Moving back home from UNI

May is quickly approaching and your exams will soon be over, which means only one thing:  you survived your first year of university. Congratulations! And may we be the first to congratulate you if this has been the completion of perhaps your second or third year! All that’s left now is a celebration of the end of term and the start of summer.

If this has been your first year, you’ll have spent some of it beating those feelings of homesickness, which making good friends and turning your room into a proper home will have helped you achieve.  And just when you feel like you’re truly settled into your new lifestyle, it’s time to uproot and head back home. Whether you’re moving home or moving overseas  for the summer, transporting your belongings can be an incredibly arduous task. In order to do this with as little stress as possible, here are some tips you can follow to make the process a bit easier.

1. Pack early

You’ve been warned never to leave revision until the last minute, and the same applies to packing! Try to get your hands on some cardboard boxes a few weeks before you’re due to move out.  Packing one box each day is easier and a lot less stressful than trying to pack everything on the last day, especially after those post exam celebrations.  You should pack as many things in each box as possible – the more tightly packed your possessions are, the less chance there is of them rattling around when you start transporting them.  This means your treasured breakables are much more likely to make the journey in one piece.

2. Get help

If you’re a third year graduate heading home, make use of student shipping services if you have a long way to travel.  For instance, if you happen to go to university somewhere as far north as Edinburgh, for example, whilst your family lives in Devon, you might struggle with transporting your belongings such a long way.  Hiring help could make the transit a lot quicker and easier.

3. Consider storage

If you are a first or second year student, you will find that it’s sometimes impractical to try to move all your belongings from one end of the country to the other or, in some cases, to a different country entirely!  Therefore, you may want to consider moving your excess baggage into storage.  This is a really good choice if you are only planning to move home for the summer months.

4. Take note

Once you move into your new house or flat, don’t forget to record anything that is wrong with the property. Cracks in the walls, for example, or stains on the carpet – make sure your landlord is aware of these problems.   Even better – take photographs.  This will cover you when you come to the end of your tenancy period.  You don’t want to get charged for something that was already in the house when you arrived.

Whatever you decide to do, whether you are moving house or moving back home, the most important thing is to relax and enjoy life at university.  Get yourself organised and make a checklist a week or so in advance of your move in and move out dates.  And if you do move back home for the summer, make the most of that family time before you jump back into your studies.

Being a marketing intern in London

My road to London might be also an interesting story for you, but bear in mind, that it was my 4 month compulsory internship period for my BA degree, so don’t expect flowing alcohol or half naked foam parties here. The post mainly focuses on trying to convince you about the importance of an abroad internship placement. This is your best chance to kickstart your career. It’s not going to be easy, often times it will be very difficult, but will be very beneficial after it’s done.

Here in Hungary most College and University requires a 4-6 month internship session in order to get your aimed degree. You have 2 choices to get it done. Number 1: you find a placement here for nothing or really ridiculous amount of money. Number 2: you try to search for places abroad, and apply for Erasmus scholarship. You will have no difficult task figuring out which I have chosen, and why.

To cut a long story short, I applied to a marketing internship position with a little assistance from my school, and I was off to go. I got 2975 euros for the 4 month, and I thought I am going to rule London for sure.

I think I don’t need to point out why finding an internship abroad is a MUST for YOU as well. First, you are not in your native country, so you obliged to use English or whatever second language ALL THE TIME. Your communication skills are bound to improve; your CV will be more valuable, yourself more experienced and independent. Do I need to say more?  I will, no worries.

So I went to London, one of the most desired places in the whole world. I would have never thought that at the age of 22 I will have the chance to work there. But you know, with Erasmus…

I was employed by a really small video news agency called Videoplugger. I don’t want to bore you with the details; it was a great experience and a learning process, even though the job itself was not so much challenging and interesting. It would have been the icing on the cake, but who doesn’t appreciate the small things, do not deserves better positions later on. This was my approach, so I was trying to remain positive all the time, even though I was without my friends and basically lack of any parties.

London is extremely expensive, and a really hard city to live in, unless you work there for good money and you get to know people you can hang out with. This can be the key for a good and satisfactory life there.  But this pretty much true and goes for the other cities as well, but particularly for London.

I got to know myself more, and I learnt how to appreciate the friends and family I forgot to care about before. Apart from getting to know the culture and great people, I think figuring out what I want to do with my life was the biggest increment I gained from this 4 month.

If you have the chance, grab the opportunity, and do your internship abroad. If you think, you don’t have the skills and the courage, think again. If you think, it is not possible, stop thinking. Start acting. You will never regret it.

If you, or your friend need guidance on how thinga works in London, we are happy to help, just let me know.

Erasmus in Wernigerode

May 1st of 2004. It turned out as a very important day, as Hungary gained access to the EU through the enlargement of the European Union. It made possible for me to take part in the EU exchange student programme that has been in existence since the late 1980s. The programme is funded by many of the EU member nations and is aimed at cross-border cooperation between states to aid the growth of international studying, and with over 4000 students involved in the programme at any one time it offers an excellent chance of experience abroad.

I have been selected to study in a small german town called Wernigerode from around mid September 2011. It is located in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt. All of a sudden the city made an impression on me, I arrived a few days earlier with one of my friend, so we had a chance to climb up the Brocken: the highest peak of the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak of Northern Germany.

There have been rumours about the semester spent abroad being the best in the life of the students who already have spent their exchange semester abroad. As far as I am concerned thats absolutely true.

Let’s go ahead for a while. Later on, after I finished my abroad term, during a trip to Thessaloniki, Greece on the plane I happened to sit next to a danish student, with whom I had a really interesting conversation. We both agreed that there are two ways you can spend your semester abroad. Either you attend all the parties, have great fun and spend loads of the scholarship on alcohol, but on the other hand you won’t have very much time learning because you will be very tired and exhausted when it come to going to school.  Or you can try to get-to-know the culture, attend the classes, learn the language, take part in events and gatherings making a lot of friends!  But I would recommend to find the so-called „gold middle-road” and kind of mix the two and you will have a really amazing semester abroad!

I went to Wernigerode with AO german skill which refers to a very basic level of knowledge! But throughout 2 semesters a have learnt so many things I could have never dreamt of. Now I’m somewhere intermediate and superior level. Having spent my internhip in the Canary Islands, I worked in a 3-star spanish hotel’s restaurant, being almost the only 1 german-speaking it was really an uplifting moment when everyone came to me to help understand the german clients’ needs. Until then I haven’t really realized how useful that was to attend the classes even with a big hangover from the last party returning home around 5-6 sleeping only a couple of hours.

When we were approaching to the end of my second term I got the honor to be one of the hosts in one of the biggest events in the Hochschule Harz: it was the International Night! We also played a song together with my mates what was a really unforgettable night I will never ever forget!

We also practised an Erasmus-Dance which was a huge success to the greatest songs from the 80s and 90s!

To sum it up I would say the sky is the limit, it depends only on you what you make of from your abroad semester! But since there are footprints on  the moon It’s not so fortunate to say there is a limit at all..

This is ERASMUS. Nothing is real here. It’s a different space-time, like a bubble. Everything has a different value here. Time is limited, friendships are formed within a few minutes. Wohnheim is AMAZING, things happening I’ve never seen before. Beyond studying experience Erasmus is a lot more. It doesn’t make your troubles disappear. It teaches you how to handle new ones. I am grateful for having been given this opportunity!

Thessaloniki D-Light

It was one of those mornings when you had just a few hours of sleep, and you need to take your luggage and go to the bus. Because you need to leave the country for a while. All this on a big hangover background…

It was me, Bota Daniel and Oana – three guys that got on the bus which took us to another country, to another level, to another life…

The road was tiring, but after 26 hours we reached our destination : Thessaloniki.

The first person we met was a greek guy named Karamitsos John, who introduced us the greek cuisine. The first thing we tried was sort of like a pie  : Bougatsa. Yummy!

The greek guy (which we found out that is a very nice one), took us to the place where we booked accommodation: Arabas Studios.

Shaktouri street no. 28 – a street that I will never forget.

The first two weeks we had no school, because of the strikes, so me and Daniel had a lot of time to walk through the city and discover it.

It was an unique sensation going down from Kamara, via Gounari Boulevard all the way to the edge where the sea is meeting the city. The view is amazing!

Karamitsos , our greek friend took us to different trips with his car. So in this way we managed to find interesting things about Eladda.

At the beginning we haven’t been even able to understand the letters…

But we kept on going…and exploring…

Each day we discovered and explored new parts of the city, and new people also. We met our teachers and other Erasmus students (party associates). We had the “pleasure” to find out that the courses will be pretty hard and the schedule will be full.

But on the other way, many of the temptations lurk deep in the night life of Thessaloniki.

So in my mind I made a decision. I took note of the student’s triangle:

You got the idea, and I needed to pass the exams, so it is obvious that I kind off quit enough sleeping… Nothing compares getting out of 8 Ball club at 5 in the morning and starting courses at 8.

I knew that something was missing so I decided to buy a hookah. A tool that was a mandatory tool at many late parties.

The university had its good parts also. They often organized trips to different parts of the country that we discovered.

Our trip adviser and cultural trainer was Miss Athina – a greek lady that enjoyed our crowd.

And the crowd was big 😀

People from all Europe, open minded persons who like to enjoy life at its maximum potential.

Erasmus in Greece meant a lot…Erasmus is about adventure…

Erasmus is about romance …

Erasmus is about knowing yourself…

My Erasmus extension program: Corfu

There is scientific proof that after finishing interships, individuals beginning to suffer from something, the professional literature calls post-erasmus depression syndrome. The symptom was even examined by an italian student, who devoted her sociology thesis to the anthropology of the Erasmus student. To cut a long story short, according to her: “Erasmus is a riotous life abroad of non-stop parties and lovemaking. But once they’ve returned, the majority of students experience a low period, a mixture of nostalgia and apathy. Is this the end of innocence?” Yes. Absolutely!

As I’ve told you in my previous post, approximately two years ago I was an immature and shallow kid, who had no idea his life is about to change dramatically. Back then I was living in Hungary, enjoying the advantages of College life. And here I doesn’t necesarry mean the lessons. Then in february 2011, I started my erasmus internship in Thessaloniki, and my life turned upside down.

After having the best 4 month of my life there, I’ve flown back to Hungary being an other person. I didn’t stay there long though. After 2 weeks of homecoming, I travelled to Prague by bus to visit my czech girlfriend. She got a job in Corfu, so we decided to spend the rest of the summer there. Trying to save money, we flew first to Bari, Italy, and from there we took the ferry to the greek island. It will not go into the history books as my best journey ever, but we survived, and as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I eventually found a job there as well, doing gyros, serving drinks and other meals. I could use my non – existing greek knowledge a bit as well. We had the priviledge to meet with some really amazing people, including the doctor of our town, Mr. Balis.

Out of no reason, this guy thought he needs to help us living a more awesome life, so that’s how we ended up doing parasailing for free.

We experienced how it feels to have a quad for a few days. We also rented a 150 CC motorbike, which I succesfully crashed into a car, mainly because the lack of driving licence, which made the case even more embarrasing…Nevertheless, at least there is something to remind me I should get that licence ASAP.

On the 1th of September, when usually school starts every year,  I was lying on the beach, enjoying some greek music and food. But eventually we had to come back. We had our difficulties, but let’s just remember the good parts. And good parts we had a lot.

The Erasmus – or – gasm (1)

I am just about to finish my second term as an Erasmus ambassador, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to contemplate a little about what had happened to me, how awesome I became, and how this has changes my life entirely.

My story

In the midst of a cold December day in 2010 I made possibly the best decision of my life. I opted to apply for a 1 semester Erasmus internship in Greece, starting from February 2011.

Back then I was an immature, pathetic and wannabe guy, who was basically famous for drinking by far the most during the nights to impress the buddies, and throwing up next day in grandma’s garden after the family lunch. Life was not going anywhere. A few months earlier I even had to spend one night in jail after bringing partying to a too high level.

Then I started to Thessaloniki, and the rest became history.

It’s going to start slow and miserable …

My plane landed on a breezy day in February in the second largest city of Greece. I only had 2 luggages and the address of my future accommodation written in a piece of paper. I was abandoned on a pretty big airport, and the cab drivers lacked any knowledge of English. I flashed them my note with the street name on it, but they had absolutely no clue what I wanted. Can you please give me a fucking ride? I thought. Okay, it’s not supposed to be easy, but I should be able to get myself transferred to the centre without being kidnapped or tricked. Finally one mate understood what I want, and took me to my place for 20 euros. The clock was only showing 17, but I was cold and happy to get out of the car eventually.

I made a reservation online for the first month, so I had to stay there at least until the end of February. The flat was okay, but the neighborhood resembled to a screen in Slumdog Millionaire rather then what I previously had in mind about what my flat would look like in Greece. I excepted a great view to the sea with pretty girls living next door, walking naked all day. What I actually got was something like a refugee camp, and street cats trying to be too friendly with me. Furthermore the street names were written in greek letters, so usually I spent half of my days trying to get home from shopping.

I don’t want to bother you with unnecessary details, but I have to mention one more thing before we get to the good part. The spring semester was postponed because of some strikes, and they put a massive chain to the main entrance of the school. Basically I was there for 3 weeks without knowing anybody except the street cats. My only salvation was one friend back in Hungary I had the privilege to talk on Skype with, a very decent serbian guy called Nicola, and his mother, and the gym I found on the third day.

Meeting the Romanians…

Then I came across two of my future classmates from Romania. Fitiu a.k.a. John, and Daniel a.k.a. the Troy watcher. (Sorry about this joke Mr. Bota.) They had some really dangerous alcohol beverage called Rakia, and although as I mentioned above, I knew how to drink, to say the least, but that one, man was strong as hell. And John was using a tea cup to drink it from. So one thing you have to keep in mind for the rest of your life: even though you might think you are an experienced drinker, beware of the romanians when it comes to preparing yourself for the night.

This should have been the moment to realize, that this is not going to be an ordinary 4 month period. From that point we spent the waiting for the semester start by playing Age of Empires 2. Yes, I know, I don’t have to go to Greece to play this game, but it was so good to be humiliated by John every time. And finally school started …

I don’t know if you realize, so probably I should emphasize it a bit more. I was WAITING for the school to start. Of course I was not so much keen on learning, but finally after 3 weeks, I got the chance to meet with my classmates from all over Europe, and hopefully the “let the party begin” sign will wait for us on the board as we enter our first class.

The first school experience indicated just like that. The greek language teacher came 20 minutes late, and instead of saying sorry I was late on the first day, she declared she will be late every time, so don’t even bother coming on time either. So maybe this explains to you why from that point I only saw the school 2 times per week.

What NOT to drink in Thess…

The other reason was probably the typical greek drink called Ouzo. The problems started when me and John discovered that it only costs 12 euros in the nearby store, and for that prize they gave us 2 liters of this blue disgusting booze. If you have tried it before, I advise you not to drink is so often as we did. The other funny thing we found was Retsina, I very cheap and super super low quality white wine. This deadly combination caused us so many hangovers; it pains me even now to think about it. But it also made our nights out pretty amazing.

Meeting with the Bulgarians…

After the first month, I moved to another flat, because I needed to save money to buy more Ouzo, and I had the chance to acquire two flat mates, which seemed to be a good idea at the beginning. Later on I realized it was not a good idea. It was the best. And this was the point where things got totally out of control. With Zhivko and Andrei we quickly became really good friends, we had our ups and downs and fights, but I couldn’t ask for better guys to live with.

Basically from that point we were awesome – ing around Thessaloniki, attending all the possible parties, and having more fun than ever before. During the semester we had at least 3 parties per week, during the exam period we were lying on the beach, posting ridiculous pictures to our jealous friends on Facebook. We enjoyed life to the fullest. Our only problem was figuring out where the next party will take place.

Meeting with the Czechs…

The time passed quickly, and the spring holiday emerged. It was Greek style, so we had 2 weeks off school. What a revelation! We planned a 2 day trip to an island called Thassos, and again, we wanted to save money for Ouzo, so we decided to hitchhike, which, as we realized later on, was not such a good idea. Main point, we made it there, but since we didn’t book any accommodation, we slept in the forest. The island was completely abandoned, but we had a really great time. We built a “house” in the beach for the second day to sleep in against the cold. Have you ever wondered how it actually feels to wake up in the sands of a greek beach at 8.am, because the sun is burning your face? Something like this.

This is where I met with the 4 czech girls, and Zdenka became my girlfriend later on. They came 30 minutes later for the first morning, and were stinky from whisky from the previous night. This was for sure not the moment I fell in love with them. It turned out that they live just 2 blocks away where my place was with the Bulgarians, so everything was perfect. One sentence just popped into my mind right now, which I used the other day to encourage one of one friend, who just got accepted to Poland for Erasmus. I think it’s clearly demonstrated my view of this experience: The two best thing, which can happen to you during University time, is Erasmus and love. I was lucky to have both at the same time.

This post is getting to be long enough, and I didn’t add even one percent of the awesomeness I experienced. Since then I had the chance to regularly visit Prague, I was working in Corfu, and now I am in London. What else can you ask from a single Erasmus semester? But these latter ones are for next time.