Bc. Michaela Augustová

My ERASMUS experience at University of Crete,

My experience begun a week before the semester started. Obviously, I was very nervous of the new, unknown environment, not to mention that this was my first time this far away from my family and friends, and don’t get me even started with the fear of meeting new people and making friends from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy meeting new people. Well, I very much enjoy getting to know them, but the circumstances that precede it, that’s a real horror for me. The beginnings were difficult, adjusting to the new culture and a totally different school system. Luckily, I met few people that made this bureaucratic adventure bearable. The fact that some teachers do not teach their classes in English and gave us essays to write instead, gave us many opportunities to explore the city surroundings and the whole Crete as well. We were able to rent a car a enjoy beaches and hikes across the island.

Overall, this experience gave me many positive, but also negative encounters. The positives are meeting great people and becoming friends, traveling and finding new interesting places, or an apartment with a roof garden with a see view. I was really glad to take up Greek language lessons. The teacher was amazing and even though we went through topic really fast, I am now able to hold basic conversation in Greek, and that is incredible. Lastly, the not very pleasant experience was getting on a university bus. When I found out how hard one must fight to get on the bus, I was in shock. Also why do people walk so slow on the sidewalk? I guess I am rather a fast walker, and to be honest, walking on sidewalks was the hardest part to adjust to from the whole Erasmus experience.