Our Erasmus, My Erasmus

Erasmus. What is Erasmus? Everybody has heard the same old clichés about it: “the best experience of your life! ”, “it’s all about partying! ”, “you get laid all the time! ”, “it will change you forever! ”….

Those kind of things that just make you want to go even more in this “once in a lifetime adventure”. So you just set your expectations really high, and then… It’s EVERYTHING you have ever hoped for! And even more!

You get to know a new country, you experience a new culture, you get used to another way of living, you interact with extraordinary people! Let’s not forget what is the purpose of this, this is a learning experience, sure! Experiencing a different education system, comparing and sharing knowledge is one key part of that, but, and don’t misunderstand me, this is not even close to be the best or the richest part of Erasmus!

In some way, you are completely alone in a new city, in a new country. If you won’t take care of yourself, nobody will! You have to manage on your own! Get a house, get your schedule and go talk to teachers, talk to strangers who don’t speak English just to know where the supermarket is!

In Portugal we have a saying, “desenmerda-te”, it literally translates to “unshit yourself”. It’s used when you want to say that you have to solve your own problems, and I can’t think of a better way to describe the Erasmus experience!

You just pick up your bag and go, somewhere. Visit small cities and large countries. You just want to see and do it all. You have to see and do it all, because that, is Erasmus!

But let’s not fool ourselves. What makes this what it is, are for sure the parties, the new friendships, the drinking buddies, the casual hookups, the never ending “just one beer”, the “dar tudo! ” nights!

You build a new life here! You have a family with people of 10 different nationalities or more! You create relationships, you create different memorable stories with each one of your “brothers”, you eat “sandwiches”, sometimes a lot… You play drinking games, you go out, you get wasted, you get in snow fights. Basically you have a great time! Even a simple backpack has a lot of meaning and is missed when not present. Because is that kind of small things, that in the end you will remember and will make this one of the best experiences of your life!

You learn to enjoy the city and eventually fall in love with it and his secrets. Even the cables, hanging around everywhere, after a while, seems like an engineering masterpiece! You can eat the best street food for the price of a coffee in Portugal. The traffic is so crazy that it becomes perfectly organized!

And in the middle of this chaos, secrets and all this cold, in the end, you can always find warmth that you need in the parks, in your Erasmus family, in a pub… everywhere. The more time you spend, the more you like it, and the more you want to stay! You just wish that will never end.

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They say your life only starts when you leave your comfort zone, but I created a life here, and I’m very comfortable!

This was Romania. This was Bucharest. My name is Leo from Portugal, and this was our Erasmus, this was my Erasmus.

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