Field report - Erasmus at the University of Bucharest

Preparation

During the first semester of the Sociology - European Societies degree programme, I realised that Eastern Europe had previously been a part of Europe with which I had little connection and that I really wanted to change this. During the application process, it turned out that only the partnerships with the Polish and Romanian universities still existed. So my choice was clear and I decided in favour of Romania as my first choice.

Accommodation in the host country

The most important part of my preparation was probably finding accommodation. As it soon turned out, this was mainly done via Facebook. There are various groups here that you can join and either hope to be contacted yourself through a post, team up with other Erasmus students to search together and/or respond directly to postings from agencies, for example. So I reactivated my Facebook account and tried not to let my uneasy feeling about looking for accommodation take up too much space. Making contact with other Erasmus students in the same situation was very helpful. In this way, I made a few contacts as soon as I arrived in Bucharest. In the end, I was lucky and was contacted by a flat share who had seen my post in one of the groups. After a video call, I made sure that the offer was trustworthy and accepted.

Alternatively, there was also the option of getting back in touch for a place in a hall of residence. The price is definitely unbeatable, but I couldn't really imagine sharing a room and I also wished for a more central location. Compared to my Erasmus friends who opted for the student residence, I didn't have access to a large network of other international students right from the start, but the ESN events on offer were also good opportunities to get to know the other Erasmus students.

Ultimately, the question of accommodation is, as always, a question of type, but also a financial one. We were all surprised by the high rents in Bucharest, which have probably risen in recent years. I still paid less than for my room in Berlin, but my flatmate paid more than for her room in Göttingen. The flats that you can rent through agencies are not particularly cheap. At the same time, the idea of renting through an agency seemed the safest to me. In the end, I was lucky and found a room through private individuals, but like almost everywhere else, you need a bit of luck when looking for accommodation, because the Bucharest housing market is also tight and, of course, a lot of people are looking for accommodation at the start of the semester.

 

Studying at the host university

When I received the provisional course list, I was a little disappointed at first. The selection of Master's courses in particular was smaller than I had hoped and the courses I was particularly interested in were not offered in the winter semester but only in the summer semester. However, I eventually found a selection that I was happy with and I was also told that I could choose courses from other faculties, which increased the choice even further. I also didn't have to worry about credit transfer later on. Until shortly before the start of the semester, it was unclear whether the courses would be held in English or Romanian. In the end, however, there were no problems and communication with the lecturers went smoothly.

Communication with the International Office in Bucharest was sometimes a bit tedious and the organisation was sometimes frustrating. However, with a little patience and initiative, this can also be resolved. I didn't receive any information directly from the university about university sports or buddy programmes and the like. This was made up for quite well by the ESN programme, where it was also possible to get a buddy. Whether it's hikes, parties, museum visits or creative events, there's something for everyone in the ESN programme. For everything else, you need to be proactive.

The faculties can be found at various locations in Bucharest. The two sociology faculties and the political faculty are quite easy to reach by bus/metro. I usually walked for half an hour to 40 minutes, as the bus connection to my flat was not ideal and the traffic in Bucharest is really nerve-wracking. Living close to a metro station is definitely recommendable, as it can avoid traffic jams. Cycling is only for the brave. However, I was quite comfortable with walking. A big plus point is that public transport is really super cheap and you can easily afford an Uber/Bolt.

Competence

Unfortunately, my semester began with frustration, as very basic statistics were repeated in the first sessions of the course and it was not foreseeable when new content would be covered. I contacted the lecturer and received a well-meaning but unfortunately not very helpful answer. So again, I needed some frustration tolerance and perseverance and now that the course is over, I can look back on an enriching semester with a bumpy start.

It is precisely these kinds of challenges that make up a stay abroad and are sometimes even more important for learning success than the content that can be learnt in the courses. Especially after the initial disappointment, I realised that I could not rely solely on the input provided by the university. Especially because the content of the (Master's) courses on offer was not specifically geared towards learning about Romania. And that's why I had originally decided to go to Romania - after all, I can also learn statistics at the FU.

Romania is an exciting place, especially for sociologists. I learnt a lot about Romania's communist past and its effects to this day, about the Romanian Holocaust and the Romanian culture of remembrance. I tried to learn more about the situation and discrimination of the Roma and realised that this is sometimes not so easy. And last but not least, I learnt something about the EU, about how Romanians see themselves and Western European dominance.

Everyday life and leisure

Bucharest definitely has a lot to offer culturally. There are some interesting museums, a few beautiful parks, lots of live music and great events, including those organised by alternative scenes. Cinema films are often shown in the original language with Romanian subtitles or, in the case of Romanian films, with English subtitles, and some theatre plays are also performed in English or have subtitles. This makes it easy to participate in the cultural life of Bucharest and Romania without being fluent in Romanian.

For those who still want to learn Romanian, the university offers a free language course. This took place online once a week and lasted 4 hours. It wasn't a good format for me, so I decided to use the time differently. Nevertheless, I benefited from the first few sessions and can only recommend it. Most of the young people speak very good English, and most of the time you can get by without knowing much Romanian. If the other person doesn't speak English, you can either use google translator or communicate with your hands and feet. It definitely works. Sometimes, however, I would have liked to be able to speak at least a few more sentences.

For leisure activities, I recommend taking advantage of the 90% student discount on train tickets. The trains are slow, but I had a good experience overall and can highly recommend the sleeper trains. Romania has some great places to offer that are definitely worth exploring. My highlights were Timisoara, Sibiu and of course Transfaragasan, where we not only had great views of the beautiful autumn landscape along the serpentine road, but also encountered bears. From Bucharest, you can also get to Moldova, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and Turkey very easily and, above all, cheaply - without having to fly.

Additional costs/financing

Apart from the unbeatable prices for buses and trains, we were all surprised by the high cost of living in Bucharest. Especially in the city centre, restaurants and cafés can be a little more expensive than in Germany. However, here and there you can also find very cheap offers and there are many second-hand shops. Unfortunately, you can't save very much on food. There's always a Mega Image nearby, but it's a bit more expensive than Lidl, which is also there. Overall, the cost of living is still cheaper than in Germany, but many of us underestimated the budget we would need.