Our Nastias talk about everyday student life in the beautiful city of Görlitz: Hello everyone! We are 2 Erasmus students, Nastya and Nastya.[caption id="attachment_499" align="alignnone" width="948"] ERASMUS adventure from Lithuania to the German-Polish border[/caption]Normally we study tourism at EHU in Vilnius, Lithuania, but this year we took part in an exchange program and now we are in Germany. Among all possible cities we have chosen Görlitz. Görlitz is a small city (only 50,000 inhabitants) bordering the Polish city of Zgorzelec. It has its own advantages (we'll tell you about them later): pensioners live here the most, which means that the way of life here is not so active. It is difficult to meet someone on the street in the evening or at the weekend. Everything is very quiet. Nevertheless, Görlitz is a beautiful and very old city with many beautiful buildings. The people are also very warm and friendly, everyone says "Hello!" whether it's your acquaintance or not.[caption id="attachment_495" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Nastya and Nastya, our two ERASMUS students from Lithuania[/caption] And what impressed us is how active and positive the pensioners here are! They do sports, jog, go to cafés, simply go for walks and travel a lot. The Germans say that at 50+ you are in your "best age"and then we come to our studies here. We study at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. That's different to university. In English it's called the University of Applied Science. The basic difference between university and college is that university has a lot to do with practice. Students here gain in-depth knowledge in various fields (tourism management, chemistry, biology, computer science, economics and languages, among others). There are two campuses - in Zittau (40 km from Görlitz) and in Görlitz - and the course is very different from the course in Vilnius. While in Vilnius you have to be prepared for classes and lectures almost every day and have lots of tasks and deadlines, here there is a strong tendency towards self-study. This means that there is no compulsory attendance and there are not so many assignments that you have to do during the semester. You can study what you want. But then, at the end of the semester, there are of course the exams where you show what you've learned. There is a lot of free time here, so students take the opportunity to earn money and gain experience. What else is interesting and different - students only study at the university for 3 semesters and in the 4th semester they do an internship. It can be either in Germany or abroad.[caption id="attachment_497" align="alignnone" width="2043"] Quiet, but beautiful! This is Görlitz[/caption] What interesting things can we tell you about our everyday life? Firstly, we'd like to tell you a bit about the effort involved. Saxony (the state where Görlitz is located) is considered to be the cheapest part of Germany. The prices here are really low. By the way, people who live in Görlitz have the opportunity to go to Poland to do their shopping. The products cost even less there. We live in a hall of residence right next to the bridge to Zgorzelec. The Polish store "Biedronka" is closer to us than the German stores. You could say that we live half in Germany and half in Poland. We are very happy with that. On average, we pay 15-20 euros for two people per week for food. There is also a canteen on campus. On average, lunch costs around 2-4 euros. The portions there are so big that you can buy one for two to get full. To be honest, the canteen is our favorite place on campus. The food is always varied and super tasty. As for the other expenses, you can say that they are quite high. For example, we have to pay 76 euros for health insurance. Secondly, the rent for the hall of residence costs 213 euros. Compared to Lithuania, especially Belarus, these expenses are really high. In total, we spend about 520-550 euros per month (including entertainment and small trips).[caption id="attachment_496" align="alignnone" width="538"] The two Nastyas with their fellow students on the bridge to Poland[/caption]When the studies started, we understood that all the fun is at the university. They organize a variety of activities: the event for first-year students, medium and others. Otherwise, there is a student club right in the dormitory. Yes, it was also a surprise for us. Various parties and events are always celebrated there (mostly from Monday to Thursday, because many students go home to their families on weekends). Besides the student club, there are other clubs in Görlitz, but they are not so popular with the students. As far as sports are concerned, the university offers many sports opportunities for students: from tap, aerobics, yoga, soccer, volleyball, badminton... to swimming pool, salsa, climbing and cycling. You have to pay 10 or 15 euros per semester for a course. That's super cheap! Like all Erasmus students, we travel a lot. We have already visited many cities in the space of three months: Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Zittau, Stralsund, Hiddensee Islands, Wroclaw, Bratislava, Warszawa, Prague, Innsbruck and Vienna. This is how we spend our free time.[caption id="attachment_498" align="alignnone" width="1184"] Traveling and seeing new things, that's the appeal of ERASMUS[/caption]We are very grateful that we have the great opportunity to do our Erasmus in Germany. After four months of study, we can already summarize a few things. Firstly, it is safe to say that we have improved our German. Secondly, we have understood how studying in Germany works and we have gained a good knowledge of tourism management. Thirdly, we learned a lot of interesting facts about the German culture.without a doubt - Erasmus is an invaluable experience! best regards from GörlitzNastya and NastyaSponsored by: