Erasmusblogs

Yesterday I met my friend Teresa, who’s been in Berlin for the last ten months, to talk a while about her experience privately. It´s funny that I´m going to tell mine every Tom, Dick and Harry, isn´t it?

Teresa brought me her Mensa Card (the Mensa is the refectory in Germany and perhaps other places in Europe, who knows…) with some money in it, and also the Foreign Student Guide she had to buy when she arrived in Berlin, she draw a sketch of the HU main building for me, wrote a few places where I can go to buy basic stuff for less than an arm and a leg… Hooray for classmates! Teresa talked at lenght about Berlin odds, but I´ll spare you the details. Just one thing: besides the European Health Card (can’t remember its accurate name right now) you have to pay 10 € everytime you need medical attention.
It’s been great to see her and have a little time to chat quietly, we’ll meet again next week.

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I’ll tell a tale to you: One day we go to Ibercaja to change our euros for forints. And… It’s our time. I’ll describe the situation: Ibercaja’s Central Bank in Logroño. In front of us a counter, and behind it, one kind employer with about 35 year old more or less, dark-haired and smiling.ç

-Hello, you see, we have came here to pick up some forints- Oh, yeah, one moment. The employer raise, she approach to a box, take one envelope and come to us- We’ll see…- She start to count the notes. Everybody knows the notes are grouped ten to ten, but the kind employer put them on the table, spread them and start. Olga and me see ourselves.-5, 10, 15, 20,…60…- ehmmm, more, mmm, I don’t remember…- Take the notes that are counted already, ok… 5, 10, 15, 20…- She use the calculater, Olga and me are seeing ourselves already. She watch them and she doesn’t seem happy. She knites one’s brow. She see us, Open her mouth but… She doesn’t speak. She count them again. Ten minutes later Olga and me were really surprised. The employer takes the 5000 notes (watch out: 5000) and starts: 500 (other note), 1000 (second note) and when she arrives to ten stops. She raises her head and strenghten: Somebody has had one mistake. I see her eyes and tell:- Sorry… the las notes you were counting were 5000 notes, not 500. And answer me:-That’s ok!, of 5000. Olga says: That’s ok! 5000 x 10 = 50000. -Ohhh!!! It’s true…

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Pablo y Marta are two guys who were already like Erasmus in Budapest in the 2003/2004 academic year. Yesterday Olga and me met them to take a beer and to have a conversation. They were told us more things, but overcoat, that it was the time they more grew in personal experiences. We told us life is cheap there, that food is good, that people is serious but kind…

Moreover they told us that teachers will help us with ever trouble, and that we musn’t are worried for the exams, that they were worried and in the end they realized that Erasmus people haven’t got any problem to pass them.

After talking with them I think I’ll love it. But only one thing, they told us about the first two weeks: "It’s hard, we are really wrong, we wanted to come back, but… Nevermind"

Oh!, I forgot it… Olga has bought a greatful East Europe guide. But I really surprised when I saw the guide was painted and underlined. That is to have a  professionaltravelpartner. Oh yes!

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Today I´ve definitely started studying hard, in two weeks’ time I´ll write three exams and I don´t feel like reading why some Heider or Festinger thought that attitude was an extremely important thing to investigate, and what’s more, why someone thought it would be essential for a translator… Geez, I just can´t stand psychologists :_D

Last week I received a letter from the Uni, saying that I must be in Berlin on 27/9 for matriculation: "If you don´t come to this appointment, you will lose your matriculation rights" and I´ve just written a Herr Dr. Buchmann saying that I cannot enrol before the 4th of October. There’s no way I can the previous week and I´m a little upset, for I had already seen on their web that I could go for inscription between 26/9 and 7/10. Anyway I won´t change my plans, and if the registration office’s not available for inscription on the 4th of october and I have to come back, so be it. It´s not fair, they should have told me this when I first applied for inscription via mail; it was them who asked me the day I was going to arrive and didn´t mention any deadline to miss.

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Today is my birthday and I have started the day at 7 am, in order to arrive at the Uni in time to find out which semester presentation should I attend at. Great. I´ve been to the Slawistik presentation, even though I don´t speak a word of Russian or any slawish language, but at the matriculation they didn´t seem to realize my despair as I tried to explain that Russian COULD´T be my Hauptfach. Okay, at least I have also found a flyer saying the presentation for Romanistik (which should be my Hauptfach or "main subject", indeed) is at 12, so here I am, waiting.

I have already applied for the "German as a Foreign Language" Course, my classes at the Sprachenzentrum will start next Thursday, from 14.00 to 18.00. I´ve chosen this timetable ´cause every Thursday, state museums can be visited for free from 18 to 22, so I´ll use up my time.

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Well, I thought I should make some introduction before all this Eras-mess world falls onto my shoulders. Hello, guys, I´m mortiziia from Spain,sitting and writing in Marbella right now, and I´m going to Berlin for the next nine or ten months, starting my adventure on the 2nd of October.

Don´t think there’s yet someone out there who doesn´t know the meaning of «Erasmus» in the academic world (by the way, I reccommend you all "Small World, an Academic Romance" by David Lodge, great book), but just in case, I´ll tell ya. Erasmus is a scholarship granted to undergraduate students inside an European programme called Socrates, which involves a range of scholarships for secondary students, under-and-postgraduate students and academics in general. Here in Spain, the total amount of the money granted to each student is up to what region and University you’re studying at and also up to which country are you going to, so I can only say that in Malaga, where I study (so I feign) Translation and Interpreting, you get 200 euros every month if you go abroad as Erasmus student, no matter if you’re going to Portugal or to Sweden (though in my opinion there should be a substantial difference). 

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