KORINA HRABRIĆ Erasmus in Poland

When I decided to go on Erasmus to study in Krakow, I already had many people tell me it's an amazing opportunity and that I will have the time of my life. They weren't wrong, but you can't really imagine it before you go there yourself. It was only after I came here that I found out my university was founded in the year 1364, making it one of the oldest universities in the world. The buildings looked beautiful, the professors were all very approachable and the courses all looked interesting, so choosing between them wasn't an easy job.

The first thing that really striked me after arriving was the beauty of the city. I remember going to see a movie, and after passing the beautiful main square, the sky started being red and yellow giving the entire city a pink hue and I was standing there almost paralysed looking at it in awe. After that I walked into the cinema, and it was not what I expected. I expected a big commercial cinema (I figured that would be the only place where I could find english subtitles), but instead it was a small one, where instead of popcorn you could get a cake, and while waiting for a personal call to be seated in the room with only 20 seats, you could relax in some bean bags on the floor.

It was like nothing I had ever seen before and it made me realise how happy I am to be here and glad that out of the entire Europe I chose this amazing city. Another thing I found striking about Krakow was how everything is underground. In every other place I entered, I was thinking how nice it looked, only to discover there is another floor underneath it, or entrances to other rooms which to me felt like labyrinths.

Besides realising how much there is to see, this experience also made me realise how small the world can seem sometimes. I was in an international gathering of pharmacy students (don't ask me how I found myself there), when I was told there is a girl from Croatia there. I approached her and heard her talking to a Polish girl about Baška. I asked her how does she know about it, since it's my home town, to which she replied that she has a house there and goes there every summer. As if that wasn't odd enough, we found out her house is just next to mine, so that's how I met my neighbour on the other side of Europe.

I could go on about funny situations like there, the city, the university and my emotions upon arrival, but the friends I made here are really the ones worth talking about. After everyone's initial shock after finding out that I'm only 19, they all forgot about it and we got along perfectly. I was amazed how every person I met, even though we came from different places from all around the world, had a mindset so similar to mine, so I guess it's just an Erasmus one.

One of my favourite memories was when my group of friends decided to go on a weekend trip to Zakopane to see some snow. We realised we are 3 guys and 7 girls in a house away from the city in the times of a disease and we felt like we were in Boccaccio's book. So we decided to play Decameron, giving topics and telling each other stories from are lives. It's weird to think how our lives were so different until this point, and now we live the same one for a few months, only to soon go back, hoping to meet again at some point in our, once again, very different lives.

I had so much fun with the activities during the orientation week, very soon meeting the most amazing people I am lucky enough to call friends, and experiencing the best city in the world, that after the first two weeks I remember thinking if I had to go home already, I would be satisfied with my time here. Not so long after, with the chaos caused by the #coronavirus, and all our classes being canceled until further notice, it starts to seem like a real possibility, but I wouldn't mind staying in a quarantine for the next 3 months with these amazing people, listening to their Decameron stories. So I still hope my Erasmus will go on for as long as possible, since I already know neither one of us wants to be the first to say goodbye.