#ErasmusStory: Daria Mitusova, UK

My Erasmus+ journey began with tons of paperwork but I want to assure you, I cannot even remember how it was because the amazing time followed it.

My friend Paulina and I arrived at Preston, the UK on a sunny day (which was unbelievable because it was in winter!) and went inside our apartment. We decided to find a place on our own rather than live in the dormitory, and it was a great decision! We were living with our landlord, a guy from Manchester, so we had nice chats every day, which also very useful as daily language practice.

University of Central Lancashire, UCLan, is the name of my second home for those 4 months. An amazing place full of amazing people, starting from students ending with all workers, who are glad to help you when you have difficulties. If talking about the facilities, this university is meant to be your second home. Especially the library, which I just loved, where you really want to work on your assignments.

They even have their own student bar, Source bar, where we went for Karaoke nights!

UCLan is full of opportunities, in our first week we visited Japanese Days, we tried sushi, making origami and Japanese writing! It was extremely interesting, entertaining and educational. What is interesting this event was organized by the students themselves, and thanks to one of our chosen courses, Cultural Event Management, we were able to see how it works from the inside and create and manage our event!

Of course, there is no such story without making incredible friends! I miss all of them! Our groups were 99% international. Why 99%? Because out of all my coursemates on all three modules there was only one local! I think it’s great! Now I perceive some of the cultures differently because everyday communication with a multinational group creates a new view in your mind, it makes it easier for you to understand the behaviour and feeling of different people. It feels like the whole world travels there just to meet you.

We also made a lot of friends outside our coursework. For example, nice guys from China asked us for a traditional Chinese dinner and we were chatting about our cultures till the late night! Of course, they also asked us to come to Chine one day, whether to travel or work!

The last but not least, Erasmus+ is the opportunity to travel (I’d even say it is the travel itself)! We didn’t miss our chance to go to Dublin, Ireland for the St Patrick’s Day!

To sum up, it’s not worth even thinking about going on Erasmus+, you just have to apply immediately!

Warning! Erasmus+ program is life-changing: there is a high possibility that you will not be the same person after going back home; 100% of people suffer from constant joy and happiness during the exchange; side effects: friends you’ll be missing, communicational and presentation skills upgrade, high concentration of travelling, which causes addiction, the whole term is going too fast.