A junior student at Khazar University (majoring in Computer Engineering) shares her experience of participating in the Erasmus+ Student Exchange Program 

Ciao!

I am Almaz Jafarova, an exchange student at Sapienza University of Rome. It is a great pleasure to share my exchange experience with you!

My exchange period is the 2021-2022 winter semester (from September 2021 to February 2022). I have a chance to study at one of the best ranking universities in the world. Sapienza University is the largest university in Europe. The education system is not the same as Khazar University, but it is easy to adapt. As for an international student, studying over here in Italy, it was an unforgettable experience to say the least. At Sapienza, there are lots of students from all over the world. So, we were able to talk to each other, discuss several topics and help each other.

We are lucky that Sapienza offers international students plenty of chances to meet new people and have a true cross-cultural exchange. Especially, the first two weeks of the semester was ‘Welcome week’, and every day we had different kinds of activities, namely city tours, picnics. I met a lot of people of different nationalities. I had a great chance to learn about their homeland and culture, and I was also doing my best to create a good impression of my own great country, Azerbaijan.

Rome is a historic city. We all know about the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum etc., but there are more. The streets of Rome are beautiful, and even at random places, you can see history. Everywhere everything is historically precious. Free city tours that Sapienza organised for us helped us to learn more about the city.

Italian people are mostly cheerful, and friendly. My biggest difficulty was communication because local people usually don’t know English. But even in those cases, they try to find a way to help you. Students who want to have an exchange in Rome should not worry about scholarship and living costs. The scholarship is enough for enjoying the city and even traveling. But they should consider that, we don’t get our scholarship every month. We got 50% of the total scholarship when our bank accounts were ready, 30% was installed on the third month, and 20% will be installed one week before our departure.

In a short period, I have got plenty of memories and experiences. I had an opportunity to leave my comfort zone and have a great journey. I highly recommend all students to have this experience.