Today I come to talk about the difficult times while you are abroad. For many, the Erasmus experience will sound like the American dream, an unforgettable experience full of happiness, discovering new places and making new friends, which isn’t a lie at all. But, as everything in this life, the Erasmus experience is not perfect. Living and studying far from home can be tough, especially when we feel homesick or when the local traditions are way too far from what we know. I don’t think that we should hide or avoid feeling homesick or sad, it’s normal and it happens to everybody. It’s part of being human!
I feel that, when we talk about going abroad, we tend to focus in the positive aspects of the experience, which is great. But if we forget to talk about the downsides, we are not telling the complete truth about our mobility, and that is almost lying.
Living abroad is really cool, I’m not going to lie. I love it. I enjoy every single moment of it, even feeling homesick. Missing home, our friends, our family, our pet, and the local food from our home country is part of the process of discovering ourselves and who we truly are. Erasmus is about learning from other cultures, from other people, but also about learning about ourselves, discovering who we are, how we behave outside of our confort zone, discovering how we manage to start a life by our own in a different country, in a different language. It’s a life-changing experience, for good or for bad.
In those less happy -I’m not going to say sad, I don’t feel it’s the correct word- moments of the mobility, I strongly recommend to focus on why did you choose to go abroad at first, and then, to think in all the positive aspects that you are having thanks to this wonderful experience. If you don’t know how to cheer yourself up when you are homesick, I suggest to write down the good experiences of your mobility, of your life abroad, as well as your goals for the mobility: why did you chose to move abroad? Any small thing is more than enough. If you don’t know how to do it, you can write down two lists, one made of your goals for the Erasmus and the other one for the happy and new experiences you are enjoying during your mobility. This list can include anything, from learning a new word in the local language to the family that the friends you made during the mobility are becoming. Literally anything that made you feel happy, special, cool or loved.
Your friends are the closest to a family, even if you know them only from a few weeks!
If the lists don’t work for you, I’m sure you’ll find a way to distract and cheer yourself up during the hardest moments of the experience. But remember, the mobility is too short to not enjoy it because of some hard time. Before you even notice, you will be flying back home and wishing you had enjoy your mobility more.
Another way to cheer yourself up is talking and hanging out with your new friends, no-one than them to understand better how you feel! Trust me, while you are abroad, they are the closest thing to a family.
My name is Bárbara and I’m an Spanish student taking a BA in Politics and Governance at TLU. Last year, when I made the decision of moving to Estonia I thought it was going to be hard, and, although there were difficult days, Estonia quickly became my second home and moving that far was totally worth it. What I did not expect at all when I started my Bachelor in Estonia was to live there for only one year, before moving abroad again.
When the university gave me the opportunity of taking part in the Erasmus program, I immediatly applied for a year abroad, although that meant starting my life from scratch in a different city, in a different country and without knowing anyone. I though that if adapting to my new life in Estonia had been so easy, the Erasmus won’t be too different. And I was wrong. Absolutely wrong. I don’t mean that my Erasmus experience is going bad, in fact, I’m learning a lot! But stuying in Tallinn is one thing, and being part of a program as big as Erasmus is another, completely different and life-changing experience.
I almost forgot to tell you where I am! Two months ago I left everything I new to move to Lille, a cute -but big- city in the north of France. It’s almost in Belgium , which gave me the chance to visit that country too. I came to France for several reasons, but my main goal was improving my French and becoming fluent. Despite I’m still far from being fluent, now I’m able to follow my courses at the Université de Lille and to talk with some of the local friends I made.
The university is huge compared to Tallinn University. It has several campuses, and each of them are bigger than the one in Tallinn. This university, in fact, has over 60,000 students, and most of my courses (in the School of juridical, political and social sciences, named “Lille 2”) have over 200 students. The big campus, the crowded classrooms and the French culture are a little overwhelming at the beginning, but it’s super easy to adapt and become one more student in the University.
An empty classroom in the Université de Lille. In France, the classrooms for the theoretical courses (cours magistral) are called amphitheatres.
But let’s stop talking about the university and start about something a little more interesting: the free time. A good point about being in a new city is that everything is new and exciting, and these two months have been full of new experiences, new people and new places. I met a group of international stuends at the start of my journey, and I have to say I couldn’t be luckier. They are all great and we have become good friends and shared a ton of experiences. We have been in the fair, done some day trips, tried local and international food and, over all these experiences, we had a lot of party.
The Beaux-Arts Museum, in Lille is free the firs Sundday of the month and it’s a must-seen. They even have a Van Goth!
I will tell you some of my experiences in future posts, but, for now, I’ll start by telling you our first daytrip. France organized some Heritage weekends, where the train tickets are super cheap (1€!!!) and the museums are free, so we decided to spend our day in Dunkirk, a town well-known because of it’s importance during the Second World War (the Dunkirk evacuation…), so we went to the local War Museum, which is not very big, but, if you enjoy History a little, I’d totally recommend visiting.
After the museum, we enjoyed a long walk in the beach Malo-les-Bains before eating local food in one of the restaurants in the beachfront. We started by enjoying the excellent and extremelly typical moules frites (mussels and chips), and we took carbonade Flamande (a stew made with beef, local beer, carrots and potatoes). Before going back to Lille, we enjoyed the beach a little more and we walked around the city. It was a really nice daytrip, and the weather was amazing (which sadly is not common here).
Some of my friends and I, enjoying a great day in Dunkirk. A beach day is a 100% recommended Erasmus experience!
At the time of deciding to spend a semester abroad the what is now known as a global pandemic seemed like a distant echo. Boy, that was to change quickly. Regardless, after spending two semesters learning a new language with a strange pitch melody – Swedish, I decided to try out the Erasmus+ exchange in a conventional way. Meaning, packing a couple of suitcases and flying off to the west. (Correction, due to travel restrictions and some misfortune the straightforward Tallinn-Stockholm path become an erratic Tallinn-Riga-Helsinki-broken plane-Helsinki-Stockholm route 😄).
My grouping in Stockholm University was rather complex. Even though I am learning sociology in Tallinn, I was hosted by the Social Work Department and ultimately taught by the Ethnology and Gender Studies Department. This is interdisciplinarity in social science for you. On the other hand and from what I have heard, the mixed (and at first sight incompatible) arrangements are actually relatively common with university exchanges.
Ethnology (also called social and cultural anthropology, for example in Tallinn University) almost universally requires some work in the field. The ‘field’ here is by no means limited to agricultural settings. On the contrary, almost any type of an environment can serve as a social arena worth researching and discovering both the visible and hidden aspects of it. So in line with that we were sent to observe & interview people while also taking notes and photos of the place. This really helped to tap into the local Stockholmer mindset.
Stockholm’s Ulriksdal Royal Palace is a busy place at weekends: people are walking around, having picnics and playing with kids. My partner in the course and I decided to find out what kind of a relationship do visitors have with the historical & cultural heritage at the site.
If anyone can be a Londoner then it is a different story with Stockholm. True Stockholmers do originally hail from the city proper itself. They speak and understand Stockholm dialects (stockholmska in Swedish). They are used to the country’s only metro system, which they call the tunnelway (tunnelbana in Swedish). They are determined and hard-working. Still they know how to wind down and enjoy a great weather. Strangely, when the rest of Sweden sees Stockholmers as arrogant and lacking of good manners then the overseas visitors in Stockholm vouch that they are met with smiles and courtesy. And there’s no denying that Stockholmers’ English is insanely good.
This care can be seen in the university’s facilities as well. For example, the student house is really for students, equipped with seats and tables for both individual and team work. In addition to a cafeteria, students can use one of the 15 microwave ovens stacked by a nearby wall to warm up a home-packed meal. The printing of one A4 sheet of paper on a campus machine will cost you only 0.03 euros and scanning to your email is free of charge. What is more, the campus library boasts a ‘quiet area’ that takes up an entire floor of the library. The silent zone is something I have dearly missed in Tallinn, especially when cramming for an exam 😊.
The student house amazes with its modern and cozy looks, offers really good facilities and, unsurprisingly, is very popular with the students.
Stockholm University’s main campus is very characteristic to the Swedish capital in general: extremely spacious, lots of greenery, a stone’s throw from the sea. You may have heard that Stockholm enjoys excellent public transport – this absolutely rings true for the campus that is served by the metro, buses and the suburban narrow-gauge railway. But back to the nature. Living next door to the Sea Plane Harbour has made me to take the sea for granted. But even I was in awe after arriving in Stockholm because the sea is really everywhere: stretching in narrow bays, embracing peninsulae and surrounding islands. The patches of dry land are connected by an intricate system of bridges. I imagine that for someone coming from a crowded place in an inland-locked country this experience with proximity to nature could be quite life-altering.
The main campus in Stockholm University encompasses perfectly the gist of Stockholm: a fusion between a nation’s capital and authentic wilderness.
2020 turned out different than what was planned for most of us, including for me. Most plans had to be changed or postponed but, luckily, my exchange happened. Still, probably not as usual.
By the time I applied, the first months of 2020, the pandemic was still in the beginning, and the predictions were that it would not be “that bad”. As we now know, it got worse, and most of the universities cancelled their Erasmus+ program for autumn 2020 semester. From my classmates who applied, me and another student, who is also here in Lisbon, were the only ones who were able to do the exchange. Portugal had a relatively low rate of infections in the first semester, and now the universities remain open despite the restrictions. So, I must say, I owe a lot to luck.
As of the date of this writing, December 2020, there are again some tighter restrictions in place in Portugal, just as in most places, but no complete lockdown. However, by the time I arrived, in late September, they were lessened and I got to enjoy it too!
Not much has changed for the studies. The lectures are in person and will probably continue like that. Masks and social distancing are a rule everywhere, including in the classroom. So rooms are less crowded and you only see half of people’s faces, but the rest goes on as usual.
What really changed… Well… The whole exchange experience is more contained. No big students’ gatherings, no big parties, and overall less social life. With the restrictions in place, most events became smaller and or had to be canceled, so I would say everything became more chill. Since November, there is also a curfew from 1PM on weekends, so I had to get up early to enjoy something outdoors. But it doesn’t mean it is not fun, there is still a lot going on:
There is no packed club or party until the morning BUT there are earlier parties and (smaller) concerts. The dance floor is closed, but everyone is already trying some sitting dance moves.
A concert at Coliseu dos Recreios, an impressive concert hall in the center of Lisbon. And it was for free.
The sightseeing places are not packed. And this is really great! No big queues and enough space for enjoying the space (and taking some cool pictures)
São Jorge’s Castle, which is also for free if you are a Lisbon resident.
The weather is mild, so it is nice to walk around the city and explore the outdoor spots. Even now, in winter.
There are a lot of nice cities to visit across the country, and they are also emptier than usual. There are buses and trains to most places, and the car rental is also cheap. I had the chance to go to the beaches of Algarve (while the weather was still warm enough to swim) and to Alentejo, the main wine-producing area of the country, while there were no weekend restrictions
After the weekends’ curfew at 1PM started, brunch is the most popular thing to do. Lisbon has many (really many!) cafes, so this was a good excuse to try some breakfasts out. Besides that, some other places had to adjust themselves to the situation and created some non-conventional programs in the morning.
I went to a restaurant which made a brunch with Fado concerts, a traditionally Portuguese kind of music, usually played in the evenings, and accompanied by a glass of wine. But it was also good with coffee and croissants!
Brunch with Fado, a fundraising brunch at Casa de Fado (this is at around 10AM)
And some of the museums in the city were open for free during the weekends mornings, so it was a great to visit them
Jerónimos Monastery, which was for free during the weekends’ mornings.
These are just a few things I managed to do in my free time here, during the past three months. Of course I wish there were no restrictions, but the whole situation pushed me to be creative about where to go… And also to do things that I would not in regular times. Instead of students’ dinners, I had brunches and got to know more of the “real” city. Like going to a botanical garden in a Sunday morning.
Estufa fria is a huge greenhouse/botanical garden in the city center, really worth visiting.
The downside is the constant uncertainty about the whole pandemic situation and new changes or restrictions. But that goes for everyone now, I guess.
Anyways, regardless of the adjustments my exchange had to go under, I am happy it is happening. I am glad with my experience, but also with the fact that despite this years’ obstacles, some places found ways to keep things going. We all hope this pandemic ends fast (!), but it is also important to learn how to deal with this kind of situation. And I hope everyone can go on with their exchanges next semester already 🙂
I am Gabriela and I am currently doing my Erasmus+ exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It is not a secret that the weather and the food here are great, so I want to share a bit of my experience here to help whoever is thinking about coming here or anywhere else. Spoiler: it is worth it!
Just so you understand, I am a second-year master’s student from Brazil. I am enrolled in the Human-Computer Interaction master’s program at Tallinn University, and in Lisbon, I am following one semester in the master’s in Design, at Universidade Lusófona.
Exchange in 2020? Alright, not the best year for planning a trip abroad. I was lucky to apply to a place where the exchanges happened, but it worked and has been working well so far (and I will do a post on the topic later on). The pic on the right is from a time when we could still go out without the masks on.
Why and how I got here: First: lots of research. TLU provides most of the information on their website, through info sessions, emails, etc. The rest was a lot of research: going through the partner’s list websites, checking the courses, the requirements, dates, compatibility… When I found my match (you will know when it happens!), some more work: filling up documents, some waiting… It is a lengthy process, but it works fine. Stick to it!
Here, I am following a different program then at TLU, because (there are not many places that offer the HCI program and) I found subjects that are somehow equivalent to what I would be studying. Overall, it is nice to have a different perspective on the topics I was studying!
Maybe you don’t know, but in Brazil, we speak Portuguese too. So it was easier to come to Portugal. Language can be an obstacle to the exchange, but a tip is to do some extra research and ask the universities about the programs’ language. Not all the information online is up to date, and the universities offer different kinds of preparation. Here, there was no Portuguese language course by the university, but the teachers make some effort to translate some parts of the class to another Erasmus student who does not speak enough Portuguese.
Living in Lisbon
Raekoja Plats (Tallinn) / Torel Garden (Lisbon)
What to expect from Lisbon: People are friendly, most of them speak English (at least enough for basic communication). And they really like to talk! Rent here is more expensive than in Tallinn, which is not a surprise. However, food is cheaper, so you can expect to spend less at the supermarket, restaurants, and bars, which is great if (like me) you love to eat. The city has a very lively cultural life, with events for every taste, even during these pandemic times (so, much more in a regular context). Overall, lots to explore in the free time! Speaking of it: 15 minutes late is still on time here.
The University: It has a big, open campus. Lots of different programs, scattered around various buildings. I am very happy with the program I am following here (MA in Design): it has good teachers, a lab, and students from different fields. The downside: Bureaucracy. The communication is not always straightforward, so some things take too much time (or too many e-mails). But maybe this is also a cultural shock after coming from the tiny, organized, Estonia.
(The best) Food: Mediterranean, so it is great. The local “herring and potatoes” is the codfish with different variations of potatoes and lots of olive oil. There is plenty of fish and seafood, vegetables, fruits, bread, pastries, eggs (everywhere, even in the sweets, so be careful!), wine, wine, and wine. Lots of local restaurants and cafes where you can have nice, cheap eats.
Hi! I am Alice from Estonia and I finally decided to pull myself together to write about my exchanges. In plural, yes, because I have been to two different countries with my exchanges this schoolyear, namely Hong Kong and The Netherlands. Although I am a big fan of writing, I haven’t managed to make my way here yet because I do write my own personal blog, but in Estonian (link to that, here: https://aliiceinwonderland.weebly.com/erasmus-vahetusotildepingud). Then again, my study programme (Liberal Arts in Humanities, majors in Anthropology and Cultural Studies) is conducted fully in English, so I have wanted to maintain my writing skills in both languages; hence, writing here in English and having my own blog in Estonian seems to be like an optimal solution for this.
Let me get this straight: my schoolyear has been a huge mess. The situation and struggles with this semester probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but to be honest, my previous semester in Hong Kong wasn’t much stronger. If You have followed the news a bit more, You might have heard about the protests in Hong Kong that have been going on now for almost a year already. That shaped my first half of the schoolyear a lot and, shortly, almost nothing turned out the way I would’ve expected.
The reason I chose these two countries as my exchanges was a pretty easy and logical process for me. Firstly, I knew that I wanted to go out of Europe because I’ve lived in the US for a while and travelled quite a lot around Europe as well. Two choices that I had were Mexico and Hong Kong, but I decided for Hong Kong because of quite a few reasons: 1. I had never been to Asia and I really wanted to do that for a long time. Seemed like a perfect opportunity! 2. I have been to Mexico before, so it didn’t seem as interesting. 3. Also, the study programme(s and courses) correlated better with mine in Hong Kong than in Mexico.
Lingnan University in Hong Kong
I would have actually liked to stay in Asia for a full schoolyear. I don’t remember the exact case, but I know it wasn’t possible for some reason. Anyhow, I was a bit bummed for a short while until I realized it just gives me another opportunity to go somewhere else. I didn’t let myself to be down for too long and decided to go the The Netherlands for the spring semester because I had been there before and I really liked the atmosphere. Also, I had heard that the level of education is rather high and there are several prestigious universities, which seemed intriguing to me. I wanted to know, what’s all the fuss about. I’ll cut this one short: it is difficult there. At least for me, comparing with two other universities (TLU and Lingnan University in Hong Kong).
This academic year has been anything but ordinary and it’s still crazy for me to fathom it all to put it in perspective and realize how peculiar it has been. And without any jokes, I think this entire story deserves its own book. Anyhow, before going to HK I did know about the protests, but at the time of applying they hadn’t happened yet. I didn’t worry much about going there, to be honest, because media have a tendency to emphasize certain aspects and I didn’t want to worry myself too much about it. Which was, in retrospect, a smart thing to do.
It all already started off quite oddly as I was denied to board my flight from Tallinn, which should’ve taken me to Helsinki, then Doha, and then Hong Kong. It was all such a confusing mess because I didn’t do anything wrong and I had all my documents set and a student visa in my passport. It was funny to be in this situation as I had just worked as a check-in and gate agent in TLL airport, so I felt just like home there and the entire airport was (ans till is) filled with my friends. Turned out that I was denied boarding because of the protests! What a delightful surprise! The protesters in HK had occupied and blocked the entire aiport for a couple of days, if I remember correctly. Hence, a lot of flights were not able to neither fly in nor depart. One detail, that still bugs me, is that I followed all my flights to see if they wouldn’t depart, but they all flew to their destinations! Which makes it really odd that I wasn’t allowed to board and fly that day. I tried to ask for a compensation and deal with that stuff, but it didn’t take me anywhere. Instead, they just rebooked my flights and I eventually flew out 48 hours later without any disruptions.
Hong Kong is such an interesting place. It is a city-state, which means that it is a city, but the city is also an entire autonomous country. But the autonomy is the reason why Hongkongers were, and still are, protesting. Nevertheless, it is both so diverse and yet not at all as some people are truly amazed by any lighter haircolor; there are tons of huge, huge buildings as I lived in a ”suburban” area surrounded by apartment buildings of at least 30 floors; quite a reasonable amount of greenery and mountains; and the class division of people is clearly noticeable on the streets with fancy-rich neighborhoods and local markets mixed. Crazy! (I have written a conclusive story about my adventures in HK in an Estonian magazine called Vegan. It’s in April’s edition and you can get it from Selver, with Partnerkaart it’s also for free! But, again, this one is also written in Estonian.)
Markets and streets
Yet if you were patient enough to take a long trip to the other side of the island then you could see the incredible beauty of nature.
Surprisingly, the education seemed easier for me. I think most people are heard of the stereotype about Asian/Chinese people being smart, which is then linked to their education. I don’t know, maybe they are just naturally smart because it was easier for me there than it was in Estonia or even in The Netherlands. The school systems in universities seem to be built up the same way, but the lectures and seminars felt a lot more like high school. Besides, I noticed that probably more than a half of the students in Lingnan University were at least a few years younger than me. For example, my roommate was 19 (and all her friends between 18-20), I am 23, at the time I was 22. I think all of the people that I met who were around my age or older were exchange students.
I was struggling a lot there, not with school, but for example with food. The students of this university had to live in a student housing that was also inside of the campus, but many local students just paid for the dorm and then still lived at home most of the time, like my roommate. I think I saw her maybe 10-15 times the most. Coming back to food now. As i am a vegan, I naivly thought it would be easy with the food there because it is a warm Asian country where they grow fruits and vegetables, right? Wrong. Coming back to the fact that it is a city-state, they don’t grow much there and most of the fresh food is imported, which then, consequently, lowers the quality and raises the prices of fresh products. Alright, that’s not the worst case scenario. Our student housing didn’t really have a kitchen. Well, they did have something like it, but I wouldn’t call it a kitchen. It might have been around 1.5×1.5 m of a small box that had a sink, a microwave, and a hot-water tank and that’s it. No ovens, no stoves, nothing like that.
There was a common room with two fridges that you had to share with approximately 25(?) other students. Which was also not necessarily the worst. I had a lot of trouble with the fact that we didn’t have a place to cook at. Alright, our school did also have a canteen and a restaurant in the campus. But. The canteen didn’t have a single even vegetarian meal option, which is, in my opinion, nonsense for a school that takes exchange students and tries to be as diverse as possible. It is usual there to make even vegetarian dishes in pork fat, which then makes them not vegetarian anymore. The restaurant did have a few vegetarian and vegan options so I did go there a few times, but it always had to be with someone else for a few reasons: * The staff didn’t speak/understand English as much, so it was difficult to double-check whether a dish was vegan/vegetarian. * Their eating habits are a bit different from my culture, or just from most cultures in Europe I think, as they usually go and eat with a group of friends and then order several dishes and share them, so the sizes of the portions are big and it was pretty impossible to eat everything if there’s only 2 of you.
Eventually I just did what most of the locals did: ate instant noodles for months staight. Noodles with tofu, with chickpeas, with lettuce, with whatever was available at the store to try to mix it up as much as possible without having to cook it. And the same with breakfast: microwaved instant oatmeal with fruits/berries for months. It was quite a challenge and it didn’t obviously affect my health too good as I fell sick with (probably) a cold/flu a few times. But it’s okay, I am smarter now, and what’s the most important – I did it, I’m alright and I learned something new from this experience.
Mind you, 156 HKD is 18.5 EUR for 2 peaches
If I had to choose one word to describe the semester in Hong Kong, it would be: cancelled. To ensure the maximum safety for students all the orientation activities and welcome parties and what not were cancelled. It was quite a challenge to meet people and make friends the first couple of weeks when the school hadn’t started yet. I met a very dear friend of mine there, Andjela (I know you will read it, so, hey!), a Serbian girl, who, incidentally, is studying full-time in The Netherlands! Yet we have taken our time for granted as well because we are once again at a position where we don’t know when we’ll see each other again.
Anyway, thanks to her my semester was a lot more valuable as we spent most of the time exploring Hong Kong together as much as we could inbetween the protests. We even took a trip to Vietnam together at one point and were planning several other travels together, but little did we know that the World had another plan for us. It was in the first half of November when the protests got a lot more worse.
I was in Japan with my childhood friend and her boyfriend, who came to visit me, at the time when pupils all around the Hong Kong started striking against going to school so the lectures and seminars were called off several days straight. The situation escalated with crazy speed so much that by the end of the week face-to-face studies were cancelled for the remaining semester. And then everything collapsed. Not just for me but for thousands of exchange students. Most of them decided to flee the country within a day. It is not a secret that a lot of Chinese students were terrified as Hongkongers were protesting against the regimes of China, so they were the first ones to go.
The same evening when I returned from Japan, I went straight to Andjela’s place because she was also very much afraid what will happen next and decided to leave the next morning for various reasons. Watching live broadcast of the protests daily was a normal thing to do, just to stay informed because it shaped a lot of traffic, shopping, etc. Traffic was disrupted heavily. There were days where all the public transportations were stopped and shops were closed. So it was very important to stay up to date with this.
Lennon walls were a popular sight in the entire Hong Kong with thousands of encouraging signs for Hongkongers and, unfortunately, the opposite for China.
And as Andjela and I were watching the broadcast, we saw how two of our university’s exchange students were arrested by the police. We saw that live from the broadcast. They were arrested just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong colored clothes (dark/black). At first they were suspected of taking part of the demonstrations, but finally they were accused with not having a sufficient amount of documents with them. Apparently, as I also only found it out thanks to them, an exchange student in HK always has to carry their passport and a valid Student ID with them. Only one of them is not enough.
Andjela and I accidentally walked into a beginning of a demonstration once, seen on a picture on the right.
That night was a huge mess with lawyers and supporters from our school going to the police station to try to get these students out. Fortunately, this ended all well, but these two guys also flew the country the very next day. As did my friend Andjela. As did all of my friends in the upcoming days and weeks as I watched them go. I was debating whether to go home, to stay longer, or to go somewhere else abroad, just in case to get out of the country, because in situations like these no one can predict what will happen next.
Some of the universities became battlefields. A literal modern battlefields. The protests and how it shaped my experiences is worth at least a whole chapter in a book. If You have not seen/heard anything, I recommend watching this video (and I encourage You to look for more):
In that sense, I was extremely lucky to go to another school that wasn’t half as affected. Some of the protesters did crash the canteen in our university because it belonged to a Chinese company, but nothing like that in the video happened in our campus and it remained relatively calm and quiet for the rest of the semester.
Eventually I ended up staying for a few more weeks to finish up with most of my school assingments because I knew it would have been too difficult to study somewhere else. Not that it was easy to do that there either, oh, no.
I went home in early December, although, I had planned on staying in Asia until mid-January to take time and travel around the continent. I tried not to be too sad about it all, about Hongkong, about my exchange semester, about my friends, because I knew that in February I would have gone to The Netherlands for another exchange. And I quote my friends, several of them said something like this to me: ”Yeah, it’s a good choice to go there, nothing will happen in The Netherlands, it’s such a chill country.” Yeah, of course it wouldn’t matter by now where I would have gone because the situation is similar everywhere, but the amount of unluck with this academic year is just ridiculous.
But don’t worry! I (try to) take it all as just a valuable experience because it has taught me a lot about others, about myself, and although I am, of course, a bit sad that this year has turned out so…, I have decided to just accept it and take the best from it. There’s no reason to be angry or sad about situations that are not under my control. It’s just a waste of time. Yet these aforementioned segments have only been a small part of the exchange to give a brief overview of what it was like. Also, I do not regret going, it is a spectacular experience even though it was devastating in many ways.
I’ll try to focus on the troubles in The Netherlands in my next post, so until then, to be continued…
Take care! (PS! Hongkongers and others that I met during my exchange, you are dear to me, stay strong!) Alice
Still going through my list so I could get as much done and seen as possible before I left, May was full of interesting little adventures. I decided to visit the local cat cafe Coffeecat, which surprisingly, as a huge cat fan, was the first of its kind that I’ve ever actually set foot to. Overall the experience was nice, after accepting that all the cats were purposefully hanging out wherever I did not end up sitting even after relocating myself, they eventually caved when I brought out some toys on sticks from a box at the counter. The cats seemed pretty happy, although I have to admit it wasn’t the cleanest of places which made me a little sad, especially after noticing some very smelly cat poop in the corridor once we left.
Other animals that I had been trying to seek out my entire stay were wild bunny rabbits. I managed to see some running around the campus only at night time, but never got as close as I would have liked. I eventually managed to get a few pictures for my friends and family who refused to believe that they existed.
Animal sightings around the dorm (hedgehog and a bunny)
I started to take a lot more pictures in general at this point of my trip. I felt like I had to go to every museum and see the inside of every church. Definitely go check out the Museum of Art, which is free for everybody on Sundays, and has a nice view of the city from the roof. All the churches in the city are also beautiful from the inside and definitely worth visiting.
There is a local store called Vivaco that sells all sorts of CR-made cosmetics, where I spent a lot of my money, but unfortunately I have to admit that most of the things I bought weren’t very good and are now just gathering dust, so I wouldn’t recommend going there, or at least doing more research on the products before buying, to find better ones than I did. There is also the store Manufaktura which I would recommend as souvenirs instead, which has good products that are great gifts because of the packaging they have, saying they’re original, natural Czech cosmetics, and also for the fun beer and wine line they have (everything from lip balm to shaving cream etc). I also visited a very small craft beer shop in the centre of Olomouc, where I was shocked to discover various Estonian beers! Other souvenirs I bought were for example from the Koh-i-Noor pencil shop, one of the oldest and most popular stationary companies in the world from České Budějovice.
Koh-i-Noor pencil holder hedgehogs
Some hidden gems that are not very advertised that I enjoyed a lot was for example a Café on the Balustrade, where you can get some nice tea on the roof, with a little bit of a view of the town hall. Another last minute, but an enjoyable trip was to the outskirts of Olomouc for a boat ride along the Morava river (Plavby Olomouc). Although it didn’t actually take us through the city like it seems to be advertised, it was still a very pleasant experience.
Which brings me to the end of this journey. The rest of my stay was filled with more paperwork, reminiscent to my first weeks in Olomouc. I am not going to bore with these details, but if anyone reading has any questions about any of this, I am more than happy to provide some information. Although these few months of Erasmus was not some amazing or mind-blowing, life-changing experience for me, and it had a lot of issues throughout, overall it was definitely worth coming to Olomouc. I would definitely recommend going and experiencing Erasmus to everyone if possible, I’m very happy I decided to do it while I still could (during my masters). Olomouc helped me meet some amazing people and I will cherish this time for always.
Rooftop Café on the Balustrade with the Holy Trinity column behind me
PS! If you are reading this and you are interested in going to Olomouc (or elsewhere in CR), feel free to contact me via email if you have any questions!
Eva Mallene ejmallene@hotmail.com
A big reason for me choosing Olomouc for my studies was the fact that it was so central in Europe and only a few hours from so many beautiful cities in surrounding countries that I planned on visiting. This did not end up happening. After getting the travel-bug from exploring around some little towns in Czech Republic, I re-invited myself to another trip the following weekend with the same group of people, but this time, for the first and only time reaching outside of CR, to the Tatra mountains and beautiful town of Zakopane in Poland.
This time, we took a ~4-hour bus ride first to Krakow, and from there another 2,5 hour one to Zakopane. We had a local among us in the group, who was amazing enough to organise everything for us, so we had to do nothing more than just sit back and go with the flow.
We stayed in a cute little hostel, where we had two rooms for the 8 of us to share. On the second day (the only one of the whole weekend that we did not have sunshine but instead pouring rain) was when we had scheduled our hike into the Tatras. Although our local “guide” kept apologising for the weather, and all of us were pretty miserable as well as soaked, the views were still beautiful. If you, my dear reader, ever go there, definitely grab some oscypek on the way, a local smoked sheep milk cheese that they grill there and that is delicious and exclusive to that area.
Locals grilling and selling oscypek outside + hiking the Tatras
Sunshine after the rain
Drinking beer Polish style – with raspberry syrup
With my Erasmus experience over half-way through and the end of the semester slowly approaching, I started to panic slightly, as it seemed that I had not actually explored Olomouc so far at all. So I made a list of things I wanted to see and do, where I wanted to eat etc, and started to go through them slowly, although I never finished it in it’s entirety.When I didn’t feel like going outside and travelling the whole way by tram to the city for some food, and didn’t feel like waiting for my turn in the little shared kitchen either, I found that ordering food around here was pretty simple. In addition to DÁME JÍDLO, an online food-delivering service, a few of the fast food places had their own, very affordable options, which was nice, especially getting some pizza or KFC straight to your dorm door after a beer too many the previous night.
I think it was back around the second week that I started noticing a weird noise coming from somewhere in the dorm, like a rooster crowing. After a few mornings, my initial thought was that it was someone’s alarm clock sound, coming through a window from a neighbour. But then I noticed that it was never at regular times, sometimes even around 6:30 at night. When I finally discussed it with my roommate, she also said she has been hearing it, confirming that I’m not going crazy. It took me two whole months to finally be in a situation when I was outside on a walk in the early morning and could hear it once more. I decided then to follow the noise and find out where it’s coming from. In the outskirts of Olomouc, this whole time I had been neighbours with a pretty big open pen with dozens of chickens running about and a big, annoying rooster at its helm, crying out at me through the fence.
Not connected to the loud rooster, this was around the time that I spontaneously decided to move to the other one of the two student dormitories of Olomouc, Envelopa. I ended up being much happier there, as I was with my friends and much nearer to everything. Instead of long tram rides, I got to walk to school every day through the beautiful Bezručovy park (although this probably wouldn’t have been that nice in colder February). If I wanted to go to the gym, I had to start preparing only a few minutes before, to go downstairs to the hall of the same building I was already living in.
Although Envelopa is supposed to be the less nicer of the two, I felt like it was much more homey and welcoming. A kitchen is shared by the whole floor (4 flats), and a separate bathroom and toilet are shared by three rooms in a flat, with three beds in each room (many of which were empty).
The room I stayed in at Envelopa
Weird elevators at Envelopa
Another perk of Envelopa is an outdoor garden area that you can book for your own little parties, which we decided to do, on an evening that of course ended up being the coldest day of the entire month. Regardless, we tried to make most of it with great people and lots of tea, grilling way too much food and mostly eating the leftover oscypek from our Tatra trip.
This “new” dorm was also much closer to all the parties in the city.
For example, one evening at S-klub, located just a few minutes away from the dorm, took place a silent disco, which was something I always wanted to take part of. Although when we got there, the place was pretty much empty, the experience ended up being very fun and hilarious, especially once you took off your headphones and saw a quiet room full of dancing people, with only the squeaking of the shoes echoing back at you.
Sometimes you would get foreign songs that seemed to be local hits (from the yelps of some of the guests), in which case you could just turn your headphones on the other channel, and continue with listening to all of your secret guilty pleasure songs. This was the perfect event – since you couldn’t really talk to each other, you could just close your eyes and get lost in your own private party.
Two DJ’s on two channels: blue and green
Most of what I learned about the Czech peoplehappened in the Czech culture class that some of us took. In addition to local snacks and drinks that we got to enjoy every other Wednesday evening, we also learned about Czech film, art and music, among others. This was also a chance to mingle with some of the local students.
Professor Livingstone introducing Kofola, the local Coca Cola alternative
Another way I tried to infiltrate the locals was through AFO – Academia Film Olomouc, a documentary film festival that the university puts on every year for the past 50 years or so. After already having been in Olomouc for a while, I sort of accidentally found a course in the school called “Festival production”, which I was immediately very interested in. The class turned out to be entirely in Czech, but after some e-mails and a quick coffee with the professor, who was also the head of programming of the festival, we came to an agreement that I could help out at the festival for some ECTS.
Although the festival claims to be international, and I ended up being the coordinator of an amazing group of judges for it, very often I found myself left out of festival activities for the lack of spoken Czech on my part. So although my “infiltrating” plan didn’t work out, I still got to experience some fascinating festival work, and even get grades for it, which was a win-win situation in any case.
Around this time, before the last wave of schoolwork and essay deadlines, is when my parents came to visit me. In reality, they were in Olomouc just for one day, and we decided to go and explore Prague for a few days instead, which I had still not done so far. Since it was the Easter holidays, the city was packed with tourists. In addition to all the mandatory tourist sights, we also spent time picking out a Bohemian garnet jewellery piece for me that I had been wanting since I first heard about it. Mined in Bohemia (the Western part of CR), they are beautiful, deep red gems, not very different from rubies, but much more affordable. I also finally gave in and tried the trdelnik, a dessert stolen from the Hungarians, that was being cooked on every street.
The bohemian garnet and a trdelnik
After we were done with Prague, we took a train ride to the Sedlec ossuary. Although there is not much else to do in the little town of Kutná Hora and the ossuary is quite small (around a 3-hour roundtrip for 20 minutes of looking around), I would still recommend going and checking it out, if you have the time, because it is definitely a very unique experience.
Kutná Hora ossuary
After exploring around and starting to head back, that evening I had the chance to experience two polar opposite Czech train experiences, both which probably cost only a few euros. Getting back to Prague from Kutná Hora, the train was half an hour late and absolutely filled with people, so much that I had to sit on the floor of the corridor. A few hours later, when I started back to Olomouc, I sat almost alone in the restaurant cabin of a České dráhy train, where I got to stretch out, eating good cheap food with a train-specialty beer, with excellent internet connection, entertainment and useless features like looking at live camera footage from the front and back of the train.
Two polar train ride experiences
I ended April with something I felt would be appropriate – after three months of telling everybody on Erasmus about my mysterious country that they knew nothing about, and how we are indeed not Slavic – we went to a Slavic party. Although I did not have any Adidas clothing to wear as every other person at the party seemed to have just lying about, I did spend a lot of time crouching next to strangers, teaching them about the proper Slav squat and lecturing them about being Western spies.
This seems like an good time to write about one of the biggest shocks that I experienced, and decided to write about in this blog already months ago, and never really got used to: the toilets. Almost every venue, club, bar, even restaurants, do not have locks for the toilets. So if you go to CR and wish to use a public (and sometimes even private) restroom, be wary: if the door is closed, there is probably someone inside using it. I never understood why, perhaps the keys have just been stolen so they gave up? Instead of getting new ones, the key holes are just stuffed with some paper and the doors are kept unlocked at all times. Another thing is the lights that go off super fast and only react to movement. So you end up sitting there, one hand reaching out and trying to keep the door closed, while the other is waving up in the air, trying to get the light to turn back on.
Half of these words were written at Bergamo airport, which resulted in me missing my flight and having to stay the night at Bergamo. Despite that, I decided to finish this post now. One day later. On the bus from Riga to Tallinn.
//
The last post I will share about my Erasmus exchange semester will be in English, just because I feel like so many people who made this experience be what it was are non-Estonian speakers (yet) and I’d like all of you to understand how much I value our time spent together. And sorry if my English seems a bit rusty, my head is too full of Portugese still 😀
I have made my way from Porto to Milan’s airport and it feels like there is so much to say and share that I just need to start somewhere. It is hard to believe the sadness that I was feeling when leaving Estonia five months ago. I was crying a lot (and probably still will) leaving Porto as well, but this time it is fully tears of happiness. Yes, I will miss all of it. The people, the places, the experiences, adventures, the old, small, cute art school, the river, the sunsets, the sea, surfing and so much more. But on top of all that I am extremely grateful that this opportunity was given to me. And honestly I cannot imagine anything better happening to me during these five months at this point of my life.
I came to the realisation that an exchange semester, year, even month is something that every single human being should do a few evenings ago. I’m not saying it is something easy and fun all the way through. I think that almost all Erasmus students would agree that there are moments when you feel so done with the cultural differences, or when something would be just so much easier and quicker when you’d be home, or you miss a person so much you would do anything just to get out and be with them. But it is the final understanding, the summary of all the different moments, that matters. That really makes a difference in one’s life.
To illustrate, I wanted to share some differences that I noticed between Portugal and Estonia (or Porto and Tallinn) and what I will miss from these.
Things I will miss.
Meeting new people. All the time. Everywhere. Constantly. And nice, interesting, smart, cool, inspiring people. It might be obvious, but the power of Erasmus network keeps surprising me even now, that I’ve already left Porto. Somehow I always get better along with people from different countries than me. Especially people who take part in various youth organisations, exchanges etc. But the fact that out of the almost 1000 Erasmus students in Porto, every single human being I’ve met is so wonderful seems still a bit impossible. And today in Porto airport when I approached a girl whose face seemed just a tiny bit familiar with a question if she went to Erasmus, we ended up talking and spending quite a bit time together at Bergamo airport. During the conversation, we found out that her high school friend from Croatia attended the same EYP event 3 years ago with me. World seems so small with these kinds of opportunities and I am extremely grateful to have had the chance to get inspired by so many people all around the world.
One of the first times we all had a drink together after our Portugese lesson for Erasmus students.
Portugese people. I will miss all of my Portugese friends soooo much, please come visit soon! But also in general I feel like Portugese people have (for me) the perfect balance of Southern frankness and openness, but they’re not AS loud and outgoing as Spanish for example (I still love you my Spaniards <3). But that’s just my very subjective view 😀 And most Portugese people are very honest. They always try to solve the problems that come up, sometimes through a lot of yelling, but it’s still better than hiding the anger inside. AND they give you two kisses every time they meet someone. I never felt like it was too much (or too touchy) and since I feel like I’ve gotten so used to it, I will definitely miss it. Would be interesting to see how Estonians would react if I’d gave them two kisses when meeting them for the first time…
Crossing with red light. I guess. I mean not exactly the crossing, but the car drivers are also a lot more careful and nicer I feel. They stop to let the pedestrians cross with the red light, but also at crossings without a traffic light. Which is not that common in Estonia in my opinion.
Coffee and cigarette breaks. Someone put it quite smartly: “Basically Portugese people think the time stops when they take a coffee or a cigarette break.” Which of course, can also be annoying when we’re already short in time and obviously the time doesn’t’ actually stop… but mainly I think it’s important to take some time off to just have a coffee and a chat sometimes. I never really knew how to do it with my busy 87-things-in-the-to-do-list hourly planned time schedule. I will definitely try to take this mindset back home with me.
Walking and sitting outside at night in January. People just meet outside, somewhere on streets, next to a shopping centre, anywhere really, because it’s warm enough as well as private enough to just listen to music and chat and dance.
Cheap AND good wine. And beer, the SuperBock. Really, it’s that simple.
The benefits of a tiny arts school where everyone knows everyone. Having a beer with the teachers during lunch break on a balcony. Or just chilling in university til late at night playing drinking games.
Having dinners together. Maybe it varies from family to family and from friends group to friends group, but I’ve never had so many awesome dinners together with other people than during these 5 months. I guess Portugese people don’t really eat (or cook) alone and somehow I discovered only now how much nicer it is to cook together and eat together. Will try to bring it more to Estonia though.
My living room that hosted many of these dinners. (And yes, taking pictures of people who are eating is my special skill)
Ok, that was a breakfast, but still.
And that was a cocktail party…
And we also made vegan pizza at Carla’s (meet Carla – my first Portugese friend).
Things I won’t miss.
Rooms without heating. And I think this is where this list ends… Okay, having classes in a language you don’t really speak is not very pleasant, but at the same time, I don’t mind learning a bit of a new language and actually having all the free time to still be able to learn quite a bit on my own, even just by watching films and reading books.
So, to summarise, there was a lot. And I definitely developed tremendously as a person. I just believe that there is so much still out there about what we probably don’t even have a slightest idea. So many little (and big) challenges and so many beautiful moments simply make us appreciate everything in our life more. It’s really not easy to describe through words, but trust me, living abroad for half a year (especially while on Erasmus) is life-changing.
My last sunset in Porto. And probably last sunset that I’ll see in general for a while.
Still can’t believe we had to both move from Estonia to Porto in order to meet. Hope you enjoy Barcelona and come home soon so we can enjoy more sunsets!
Teadlikult ei alustanud ma blogipidamist kohe seikluse alguses, kuna need tunded ja emotsioonid oleksid olnud väga lühikese perioodi kohta. Nüüd olles enda vahetusõpilase kogemuse lõpusirgel, tunnen et mingisugune arvamus on kujunenud ja olen valmis seda tulevaste Erasmuslastega jagama.
Olen 25-aastane noormees, kes õpib kehakultuuri. Erasmuse kogemuse soov on olnud minuga kaasas juba 5 aastat, kuid erinevatel põhjustel varem ei julgenud/saanud seda sammu astuda. Kevadel tundsin et õige ja ka viimane aeg on käes, seega olen ülirõõmus oma sihikindluse üle 2019. kevadel.
Kes, ei viitsi pikalt lugeda, siis lühidalt teile põhjuseid, miks see seiklus enda pagasisse lisada.
Väike põhjus on mõne jaoks juba pildil, pilt on tehtud oktoobri viimasel nädalavahetusel, 24 kraadi.
Erasmus on väärt kogemus, mis kasvatab sind mitmel rindel
Õpid väärtustama Eestit
Vahetusõpilaste punt on väga sõbralik ja reisihimuline, seega paki kohver ja koge erinevaid kultuure
Keele pärast ei pea muretsema, alati saab hakkama. Eesti hariduse ABC on piisav
Spordiüritused
Algus 25. september
Ülikoolist 5 minuti kaugusel olev park
Olen pidevalt oma asju ajanud sedasi, et kõik jääb viimasele minutile. Ei olnud minu Tšehhi reis sellest kuidagi erinev. Ostin kaks päeva enne õpingute algust hosteli paariks ööks ja bussireisi pileti. Esmalt mõte ühikast mind väga ei paelunud ja mõtlesin, et leian kohapeal mingi korteri jagamiseks. Prahasse jõudnuna sain aru, et minusuguseid tudengeid on siin tuhandeid ja polnud ma ka ainus, kes majutuse oli jätnud viimase hetke peale. Kohalikud pole rumalad ja oskavad küsida kenasti raha, seega paneelmajas, jagatud korteris, tuba maksab 500€ kuus. Erasmuse rahana on ettenähtud siis 460€ kuus, seega reaalsus lõi mind karmilt.
Võtsin siis uuesti ühendust Erasmuse abilistega Prahas ja sain kuhugi ühika ootelisti. Pärast mõningaid närvilisi lisapäevi hostelis, saabus õnneks email, et avanes koht. Ma ei mõelnud hetkeki, kuna tulevase kodu eest pean välja käima 150 € kuus. Seega leidsin ennast 3. oktoobril Hostivar kolejst. Polnud varem elanud ühiselamus, oli alguses mõningaid kartusi, aga harjume kõigega. Tagantjärgi tean, et minu elu oleks kindlasti olnud palju igavam, kuna ühikas oli meil suur punt(üle 20 inimese), kellega oli whats upis chat, kus igapäev oli kellegil mingi plaan ja nädalavahetustel korraldati vahvaid väljasõite kaugemale. Minu jaoks oli üllatus, kui avatud inimesed on maailmas, seega tuttavaid leiab väga lihtsalt ja igapäevaselt. Kui koduriigis läheb keegi väljaspool sotsiaalmeediat kellegiga näost näkku rääkima, siis peetakse seda millegi pärast imelikuks käitumiseks. Erasmuslaste vahel on taoline suhtlemine normaalsus ja mulle väga meeldib see stiil.
Ühikaruum Hostivaris, lisaks on toas WC
Tihedad koosviibimised pandega
Õpingud koolis
Asi, mida mulle küll varem mainiti, kuid kahjuks ei mõelnud sellele piisavalt vara, on õpingukava. Kolmanda aasta tundengina pole liiga palju aineid jäänud. Olin jätnud endale 10 vabaaine punkti, kuid veel pidin leidma 5 EAP siis samu tunde nagu oli mu kaasõpilastel Tallinnas. Leidsin 3 sellist ainet, EAP-sid kokku sain tegemiseks 24. Mind hoiatati enne õpirännet, et mõningad tunnid võivad ära jääda. Nii ka juhtus, kahjuks olid siis need minu jaoks väga vajalikud ained. Seega soovitan kõigil enda EAP tagala kindlustada väga turvaliselt ära.
Ülikooli hindamissüsteem on erinev, 1 võrdub A, 2 B ja 3 on läbitud. Eksam loetakse sooritatuks kui kogud vähemalt 70%, seega loomulik inteligents vajab kõrvale ka õpitud teadmisi.
Ma pole kindlasti kõige parem inglise k rääkija, pigem kehva poolne. Ometi mõistin päris kiirelt, et ei peagi olema kohe ideaalne kõneleja. Eksid, kokutad, pudistad ja teed mõttepause, kuid ometi sellest õpidki. Charles Universityl on selgelt rohkem raha ja õpilastele on tagatud päris head tingimused. Üks põhjus, miks valisin Karli ülikooli, oli mitmekülgne õppekava fitness poolel. Siin on võimalik endale teha fitness coachi paberid ja esmalt see kogu raske töö enda nahal läbi proovida. Eestis on minu meelest antud valdkond kehvake, kuna meil on palju jõusaali treenereid, kuid vähe spetsialiste, kes teaksid kuidas noorte kehalisi võimeid targalt arendada.
Ülikooli rahakus väljendus minu jaoks võimalustes, suured pärismuru staadionid jalgpalliks, kergejõustikuks, ujula, mahukas jõusaal ja teaduste labor. Laboris on exercise physiology tunnis õnnestunud oma kehavõimeid ka pidevalt katseda. Õpilastel on läbi erinevate testide võimalik saada teadlikumaks treenijaks ka ise. Samuti massažitunni praktika ei toimunud kõvadel klassi laudadel, vaid selleks ettenähtud massažilaual. Ei saa salata, et antud tund oli minu Praha üks lemmikuid, kuna kord nädalas saada massaži on päris tore.
Ei võibki tähendada EI
Üks asi, mida siin olles tajun on eestlaste kokkuhoidmis tunne. Sisimas ehk soovitakse olla naabrist parem, kuid kusagil meis eksisteerib tunne, et teistel võiks ka hästi minna ja oleme valmis alati tulema veidi vastu. Vähemalt oma senise elu olen palju läbi vedanud nõnda, et kui midagi väga tahad, siis leiad lahenduse saavutamiseks. Ometi nüüd võõrsil, on just erinevates ametkondades tajuda suhtumist, kus Ei on ei. Kuna küsijaid on mõne miljoni võrra rohkem, siis on nõudlus selgelt suurem. Seega siin olles olen tajunud, et peame oma väikse riigi eeliseid kasutama. Kui sul on oma idee, siis realiseeri see. Turg on küll väiksem, kuid samuti konkurents.
Eesti osas inimeste teadmised pole kõige paremad, pealinna oskab öelda ehk 25% Erasmuslastest. Riia tundub olevat baltikumis ennast kuidagi paremini reklaamivat, kuna arvatakse just seda kanti Estonia pealinnana. Teatakse, et oleme külma kliimaga maa, kuid seda enam ootasin lumerohket talve Eestis, kuna pidevalt küsiti mult- “kas kodumaal juba paksult lund?”.
Soomlased võtsid mind nime tõttu kiirelt omaks, kahjuks ma keelt liialt ei mõista. Kaveri Jusaga
Tšehhi mägine loodus
Kuna olen siiski Faculty of Physical Education and Sport õpilane, küsiti minult tihti millisel spordialal on eestlased väga tugevad? Minu püüdlused öelda, et oleme jalgpalliriik, kustutati kiirelt. Kuna Ragnar Klavanit küll teati, kuid kahjuks välismaa meedia pole temast kõigile maalinud nii osava mängija pildi, kui maarjamaa ajakirjanikud on seda teinud. Peame ka ennast korvpallimaaks, ometi ka seal polnud mul erilistest saavutustest rääkida ja mängijadest oli ainsana tuttav Siim Sander Vene. (Leedu poiss teadis ka Kerr Kriisast, kuid temaga veel Eestit korvpallikantsiks ei maali.) Lõpuks rahuldas küsijaid vastusena kümnevõistlus, kuna antud kergejõustiku alaga keskmine spordisõber pole kursis ja seal on eestlased tõesti tasemel. Omalt poolt andsin panuse, et Eestit ei peetaks kindlasti jäähoki riigiks. Tõeliselt arendav spordiala, kuid minuni jõudis kahjuks liiga hilja.
SPORT
Olin viimased kaks aastat lisaks päevaõppele ülikoolis andnud ka lastele jalgpallitreeninguid FC Flora jalgpalliklubis. Kahjuks kõige rohkem kannatas see tõttu mu enda liigutamine, Prahas leidsin aga aega kõvasti teha ise trenni. Olin unustanud, kui palju energiat liikumine annab. Mulle meeldib samuti sportmänge külastada, Eesti koondiste- , eurosarjade- ja muid suurmänge. Õnneks Prahas ja lähiriikides sain seda nälga kustutada. Bundesliga, Tšehhi, Ungari, Slovakkia jalgpalliliigad. Kohalik hoki, Jaromir Jagr, korvpalli CL. Seda jäi kroonima jalgpalli meistrite liiga kohtumine, selle hümn on staadionil üks eriline asi.
Olen palju kuulnud ütlusi, et jalgpall(sport) on suurem kui lihtsalt üks tavaline mäng. Kindlasti sain sellest nüüd natuke rohkem aru, kuna tajusin staadionil loodavat atmosfääri. Naised-mehed, vanad-noored, polnud vahet. See on üks vägem emotsioon, mis sellistel sündmustel toodetakse, mängu ümbritsev isegi võtab tähelepanu mängult ära.
Sparta Praha
Victoria Plzen
Slavia Praha fännid
Reisimine Praha asub euroopa südames, seega ei ole keeruline avastada ka ümbrust. Olles natuke kaval, siis internetis on palju lehti, kuidas oma reisimine tunduvalt odavamaks muuta, seega tuleb olla leidlik. Minul oli reiside põhjuseks suuresti sportmängud, kuid leidub ka suurepärast arhitektuuri ja miks mitte ka maailma nimede kontserte. Seega tuleb leida endale see motiiv.
Tšehhit külastades suurematest linnadest Prahast piisab, teised suuremad linnad pole nii kenad. See eest matkarajad ja looduskaunid paigad on vallutanud kohalike südamed, seega vähegi hea ilma korral on sõpruskonnad kusagil seiklemas.
Kokkuvõte (raha ja muu)
Õpirände üks mõnusam tunne on see, et sa ei sõltu mitte millestki. Sul on vaid üks kohustus, teeni endale poole aastaga 15 EAP, rohkem ei oota sult mitte keegi. Vabadus sellisel määral on hea tunne, kuna minul vähemalt pani see aju tööle enda tuleviku osas. Muud argimõtted minu pead ei vaevanud, seega kui söök oli tehtud ja nõud pestud(ühiselamus mõistlik kohe pärast söömist), sain tegeleda sellega mis mind tõesti huvitab.
Olen viimased paar aastat elanud koos elukaaslasega, seega kindlasti olin mingid argipäevased rolli tema kraesse veeretanud. Vahetusõpingute ajal pidin, aga kõige eest ise hoolitsema. Seega mingil määral olen nüüd veel iseseisvam.
Eelarve ja sellest kinni pidamine. Kuna olin seal üksi, siis ka majandasin iseseisvalt. 460€ erasmuse raha kuus, millest 150€ võeti kohe üürina maha. 310€ jäi alles, sellega pidin siis saama söönuks ja elu elama. Kuna sain aru, et ma sellist kogemust enam tihti ei saa ja siia kanti enam lähiajal ei satu, siis olin varunud natukene raha. 650€ eest kuus sain söönuks, tasutud spordiklubi eest, reisida kord kuus kuhugile kõrval riiki ja nädalavahetustel käia väljasõidul. Mõni kord nädalas saab käia ka väljas söömas. Sellest kinni pidamine nõudis kõva distsipliini, kuid see samuti kasvatas. Erasmuse süsteem, kus saad 80% kogu rahast kohe ette, võibolla algselt ohtlik. Esmalt tundub raha olevalt palju, kuid see kaob sama kiirelt nagu koduigatsus, kuna mõistad et see kogemus on väärtuslik.
Minu seiklust on veel kuu jagu käia, kuid see periood on enamjaolt eksamite jaoks. Ometi jätkuvalt on meil oma sõpruskonnaga tore käia noolebaaris, filmiõhtutel või tutvustada üksteisele oma riigi söögikultuuri. Seega olen õnnelik Erasmuslane, kes tuleb Eestisse tagasi suurema tutvusringkonna ja kogemuste poolest.
Seega kui sind ei seo kodus veel liiga palju kohustusi, siis soovitan oma elu rikastada õpirände kogemuse näol. Silmaring laieneb ja kindlasti saab palju nalja erinevate kultuuri tavade tõttu. Näiteks kui šveitslastega satud kinno, siis ei tasu imestada, kui nad poole filmi ajal hakkavad nihelema. Nimelt on seal tavaks teha filmi keskel vaheaeg. Seega oli meil palju nalja, kui šveitslane filmi lõppedes kinotöötajalt uuris, miks täna paus ära jäi :D. Ja taolisi momente juhtub palju.
Kui tahad miskit küsida või saan sulle kuidagi abiks olla seoses Erasmuse kogemusega, võta ühendust tarmoerikhuttunen@gmail.com või leia mind mujalt.
Araabia söögikohas NB! Iraani keefiri jook on väga soolane
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