and is without mirror or shower cabin. But i am thankful that they have European bathroom styles not Turkish ones for those who don't know what i am talking about, i am referring at the toilets, in Turkey they don't use regular ones more like a hole if you know what i mean, so funny! So this is this our Erasmus apartments.

Thursday traditional breakfast

One of the first activities i have learn about, was that every Thursday morning all the staff from the Erasmus office and with the Erasmus students have a Turkish breakfast together in the main coordinator's office. It's more like a way to know each other better and share how the week passed by and what our activities included.

We all bring something from our fridges no big deal maybe some ham, cheese or eggs. Me usually i bring french fries which gave me this popularity about it so i always stick with this option. But overall is a nice fun activity which we all enjoy very much. So i am looking forward to my Thursday breakfast!

As i am in charge of managing the Firat University Facebook page you may see this pictures also there plus more others took by me.

Click here for Facebook page

Applying for Residence Permit

Another thing i did during my second week which is mandatory if you stay in Turkey over 90 days, is to get a residence permit. The process can be a bit too much considering it involves translation of your documents from English to Turkish, apply online and get an appointment and after present yourself in the scheduled date and time for the interview.

Here are the steps and the documents required for applying for a residence permit in Turkey.

Documents you need:

1. Valid healthy insurance for the entire period of staying
2. Four pictures ( passport type)
3. Application online form
4. Acceptance letter ( from the university you will make the Erasmus)
5. Learning Agreement
6. Paper showing financial support (from Erasmus or other parties )
7. Paper showing your current address in Turkey.
8. Valid passport ( minim 6 month valid when you enter Turkey )

Steps one by one:

1. Apply online at the Directorate of Migration Office, insert your information and get a schedule meeting for an interview. You can choose the date and time when is best for you to go, so this is a plus.
2. Find the closest and cheaper translation office because i had to translate my healthy insurance and the paper with the Erasmus grant. I paid for 3 pages 50 TL.
3. Go and pay the tax for the residence which is 58 TL at the special offices, the university will inform you about it.
4. Take photocopies of your passport and the stamp of entrance in Turkey.
5. Prepare all you files and go to your appointment at the exact time and date!

It can be a pretty mess depends in each city you apply, for example this year i had a problem also me and other students. Sometimes the police officers in the Immigration office can be a bit disrespectful or other times they commented about the pictures, healthy insurances and other objections. It is very important that you know how much you need to pay depending on your country but usually the residence for study permit are all 58 TL. This year as i was saying i had a big surprise when they ask me to pay 372 TL + 58 TL the initial tax, so a total of 420 TL for what?

When i called the Romanian Embassy in Ankara they couldn't give me exact answers about it so i had to pay this money, and now 4 months later i found out it was a mistake so i received my money back. So be careful about this situation!

The residence will take up to 3 weeks or more to come, it will be send to your address mention in the document requested by the Immigration Office. Because i had residence before in Turkey it took me up to 4 months to receive it and i don't know why!

Bottom line

All in all the second week was as challenging as the first one with not so many satisfactions but i am all about the ride and best thing about me that i always adjust to every environment you put me in.

At the Erasmus office work was pretty easy even though i had to share an office with another student, and as an Erasmus they don't demand so much from you which is always a good thing.

Nice trips and activities are coming next so stay tune with my weekly posts!

Stay safe!

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