Jasmina Spahic - her experience of being an exchange student at Universidad de Almería

Jasmina Spahic

Age: 23

Home University: “Dzemal Bijedic” University of Mostar

Host University: Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain

Exchange period: Winter semester 2019./2020.

Did you ever feel like you're living your dreams? I most certainly did, not so long ago. My first Erasmus experience was to a country I felt the connection with ages ago on a high school trip. I knew someday I'll live there, not in that particular city, but the country for sure. When I decided to apply for my exchange all I asked was a city in Spain. And then I heard the name of a city that stole my heart, Almería. All the pictures I've seen online seemed like a fairy tale. I couldn't believe that something so beautiful exists. On September 6th, I left my hometown and went on my first solo adventure. No family, no friends, no acquaintances.

I had more luck than other people, therefore it wasn't hard for me to relax and allow myself to enjoy the trip. Students who were in Almería before me gave me some great tips on how and where to find a place to live, flatmates, what to do first and so on. One of my flatmates, Emina, was from Sarajevo and we met up for coffee once. José Jesús, a student from Almería who was on his Erasmus here in Mostar helped me with everything else (I'm forever grateful for everything you did for me and my friends!!). Thanks to him, I knew I'm going to be safe and everything is going to be alright. His brother, Sergio, came to the bus station, picked me up and took me to my new home (You should've let me help you with that suitcase. You carried 25 kilos to the third floor like it's nothing!). Emina was already there, so I wasn't alone.

It's odd how you can get along so well with someone so different from you. Emina and I spent a lot of time together and we travelled to so many cities and countries. I don't have a younger sister and Emina is probably what I would want her to be like. (I'm hoping for a reunion with Ivana and Mara as soon as this quarantine ends.) I also met my two best friends for life in Almería, Naara and Irmak. I miss our nights at Tio Tom, those long and deep conversations about anything and everything. I miss complaining about all the tasks and professors we had, too. Even though it was a short period, I'm glad we created bonds that are going to last for a lifetime. Thank you, literature professor, for cancelling the very first class because that's how I met Irmak. Thank you, ESN Almería, for the integration weekend trip, where I met Naara. And linguistics course where I met a girl who taught me so many important life skills, Adrianna. Also, thank you, German course for bringing us all together.

Courses at University of Almería are mostly in Spanish so you don't have to attend them, but if you study English, like I do, then you have no excuse. I had classes every day and I didn't mind. The bus ride was dreamy. You drive along the beach! How can anyone not look forward to it?! The overall organisation at university wasn't the best, but if I could go again I sure would. The scholarship wasn't paid monthly but in percentages. If you don't spend it all at once, it's more than enough. Groceries were cheaper than what I expected and monthly rent was around 200 euros with bills. Monthly bus pass was less than 30 euros and sales at the mall were amazing! Life in Almería is something that everyone should experience. My whole stay there felt like being in a movie that I'll never forget.

I'll never forget the beautiful sunrise I'd see every morning while drinking my first coffee. Tostadas, sunny days, tapas, tinto de verano and calimocho, botellons and La Clásica. Or that bench we'd go to enjoy the stunning sunsets on the beach. If you want to learn how to enjoy your life to the fullest, fall in love with a new culture, learn (or improve) a beautiful language and find a new home, I suggest you pack your bags and go say hi to my beloved Almería.

Zoom sastanci sa studentima na razmjeni

Kancelarija za međunarodnu saradnju je u četvrtak 09.04.2020. organizovala drugi on-line sastanak sa studentima na razmjeni.

Studenti su govorili o svom statusu na institucijama domaćinima, kao i situacijama gdje im je potrebna asistencija Kancelarije za međunarodnu saradnju. Svi su dobrog zdravlja, pohađaju on-line nastavu i poštuju mjere koje su uvedene u zemljama u kojima trenutno borave.

Tokom sastanka se još razgovaralo o uslovima i mogućnosti povratka.

U petak 17.04.2020. organizovan je i treći po redu on-line sastanak.

Dobro raspoloženi studenti su pričali o svojim on line predavanjima i načinu na koji se snalaze na institucijama domaćinima u vrijeme COVID-19.

Tokom sastanka smo ih obavjestili o situaciji u BIH; mjerama koje se poduzimaju da im se pomogne dok su na mobilnosti ali i mogućnosti povratka. Do sljedećeg sastanka svi studenti moraju u Kancelariju za međunarodnu saradnju poslati mail o dužini trajanja njihovih viza.

Sljedeći zoom sastanak sa studentima Univerziteta koji su na razmjeni će biti u sedmici od 20.04. do 26.04.

Online sastanak sa studentima na razmjeni

Kancelarija za međunarodnu saradnju je u subotu 04.04.2020. organizovala on-line sastanak sa studentima na razmjeni.

Svi studenti koji su se uključili u video sastanak su dobrog zdravlja, poštuju sve zdravstveno sigurosne mjere zemalja u kojima se nalaze.

Tokom sastanka se razgovaralo o dokumentima koje treba dostaviti Fondaciji za mobilnost studenata i nastavnika F BiH za realizaciju jednokratne pomoći studentima, mogućnosti povratka kući, akademskim i administrativnim problemima na instituciji domaćinu.

Dogovor sa studentima je da se jednom sedmično organizuje sastanak preko aplikacije zoom.

How did we become ESN Mostar Candidate Section?

Since we've been spending our time at home these days, working and socialising from home, we've figured out it would be the best time to belatedly share our Istanbul story.

After a month, we've sorted (maybe not yet completely, but enough to talk about it) our emotions, memories and photos from our first ESN event.

Two of our board members Faris Lavic and Dalila Spahic participated in the event called Council of National Representatives (CNR) where they've presented our ESN candidacy and we've got accepted as a candidate section! We are honoured that we made this first step to become a full member of ESN International and we are grateful for all your love and support ESNers.

It was truly amazing to see how all this functions, to learn so many new things about Erasmus and ESN and to meet all of you, to hear your ideas, stories and experiences. Thank you, each and every one of you, for giving us advice, for listening to our plans and giving us some tips and tricks on how to move forward. You guys are truly inspiring!

CNR Marmara 2020 was held at Marmara University in Istanbul during February (13.-16.02.). Marmara University is one of the oldest educational institutions and is the only multilingual university in Turkey. The University has over 50 000 students (over 1500 foreign students from 73 countries are studying at the institution) and more than 4000 academic and administrative staff. Marmara University has 12 campuses, with one of them serving as a hospital. According to the statistics published by the EU Education and Youth Programmes Center, Marmara University is one of the top 3 choices among the foreign students who have applied to the exchange programs offered in Turkey.

Thank you for supporting your students (and all of us).

Another thank you goes to volunteers of ESN Marmara for making this happen. Thank you for always being there through this event, for the beautiful welcome, for the trips you've organised and for wearing those heart-warming smiles all the time!

Third and the biggest thank you goes to our wonderful Olivia Parczyk from Germany, who was our mentor (ESN mum) since we started filling in that application. Thank you for being so positive, for encouraging us to do what we thought was partially impossible. Thank you for your kind words, for your love, trust and your patience. 

And, in the end, biiiiig CONGRATULATIONS to ESN Chisinau for joining Moldova as 42nd ESN country! You girls were incredible! Best of luck in your future work!!

P.S. Without UniCredit Bank Mostar we wouldn't be able to have this story to tell; so big shout-out for them and thank you!

In case you want to contact us, you can easily do that over our Facebook page and Instagram profile.
You'll be able to recognise us and our events by these two photos. Do not hesitate to join us!

Radionica: "Menadžment međunarodnih projekata: iskustva koordiantora"

U srijedu, 11.03. u Sudnici za simulovano suđenje je održana radionica Menadžment međunarodnih projekata: iskustva koordinatora.

Moderator, Geert de Lepeleer, Šef internacionalizacije Tehničko tehnološkog fakulteta, KU Leuven je prisutnima govorio o tome kako napisati uspješnu aplikaciju, šta treba izbjeći prilikom apliciranja i na šta se treba fokusirati kako bi jednom odobreni projekat i bio uspješno implementiran.

Radionica je održana u sklopu implementacije projekta KA 107 Erasmus+ akcije međunarodne kreditne mobilnosti, kojeg Univerzitet „Džemal Bijedić“ u Mostaru implemntira sa KU Leuven iz Belgije.

Mirza Humo - Three days in Madrid

Mirza Humo
Age: 23
Home University: "Dzemal Bijedic" University of Mostar
Host University: University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain
Exchange period: 2019./2020.

"Tek nekoliko sati pred put i trodnevnu posjetu, odlučili smo da se sami upustimo u pustolovine. Brzo smo sredili smještaj i putničke karte. Posjeta je nadmašila očekivanja. Putovali smo vozom. Od Almerije do Madrida smo se vozili 7 sati, a nazad 6 sati. Žao mi je što sam se sam morao vraćati u Almeriju, jer su kolege morale neplanski nazad kući u Sarajevo, ali tih 6 sati je bilo jedno od najljepših trenutaka mog života zbog vožnje kroz ruralne predjele Španije. Kolege isto kao i ja borave 5 mjeseci u Almeriji zbog razmjene studenata. Kolege su s Ekonomskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Sarajevu. Vožnja po smjeru traje od 6-7 sati, a karta košta 25€ po smjeru uz popust za više osoba. Smještaj smo platili 15€ po osobi za jednu noć bez popusta u hotelu u centru. Prevoz i smještaj je koštao 90€ po osobi. Posjetili smo kraljevsku palaču, kristalnu palaču, trg Sol, trg Majork, Retrio park, Congreso de Diputados. Svaki dio grada je posebno lijep za sebe i nemoguće je odlučiti koji je dio ljepši od kojeg, niti je ikako moguće izabrati najlepše mjesto u gradu koje je obavezno za posjetiti. Sve je obavezno za posjetiti."

Pogledajte slike i pročitajte više na Mirzinom blogu: https://www.mirzinputopis.com/post/tri-dana-u-madridu

EQ8: Nebo nije granica!

Članovi ESN Mostar - Candidate Section su učestvovali u jednodnevnom seminaru sa studente koji je organizovala ekipa Svakog Studenta. Seminar je održan u hotelu Mostar, 07.03.2020.

Govornici na seminaru su bila 3 američka biznismena, te prestavnik Amplius electronicsa Marin Bevanda.

Značenje liderstva, kakvo ponašanje lider treba da ima u privatnom i poslovnom životu, koji su zadaci lidera, te emocionalna inteligencija su samo neke od tema koje su se obrađivale.

Marin je podijelio svoju priču sa prisutnima koja je dokaz da se i u BiH može uspjeti, ukoliko se dovoljno zalažemo za svoje ciljeve.

Dan poslije, u prostorijama organizacije Svaki Student održane su radionice sa govornicima o izradi projekata.

Zajedno sa našim Erasmus studentima pridružili smo se i "Game Night"-u.

Hvala vam za super seminar i na divnom druženju!! 

Svaki Student Mostar je nezavisna kršćanska organizacija koja želi izgraditi okruženje kojem mladi ljudi i studenti mogu pripadati, vjerovati i postati ljudi kakvi su kreirani da budu. U Sarajevu djeluju od 2001., a u Mostaru od 2015.
Podučavaju engleski jezik, organizuju akademske seminare, socijalne događaje i eskurzije nekoliko puta godišnje. “Svaki student” je dio udruženja “Fokus BiH”.

The International Women's Day with ESN Mostar

🇬🇧 Today our girls got a chance to do a zipline! 😍
Wonderful people from Zip Line Stari Most provided a free fly for each one of us in order to celebrate the International Women's Day! 🌹
🔸Fun fact: More women did it since this zipline was officially oppened! 💪
🔸Zipline is 200m long (a bit more).
🔸It connects 2 bridges in Mostar.
🔸These guys are amazing! (Thank you one more time!! ❤)
🔸We had real Sunday-Funday!!
__________________________________________________________________________________
🇧🇦 Danas su naše cure imale priliku da se spuste na zipline-u! 😍
Divni ljudi iz ekipe Zip Line Stari Most su obezbijedili besplatan "let" za svaku od nas kako bismo zajedno proslavili Međunarodni Dan Žena! 🌹
Hvala vam još jednom!! <3
🔸Zanimljiva činjenica: Više žena je isprobalo ovu adrenalinsku atrakciju od kako je zvanično počela sa radom! 💪
🔸Zipline je nešto duži od 200m i spaja dva mosta u našem gradu.
🔸Ekipa je ljubazna, profesionalna, nasmijana i spremna da vam pomogne sa svim!
Nama je ovo bila izuzetno zabavna nedjelja, a vama preporučujemo da ih posjetite što prije!

Sadzida Tinjak - her experience of being an exchange student

Sadzida Tinjak

Age: 24

Home University: “Dzemal Bijedic” University of Mostar

Host University: Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland

Exchange period: 2016/2017

If you ever thought about exploring and understanding diversity which this world offers and make acquaintances or even built beautiful friendships.

If you want to travel and find new beautiful places.

If you are curious about how it would be to study at another university and have more sources of knowledge through a different approach to your field.

These three, for me, were strong pros for applying for the Erasmus exchange in Gliwice.

Hm, Gliwice?!
It's a small city in Poland near Krakow. That's all I knew in the beginning.
We went through the process of application and five of us were accepted. I was lucky to make this move together with my four colleagues and also friends. Then paperwork, choosing the best travel option, accommodation, packing and overcoming the fear of the unknown. We were living as one big family and we were there for each other all the time. Five Bosnians enrolled in a new semester in Poland with students from all around the world.

We had orientation days and got all the information needed about the city, studies, programme and met with ESN people and our coordinator.

It's not easy to shape this experience with words, I decided to shape it through following - thank you, Erasmus - thank you for bringing amazing people in my life Monica from San Salvador (and later owner of first Salvador passport seen in our bus to Bosnia), Diego from Mexico, Gonzalo from Uruguay, Tolga and Yakup from Turkey, Jannah from Tadzhikistan, Soeraj And Ranish from Surinam (sorry guys if I am still writing it wrong), Davit from Georgia, Anahit from Armenia, Nol from Albania, only group bigger than ours eight people from Serbia, a lot of polish people, Hanan from Gana, Khadijah from Jemen, Mohanned from Libya, Peter from Kenya ...

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn about other cultures, mindsets, perspectives, about engineering, discipline, how to be independent and do things by myself, how to make lunch and not burn it, how to make your scholarship last to the end of the month (ok last two partially learned), thank you for giving me a chance to travel through Poland and places in Europe I always wanted to visit, all trips and events organised by ESN, understanding polish- dziekuje bardzo Ola (even though the first approach gave me a headache, to many consonants next to each other!!)

Thank you, Erasmus, for the beautiful time and rich experience.

Erasmus will touch your life gently but significantly and later you'll feel that touch as a tailwind telling you -built something with a material I gave you.

Atif Halitovic - his experience as an exchange student in Portugal

Atif Halitović

Age: 24

Home University: "Dzemal Bijedic" University of Mostar

Host University: Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Lisbon, Portugal

Exchange period: 2017/2018. (Erasmus+)

If you have any friend who „did Erasmus“ you have probably heard a ton of cliché stories from them about the exchange period – like it was the best thing that ever happened to that person. That is probably true, but you will never find out or really understand that person if you don't take that opportunity yourself. My advice to anyone who is at least a little bit interested in studying abroad, or just wants some change in their study days, is to try to take part in one of the exchange programs at your university. Maybe for you it will not be the „best life experience“, but you will surely have to get out of your comfort zone and see how things work somewhere else with some different people and different mindsets. It will also change your perception of yourself and help you to figure out how is it really important to meet new people and to adapt to new challenges.

One day I just decided I needed something new so I applied for the Erasmus+ exchange programme at my home institution. I got the best understanding from the staff employed there (Mirsada <3), who was always available and helpful for any student's question (there are no stupid questions).

Luckily, I got selected for Lisbon with two other students (Dženana and Irfan) who I just met maybe a week before going to Portugal. We were really three different personalities, but within time, we became lifetime friends, because it just connects you on some different levels. Lisbon was probably the furthest destination from our country, but everything about it attracted me. It was also the first time I took a flight anywhere.

The first month we lived in hostels in Lisbon (about 11€/night), I remember it was a pretty hard period, you need to adapt to everything new, to a whole different system than we are used to, after that we got a place in a dormitory (Alfredo de Sousa Residence) which was pretty good and cheap (225€/month for a single room) for Lisbon's standards and really close to the university (1 minute). So after I got to the dorm and slept couple nights in my room in peace I remember waking up one day and realizing „that's it, that is what I expected how to feel“. Everything after that was so easy for me, I enjoyed every moment. The dorm also had an awesome canteen on the lowest floor (2,65€/full meal).

The staff (Ana, Carlotta) in the host institution were really kind to us. They understood our „fear“ of being abroad and so far away from home and did everything that was in their power to make us feel like home and they succeeded in it. I am very thankful for them. NOVA Information Management School is the faculty I attended. It is a very well organized faculty with the latest technologies implemented and great professors who helped us with everything we needed. We could have consultations any time we needed, even in non-working hours. NOVA IMS had a great student council with their awesome president (Patricia) who did their best to introduce us to the city in our first few days there. Student council also organized various activities in the faculty yard like bbq's and live music. The students who attended the same semester were from Turkey, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Germany etc. and also some of the Balkan countries like Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo.

Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal with around 500k people (so about like the capital of my country). It lies on the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean and the river Tagus as well on the other side (basically you can go to two different big great beaches within most 1 hour travel with public transport). Surfing is a great part of it. It is a charismatic city which is „alive“ 24 hours a day with an awesome climate. The city has a welcoming and liberal atmosphere, while still embracing its deep-rooted heritage and extensive history. In Lisbon there are all kinds of people – any type of personality and looks that you can imagine, it is an absolutely multicultural city. I can say it is pretty safe if you don't look for problems (why would you?). Police officers are everywhere and it's very effective, still danger can be found in the form of pickpockets. Public transport is amazing and it connects all of the city. As a student you can get a discounted monthly ticket for about 30€ which covers all the transport services (bus, metro, tram, even a boat to different parts of the city). Not far from Lisbon there are many places you can visit like Pena Palace, Quinta da Regaleira, Cabo da Roca (the most western point in continental Europe) which are located in Sintra and as well as the beautiful city Cascais and travel tickets to those places are mostly included in monthly ticket. Lisbon has a lot of students on exchange every semester. So I had an opportunity to meet people from every continent.

During the exchange I started to like something new in my life – traveling and exploring the cities. In that period I traveled to Portuguese cities like Porto, Coimbra, Leiria, Obidos in inland Portugal and as well Portimao, Faro and Sagres in the south. Porto is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. It has a river in the city centre which divides two parts of the city and reminds me very much of my hometown. Some of them I traveled alone or with friends. Tickets were around 15 to 20€ one way. Others I traveled with student organizations like ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and ELL (Erasmus Life Lisboa). Those are helpful people who organize various trips to the beaches in Lisbon or the cities near (Sesimbra - Riberia do Cavalo, Setubal – Troia or Comporta), but also trips to Gibraltar and Spain.

But definitely, the best trip then and still now in my life is visiting the Portuguese island Ponta Delgada (Sao Miguel) which is part of Azores (archipelago). Azores consists of 9 different islands which have volcanic origins. If you like nature, hiking and swimming in natural spring pools – you should go there, but it's much more than that trust me. Return tickets are around 50-100€ with low-cost Ryanair, depending on when you buy them. It is a place with beautiful hidden waterfalls, viewpoints and natural hot spring pools. Weather can change really fast there (from storm to sunny without cloud just within 5 mins), so it is incredible to see how the clouds move fast, like real-time time-lapse. A funny and good thing there is that there are no dangerous animals because of its volcano origins, so almost all animals were imported somehow. Only some kind of birds are native there. I managed to travel there with a Bosnian friend (Hana) whom I met at the beginning and three more friends who we then met just for these specific trip and the dates of the trip in the Facebook Erasmus student group in Lisbon. We rented a car and shared expenses. That's what Erasmus is all about.

I also visited Madrid which was my childhood wish since I am a fan of Real Madrid. It takes 7 hours by bus and the one-way ticket is around 20€. It is also pretty well-connected and easy to travel to northern Spanish cities and as well Andalusia on the south.

For the end I would like to thank you for taking your time to read this long text. My suggestion to everyone would be to try the experience of studying outside of your country, it doesn't matter what the location is. You will meet a lifetime friend there, which is the most valuable thing you can get from Erasmus. It's something you'll remember forever.

The next year I gained another opportunity to study in Poland, which is a totally different from Portugal, starting from the climate and then everything else. But I happily accepted it and it was also one hell of an experience.