Take your future into your own hands and make it successful.

Take your future into your own hands and make it successful.

I had known about Erasmus for a long time, but I had never been brave enough to try it on my own. However, when my friend from school told me that she was going to Romania for Erasmus during the summer holidays and that they were looking for one more person for the Slovak team, I didn't hesitate for a minute to send in my application. When I received an email the next day saying that I had been accepted, we enthusiastically started arranging everything necessary. We immediately agreed that it would be a shame not to take advantage of the flight reimbursement within the two-day limit before and after the project, so we booked an apartment in Bucharest for two nights and set off into the world.

We arrived in Bucharest around three in the afternoon, and our adventure started really early, by getting off at the wrong bus stop. With a little help from a map and advice from a kind lady, we finally made it to our Airbnb with a view of the Parliament building, the second-largest administrative building in the world. Bucharest was a city of paradoxes for us. On one side of the street stood a grand historic building, and on the other, a panel apartment block from recent communist times. All of this, however, had its specific atmosphere, and we fully enjoyed it.

After two, to some extent exhausting, days, we boarded a train and headed to the city of our project, Târgoviște. Already on the train, we met some of our Slovak group, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we got along great. After a grueling journey in the heat of the Romanian train, we finally arrived at the hotel, where we immediately began to get to know the other project participants, who included Macedonians, Maltese, Portuguese, Latvians, Czechs, and Romanians.

The entire rest of the project passed too quickly. Every day we had a program on the topic of Active Citizenship, and if I were to personally evaluate it, I would say it was well-developed, interesting, and highly informative. Many workshops, presentations, and discussions were prepared for us.

Presentation of ideas for new Erasmus projects created by national groups

For me personally, the most original part of the program was the negotiation simulation. We also had trips to the city, an aquapark, and for two days we had a program in the city hall building, where we came up with new Erasmus projects in national teams. Evenings were spent playing games or having intercultural evenings of countries, where we presented our traditions, national dishes, and interesting facts.

Our Slovak group during the intercultural evening

Like all good things, this also ended too soon, but I think each of us took away new experiences, skills, such as teamwork, friendships, and rich memories.