What did Erasmus+ teach me?
More than 2000 Finnish students went on Erasmus during 2019. I was one of them. Erasmus+ is a project made by the European Union, supporting the mobility of staff and students. In the nutshell, when students or trainees apply for exchange, they receive the grant and get the possibility to travel and explore a foreign country.
I decided to travel to Belgium. Are you asking me why? Well, my school has a partner University in, for me, the most romantic place in Europe. Bruges, the capital city of West Flanders origins during the Bronze and Iron Age. It is a mix of old streets with crossing canals, restaurants with tasty food, and of course cafeterias with amazing chocolate.
It wasn’t all beer and skittles. Renting policy in Belgium is a little bit tricky, as I understood by seeing me and some of my classmates facing problems with poor quality of rooms we were living in. Otherwise, my experience is very positive. In the beginning, I was curious about how the Finnish study system and Belgian will differ. University in Belgium required more memorizing, and exams were much harder. On other hand, we spent a lot of time outside the classrooms. Flemings are very proud people and our teachers wanted to show us what they are proud of. We visited the chocolate museum in Bruges as part of one lesson and the European Parliament in Brussels as part of another. We also travel to Gent and Koln in Germany. My most favorite memory is of the marketing teachers I had there. Marketing is my passion so I applied to all marketing courses school offered. All teachers were big professionals and taught me a lot.
What I recommend to students who are about to experience Erasmus exchange, is to meet with people from different countries. I was lucky enough and there were not any Slavic people (as I was born in Slovakia and know the languages) so I had to speak a lot of English. I met my best friend Dilsah who is from Turkey, a beautiful Marina from Spain, a very smart Gianluca from Italy and much more.
We all enjoyed our lives there! When the weather was good, we cycled to the beach. When winter came, we were partying in pubs with amazing music and tasty beer. I also traveled to France and the Netherlands during my exchange. Spending time with such a variety of people taught me a lot about accepting differences we all have. I became more open-minded and less hair-splitting. I had to.
To sum up, everything you should do, I am going to write it down here:
1. Visit Half Moon Brewery, beer is so tasty, and view spectacular
2. Go to Choco-Story and Frietmuseum
3. Buy waffle with caramel and cream at Fred’s (they have the best waffles!) and eat them on the main square
4. Go for coffee to Espresso Bar- I love coffee, it is so cozy and romantic place
5. Rent a bike and cycle The Castle Triangle (google this route) or to Blankenberge beach
6. Party a lot with your classmates — you will get friendships forever in so many places around the world
7. Travel at low cost — because it is so much fun!
8. And please, enjoy the country, Belgium is great!