Every time I was overwhelmed with work during my last semester in Germany, I told myself not to worry because the next semester, my Erasmus semester, would be completely devoid of academic demands.
The Erasmus students around me at my home university seemed to spend most of their time having coffee and talking about parties and barbeCues. In other words, university work did not fill much space in my planning for Krakow. That all changed when the semester actually started, even if only temporarily. I was introduced to the apparently supernatural course registration system, called USOS. Everybody fears it, and now I know why.
It may be just a computer program, but it seems capable of taking a dislike to individuals, and one of them was me.
USOS would not allow me to register for classes. Eventually it had to be done the old fashioned way, with application forms. In the end, I had enough classes to fulfil my requirements in Germany at least I hope so and at some point, those classes even appeared on USOS. Since then, our relationship has at least been neutral.
The semester started with an orientation week. It was filled with a lot of information, many activities and different sorts of parties. The following months, however, were pretty much what I expected my Erasmus semester to be like. There were so many new people and so much to discover. I also think I have never tried so many cafes and restaurants before. Or so many pubs and party places. Furthermore, I am now proud to call myself an expert in multiple computer games, and my knowledge of TV series has at least tripled.
