I am grateful to Covid-19

My name is Aytaj and I am going to talk about my 3rd study abroad semester with Erasmus+ at RheinAhrCampus in Germany. Wait a minute, 3rd Erasmus semester? Yes, you have read it right. It might be first case in the Erasmus history even. Positive thing came out of coronavirus pandemic and I have got a chance to extend my semester abroad at RAC for 3rd time. 

Now, I am sitting in my room, and thinking (while one of my favorite German song plays in the background – (DRUNKEN MASTERS & MAXIM K.I.Z – BIER)) about the whole 17 months of my life. There are 2 days left and soon I will be leaving Germany.  They say every single experience shape you as a person. And it is totally true. 

If you ask me why I chose Germany for doing my semester abroad? I can talk about a lot of realistic reasons (how developed the country is, the freedom of lifestyle, quality of education, etc.). And I do not regret my decision just a single second even. 

What habits I have developed in my 3rd semester? – I can count a lot but I would like to stress on how I became more health oriented.

My 3rd semester was mostly about self-learning and strengthen my emotional intelligence. Some days of my life got extremely crazy busy and I found myself as a messaholic. Then I found the thing again which people call it – Motivation. Motivation to be a better version of myself. I decided to get healthy lifestyle habit and subscribed to the gym. I could only go to gym 1 month in October. The BEST month of my life. Yes, 1 month constantly I was going to the gym. As a hyperactive person, I was spending my energy into right thing and was getting the good result back. But because of the lockdown, the gym was closed and new challenge was waiting for me – to continue my workouts at home. Of course, I failed in first few months. I was unmotivated again because of some internal and external factors in my life. The main reason was 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war which was happening in my home country. But during the January, I decided to do home workouts at least 20 minutes every day and cook healthy foods. During this short journey, I learned more about healthy nutrition, yummy new food recipes and most importantly – 7 kilos loss in the scale which I had gained in summer semester. Happily, I still push myself to have better body strength and I will definitely continue my habit in Azerbaijan.

At the moment, I have a lot of concerns regarding going back home after long time. It is funny enough that I forgot how to say “grandfather” in Azerbaijani language and asked my friend for help haha. I am pretty sure reverse culture shock is waiting for me. But it does not even scare me, because things happen for a reason. One thing I know for sure – I am not going back as same Aytaj when I came to Germany – 14th September, 2019. I will carry good experiences, memories, people and life lessons in my heart to back home.

Do not forget to take good care of yourself in order to function at full capacity of yourself. Bye!

P.S - you can understand from favorite German song why I have gained that many kilos during the summer semester.
-    Aytaj