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I made an exchange report after my exchange year in Spain and also after Turkey I Wrote one. Also this time I translated it from Finnish to English for you . By clicking "read more" below you can read the whole report.
Leaving and orientation
I decided to do my second exchange year
on fifth year of my studies. The only thing what was missing from
graduation was master thesis. I wanted to go for another exchange year because I find going abroad easier during studies than in the working
life and hopefully experience in foreign country gives me a
competetive advantage in the job market. I went to exchange through
program called Campus Europae and chose Turkey because it was the
most different and exotic country compared to my home country and my
previous destination Spain. Also some Turkish people had recommended
me Turkey.
I arranged my exchange by myself by
sending email to the Erasmus cordinator of Gazi university. She
replied me fast and adviced me to fill in the necessary docments for
exchange year and welcomed me as an exchange student to their university.
Before going to exchange I terminated the contract of my student flat
in Joensuu because I was not planning to return to Joensuu after
finishing the exchange year. I did not look information what courses
Gazi university was offering before going because I knew
from my previous experience that it would be easier to make the
studying plan when I arrive to Ankara. Also I had freedom to take any
courses because I had already completed all my obligatory courses and
I could be writing my master thesis.
I arrived to Ankara a bit late because
I had to complete my Erasmus internship in Spain first. Other
exchange students told me that they had an orientation day but coming
late was not a big problem. There was less than 30 exchange students
in the university of Gazi but in other universities of Ankara there
were more exchange students. Generally exchange students were treated
better in other universities than in Gazi university but we got also
some help from our university. I guess the biggest difference was
that Gazi university did not have ESN which organizes activities to
the exchange students. Before arriving I managed to find a tutor from
a facebook group to which Campus Europae student representative had
invited me. My tutor helped me especially in the first day and we
also hanged out later.
Living
Before arriving to Ankara university
had informed me about the possibility to stay in student dormitory. I
was not attracted about that option because in Turkey there are
staying 2 – 10 students in the same room, you cannot bring guests
and there are more strict rules what you have to follow. I did not even book
hotel before arriving to Ankara. In tbe first day with the help of my
tutor I managed to find a flat which I shared with two Spanish guys
and one Turkish guy.
Studying
Especially the first semester I
actively participated to the Turkish language lessons. 30 hours of
Turkish lessons were offered every week so after few months I learned
to speak some Turkish which I kept improving little by little during my whole stay. My courses at my faculty were supposed to be in English
but two out of four were given in Turkish though books were in
English. The excuse why professor gave the lessons in English was
that students did not have good enough English to follow her lessons
in English. In reality her English was weak when she tried to give
lessong in English. Other professor's English was good but two
professors focused mainly reading material in English instead of
explaining in their own words. In Gazi university there were not many
courses available in English.
Freetime
During the whole year I had things to
do. I considered starting to play ice hockey in a team but finally it
was not possible because training times were bad and getting equipment was not possible. In Turkish many Finnish players could actually make
living as level of Turkish ice hockey league is not that high. Naturally I also travelled in Turkey and saw different parts of Turkey. I found many
friends in Turkey. Turkish were very interested in getting to know
foreign people . Turkey is definetely a different country than
Finland but the gap between western countries and Turkey was not as
big as I expected. During my stay I did not suffer a big culture
shock.
As I had learned Spanish during my
first year I integrated to the group of Spanish exchange students. I
think that during my exchacge the most I was speaking spanish. I also
spent time with Turkish who were not able to communicate in English
so I had to get along with them only speaking in Turkish. I was able
to communicate well with one person but following converation of a
group in Turkish was difficult. Before going to Turkey I knew to
expect that getting into a Spanish group would slow me down in
learning Turkish but I still got sucked in a Spanish group.
Final words
I am happy that I decided to go for an
exchange year to Turkey. I got to know many new people, learned new
language and learned new culture. Getting help and feedback for
making my master thesis was more difficult than I expected. Getting
replies from the instructor with delay and his little interest did
not help me much for completing my master thesis.
But I can say that you learned much more things than the other Erasmus guys and learned Turkish well for short time, That was great time with you I had lots of fun
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