I met the participants, we went to the same place, but I just pronounced it differently.

Hey! I am Hanna, a 19-year-old girl, and I only discovered the Erasmus+ program at the beginning of this year. Coming back from my first project, as soon as the plane touched the slush surface of Estonia in March, the Erasmus madness had gripped me so strongly that I wanted to visit Tallinn Airport again as soon as possible at any cost. Of course, not because of the duty free shop, although that would also be a nice excuse, but because of Erasmus's addiction. This is a very real thing, believe it or not!

That's how I found the Spanish project, and luckily for me, a few weeks later we met the other Estonians again at the airport, setting off for Jerez. Of course, I couldn't pronounce the name of the place correctly - I still said it like an Estonian, as you read "jerets" - and when others from the airport were talking about some kind of "hereth" main street, I believed that they had inside jokes from some place of their own as Spanish vurles (both lived there). Which they were suspiciously diligently trying to share with me. Of course, I thought it necessary to confirm out loud that I don't know much about hereth, I've never heard of such a place, but it's supposed to be 30 degrees in herets. A few days later, of course, it turned out - and I put together the sly looks of my companions at the time and the situation of awkward silence - that they had been talking about the same place as me. What a brand, but now I at least have a clear Spanish pronunciation! Despite the confusing destination, we got there (after six hours of beauty sleep on a green bench at the Helsinki airport) and the study could begin.

This time's training was about writing Erasmus+ projects, more specifically about organizing the youth exchange itself. The days were long and so much information accumulated in my head that, in cooperation with the beach weather, my head smoked properly, even to the point that my hairline was fiery red.

The other participants were amazingly awesome, as always at Erasmus. The group was full of diversity, but fortunately we had a universal sense of humor and being cozy - the evenings were spent among conversations, dancing, karaoke and walks. Of course I also got a total culture shock - their dinner starts at 9pm at the earliest! In retrospect, I can say that I got used to it so much that when I got back to Estonia, I ate night snacks for a whole week before I switched back to the Estonian regime. This, churros and much more confirmed my expectation to experience Spanish culture and its fulfillment. I also found friends among the other participants with whom I continue to communicate (and, for example, I commented on the performance of my countries at Eurovision).

Updated on Tuesday, 17/02/2026