#erasmusblogging

[doomedlightningshard]

queen captures knight, en passant

[yloiseconeillants]

i rolled an ancient for erasmus that i've been thinking about for a while and i can't believe how hard i goofed

[bogiinsalerno]

Cappuccino és cornetto - egy klasszikus olasz reggeli :)

[alicassdam-blog]

Life in Uilenstede

Since it’s now January and I have been here since August, I have a lot of catching up to do! Apologies if this causes spam posting but I will try and condense the past few months down as concisely as possible.

So let me start from the beginning. I moved to Amsterdam on the 18th of August 2016, and it was safe to say I was pretty terrified. Amsterdam isn’t extremely far from England, and with my local airport doing daily flights for less than £20 each way, it’s not like I couldn’t come home if I wanted to. But the prospect of living abroad in a foreign country did of course scare me as much as it excited me. I was worried about the language barrier, whether I would make many friends, what my accommodation would be like and whether I would enjoy studying at the university.

Nevertheless, I tried to put my fears aside and try to make the most out of the opportunity I had been given and had so looked forward to for the past year. I arrived with my Mum in the evening, and stayed in a hotel near the airport. On the morning of the 19th we took the tram to my new student accommodation for the year, on a little campus called Uilenstede, which translates as ‘City of Owls’. I registered, picked up my keys and headed over to the ‘Green tower’, a 13 floor tower block which was also known as the International building or the ‘party tower’. I had chosen my room online but wasn’t exactly sure what to expect apart from that I was on the 7th floor. When I arrived at my flat I was greeted with a long dark corridor which I would share with 13 other international students, and my room was bare but had the essentials of a desk, bed, wardrobe, and to my delight, my own fridge. I rearranged my furniture and began trying to make it feel homely. I also have my own balcony, which I love!

Over the weeks that followed I tried to settle into living in Uilenstede, despite having to return to England for a wedding before the term started. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it difficult. During this time I was in a relationship that had just became long distance, as I moved to Amsterdam, and my boyfriend was also studying abroad but in the USA. To be truthful, this had much more of an impact on me then I had first anticipated, and being away from him proved to be really hard for both of us. I spent a lot of my time sad over missing him, missing home and missing my friends back at my university in England. There were many times that I questioned whether this was what I wanted to be doing at all. But I stuck it out, and tried to realise that I had been given a great opportunity and I needed to let myself adjust at my own pace. Me and my boyfriend sadly ended things in October, but I guess some things just aren’t meant to be. 

Living in Uilenstede can feel like living in a bubble. We are just outside of Amsterdam, not really quite in Amstelveen either. It is entirely inhabited by students, with my block being entirely international students. We have our own cafe/bar called Il Caffe, our own pizza and takeaway restaurant, a salon, a small supermarket, a bike shop, a cinema/theatre and a gym. This all makes life pretty easy going around here. Living amongst so many different nationalities and cultures has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my time here so far. I have learnt so many interesting details about everyday life from different places around the world, that I don’t believe I would have ever got the chance to learn anywhere else. The dutch people here are also lovely, being well known for their tendency to be very direct, which I am getting used to. 

One of the only downsides about living in Uilenstede is that we are pretty close to the airport, so planes fly low and begin to do so as early as about 4am. This took some getting used to, and there are some days when every 15 minutes you can hear the enormous roar of the planes flying just above over the tower. 

But other than that, I’m currently really enjoying my time here. The people are great, the parties here are fun, and everyday I have a new opportunity to meet somebody from across the globe by just meeting them in the elevator. 

[yloiseconeillants]

...who gave these children knives?

[yloiseconeillants]

O Dionysos, change me back to clay!

[yloiseconeillants]

i love my undead gay son

[yloiseconeillants]

rare soap opera posting but what if erasmus reed, presumed dead since the banquet and that’s only partly true, ended up pulled to the first like five years before even thancred but instead of doing his usual do-gooder tank routine, he has a crisis of faith and instead retreats to amh araeng to stalk the mines and kill sineaters on his own for a decade

[yloiseconeillants]

erasmus’ shard is also here, at least. at least for a little while 😰

[yloiseconeillants]

*slides yet another blorbo playlist here*

You should know I would never let you down You should know I would never let you drown

[bogiinsalerno]

Sziasztok!

Ezt a sablont Instagramon találtam, s gondoltam itt is megosztom veletek az általam kitöltött változatot. :) Mielőtt Salernoba költöztem volna, mindössze Velencét volt szerencsém meglátogatni, a többi kék pontocskával csak az októberi kiköltözésem óta bővült a térkép. Azt hiszem, ez így nem is rossz teljesítmény, és bízom benne, hogy az elkövetkező hónapokban még több kék pötty kerül az olasz csizmára! :)

[bogiinsalerno]

Annyit írtam már a nápolyi pizzákról, és fotót mégsem mutattam róluk! Íme hát egy igazi olasz margharita pizza: vékony tészta, sűrű paradicsomszósz, friss mozzarella.

[bogiinsalerno]

Aperitivo rózsákkal :)

[bogiinsalerno]

Kultúrsokk #8 - Kávé

Sziasztok!

Íme néhány újabb érdekesség, amit hoztam nektek innen Olaszországból: egy furcsa “szabály” a kávéfogyasztáshoz. :) Az olaszok egészen erős érzelmi reakciót produkálnak, amennyiben valaki tőlük eltérő módon vagy időpontban issza a kávét. Ugyan még így hat hónap után sem sikerült teljesen kiismernem a kávéivást övező szabályrendszert, azt már biztosan tudom, hogy 12 óra után “nem illik” cappuccinot fogyasztani. Ha valaki ilyet kér, szinte biztosan furcsán néznek majd rá, vagy legyintenek, hogy “na, egy újabb turista”.

Egy másik, kávézással kapcsolatos megfigyelésem, hogy az olaszok sok esetben nem ülnek le ahhoz, hogy megigyák a kávéjukat. A kávézóba belépve megtámaszkodnak a pultnál, és képesek akár másfél-két órán keresztül is ott állni és beszélgetni egymással, espressot szürcsölgetve.

Ti tapasztaltatok már hasonló furcsaságokat a kávézással kapcsolatban? Én innentől kezdve igyekszem jobban figyelni, megkérdezni ezeket a szokásokat. Amint megtudok valami újat, beszámolok róla.

[bogiinsalerno]

Íme egy fotó a legutóbbi, és az összes közüli kedvenc kirándulásomról, Velencéből!:)

[bogiinsalerno]

ESN kirándulás checklist

Sziasztok!

Az alábbiakban megosztom veletek az ESN kirándulások listáját, és azt is, hogy ezek közül melyeken vettem részt.:)

✅ Paestum

✅Capri

✅Matera

✅ Toszkána (Firenze-Siena-Pisa-San Gimignano - többnapos)

✅Róma (többnapos)

✅Bari-Alberobello

❌Saviano karnevál

✅Velence-Bologna-Verona (többnapos)

Ami még jön (mindkettő többnapos):

❓Szicília

❓Puglia