So…. It is always hard to start. Writing something or going somewhere new where you know nobody. I must say even though it was hard to leave friends and family, I was quite excited for the new experience. Going to Erasmus+ exchange in Opava, Czech Republic.
From the start, even before I came there, their coordinator and the buddy I was assigned were both super nice and tried to help with anything they could. This continued also when I came there and trough the whole semester. The buddy helped me get all my stuff to my room, showed me around the town, helped with internet and student cafeteria. Anything I needed he tried his best to make my stay there a bit easier.
I really liked the town and the feeling of it when you are there. But as it is a small town and a bit smaller university, not a lot of international students sign up to go there. I was the only one on my field of studies and two other international students that I met were also each on their own field. Leaving us surrounded by mostly Czech people. When you are the only international student, life can sometimes feel a bit lonely even though everybody was super nice at my university. A lot of my classes were also in Czech due to me being the only non Czech speaker and sometimes we would start in English but later switch back to Czech. But all professors would answer any questions I had, one even sent me English literature that might interest me.
A very nice thing about Opava is also that it is very well connected to Ostrava which is 3rd biggest city in Czech Republic. Ostrava has a lot happening, is a very nice city and is well connected to other countries. Also with Poland right there and Austria few hours away there is connections with different airports so traveling is quite easy.
I think the general experience was nice but could be better if more people decided to go there for an Erasmus exchange. With more people, more classes would be taught in English and there would be more students that could interact with each other.
