Around 350 Erasmus+ and Erasmus Mundus incoming students attended Erasmus Welcome Day in the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași Aula in Copou, Monday, October 19. The event was hosted by the five universities of Iași: “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University (UAIC), “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași (TUIAȘI), “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF), “Georghe Enescu” University of Arts of Iași (UAGE) and “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Iași (USAMV).
“We’d like to wish you a very warm and from the heart welcome and even though you’re in the Aula of the Technical University of Iași, you’re invited to visit all of the five universities here in the city”, Professor Irina Lungu PhD, Vicerector of International Relations and University Image at TUIAȘI, said in a short opening speech. The students then joined the professors in singing “Gaudeamus igitur”.
Assistant Professor Mihai Bulai PhD, Erasmus coordinator at the Faculty of Geography and Geology of UAIC, gave a passionate speech about the city of Iași and some of its landmarks. “You made a good choice coming here,” he said, “the same choice that I made some time ago, because I’m from a small town 50 km from here.” He also talked about Ion Creangă Museum and the Aula of TUIAȘI, with its guardian angels and the paintings of King Carol the First and Queen Elisabeth.
Three incoming students, Denis Hein from Germany, Sergey Lisnyak from Kazakhstan and Maya Chikvaidze from Georgia, shared some of their thoughts about Iași. Denis said that even though it’s not common practice for German students to take a semester and visit Romania, in the three weeks that he’s been here he fell in love with the city. “There’s a lot to do and to see here,” Sergey said, and Maya showed everyone that learning Romanian is not that hard, ending her speech with a Romanian “Mulțumesc!”
Professor Neculai Munteanu PhD, institutional Erasmus+ coordinator at USAMV, spoke about the university and told the young men and women in the Aula that “we must all join forces in keeping this agro-eco system around us safe for the generations to come”. The professor then showed them a short movie made by former Erasmus students at USAMV, with some of the memories that they shared here in Iași.
Representing UMF was Irina Constantinescu PhD, who encouraged everyone to make new friends in Iași, hoping that someday years from now they’ll still receive e-mails from people they’ve met here.
Professor Irina Lungu PhD gave a quick presentation about TUIAȘI and the Erasmus experience, how it transforms and matures you. “If you’ll have the luck in life to find the things that you love doing, I’m sure that at least part of this will come from this experience here,” she said.
Diego Varela, professor at the University of A Coruña, Spain, told everyone about how he met his wife through Erasmus and how, during his student years, he used these mobilities to see her in Romania time and time again. Later on, the same contacts that he made here were the professors that reached out to him and asked him to come back here and teach.
Speaking for the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) were Andreea Leonte and Cezara Biliuță, the new president of ESN Iași. Through some short movies they showed everyone what ESN is all about, from international span to the fun times the organisation has, like the yearly 1st of May trip to Vama Veche.
Five students at UAGE Iași, studying “Acting, puppets and marionettes” at Ciprian Huțanu PhD‘s class and under the guidance of Ligia Grozdan PhD, ended the event with music and dance. They came in the Aula bearing pies and singing and in a matter of minutes everyone was singing and dancing along to “The Moldavian Hora” and other tradidional Romanian songs.
At the end, everyone was invited to Romanian pie and apples in the Sabin Balașa Frescoes Gallery.
