All the great things in history were achieved thanks to people who dreamt of better world and brighter future for the mankind and it was their vision and conviction that brought these dreams into effect. Their inspiration, power and persis-tence made them carriers of the positive energy changing the world and our lives. That’s how new ideas, new projects are usually born and that’s how the new beginnings start…

ESN is like an energy fusion bringing creative thoughts and making them come true. Therefore, such innovative and brave projects like Give20 or ESNtrain can take place. Then, by developing ideas like Against Racism Cup or Social Erasmus, ESNers are spreading the good spirit and mobilising themselves for the well-being of other people and show that they care about the significant world issues. The example of motivated members of ESN France proved that thanks to the ESN energy, stubbornness and hard work it is possible to bring amazing results in a short time. ESNers know also how impor-tant self-development, learning new things, gain-ing new skills and sharing ideas with others is. And the Annual General Meeting, which will take place in 2009 in Utrecht, is the best plat-form for it. AGM and other ESN events are also the best places to find long-lasting friendships and experience the intercultural atmosphere – that’s why so many former Erasmus students join ESN network. For them ESN is the follow-up of their Erasmus experience. Huge possibilities that exchange programmes offer stimulated Macedo-nian students to fight for the visa facilitation so that they can easily become part of the interna-tional students family.

All subjects mentioned above can be found in this issue of eXpress. The articles here can be divided into three groups: general articles, pro-ject descriptions and articles about international

friendships one of which was written in French. In this way we would like to start a new cycle in eXpress – ‘the languages of Europe’ with ar-ticles in other languages than English. We’re also happy that one of our partner organizations, AEGEE, accepted our invitation to contribute to this issue as well.

The whole issue was created and all arti-cles were selected under the title of ‘New Begin-ning’. But there’s still one very important thing to remember - after good new beginning the path needs to be followed, so that at the end the suc-cess can be achieved…

By Magdalena Wawrzonkowska

The quantum of ESN energy…

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Probably you may know how addictive volunteering in ESN can be. Activities, meet-ings and parties are the essential part of the ESN life. And everybody who is once involved in it can never get out. It was the same for me and my colleagues from the ESN Utrecht Board. It was hard to imagine not being fully involved anymore. This probably sounds familiar to many of you and, fortunately, there are many ways to stay involved, for example organizing an interna-tional event…

ESN network is a very big one and now contains 278 sections spread over 32 countries. To make sure that everything inside the network is going smoothly and to improve the coopera-tion between the sections we have our platforms. The biggest one of them and the most legendary is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) consisting of all representatives of the ESN sections. Orga-nizing such a big event is a challenge indeed, but we thought – why not?

Therefore, during the last meeting in Besançon, our section successfully ran for or-ganizing the next AGM. The result is that the next AGM will be held in Utrecht at the end of March 2009! This was fantastic news for all the Dutch ESN fellows as it means that over 400 in-ternational ESN members will soon be invading Utrecht for four days to discuss and celebrate the 20th birthday of ESN.

2009 is the great year of 20 years of ESN and also the anniversary of 20 years of the Euro-pean reunification. To celebrate these big causes ESN is going to organise some great events Eu-rope has never seen before. One of them is the ESNtrain:

The ESNtrain consists of 16 European wagons and is with its length of more than 500 meters Europe’s longest rolling communication platform. The ESNtrain crosses Europe from March 28th to April 21st 2009 for the duration of 25 days. During its journey through 18 Eu-ropean countries the ESNtrain is going to visit more than 40 towns and 90 UNESCO world cultural heritages. The ESNtrain offers a total of 1,200 places and about 700 beds. Thanks to the modular booking system it is possible to stay just a few days, with some breaks in the ESNtrain journey or even for the whole trip on the train. You can decide from where to where you want to participate in the unique and first time made communication platform on track.

The ESNtrain is an inimitable communi-cation platform on which will be a lot of time to get in contact with people from other countries, learn something about different cultures and have a good and peaceful time in a special atmo-sphere. Activities will be organised at the various train stops. The visited local ESN sections are free to organise whatever they want. Some examples could be city tours, workshops, sport activities like Inline Skating or River Rafting, concerts or parties. In addition to the daytime programme, the evening activities on the train are the se-cond pillar of this project. Such activities could be for example dance courses, language courses, games, presentations or workshops. These events give the not visited countries and sections a good chance to present themselves. The activi-ties don’t have to be organised for all the par-

ticipants, so sections shouldn’t worry about the number of visitors coming. It would be fine to organise some smaller but different events so the participants could decide what they want to do. It also would be nice if some sections could of-fer breakfast, lunch or dinner or organise a pos-sibility to take a shower. There is also a request for cheap opportunities to stay overnight in the visited towns or near them for people who get on or get off the ESNtrain.

Each country has a responsible person. You could reach this person under the e-mail ad-dress CountryInEnglish@esntrain.org or just by visiting our homepage www.esntrain.org.

By Remo WeberESNtrain Team

Why Utrecht? As some of you might be aware of - the first ESN section was founded in 1989 in Utrecht. In 2009 we will be celebrating 20th birthday of our network, therefore, as the roots of ESN, our city is the best place for the biggest ESN meeting!

Since last AGM in Besançon the Organiz-ing Committee (a.k.a. OC) are the heroes who will be playing the first fiddle behind the organi-zation of this event. The OC is led by two for-mer board members of ESN Utrecht: Ellen and Nanda, and consists of more amazing people in-cluding an EVS volunteer who came over all the way from Poland to help the OC.

All of them dedicated themselves to mak-ing the next AGM a big success and we strongly believe that it will be such.

By Anthe de WeerdAGM Organizing Comittee

ESNtrain – Europe’s longest communication platform

Behind the scenes of the next AGM…

For more information, please check out the website www.agmutrecht.eu and see you in March 2009 in Utrecht!

Feel free to become an ESNtrain fan in Facebook, to visit our homepage, to help us during the trip and last but not least feel free to take part of the never seen ESNtrain journey through Europe! We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

www.esntrain.org

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Give20 articleErasmus Against Racism Cup

Dreamt up in Sarajevo, extended in Brus-sels and confirmed in London, Give20 is an ESN project with a truly international flavour! It has one aim; bringing together 278 sections in 32 countries to raise huge amounts of money for the world renowned charity, UNICEF.

ESN has students with a strong conscience throughout its sections and now has the opportu-nity to show the whole Europe that our organisa-tion is an active and generous rather than just a party group.

So what are the details of the project? Every section is encouraged to start raising money from the 1st of January 2009, whether it is through hard work, running, dressing up, partying or anything else you can dream up! On the week of the 12th to 16th of October 2009, marking the 20th Birthday of ESN, the fundrais-ing efforts will come to a close with coordinated events capturing the attention and imagination of people and press all over Europe.

There are many things to get very excited about. Not only is their unlimited potential for raising money and getting ESN’s name to the forefront of European news but a unique web-site featuring live video feeds, interactive fund-raising leaderboards and links, celebrity endorse-ments, world record attempts and an incredible UNICEF project to put our support behind.

Preparations for the project are already well under way, we have a committed interna-tional team working hard, top designers already making clothing for the event, so now is the time for you to get involved in the project. There are lots of ways to do so, why not become National Coordinator of Give20 for your country or take charge of your sections events and fundraising? All you need to do is send an email, two minutes

Erasmus Against Racism Cup was a tour-nament organized by Erasmus Student Network Poland and took place between 17th and 19th October 2008 in Warsaw as a part of the FARE Action Week Against Racism and Discrimina-tion in Europe. It consisted of 2 parts: integra-tion and sightseeing for Erasmus students that are studying in other cities than Warsaw and the main tournament for both – Erasmus students (from all over the country) and ESN members. Participation in the tournament was free of charge so everyone who wanted to support the action, help to achieve its goals and have some fun could join in. It took place at Kozminski Uni-veristy in Warsaw where one of the Polish ESN sections is located.

More than 120 students competed on two pitches – outside and inside. Even though tourna-ment was dominated by Spanish and Portuguese also other nationalities like Germans, Belgians, Nigerians, Italians, Turkish and many more par-ticipated in Erasmus Against Racism Cup.

During whole weekend organizers took care not only of organizing sport event. After sport emotions everyone could integrate during special Erasmus party (of course with fair play rules :).

Students incoming to Warsaw just for the event were accommodated in one of the War-saw’s hostels where full board and great local-ization were provided. Even though in that case ESN couldn’t afford to cover totally the expenses, the cost for students studying in other cities than Warsaw was reduced to minimum and came to 33 euro (120 PLN).

What was the response after whole event? Of course very positive :) That is why next year we’re going to organize this event once again

of your time to give20@esn.org, tell us you’re in-terested in helping to support the world’s most influential advocate of children. Now is not the moment to turn your back, now is the time to have fun for an amazing cause!

By James BeckettGive20 Team

(maybe this time also for European ESNers and their Erasmus :).

By Anna BurtanCoordinator of Erasmus Against Racism Cup ‘08

give20@esn.org

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Workshops of Polish cuisine… Folk dance classes… Cultural evenings… Meetings in kin-dergartens… Teaching at a language school as a native speaker… Charity actions… Interna-tional Santa Claus.

What those things have in common? They are all actions of a new ESN Poland program – SOCIAL ERASMUS.

The program was established in May dur-ing delegates meeting in Katowice. The goal of the project is to activate Erasmus students who have a lot of free time and energy, are open minded, are ready to take actions and participate in our activities. We thought, if we are dealing with really active and young people interested in our culture why not to make Erasmus closer to the Polish society and involve the international students into it...

We set the rule: “you got help from us, so try to help as well” and we created a project of a new program called “SocialErasmus”.

The program is divided into 4 groups of actions:

1. CultureErasmus – promotion of Polish culture as well cultures of exchange students into the Polish society;

2. ActiveErasmus – helping Erasmus stu-dents to find a job as a native speaker at a lan-guage schools or working for NGO’S;

3. ErasmusHelpus – motivate Erasmus students for helping in kindergartens, primary schools, pension houses;

4. ESN for Kids – Charity actions like In-ternational Santa Claus – collecting money for children’s houses.

The idea of ‘SocialErasmus’ is new and innovative but we are sure that the potential of Erasmus can be used to help others. We are

planning to conduct charity actions in majority of Polish cities under the name of International Santa Claus in December.

We hope that the program will change the stereotypes about Erasmus Programme and help us to promote the exchange as well to help Polish children in feeling part of Europe.

By Magdalena PawelczykSocial Erasmus Coordinator, ESN Poland

If you are interested in our program please contact:Justyna Adamiec our PR responsible person pr@esn.pl or Magdalena Pawelczyk SocialErasmus Coordinator socialerasmus@gmail.com

SOCIAL ERASMUS A New Beginning for European Youth Activists

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As an old adage says – every beginning is another beginning’s end. As one year is ending and another one approaching, it is the right time to rewind the track of our accomplishments and rethink our plans for the future. It is our obliga-tion, being the most dynamic part of our soci-eties and their only future, to take our part of responsibility in tackling challenges awaiting Eu-rope and the world in the year to come.

In 2008 once again the European project has been rejected by the European citizens. The Irish negative vote on the Lisbon Reform Treaty this June has shown once again people’s discon-tent and disconnection from the current deve-lopments in the European Union’s high political circles. The inability of the European political elite and the EU governance structures to win the hearts and minds of the people for the neces-sary changes in the ways the enlarged Union op-erates has again brought upfront the importance of societal initiative. When political leaders fail to deliver the message, it is our chance, as it is our duty, to work more and harder to show the value and the benefits of the European unity for our generation and the ones to come.

From Iceland to Kosovo, AEGEE mem-bers lead dozens of initiatives that engage great number of young people in profound dialogue on the principles and practices of the Europe-an Citizenship. And this will continue to be our prime challenge in 2009 with our two newest European projects. “YOUrope Needs YOU” is a widespread effort for bringing the education for European Citizenship to high schools across Europe through peer education, while “Y Vote 2009” is a brave campaign challenging the EU democratic deficit by battling political apathy among first time voters at the European Par-liament elections in June 2009. We are always pleased and encouraged by the huge support

this campaign receives from the members of the European Parliament and the European Com-mission, European Movement International net-work, our fellow youth organizations and other members of the civil society.

The year is ending in a great anxiety over the world’s and Europe’s future in the light of the biggest global financial crisis since the Great Depression. In the time of misfortune and anxi-ety it is of paramount importance to remind ourselves and the ones around us that no crisis is more powerful then the solidarity of our com-munities and that there is no possession more valuable then the sense of fulfillment, once you have done something for the greater good of the society. I hope that this moment will show to our friends, parents, professors and business and po-litical leaders, that there is no better school of professional accountability and social responsi-bility than volunteerism and active citizenship.

By Dragan StojanovskiPresident of AEGEE

EUROPE

During these days European Commission (EC) is working on a new tool to help students get the information about possibilities in Europe and Asia for going abroad.

At the moment, when there is a real prob-lem with unemployment among young people on the EU level, helping the future workforce to become more international is essential. In EU 4.6 million people aged between 15 and 24 are unemployed and young people represent 38.5% of the total unemployed population. Amongst those working, a big percentage of young Euro-peans work under atypical forms of contracts. Temporary contracts and internships are name of the game where young people receive low or inexistent pay. Improved exchange of students and young professionals would help to resolve this situation. EC is trying to inform European students more, so they would be able to find a better job in the end. Europe and Asia are just the beginning. The goal would be also to see the other continents joining in.

The database offers a possibility to search for universities which offer your desired course. Information is based on World Higher Education Database and International Association of Uni-versities. DEEP offers you a country profile, links to visa requirements and study resources. The idea is to collect all possible information about every exchange possibility into one database and make it accessible for everyone. Through this process EC tries to resolve the problem that the information about possibilities to go abroad, about scholarships and grants doesn’t spread that well and is kept in a small circle of people.

There is also information on accreditation, grants, loans and scholarships offered by your home and host countries. Data on scholarships and exchanges is from the Academic Coopera-

tion Association. It is possible also to get general information about countries of interest. At the moment thirty-eight countries in Asia and Eu-rope are listed on the website all of which belong to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), an infor-mal trans-regional platform for dialogue and co-operation amongst the 25 EU Member States, 13 Asian countries and the European Commission. It will be part of the European Commissions communication “Working together, working bet-ter - A new framework for the open coordination of social protection and inclusion policies in the European Union”.

Asia is not seen as a popular destination for student exchange at the moment. Hopefully, this project will change the situation. On the website you can also read exchange stories about Euro-peans who went to Asia and vice-versa. The da-tabase is awaited to be fully functional in March. So spread the word…

By Jörgen TalkopEuropean Voluntary Service, Brussels

More information:http://deep.asef.orghttp://www.study-in-europe.org/index.cfm?objectid=D4A8D186-3FFF-AEA2-32 B627E7DA291125&CFID= 264632&CFTOKEN=84972318http://www.unesco.org/iau/directories/index.html

New educational database /DEEP/

No visa! No borders! Macedonia is part of Europe10

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This is the motto of the Student’s Parlia-ment, the leaders of the Macedonian student community, which are organizers of the recently held protests against the long visa procedures and disrespect for the student visa facilitation by the embassies of the EU countries in Macedonia.

Macedonian students are peacefully pro-testing against the visa regime and the inability to freely travel to Europe. Since the visa facili-tation for the students which was suppose to be obligatory for all of the EU member’s embassies and consulates that are issuing visas for Macedo-nian citizens are not followed at all or with small exceptions, the students are asking for total visa liberalization.

The protest began on the 15th of Octo-ber when the Euroambasador in Macedonia, His Excellency Mr. Erwan Fouere, EU Special Representative for Macedonia, was handed a Declaration for releasing of the visa regime and was asked for a meeting which which was not realized. After that, another protest followed and the students are planning to continue their initia-tive until they are heard.

In the Declaration the students from the Republic of Macedonia ask for facilitation which will lead to total suppression of the visas for the Macedonian students.

- In the Declaration we confirm our strong determination to live together with the other European nations and countries in one united Europe in which the borders will not represent walls, but open door for opportunities. - said An-drijana Pejkovska, a member of the Presidency in the Student Parliament.

The students say they have the support of the entire student community and their aim is to symbolically state their opinion. Signing a peti-tion on all the major universities and faculties in Macedonia will follow in the next months.

The mission of ESN is to foster student mobility in Higher Education under the prin-ciple of SHS - Students Helping Students, ESN Macedonia asks you, our fellow European stu-dents, to help us by raising your voice and let your support for us be heard because you are along with us, the future of Europe!

Maja SahpaskaPR of ESN Skopje, F.Y.R.O.M.

!

!

When I joined ESN and during all the first months of my membership, it was almost impos-sible for me to look over the boundaries of my own local section. Obviously, this was not because I didn’t realize there are other ESN sections, but because during my day to day experience I didn’t have the feeling of sharing any activity with oth-ers apart from those in my department.

Eventually, in May 2007, I had a chance to get in touch with ESNrs from the National Level - during 2007 ESN Italy members had the great opportunity to meet each other not only on one but on three National Events during the same month, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Erasmus Programme. I took part in all of them and this changed relevantly my point of view. I realised how important it is to be a part of the network.

Firstly, we can say that being part of a net-work allows us to be immediately recognizable by the external stakeholders in every aspect of our activity.

Secondly, the fact of being united allows every section to get more profitable partnerships and better relations with the institutions. As far as they are concerned, it is even highly useful hav-ing the possibility to show the great work we are able to do all together and demonstrate in this way our seriousness and sense of responsibility.

Thirdly, being connected enables us to or-ganize some kinds of events otherwise impossible to be realized, as for example the Annual Gen-eral Meeting or the National Erasmus Events.

Furthermore, there are several social ad-vantages in being part of a network. It is amaz-ing to meet other people living the same kind of experiences you have, facing the same difficul-

All Erasmus Student Network members have different reasons for being in ESN – we like to see our ideas being implemented, we’re here to get a bunch of new friends from all over the world, brush up on our English skills, learn how to organize events, share our experience or we simply like the idea of student mobility and inter-cultural learning and we want to make the world better. But although our motivation is different, we’re not only spending countless hours work-ing voluntarily, we’re also learning and gaining skills – formally under-valued, but useful in our future careers.

Non-formal education (NFE) is an orga-nized, skill focused process that takes place in different youth organizations, like ESN. Unlike formal education (schools, universities), NFE is much more individual (because you choose where and how you want to participate), outcome and skill focused and also much less recognized by everyone starting from yourself to employers, universities and society in general.

You don’t have to be the president of ESN International or the head of AGM’s OC to learn something important. Having as simple job as a mentor for an exchange student, you improve your intercultural communication and language skills. And what about team working, project management, organization, HR, finance, PR and all other skills you gain organizing any event? You have probably never though about it from this perspective, but those are important skills.

The next question is about showing the employers our experience. Well, your future employer, supervisor of your chosen masters’ program and most of the other people don’t re-ally care about what events you have organized in particular, but they will basically focus on the

ties, doing things with a similar enthusiasm.

Finally, the example of other people can be very motivating. You discover that others do and organize their events in a different way, have creative ideas and you commence to do it the same way.

However, I must admit that we still need to work very much to reach a real unity and some kind of uniformity within the sections. We still have a huge work to be done but we are going the good way and heading good aims. We need to find out better ways to recognize each other as part of a same group through new initiatives and even through new rules and we have to manage to maintain the spirit that motivates us.

By Valentina Settomini Member of ESN Italy

general competences you have gained. Europass is one of the tools that provide a good layout for skill based education (europass.cedefop.europa.eu).

Finally, where does it all go on your re-sume? Depends on you, your education and the level of professional experience. If you had little involvement, that rather would go as additional experience/education, but at some point you might want to write ESN in your work experience. NFE is only complementary and obviously can’t be a substitute for formal education and there’s no guarantee that this will always work, however as long as you’re skill focused and realistic about what you have done and what you haven’t, this gives you an advantage you shouldn’t miss.

By Madara ApsaloneNational Representative of Latvia

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A NETWORK

ESN experience in Your Resume!12

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It is a common thing among those who are planning to spend some time abroad to look forward to one thing especially: finding friends in unfamiliar culture. First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this wish because getting to know people one can consider of utmost impor-tance if you are an ‘alien’ in another country. Even though many exchange students prefer to stay in a comfort zone, i.e. their own language group at first, finding friends in the host culture or among other international students is what most exchange students hope for.

Becoming acquainted with the students from other cultures is most of the time easy enough and a natural process when one lives in another country. However, maintaining these re-lationships is challenging and requires more ef-fort than a friendship with someone from one’s own cultural and linguistic background. Un-doubtedly, the language barrier often provides the biggest obstacle for a successful and long-lasting intercultural friendship because it triggers misunderstandings and false impressions. Here, communication is the basis for a good intercul-tural relationship. This seems to be a paradox, but the inability to speak a language properly does not necessarily have something to do with good communication.

In an intercultural environment it is almost impossible not to avoid language misunderstand-ings and not, intentionally, offend someone from another background because what is true and right in my culture seldom applies to others as well. It is not possible to apply the same patterns and standards to every culture. Even hand ges-tures, which seem rather innocent, can get one into big trouble in some parts of the world.

Therefore, ‘intercultural friendship’ should mean that you can ask your friends about any as-

France is the second destination of Eras-mus students and therefore should be an active ESN country. This was not really the case until June 2008, where 5 out of the 7 French sections met in Brussels for a National Platform. For this event we were warmly welcomed by the Interna-tional Board and were hosted in the great ESN House.

The National Platform was really success-ful, since people were convinced by the ESN spir-it they felt at the AGM2008 in Besançon. So new projects were set, new tools were created and the new board was elected. The ESN France Board is composed of members from Brest, Lyon, Nancy and Besançon - good for the geographical cover of our country.

The first main step was to set up tools enabling us to work together through this huge country and to implement an ESN Satellite for our national website. We’re now setting up tools for the sections helping them to manage their ac-tivities and some services (ordering PR material on the national level, ESN cards, etc) or planning a national Erasmus forum.

Within two months we got two new sec-tions, which are highly motivated by the network and the possibilities it gives. We established con-tacts in the main French cities such as Paris, Lille, Aix en Provence and Marseille. French sections were also well represented at the South Western European Platform in Milan and it was the first time that there were nine French ESNers at a Regional Platform. A strong network needs part-ners therefore we’re cooperating with national student networks, authorities and sponsors in or-der to strengthen our network.

ESN France, although it’s a new beginner in ESN network, provides through its develop-

pect that puzzles you about their culture without being seen as an ignorant. Because nobody can know everything. Intercultural relationships that are founded on assumptions and embarrassed si-lence are, in the long-run, doomed to failure.

Intercultural friendship means mastering the differences and similarities between cultures through an intense experience. It means to learn how far you can go before crossing a line you did not see coming. It means maintaining a delicate balance between your own values and the beliefs of others. It means openness, tolerance and pa-tience. It teaches you how to walk a tight rope without a safety net.

Most importantly it means friendship.

By Elisa LangePress Release Working Team

ment services to sections, and to all international exchange students in France. Next National Plat-form will be held in January 2009 where we’re expecting almost 60 participants, strategic dis-cussions and motivation from all our members!

By Joachim WysslingNational Representatative of France

More about ESN France: www.ixesn.fr

Intercultural Friendships or How to Walk a Tight Rope

New beginning in France!14

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Decision of going for the Erasmus ex-change was the best decision in my life!!! Right now I am in Thessaloniki, Greece. I chose Greece for 3 reasons – very original language to learn, great places to see and of course the weather. I found everything what I had expected but now I have to add one thing more - really hospitable and open people!!!

Let me start from the beginning. When I was taking off from the Polish airport in my head there was only one thought “Natalia, this is the new beginning of your life”. I started my Greek adventure in Crete. I took EILC course and spent five weeks in one of the most beautiful places in Crete – Rethymno. We were having modern Greek classes from Monday to Friday and during weekends we were traveling.

Once we decided to see whole western part of Crete, so we rented a car and headed our first destination - Gramvousa located in the north-western part of the island. Gramvousa is one of the most magical places I have ever seen – mountains behind you, blue sea in front of you and the island – breath taking! After few hours we arrived to the south-western part where our friends had been already waiting for us. We de-cided to spend a night there under the sky. A warm night, bonfire, sausages, songs in many different languages and afterwards a nice nap in sleeping bags on the sand in front of the sea. This was an unforgettable experience.

After five weeks I had to leave Crete and I went to Thessaloniki. I started my real Eras-mus life with a new school, new people, new sur-roundings. I can’t even count how many great moments I have had and how many great people have I met. My life in Greece is ‘HALARA’ (easy) and I love it! There are many places I would like to see here but it’s impossible to do it in one year.

When I come to Poland I won’t be the same person, I will be a European Citizen. And after-wards… where should I go first?… Tallinn – to Birxu, Lubliana – to Tomaz, Paris – to Romain, Budapest - to Eve, Madrid -to Cristina, Crete - to Mitsos, Santorini- to Paul, Thessaloniki - to Ilias or Bialystok - to Grzesiek… let me think…

By Natalia KucharskaErasmus Student in Thessaloniki, Greece

Erasmus in Thessaloniki, Greece

My new beginning16

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In the time when I worked in the ESN Buddy System at my home university in Brati-slava and enjoyed my normal student life I had never thought that once my life will change in the way it did. I believe that there are several new beginnings throughout one’s life. Once you think that nothing surprising can happen in your life, life shows you how wrong you can be.

I have always had lots of plans concern-ing studying abroad; however, I have actually al-ways failed to put them into practice. The more I think about it today I’m pretty sure, that I was just waiting for the right moment to make all my dreams come true.

I am not sure if life works that way, that you get rewarded for all the things you did in the past. Anyway, I got my reward. Today I’m living with a wonderful guy (who was Erasmus student in Bratislava), I moved to Hamburg last summer and I have just began my master program here. Leaving my family, friends – simply my whole ‘old life’ in Slovakia – was the most difficult part. I knew that something new was awaiting me in Germany and and that’s what made me going.

However, I have never considered difficul-ties of moving to another country. It was after several days when I realized how alone I felt in this unfamiliar country. I will always remember the day when my boyfriend told me, that he was going on a business trip abroad for several days. I couldn’t believe that I had to stay in our flat all on my own. Well, I did. And as much as I know how crazy it sounds I didn’t leave the flat since the day he left until he came back again :).

I am happy that today I’m not scared of life anymore, but try to take all challenges it of-fers to me. When our Slovak NR, Katka, wrote me about the call for applicants for Advisory Council on Youth, I took the chance and be-came the ESN candidate for this position. Elec-tions are scheduled soon. Cross your fingers and maybe we will experience the “new beginning” together!

By Dominika SkotkovaESN Candidate for Advisory Council on Youth, Slovakia

*just before releasing this issue of eXpress the elections took place and Dominika Skotkova was elected to the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. Congratulations and good luck!

United Management Institutes is the first private management school in Finland. UMI is a Belgian-Finnish higher education institute. The institute was founded on the principle of providing higher education to those who might not possess the opportunity to obtain one. UMI is honoured to offer degrees with the best qual-ity of knowledge from an academic and profes-sional point of view. UMI operates as a private Management School offering undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, executive and distance-learn-ing education. UMI as a management school is delighted to be able to offer new exclusive pro-grams such as BA and MA in Football Coaching & Management™ and Master of Political Ad-ministration™. These programs are offered only in UMI and no university in the world is autho-rized to offer these program without validation and authorization of UMI. UMI offers degrees in undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and execu-tive studies as full-time, part-time and distance-learning -all in English. Students can start their studies at UMI campus in Finland and continue it at UMI partners’ campus around the world. United Management Institutes is a full mem-ber of “European Academic Council of Private Higher Education” in Brussels. UMI degrees are certified and validated by this council. United Management Institutes is in partnership with United Business Institutes of Brussels.

Avant de partir en Erasmus, ça faisait longtemps que je voulais partir à l’étranger (de préférence en France) pour un long séjour. Mais, contrairement à beaucoup de mes amis, je ne voulais pas habiter à Paris. Ce que je voulais c’était une petite ville où tout le monde se con-naissait et où on pouvait croiser des amis dans la rue. Et Besançon semblait parfait pour cela.

Quand je suis arrivée, j’ai vécu un vrai choc culturel. Tout était différent de ce à quoi je m’attendais : des éléments de la vie quotidi-enne comme les heures d’ouverture des maga-sins (La pause de midi ? Les magasins fermés le dimanche ? En Pologne personne n‘en a jamais entendu parler ! ), jusqu’au charme de la ville de Besançon dont je suis tombée amoureuse tout de suite, en passant par l’attitude des Bisontins, comme par exemple les chauffeurs de bus qui semblaient toujours être de bonne humeur, et disaient « bonjour » à tous les passagers! A ma grande surprise, tout le monde était très ouvert et se portait volontaire pour m‘aider sans que je le leur demande. Déjà à la gare, mon « parrain Erasmus » est venu me chercher et le lendemain il m’a montré la ville. L’Association des Etudi-ants Internationaux de Besançon dont il faisait partie (que j’ai également rejoint) avait fait beau-coup d’efforts pour que les Erasmus se sentent bien et surtout pas perdus dans un nouvel envi-ronnement. Grâce à toutes leurs activités, je me sentais comme chez moi (ou même mieux).

Bien qu’on dise que l’année Erasmus c’est en grande partie la fête (ce qui n’est pas faux d’ailleurs), dans mon cas ce séjour a eu une énorme influence sur mes études, à tel point que j’ai décidé de rester à Besancon encore un an. J’ai été aceptée dans un autre programme d’échange, Master Erasmus Mundus, dont la première année se déroule à Besançon. Bien que ce programme ne soit pas la même chose

qu’Erasmus à proprement dit, parce qu’il est dédié à la recherche, je revis l’ambiance Eras-mus de l’année précédente.

Après un an à Besançon, je peux dire que j’ai vraiment eu de la chance de pouvoir rester dans la ville de mon année Erasmus, et avec de nombreuses personnes que j’avais rencontrées ici, et de continuer une des meilleures expéri-ences de ma vie.

By Zuzanna RudasErasmus Mundus Student in Besançon

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Responsable eXpressMagdalena Wawrzonkowska

Editorial teamMadara ApsaloneJames BeckettAnna BurtanAnthe de WeerdNatalia KucharskaElisa LangeMagdalena PawelczykZuzanna RudasMaja SahpaskaValentina SettominiDominika SkotkovaDragan StojanovskiJörgen TalkopRemo WeberJoachim Wyssling

Design and illustrationsIsmet Lisicawww.studiolisica.com