I discovered that IT WAS THE TIME OF MY LIFE!
Shared by: Anna
Erasmus Trip: Republic of Poland Republic of Turkey
Year: 2006
“Congratulations! You have been accepted as an Erasmus student. You are going to Turkey…” said my coordinator without tiny emotion in her squeaky voice.
While she was continuing to talk about the flight ticket, visa processing, documents and other probably important things that I should remember I was just looking at her with puzzled face. I didn’t listen to her at all. I had thousand thoughts in my head, thousand unidentified feelings from fear to excitement and one question in front of my eyes: “Will you manage, girl?”
Suddenly, I had been woken up from my meditations. It was coordinator who was pressing an envelope into my hand and still repeating:”Good luck! Good luck!” I looked at that colorful cover with the plane on it and I knew that I came back to reality. In the twinkling of an eye, I was again in one of that stuffy room which my university is full of. I wiped small drops of sweat from my front and decided to follow my destination. I just managed to say: “Thank you. Good bye” and the door were slammed after me.
I had never been afraid of traveling. I had visited a lot of countries before going to Turkey. Nevertheless, this time was different. It was the first time I had been going to Muslim country and the first time I was leaving Poland for more than 10 months. According to tips of “Turkish experts” from internet forums my suitcase was full of strange things. You could find there cosmetics (too expensive there?!), tampons (unable to buy?!), pork (at last to keep its taste for first week?!), alcohol (unable to drink there?!), cloths (of course all has to cover my arms and knees!), medicines from laxatives (Turkish cuisine might be treacherous for European!) to those for bird flu and of course books (I was going there to be a student, wasn’t I?).
It was mid September I was standing at the airport with 40kg’s suitcase. My mother was crying and my friends were kidding: “Good you are not blond… Hopefully, they won’t sell you for camels” or “have you packed scarves?” I smiled and gave all of them one kiss. I turned and started to head to passport control. After 2 hours of flight I was welcomed in Turkey – the country that you are drinking too much tea and you are allowed to smoke cigarettes everywhere (It was the first I noticed at the airport).
On the face of it, it looks like any other place in Mediterranean area. Palm trees and crowed streets full of small shops. I – a girl from cold country - definitely started to like it. I was going to university hotel where all Erasmus students lived. It occurred that my room is really perfect – with TV, room service and we have a breakfast included in prize (by the way, the prize was extremely small!). The Turkish student who picked me up from airport said that everybody had already gone out to one of the pub near the sea. “I am going to join them. Probably you are tired and want to go sleep… but… maybe just one beer?” he asked. Of course, I went with him…
That was a beginning of a great adventure that will last in my heart for ever…. Friends for ever, crazy ideas, fun, hitchhiking, sun, sea… Moreover, all the stereotypes about Turkey and things from my language that were first to throw away. Turkey is great and beautiful country, people there are hospitable, nice and helpful…
It was the time of my life!
I touched Istanbul
Shared by: Tanjona
Erasmus Trip: Paris Istanbul
Year: 2006
I was in Turkey at Istanbul. I was living on the Asia part of Istanbul.
Hum… what to say about it. I don’t want to explain a boring experience like every Erasmus Experience like:
”ooooh it was the time of my life…
I discover a new world…
Now I believe in Jesus…”
Ok it was and Of course there were many parties but this experience was great because I discovered many thing about the religion, a new community, a new style of life, This town is really different, people there are so nice(maybe because I m from Paris…) and the cost of life… so cheap.
I learn a lot about the Muslim community and how to eat without pig’s meat. Turkey is one of the best places to have holidays.
I met many friends and some other Erasmus (most of them from Germany). I met a really nice Hungarian Girl. Now we still spending our time together and its really funny when u have to explain to the other: she is from Hungary, I m French and I met her in Turkey.
The only problem with this trip was about my school. I totally learnt nothing at the university. But I learnt a lot about Ottoman civilization, Muslim, Istanbul, etc…
In Conclusion the Erasmus is cultural experience and not professional experience. If u got the opportunity to handle with it, don’t hesitate 
I was in Asia!
Shared by: Michael
Erasmus Trip: Warsaw Republic of Turkey
Year: 2006
”Turkey???”, this was the first question I heard after my final decision to go for the exchange program Socrates – Erasmus. It’s not hard to guess that the next questions were like: “where?”, “are you crazy?” etc. I’m not crazy, I wanted to go somewhere else than Europe (Adana, where I had a chance to be, is in Asian part of Turkey), to some outstanding country that we are not visiting “usually”. Turkey is the only country that is outside Europe (97% area in Asia) and participates in Socrates-Erasmus student’s exchange program. So my choice was very easy. After 5 months spent in Adana (Cukurova University), I can say that it was the best experience in my life and all those people, moments; feelings will stay in my memory for years…But let’s start from the beginning. It was September 2006 when I arrived to Adana, city situated in the south part of Turkey (Asia), 45 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea, with 2 million citizens (99% Muslims). Every Turkish people say that Adana is a specific city. I think they’re right, in some way it’s very unique. They have different cuisine there that you cannot find in other Turkish cities, temperature never goes below 0°C. (In December’06 and January’07 the temperature was all the time about 17°C.). There is no snow during the whole wintertime. Oranges blossom in December and cost around 1 Euro for 5 kilograms. Those things really made me feel “strange” there, because e.g. in Poland in that time temperature is below 0°C. And there is snow for Christmas (generally)…First days in Adana were very hard for me. Extremely hot (in Poland it was autumn), new people, different culture, and new language, almost everything new and different… Cukurova University Campus seemed, to me, to be “little separated village”. It’s a huge, beautiful place on the lake, with all of departments, where everyday come 30.000 students. Both with my friend from Poland we started to acclimatize. Very soon we found a lot of Turkish friends - very open, helpful, and outgoing people!!! As we came a little bit earlier before the term, we went for little holidays with them. We visited Antalya (Olympos, Chimera, and Phaselis) – but one week was much too short. Unfortunately, we had to come back to start our academic duties… In our group of Erasmus students were: 4 Polish people, 7 Czechs, and 2 Germans. It was a very small group, but each person was special in some way. During the semester we decided to travel as much as we can, to get know Turkey better and better. We had been to: Mersin, Yumurtalik, Kizkalesi, Istanbul, Cappadocia, Karatas, Osmanye, Ankara, and Gaziantep. Each of these trips was amazing. Personally, I liked best Istanbul & Cappadocia (You can see in the album why: www.my.opera.com/sarnax/albums ). These and many other places are very unique. Of course we didn’t travel all the time, because of our lectures… Yes, finally I started to love my faculty and department (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration) because I had to be there every day. I really tried to be. I was lucky because I had really great Professors, not only as a teachers but also very friendly, helpful, outgoing people…Another thing – Turkish language… In general, old generation unfortunately do not speak English, so during my stay in Adana it was very funny using “Turkish”. First I thought that I will never learn such difficult language (it was very different to Polish), but after my language course at the University, I realized that Turkish is really easy! After 5 months I even understand what Turkish people say to each other (ok, sometimes…). Anyways, young Turkish people don’t have any problems with English, so there were no problems with communication. I don’t really know why people in Europe think about Turks as a cold, unhelpful, different… I’d like to abolish this theory. Turkish people are extremely open, friendly, helpful, outgoing, amazing people. During my Erasmus, I met a lot of friends (or just normal citizens) and none of them let me down, never!!! Studying abroad is amazing experience. Erasmus is the best way to spend time in international environment, to establish intercultural contacts, know different culture, learn other language and grow as a person. …I still remember the first day when I arrived there, I was so excited… On the other hand I remember very well my last days in Adana: last meeting with my friends, last walk through the campus… it was over so fast… Surely, it will stay in my memories for years! “Turkiye’yi Seviyorum!!!” …to be Erasmus – You have to feel it!!!
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