Despite having an Erasmus experience under my belt, and also taking part in an IVS workcamp, my first Erasmus+ experience was a whole new education in international opportunities. After stumbling across the first EuroPeers UK training course back in the summer of 2017, just a matter of weeks later I found myself on a flight to Hungary, a country I’d never imagined visiting, to meet up with a group of total strangers and board a bus to a village in an area that I’d never heard about. To say I was a little apprehensive was an understatement, but by the end of that week, I was in floods of tears having to say goodbye to my new-found, 5-nation family.
At some points, it was confusing, awkward, hilarious and by the end of the week diverging into delirious. Some of my highlights included about 100 games of table tennis, lots of Hungarian beer, an evening screening of Game of Thrones, star-gazing, and a rain-dance and karaoke session when it finally rained on the last night. But somewhere under the intense Hungarian summer sun, (or maybe all that water from late-night swimming in the Danube river), I was hooked on the idea of non-formal learning experiences, exchanging my culture with all these people from different countries, and getting a lot of this funded by the EU. It allowed me to make friends with people across the continent, boosted my self-confidence, and opened my eyes to a whole host of new opportunities.
