How I Spent My Free Time As An Erasmus Student
The Erasmus program enables higher education students to study or work abroad in 33 European countries for 3 months, up to an academic year in another European country. The Programme assures that the period spent abroad is recognized by their university when returned, as long as they obey the terms previously agreed. Here is a story of an Erasmus student in Turkey:
Every Erasmus student has a lot of free time. I personally had too much free time. Sure it was cool at the beginning, especially after the last stress-full examination period at my home university in Karlsruhe, Germany. But after two months partying and hanging around doing nothing, I needed to find something to do -otherwise I would feel like I wasted my lifetime. One day, I was together with friends at the Bosphorus, I remembered how much problems I had finding an accommodation before coming to Istanbul.Suddenly I had the idea to creating an Erasmus student accommodation platform . I thought that the whole process could be made more safer and easier than it currently was. In the next upcoming days this idea was sticking in my head like a parasite. I even dreamed about it in the nights. Since I always wanted to create something on my own and I had a lot of free time, I decided to turn my idea into reality.
I shared my idea with a Turkish friend from university and together we started our little project. The time after this was more exciting than all the Erasmus parties I went before. Day to day we came together and worked on the website. Of course it was not always that easy and instead of going to parties every weekend I met with my co-founder to work. Building up your own start-up means that you will experience ups and downs. However, this spirit, combined with the easy Erasmus lifestyle, was a wonderful.Now my Erasmus is over and I can look back to two great semesters. I met a lot of people from all over the world and I travelled to many places. But the coolest thing is: I still have my website and it will always remind me about my great Erasmus. This is how I spent my free time in Erasmus.
About the author: Nico spent his last two semester as an Erasmus student in Istanbul. He still lives in Istanbul and is currently not thinking about going back to his home country Germany. He feels weird writing about himself in the 3rd person, but admits that is sounds slightly more epic.
