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My Erasmus: They did open the windows of my soul

It is very emotive for me to remember this late august of the year 1996, when I arrived in Stockholm after a 28 hours EUROLINES bus trip all across Europe from Paris ...

I was just jumping into something completely unknow and my 30 kgs of packs were full of silly things like books, tapes, boxes, and my favorites clothes. I thought I would feel a little bit alone for a few weeks before I make friends. I was so wrong !

After 2 days, thanks to the great (swedish) organizers, I already knew the almost 400 other exchange students as well as some Swedes and we were partying untill very late, practising some international english but most of all using our hands !

During the first week, all the exchange students have been invited to many activities like typical swedish dinner, movies, boat trip over the archipelago, etc We even had a reception in the Stockholm cityhall and that was quite exciting for all of us. After this integration week, parties and exchanges never stopped for the whole year untill the end of june, when the sun never goes down over Sweden ...

I can remember studying a lot (I trully did !), having lots of corridor parties, acting in a university theater company, going around Stockholm with my bike including during the hard swedish winter, and a lot, lot, of friendships from everywhere in the world ! That's a warm and rich feeling to discover that you can share and learn from people coming from so many different countries and cultures ...

That was already a little bit more than 10 years ago ... and now what ? Last saturday, in Paris, we had a diner with Cécile, Laetitia, & Nico, the so-called "french team" of that time. We are still very good friends, although we don't mention the swedish period so much. What I mean is that we are just « normal » friends by now and not just sharing this swedish memories although these very swedish memories make our friendship so strong ...
Nevermind.

A more international illustrated short story of what ERASMUS can produce is the following : after my ERASMUS student year, when I finished studying, I travelled to Argentina and got to know a nice girl who now became my wife. A few weeks ago, we bought an appartment in Buenos Aires, although we are living in Paris at the moment. So you know what, we lent it to Stefan, a German ERASMUS friend who is now learning spanish in Buenos Aires : ERASMUS spirits is still running around the world ...

We (the « french team ») also kept in touch with many other ERASMUS students from that time and last summer, we met again in Stockholm ... 10 years after. We were about 20 former ERASMUS students from this Stockholm 1996-97 period, coming from France, Germany, Spain, Holland, and even Japan ! (great Terutaka, you did it). People had not changed at all, although some had had children and everything (actually I came along with my 2 years old son !). Tjade & Adela a dutch - spanish couple who fell in love during the ERASMUS year were also there. It has been great because a few minutes after the meeting, and despite the years, the group did start working exactly like 10 years before ! Like Queen would say, it's been a kind of magic !

It did last a whole week-end time, and that was nice : I was glad to see that after all, that's what all Europe should be about : friendships and shared memories. Thanks to the ERASMUS program we've been able to live these strong personal experiences and, last but not least, to have this very special way to look at every different person or attitude we meet in our lives since then. Such an experience is the best I can wish to anyone.

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