Erasmus Study Mobility at Titu Maiorescu University 

María del Carmen Conesa Jiménez from Universidad de Murcia (Spain)

 

My experience as an Erasmus student in Bucharest was amazing. At first, I was a little bit scared because it was the first time that I was living abroad. But I didn’t need too much time to see that Bucharest was the perfect place for an Erasmus mobility. Romania is a really cheap country compared with other countries, like mine (Spain). You can travel around the country by train (which is so comfortable and cheap, just for being a student you have a 50% discount). In Bucharest, you will find a lot of parks (we used to go there to play basket and doing picnics) and pubs (there are a lot of pubs for Erasmus students).  Although this year has been different due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we could travel to several countries (Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia)
About university, I took online classes in English. It was different but no worse than face-to-face classes. I also did my exams in English. My marks were really good and professors helped me every time I needed them.
I lived in the residence of the University and it was amazing. Near the residence, there are two metro entrances, it takes just one stop to be in the center of the city. You can also go to the center by Uber (which costs 10 lei, approximately 2 euros) or rent a bike. Next to the residence, there is a big park, called Tineretului. You should go there and see the sunset!!
If I would have to say something bad about Bucharest, it would be the weather. In February the temperature can drop below 15 degrees!!
To sum up, I totally recommend Bucharest as a destination of Erasmus and I would choose again Titu Maiorescu University!

Erasmus Study Mobility at University of La Laguna (Spain)

Before I left home, I asked another student from my university that has already completed a mobility in Tenerife for advice and opinions on her experience and she said, and I quote, “this will be the best period of your life”. I did not believe her. I thought that people always exagerate these statements, that it’s always just a “fun” way to say that they enjoyed this experience. But as I am writing this on the plane ride back home, I admit that I was wrong. The last text message I sent was a goodbye text, to one of my fellow ERASMUS colleagues calling her a part of my “ERASMUS family”. I have met people from different backgrounds, different countries and different cultures. Each and every single one of them has taught me something about them and something about me. I left home with no idea what I want for my future and came back motivated, knowing what I want, knowing myself 2 times better, and happier. I feel like happier is the actual word I want to use for this essay. This experience made me happier: happier with myself, happier with my life choices and happier with the people around me. During this experience I have experienced sadness, despair, but also a lot of laughter and love. While sadness occurred a lot today, leaving the island was never the issue, it was the people. Whether it be platonic or romantic, the relationships I developed here were intense and beautiful and while you can always visit the island again or maybe move here in the future, you could never turn back time to have the exactly same dynamics as right now. Here, I have developed my cooking skills, my relationship skills and also my language levels. I have learned that I can succeed in different environments and wherever I go, I will be ok. Together with my “ERASMUS family” we discovered the island, we even visited other countries like Morocco, we discovered so many beaches that exist here and the culture, which is very different from other places in the world. And I had time to watch hundreds of episodes of a TV show while also being very active socially. Overall, I would like to finish this story with one of my favourite quotes from the show I watched here, Grey’s Anatomy: “the carousel never stops turning”, which is such a good metaphor for how life keeps going forwards whether we want it or not, so the best is enjoy every moment, even the bad ones and tell people how much you love them, because there is a chance you might not have another opportunity to do so.