Ayse Kilic, United Kingdom

Experience of Erasmus

Hello friends,

I want to share my Erasmus+ Internship experience I was in Birmingham, England (United Kingdom) in the summer of 2017. Above all, I want to start from how and where I found a company and how was the application process.         I feel myself lucky because I found the company via my friend and her relative. However, I can suggest also to search erasmusintern.org and heysuccess.com websites or you can ask for help from your networks. When you find a company, our Erasmus Coordinator from university will help you about the process. You have to start application process really early if you want to apply Erasmus Program for UK or if you need UK visa. My internship position was personal assistant of executive manager and responsible for branding.

My company accommodated me with a room near a Pakistani-British family. This was my first time staying with a foreign family, nevertheless I must admit that it was great time and I like all the members of the family. I decided to join them for dinner in order to experience a different cultural life style. They had two daughters and a son. All of them treated me very well, like a member of their own family. I was so impressed their father’s memories with Royal Family. He met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles – they gave him an award. When David Cameron was a candidate in the election, he was stayed a few days in their house. Before I went to England, I was watched lots of movies and TV series related to Royalty. I became really interested in British culture and started to admire the Queen.

I was receiving 600 euros monthly as a grant from Erasmus program. I was paying 300 euros just for a room, 100 euros for dinners and approximately 80 euros for public transportation. However, London is more expensive than West Midlands, Birmingham. When I had an opportunity for travelling, I did it. I was in Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, London, Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh.

My favorite place was Oxford, because it was older than other cities which makes it a unique historical place with its distinctive university. The house I stayed was a three hundred years old hometown. All libraries and museums were free. I was really impressed by the Oxford’s history. It is a place where the science is at the highest level. It provides you an atmosphere that you can focus on your work. Everyone has almost the same life standards in Oxford. The people you can see in the streets are usually professors and students.

This program gave me a lot. I was really timid in the beginning, especially for English speaking, but everybody had respect and understanding to me. That helped me to overcame it easily.

Everybody can speak English and that’s an amazing opportunity for you to improve your skills. In the end, I can suggest you to travel more and have fun, gain different experiences, try and learn new and traditional things related to the region.