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| Beautiful Stary Renek |
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| Before taking Mumi to dinner |
It’s the last month of my Erasmus
experience and I don’t know where the time has gone! Last week was my friend,
Mumi’s birthday. Lutfullah and I took him out for a traditional
Turkish meal, something which has become quite normal for me! We went to a bar
after and chatted for a couple of hours, talking about the things that have
happened over the last few months.
Lutfullah and Mumi were the first people
I met who really took me under their wing and introduced me to their friends,
and for this I am so grateful. When I arrived at Poznan, everything felt
unfamiliar and a little scary if I am honest. In some ways, I agree with the
statement made by the Italian Poet, Cesare Pavese:
“Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust
strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.
You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things –
air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal
or what we imagine of it” (The world wanderer, 2011)
However, this ‘off balance’ sensation pushed me into
exploring my new world and meeting people, people who I now consider lifelong
friends.
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| Lut and Mumi |
Mumi and
Lutfullah have been wonderful friends to me throughout the entire Erasmus
period and I hope that we will all keep in touch after our Erasmus experience
ends. We have so many funny anecdotes and memories together which will never be
forgotten. In order to preserve these moments, we created an Erasmus adventure photo
album along with all our friends’ signatures for Mumi’s birthday.
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| Mumi's BBQ birthday party |
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| Some of my Erasmus family |
Later in the week, a group of us, who I
like to think of as my ‘Erasmus Family’ got together and planned a surprise BBQ
party for Mumi. It was a really warm night and as everyone was joining together
and lighting their BBQs to celebrate his birthday I realised I only had one
more month of this. We gave Mumi his birthday present at the BBQ and he was so appreciative that we took the time to make something special for him to
remember his time here in Poznan. That night, I think it was on everyone’s mind
that soon we would have to leave each other, People are already starting to leave and I really don’t know how I will
cope with this.
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| Giving Mumi his birthday present |
Erasmus has been like a dream to me. It
has given me the opportunity for self growth and to really understand people
from other cultures. It has also made me change my perspective about a lot of
things. I now think of the world as a very small place, with lots of possibilities.
I have also started to consider a teaching career outside of Northern Ireland,
as I had never realised there are so many opportunities for qualified teachers,
especially when their native tongue is English!
References:
The world wanderer (2011) available at http://theworldwanderer.net/2011/08/25/the-brutality-of-travel/ accessed on 31/06/13
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