My Erasmus: I will never be the same

Shared by: Silvia Pareti
Erasmus Trip:

Pavia

Reading
It was: 2005

I have been learning, enjoying and exploring. I got to know amazing people (I had my Fernando, Klaus, Johanna, David and the rest). I learned a language (and got to know other ones). I travelled around (Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Bath, Cardiff, Isle of Wight, Oxford, Cambridge, London, Berlin, Winchester, Rochester, Lymington, Stratford on Avon,...).I will never be able to express how much the Erasmus gave me and how much he got from me. I can tell everyone that this is the best thing I can wish them to experience, but they smile and nod looking at me as if I was just some crazy one. They can't understand. I sometimes feel like the people who experienced some unbelievable experience they cannot share with anyone. Apart from my Erasmus fellows. I will never be the same.I left determined to learn a language, have some fun, and carry on my studies in a new environment. I came back knowing a language, having spent the most amazing year of my life, but different from before. It was like opening a door, having a look at the world behind it, smelling it, letting the wind come in. From that very same door something came into my world, it was something like sand, unnoticeable but invading everywhere. I am no longer the same when I walk around my room without shoes, I buy my mum a kettle to make tea, I eat jacked potatoes. I am no longer the same when I plan a journey, I go out with my friends, I attend my classes. I am no longer the same when I think about my future. I left alone, bearing the tears of loving friends and relatives. I came back with memories, new friends, new skills. Many friends came to visit me. And to be honest I never really left. I have been back there 4 times in 7 months and my next fly is already booked.I've been dancing LAtin-American dances on a boat sailing the Thames, I have been having country-specific dinners where groups of us where cooking for the other ones, I have been to some London musicals, I have been cooking the Christmas pudding for 7 hours with Jas, I have been walking around car-boot markets, I have been writing essays instead of sitting oral exams, I have been to amazing Greek parties, I have been...I left alone, and there I found my life, what I really am, how I want to live. There I learnt I have a world of possibilities, I am worth something, I can invent my future and shape the way I want. There I have met my love, my prince charming who is moving to Switzerland to get closer to me, my future. Don't leave if you are not ready to accept the huge changes this will have on you. Going back won't be difficult but staying will never be possible again. Something inside I cannot silence keeps telling me it's time to go. Other places are waiting for me, other friends...