Every beginning is...

...easy. In fact! After my landing, I only had to do a small fever test and I could safely take the train into the city. Upon arriving at the train station in Cagliari, I had to gather the last bit of energy because the path to Via Maddalena was steep uphill. In the apartment, my first roommate (out of 5) was already waiting for me. Tete greeted me warmly and gave me a little tour.

The apartment is large and you enter the rooms through a long hallway. My room is one of the smaller ones, but that doesn't bother me since I'll be spending a lot of time outside anyway. There's not much to see except for a bed, wardrobe, desk, and a shelf. The walls are bare, and I'm glad that I brought something to decorate the room with. After all, I'll be spending around 4 1/2 months here. The kitchen is not particularly big but sufficient and leads outside to a small balcony. The washing machine and trash cans are also there. I probably won't be able to sit comfortably on the balcony. I share the bathroom with two Spanish girls. Unfortunately, there is a bit of mold in the shower, but I think it's okay for the time being. The apartment overall was a bit dirty, but with 6 people, that's not surprising. I think that whatever I don't like, I'll just clean it myself. But now, back to my roommate and my first evening in the flat.

It's now 10 p.m. and I'm pretty exhausted from the long journey. Tete tells me that some of his friends will come over for a beer later and asks if I want to join. I couldn't turn down the offer since I really wanted to meet some people. What I didn't expect is that suddenly 15 Erasmus students from Spain would show up at the door. Together with my second roommate from South Tyrol, we played some drinking games and had a nice evening. At 2 a.m., completely exhausted, I said goodbye and went to bed. I knew that the next day would bring a lot of organization.

The next morning started with the first shopping trip. Josef, my roommate from South Tyrol, accompanied me and we were amazed by the huge selection in the store. We quickly got an overview and got the essential things for the first few days. Back home, we first cleaned our refrigerator because it looked like it hadn't seen a cloth in a long time. After storing all our things, we set off through the city to meet some friends of Josef's. Together with them, we wanted to apply for the Fiscal Code, without which nothing seems to work here. So, in one of the friend's cars, we drove to the office and got our code 5 minutes before closing time. Happy and satisfied, we continued to the Poetto city beach. There, we had a late breakfast. Besides Italian salami, the Sardinian beer was, of course, a must-have. Even two of my new friends dared to go into the icy cold water at 20°C. Who can say they've been in the sea in February? Certainly not me. After a relaxed day at the beach with students from Greece, Hungary, Austria, and Germany, Josef and I went back to meet our landlord. After everything was sorted out and a plate of pasta satisfied our hunger, we went straight to one of our friends' places. In Maxi's apartment, there was a cold beer waiting for us and lots of fun. Unfortunately, I was still completely exhausted from the first evening, so I had to say goodbye to them at 12 a.m. For the others, the night continued in a bar. As you can see, there's a party going on here three days a week. Let's see if I can keep up. I don't think so.

Overall, it's been a successful start to the semester abroad with many nice and funny people and very good weather. ☀️🙂