During one semester, Iryna Bilousova, Master's student of the major "Philology. Translation and Interpreting (Modern Greek)" of Mariupol State University was studying at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - leading higher educational institution of Greece.

The internship lasted from February to July of the year 2019 within the frameworks of the Erasmus + international credit mobility program. Young people from Europe and Asia participated in the program of learning the Greek language, history and culture.

During the first two months, Iryna attended lessons of Greek language. The results of the final test showed that Iryna has an advanced level of Greek (G1 & G2). She says that the lessons were very fun, witty and not stressful. Communication with international students also played a major role in improving the level of Greek and English. 
 

90% of my people who surrounded me were students from EU. When I got into double periods, I felt a shock and a language barrier, since the master's degree students were Greeks, and the study conversations were accompanied by a special vocabulary, which I did not know.

Iryna Bilousova studied Comparative Philology and Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She notes that theoretical studies were not limited to ordinary note-taking, but were accompanied by discussions with examples and statements of the own point of view. And the seminars were like a friendly meeting with casual conversation, food and drinks. 
 

I also want to point out the style of relations between teachers and students. It is similar to a relationship between friends or colleagues at work. Most likely, this is a feature of mentality and culture.

 
The MSU master's student attended events organized by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens aimed at getting acquainted with Greece and establishing friendly relations between students. During her internship, Iryna visited the famous historical monuments of Athens, such as: Acropolis, Temple of Hephaestus, Olympia Temple of Zeus, The hill of Philopappos or hill of the Muses, Roman Agora, Lycabettus Hill and a number of museums. The program participants also took part in trips to Cape Sounion, Meteora Monasteries, Nafplio - the first capital of Greece, Delphi - the ancient Greek city.

Open air cinemas have become a favorite holiday destination for young people. However, most of all Iryna remembered the ancient temples, including those in Delphi.
 

In such places you can feel the spirit of paganism, and when you see with your own eyes the remnants of a great civilization, you do not believe that humanity has already made a major step in development.

While in Greece, a student of MSU introduced her "colleagues" with the culture and history of Ukraine. 
 

We have agreed with international students that we will set aside certain days for conversations about our countries. And so it happened. My story began with the founding of Kyiv and ended with the current state of affairs. Young people from other countries were most interested in Chernobyl and asked a lot of questions, especially after the release of eponymous TV-show, which was watched by all my the Erasmus + program friends. In addition, students from Jordan now know who the Cossacks are, what the borscht tastes like, and that Mariupol is located on the Azov Sea shore.

During her internship, Iryna was engaged in the writing of two scientific works. She examined Sigmund Freud's monograph "Interpretation of Dreams" under the lens of literature theory and made a comparative analysis of the works of Alexander Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko. After completing her studies, Iryna defended her theses and received a certificate of successful completion of the course.  

Six months in another country - and you change your attitude, views, principles in many things. Another culture teaches you to accept and love what was alien to you, to become truly an independent and adult person. Erasmus+ educates a student, gives a life lesson, good language practice, new friends and after such a long period, I can say also a new home.