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My Erasmus: We touched an endless investigation
Shared by: Anne
Erasmus Trip:  Toulouse   ZaragozaIt was: 2002 Encounter of Erasmus My student life in Toulouse was the same as most of the people’s one there: student’s village, student’s restaurant, classes, studies, friends and parties. Everything was fine in my small bubble…until I met Erasmus. At this stage, I’d have never been able to imagine how these 7 letters will change my life. Erasmus was the name of a big family living in my student village. Every single day I was meeting a new member of this family in my corridor. Spanish, Italian, German, English, Swedish… This corridor became without any doubt my favourite place. I could travel around Europe within few steps… This is exactly when I started to be in love with traveling! Jari, Markus, Dietmar, Enrike, Roberto, Luis Miguel, Sergio, Sara, Samer, Philipe, Barbara...it’s hard not to forget someone! All of them invited me in their fantastic world, a world where everybody has something to teach to the other ones. I became so curious and I wanted to learn more and more about them every time… so I started an investigation about all of these cultures…But this beautiful trip brought me even further than Europe: the worldwide!… Like a dream, everyday I was travelling around the world… I was so amazed by them that I started to behave like them: a foreigner in France, starting to be curious about everything of my country, taking a foreigner accent… I wanted to learn so much from them…My own French friends couldn’t understand what was happening to me. This year has been a real teaching not only for them but for me as well. How lucky I’ve been to meet them!... Unfortunately, at the end of the year my “heart family” left Toulouse and I became so lonely…my “classic student life” was so bland without them… Family record book After a few months, I got a revelation: My investigation wasn’t finished, it was actually just the beginning… I couldn’t stop right know!! I needed to know more about this family so I decided to move on and live like them this experience. Even if the languages, I studied were English and German, I decided to follow my heart to Spain…Zaragoza! My own university wasn’t doing any exchange with Spain, so I decided to go to another country. Even if the subscriptions were closed, I got the chance to be able to give my form, thanks to the lack of applications. Thanks god!!!!
An interview in Spanish, my god I don’t speak at all Spanish! I was thinking…
An interview…in Spanish…my god…how I’ll be able to do it…I thought
Ok 2 weeks to learn Spanish, That’s a real challenge! But love makes you strong enough not to be afraid of anything… so I left the office and ran directly to buy Spanish books, book my train to go and spend few days in Barcelona to prepare my interview… I learned all the questions she could ask and all the answers I could give her. I was always with my “bibles” trying to learn the more I could…even sleeping with…Spain… I need to go there!!!!! I need to pass the interview!!! Day D: My god this day will surely be recorded in my memory until the end of my life! I couldn’t breath properly, my legs were shaking, my heart was strongly beating… I knew my level of Spanish but it was my last chance to be part of this family…I was decomposing myself when a guy came through the door sweating: “I’m late for the interview!!!!!!”
So I came to her zigzagging because of my shaking legs “This means I don’t have my interview as well?” I asked her
2 weeks later, I came back with exactly the same stress because my problem wasn’t at all resolved but it was actually even worst because I was in exams…”Next please!!” “my god, it’s my turn…it hasn’t been cancelled!” I don’t know how I’ve been able to go to her desk…but I have been there! We started in french…fine…then arrived the first Spanish question…”Por que le gustaria estudiar a Zaragoza?…” I replied how I could… I had my joker’s card: my intensive Spanish course in September. She quickly saw my level, but she gave me the opportunity because with such motivations the languages wouldn’t have been a problem for me! And she was right, I went to an intensive course, I worked more than others and passed my exams with awards! As we say in French “Quand on veut, on peut” (when we want we can!). My new nationality My year in France with the Erasmus was really good but it was far from what I felt during this year in Spain. I didn’t know that this sensation could exist in life. Actually, several times, I tried to speak about it with people but this sensation unfortunately, just people from the Erasmus family can understand it… the vocabulary to explain this experiences still doesn’t exist. When you are in the cavern of Platon and you see the shadows, even if someone tells you that it’s a shadow, you need to go out to understand what exactly it is, because you would never been able to accept this truth… Arrived in Spain, the most difficult hasn’t been the language (as I could have imagined) but to be in a country with another culture. Once there I had to let my own culture aside and try to adopt this new one. But so many time, this culture came in contradiction with my own one and question all about I learned in my childhood…Why do we do that this way? Why do we think this way?…That’s hard in the beginning but I’m really proud of all I did to get this deep teaching. Because my university let me the possibility to choose the fields I wanted, this year has been the most interesting year intellectually speaking, but not only that! Personally speaking, I learned so much about my own culture and about myself. I actually discovered a part of me I wouldn’t have imagined. So shy before I discovered I was actually really strong. This gives so much strength in future choices. After this how could you be afraid of any big changes in your life? Actually from this stage I continually need challenges. Changes actually excite me. I can’t have anymore a bland life, I can’t come back in the cavern... This is exactly the problem or the strength of Erasmus experiences: once you get the Erasmus nationality, you can’t come back, you need to live and to learn every time more! It’s like an endless investigation. After this, I came back home (Toulouse) to do my 5th year. This year was so bland. Fortunately I had a project after my Erasmus year because like a big love story, at the end of it it’s hard to come back to reality… After a year in France I had a new revelation: Ireland! I got the opportunity to go to Ireland thanks to the European program Leonardo Da Vinci. I found a job there and stayed a year and a half. This year has been a real teaching, it was really great. I’m going to cherish this experience forever but to be honest, like love, the first one is always the best taste! I’m currently leaving in Marseille, happy to get the job I dreamed for…Marseille, a beautiful cosmopolite city where Africa and Europe are living together. If you come there, you can meet me on my favourite rock, the best point of view to see the boats arriving and living the harbour…
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