Narrative report ” In a golden cage”

The passion to travel reigns in some young people. The world is undiscovered and demands to
be discovered, and the young are eagerly advancing to do so. Young people are the ones who
have the most questions and are constantly looking for answers, to look for the right people to
give them the clearest and truest answers possible.
I chose a way to know the world around me. To look for interesting people to make friends
with, to look for new countries to travel to, to look for new experiences and to live everything
to the fullest. I like to interact with new people from whom I can learn useful lessons for life,
from whom I can take positive energy that makes my day brighter.

Let me introduce my self: I am Elena Ciobanu I have 21 years and I am an Erasmus student in
Belgium . I came from Republic of Moldova, a country that not makes part of the European
Union. I am a student in my country at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences
at the State University of Moldova. I am in my last year of college and so it is the most
important year because I have to defend my bachelor's thesis. For 4 and a half months I was a
student at IHECS in Brussels of the second semester of the 2nd year of college I am so PROUD
about it.
I have long wanted to apply to this project, but I did not find enough courage to do so. For the
first time I heard about Erasmus from my older brother who keeps telling me to apply for this
project. And this year I finally decided to do it. First of all he was the person who convinced me
to apply to Erasmus and then my university which offered me this opportunity to travel and at
the same time learn something new. The teacher who guided me in completing all the
documents was Mrs. Victoria Bulicanu, PhD Interim University Professor and Director of the
Department of Radio and TV, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, State
University of Moldova. This teacher helped me to clarify what documents I have to prepare,
what I have to write, how to write and where to write.
I am very glad that my university offered me such a possibility and the previous students who
were in Brussels informed me how things are going in Brussels. Since I applied to the project
and also prepared documents, I dreamed of getting to IHECS faster. I love everything new and
IHECS was for me like the discovery of America. Every day before I left for Belgium I searched
the net about IHECS and Belgium, the most attractive places in the country's capital, I
befriended many students on Facebook who were to come like me in this project. I was proud
to arrive in Brussels and I boasted in a way to everyone that I will finally participate in this
project. Participating in this project encourages me to learn some new words in English, but
also to learn some words in the official language of the country, in French. French is very similar
to my Romanian language, because both are part of the Romance languages group.
But among all these positive aspects, of course, there were difficult situations in which I became
discouraged and gave in to despair. It was very difficult to prepare the documents for the visa.
Nobody from my university helped me to complete the necessary documents for the visa.
Because I don't have a Romanian passport, I have to get a long-stay visa, a type D visa. During
the period when I started to prepare the necessary documents, I spent a lot of time, I'm not
even talking about money. There were nervous breakdowns, tears, upsets, and the only person
who helped me was my brother. Only he helped, supported, encouraged and informed me.
During that time I also did documents for Anastasia Florea because she was busy with other
projects, but she didn't even know how to do these documents. Many times when I was filling
out some sheets, I would go back to do it one more time, reformulate them and just write to be
fine. It was hard because you had to do these papers after college, and sometimes the people
you need don't work at noon or are busy during the hours when you're available. Of course, I
was missing classes just to do the necessary paperwork. Then I had to go to the neighboring
country in Romania to get my visa because the Republic of Moldova does not have the Belgian
Embassy in the country and so I spent time and personal money and I missed classes.
Of course it was hard to find an apartment to live in Brussels. It is difficult to look for an
apartment without knowing the country, the regions, the places where it is better to rent an
apartment. In this sense, I did not have a guide, I did not know the rules for renting an
apartment. The owners rent apartments for at least half a year, the prices are high for the
apartments and of course the grand of the university is not enough and you are still looking for
sources of money to survive. The agencies that offer you apartments do not offer you the
possibility to see the apartment, only through pictures and sometimes the expectations shock
you when you actually see the apartment And when you book the apartment, the agency
automatically pays for their services and you receive the contacts from the owner. But there
are situations in which the owner refuses you, as was the case with me, because she does not
want to rent to students, because it is a small scholarship granted by the university and
students will not be able to maintain the apartment. And then you no longer receive the money
taken by the agency, at least you did not refuse the apartment.
When I arrived in Brussels it was hard to communicate because some people don't know
English and then you look for other sources to handle. Anastasia and I decided to rent the
apartment together and when we got to live in it I understood that we would live for a week
with the owner, but this was not specified in the announcement when we rented the
apartment. Of course, everything was new to me and it took time to get used to public
transport, shops, people and all the entourage around me.
Then when I moved to the second host there were some problems with the apartment,
because the contract was in French and I could not understand what was written in it, and the
owner did not give much details about what is written in the contract, so I wanted to refuse this
apartment but we lost a large amount of money and eventually we complied and lived until the
end of May in an apartment not very pleasant for us. in Brussels the weather is unpredictable. I
hate when it rains and it's cold. Sometimes in the morning when I woke up and saw that it was
raining on the window all my mood disappeared and I knew that on rainy days I am not active
to do something or go somewhere. It was tormenting to see it rain for a week or more. I am
waiting for the sun and the heat to come as soon as possible.After a while I got used to the
world around me and I started to feel at home even better than at home.
Then came the pandemic. Everything got dark and I ended up in a prison apartment. At first I
didn't leave the house for 2 weeks for fear of getting infected. I had a hard time adjusting to the
online courses, because it was my first time. I was bored staying in the house all day. Then I got
up the courage and went to the store and went through a nearby park and quickly home. I was
suffocating wearing a mask and it was heaven when I got home and took it off. We had already
established a golden rule in the apartment: when we came from outside we washed our hands
first and then did the rest. The pandemic ruined all my plans: I wanted to visit the city of love,
to visit Germany and the neighboring countries of Belgium. To discover Brussels and its
interesting places, to go to the sea, everything turned to ashes.
In time I wrote in my personal notebook all the objectives I have to achieve while in Brussels
and only a few of them were fulfilled: I saw Menneken Pis, Grand Palace, the Atomium, the
Cinquantenaire park, Squere de petit sablon , Ponds in Ixelles , the Mont des Arts gardens, the
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Koekelberg and others that I don't remember now, I ate the

chocolate mule and added a few pounds to myself, I ate

French fries and tasted some beers. I can't brag about many,
because this pandemic destroyed my dreams.
I thank my university from the bottom of my heart for giving
me the opportunity to discover a new country and learn new
things. The university through this project helps students to
develop and know a better world, a more developed education system, a fairer culture. But I'm
sorry that we are the last promotion to leave for Brussels, but I hope that the agreement will be
extended and that the students will come here again, because it is worth it.
In my opinion, I would say that it would be good for the university to prepare dormitories for
students coming through the Erasmus program. Thus they will be close to each other, they will
communicate even more, they will discover each other and they will learn new things. That's all
I would say to be, otherwise everything was fine at IHECS. I don't regret anything and I'm not
sorry for anything that happened at IHECS because I liked everything: the students, the
teachers, the classrooms, the university and Brussels.