to continue the previous post.....

Does it mean that my erasmus processes are all done by now? No.. Big NO! After I got my visa I have to go to erasmus office in my university and bring along with me the copy of these documents:
  • Passport
  • Visa page
  • Insurance

By showing them to the erasmus coordinator, he or she will give a checklist next to your name which means that you have done a great job in dealing with all the erasmus challenges, if I may say so. Moving on to the next step, you will be asked to sign a bunch of agreement letters, these letters are what erasmus students often call 'agreement with national agency or ulusal ajans, in Turkish version'.

That also is a huge sign that says you can breath in peace now, in case you have a hard time taking breath while taking care of them.

A little bit of information, national agency is an organization that is responsible for the funding that you are about to get. I think, this agent is also a representative of European Union who is deliberately appointed to take care of erasmus program or education in general, in all of the countries that they (meaning EU) have agreement with.

What's next?
Buy a plane ticket, or whatever means of transportation that you choose to travel with. And, have a safe flight!

Hope you enjoy your program. 


P.S:
NO! You are not done yet… I don't want to give you a panic attack. For now, I am just gonna shut my big mouth up. But really, up to now you may say that you have completed your task. But NO! When you get to your destination, you will have to deal with some bureaucratic stuff. And if you could deal it well until this step, then I believe the rest will be so much easier for you. Or at least you grew accustomed to dealing with bureaucracy; which is something good, because that thing is something that you will be facing for your entire life. 

When you have met the term 'bureaucracy', it means that you truly are living. Otherwise, you are just dreaming.


    What you will have to do once you decide to apply for a visa is to visit the targeted country's embassy's website in your region. Luckily for me, Romania has its consulate in Izmir. That too, I knew after doing some research online. From that website you will know a lot of thing, including the documents that are required for applying the type of visa you are classified in. For study, which is classified as "long stay" visa; thus, you will have to apply for the "D" type visa.

    Here are the documents needed for Romanian study visa "D type" :
    1. Download and fill in the application form
    2. Photograph 3x4
    3. Passport (original)
    4. Letter of Acceptance (Invitation Letter)
    5. Statement Letter
    Confirming that you are on exchange program. In that letter, it also states about your expanses during your stay in that country that it will be covered with certain amount of money.
    1. Financial support
    *it could be written in separate paper. But it might also be written in the statement letter no. 5
    1. Traveling Insurance
    It must cover up to 30.000 euro
    1. Letter of Accommodation
    Confirming about a place where you will stay for the whole program
    1. Criminal Record
    If you happen to be living abroad, you may have to do a little work. In Turkey, you have to go to "Adalet Sarayi" or court house to get that letter. In Romanian case, you may also have to apostille it. I don't know what apostille was until that day. So, it is a kind of sign language, that's what it looks to me. Actually, not sign language but translation of every words or words that are significant in that letter to languages that are required, such as Romanian, English, and Deutch.

    In case you are living abroad:
    1. The copy of your resident permit
    2. Student Certificate (Ogrenci Belegesi)
    3. The copy of your ID card (national ID card)

    Okay, those are the documents you have to prepare for Romanian visa. But it's not quite finish yet, you have to apply online at http://evisa.mae.ro/ro_home. But first of all, you may want to do the scanning of all the documents above, because you will be asked to upload them on that website.

    So, the processes are pretty much like; your documents are going to be checked by them. If it is okay, then they will arrange an appointment for you. You will learn the appointment date from this website too.

    I submitted my documents on 6th August, and we will see when it’s going to be ready.
    And uh, for Erasmus student, the visa is free. But normally for D visa it costs 120 euro.
    *****

    10.08.2015
    Yeeee…. I just got a call telling that my visa is ready to be collected. So, I went to the consulate office and took my passport plus the visa that has been attached in it. Finally my passport's pages can have a little decoration by sticking one of other sticker (aka the visa :D). Hopefully I can get one more sticker when I got in Romania, as I am planning to apply for schengen. Too bad, Romania is not part of them.

    And I feel like I should tell you one more thing. I did not actually apply them online. Not because I didn't want it too. I was so ignorant about this and that back then. I decided to go to the consulate office and showed them my documents. Turned out that my documents were all good and they directly accepted it, even though I didn't make an appointment online. I can say my visa process went very smooth - comparing to my other friends who had to pay for some huge amount of money. They had to send the documents to their targeted country, which is sent by cargo and it costs something. I didn't have to do anything. I just have to do it here and now. And I did it and I got it. :p


Menyadari bahwa jalan menuju Roma telah kujalani dengan sebaik mungkin
aku pun mulai menghirup wangi segar keberhasilan. Karenanya aku pun
Membuat keputusan yang kontroversial, bahkan bagi nalar ku sendiri. Aku memutuskan untuk menjadi homeless. Homeless yang sesungguhnya!

Selama ini aku tinggal di asrama pemerintah dan berbayar, dikarenakan
statusku sebagai mahasiswa asing tanpa beasiswa. Seandainya aku menerima
beasiswa pemerintah, akan dipastikan aku bisa tinggal disana gratis.

Namun itu adalah suatu keadaan yang berbeda. Sekarang, kalau aku memutuskan
untuk tidak mengahapus namaku dari daftar penghuni asrama, aku wajib membayar.
Bahkan ketika kaki ku tak pernah menginjak ubin asrama itu. Bayaran asramanya sebesar 227TL, sekitar Rp, 1.150.000. jumalah yang lebih dari lumayan bagi mahasiswa penerima non-beasiswa.

Semua uang yang kudapat berasal dari Indonesia. Kurs Indonesia - Turkish Lira sangat membuat segalanya bertambah sulit. Apalagi fakta bahwa uang kiriman yang ku dapat dari orangtua tidak lah sebesar yang dibayangkan. Kalau tetap memberiarkan namaku ada dalam list penghuni asrama, bisa-bisa rencana ku untuk mengelilingi benua hijau karam bagai kapal Titanic.

Opsi yang akhirnya ku pilih adalah menjadi homeless secara official, memohon-mohon kepada setiap orang yang aku kenal untuk sudi menampungku untuk beberapa bulan. Karena program yang akan kuikuti itu mulai bulan september.

Syukurlah ada yang bersedia menampungku. Permasalahan lain timbul. Dia juga akan mengikuti program yang sama. Dan tanggal keberangkatannya sebulan setengah lebih awal dari punyaku. Buntu tanpa pilihan, akupun memutuskan untuk mengambil kesempatan yang ada dan memutuskan untuk memikirkan hal yang terjadi, nanti saja ketika hal itu terjadi.

Itu dua bulan yang lalu, sekali hal itu telah terjadi. Apa yang harus aku lakukan? Tanggal keberangkatanku masih 35 hari lagi. Kemana aku akan tinggal? Berharap ada keajaiban yang muncul. Semoga tendency ku untuk panik bisa hilang. Atau setidaknya lebih terbiasa, dengan seringnya hal-hal yang membuat panik terjadi, seperti disuruh keluar secara tiba-tiba.

35 hari menuju pelabuhan. Akankah kapal ini bisa tetap berlaju? Semoga tidak karam diperjalanan.
www.haberinyeri.net


ERASMUS, I think It doesn't need an introduction. Everybody does know 
what it is, right? Well, okay. I tell you what, it is an exchange program 
organized by European Union. Since Turkish education has an agreement 
with European Union, universities in Turkey have their own quotas and 
the status is like bilateral program. If your university has relation with 
one of universities in Europe then you can dream to go there, for max 
2 semesters. Normally there are more than three universities on the 
list for each department. Just check them all in your university website.

It doesn't stop there, you have to know one more thing, Erasmus+ also 
gives you a great offer that you can do your internship in European 
countries. Better yet, even if you have done Erasmus for learning, 
you can still go the next year for internship. Yes, you can do that. 
And, they give you some fund. Not big, but what the hack. Why don't 
we try to be grateful on what we get. 





All of the processes of ERASMUS

  1. Take the exam "English Proficiency exam"
Your exam result contributes 50% of the total score. The other 50% 
comes from your GPA. So, the formula will be like [50% of Proficiency 
Exam Result + 50% of GPA = ()] That number you get will determine 
your luck either you will get the chance to experience Erasmus or not. 
Either you will get a country that has been haunting you all this time or not.

  1. Accepted/ Not Accepted
It takes months to find out the result. In the meantime, you are just 
allowed to know your EPE score. But again, it doesn't give a hint at 
all of either you are accepted or not. The only thing you would do, 
is to fantasize about it. (dream on…. Dream on…)

About the English Proficiency Exam in Celal Bayar University,
It's not exactly an English exam. It's like, of all the questions, 
ten to twelve of them contain "translation question." In the 
question part will be the Turkish version of the sentence, and 
you are expected to find the correct translation in the answer 
choices that have been written there. Or the other way around.

For foreign students, get ready with your Turkish! Otherwise, 
you EFE might turn out bad too.

  1. When your name is finally written on the list, you will be
    asked to attend a meeting which they call as "Erasmus
    Orientation"
During this meeting, (in Celal Bayar it went two days) you 
will be given information about Erasmus and "what to do" 
"what not to do" lists. The step of Erasmus processes. 
Basically all what I am writing now. And also, games. 
It's like Leadership Training sort of thing. But I suggest 
you to come, if you happen to be on the list. It will be hell of use.

  1.  To be Nominated
In the announcement table, your will be put side by side with 
the university the has been chosen for you. So, now you can 
do a lot of research about that university, the city, the country 
etc. Make sure you note the deadline for Erasmus nomination.

  1. Your nomination is responded
Now you will be given a lot of homework to do. There are pages 
of paper need to be filled. You have to meet Erasmus coordinator 
in your department to talk about the courses. You have to choose 
them with her. She knows which course fits with which course.

  1. Send the signed Learning Agreement to The receiving
    university
This one is rather not too difficult, at least in my case. My host 
university doesn't  want me to send the original version. They 
just want me to scan the documents and send to them just that.
The documents are :
-Learning Agreement
-Erasmus Form
-Accomodation Form
-Passport
-Student Identification
-Transcript

  1. Waiting for Invitation Letter or Acceptance Letter
It won't take longer to get the Learning Agreement signed by 
the host university, and they directly send it back to my email; 
meaning that they have decided to accept me. So, I won't need 
the acceptance letter. Instead, they give me "invitation letter."

Acceptance Letter will be of use for processing visa. In my case, 
again, my invitation letter consists of information about me being 
accepted, the aims of the letter (to make the visa process easier), 
and it also states that I am hosted at the university which means 
it is also the letter of accommodation.

  1. Finally, when invitation letter arrived, you can start preparing
    the documents for visa application.
Next: Romanian visa processes