I lived in 4 different countries during 5 years of my University Studies

I always loved to travel, picking a travel destination, buying a ticket, packing necessary things, going into a plane and discovering new places. An idea about living somewhere abroad was in my mind only appeared during when I started my University.

Living in 4 different countries while getting a University degree sounds pretty awesome. I am currently 24, and now I can truly see how this experience changed and was influencing my University experience.

All of it could happen because of taking a part in Erasmus Programme.

Let me explain you what Erasmus Program is and how it was made. It all started in January 2014 and it was established in 1987. European Union created it for education, training, youth and sport purposes. More than 9 million people have participated to the Erasmus program since its creation. Itself the Erasmus Programme had previously been restricted to applicants who had completed at least one year of tertiary-level study, but it is now also available to secondary school students.

For European students, the Erasmus Programme is their first-time opportunity to live and study in another country. It has become an ultimatum cultural exchange experience, and it is popular among European students.

The process of deciding in which University you will study is significantly easy. You need to chose which countries are interesting for you and which Universities are taking part in Erasmus Program, then after collecting some of the documentation proving you are a student you apply and wait for a result. I started my University studies in Poland, Cracow at the Cracow University of Economics. My first choice of going abroad was on the 2nd year of my bachelor studies and it happened in Germany, the city called Bielefeld at the University FH Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. For the first year of my Master studies, I decided to continue in Portugal, Lisbon at ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon and then I decided to finish Master degree in Spain, living in a city called Cartagena at the University Technical University of Cartagena.

Each University I decided to study gave me a perspective of different methods of teaching in University. Studying in Lisbon, Portugal was more focused on creativity and good presenting skills during any presentation. Studying in Bielefeld, Germany a student was provided with a lot of good sources to be able to educate not only about what was on a lecture but to also give a students opportunity to expand their knowledge on a specific topic and be able to speak about it and have discussions during lectures. In Poland, it was more focused on studying by yourself and by reading plenty of books and while in Spain the most focus was on working with groups and be able to collaborate with others.

At the end from all those 4 University experiences, what is the most important to remember is the fact of the one similarity they had, all of them taught me something that I did not have before. In each of them, I gained knowledge just from some of them more, from some of them less.