Wow. After so far spending 3 days with a vast number of other Erasmus students, that’s the overriding thought I have right now. I’ve met so many students from across Europe that I could quite easily go interrailing and never have to book a hotel again. Obviously it’s highly unlikely that I’ll keep in contact with all these people…but you get my drift. Collectively, us Erasmus students have pretty much got Eurovision covered.
Being an Erasmusian (FYI, I made that up) makes for a very overwhelming, yet truly memorable experience. There’s not really any way to convey how it feels to be surrounded by so many different languages all being spoken at once!! Listening to Swiss, Italian, German or even Czech students speaking French, the mixture of accents is brilliant. I’ve never been in this situation before, and I doubt very much that there will be another moment in my life when I feel like I’m actually standing in the middle of Europe itself.
Now normally, when people from across the world come together, everyone starts speaking English, because everyone knows that the English are arrogant and basically refuse to learn any other language. I hate that that cliché is true, but it really really is. I find that normally when I’m in France, people hear the English accent and immediately start speaking English to me…not so helpful when you’re trying to improve your French skills. So it made an extremely nice change when I met two girls, one Swiss-German and one Flemmish, to discover that our common language was in fact French…
The only ‘downside’ I would say is that it’s extremely tiring to constantly switch between French and English, whilst also trying to make friends and makes plans etc. It’s like that Freshers’ feeling – you don’t want to miss out on anything, you meet people and instantly swap numbers or ‘do the facebook thing’, you have to get involved in absolutely everything that goes on…you know what I mean. It was tiring enough at Leeds the first time round, throw in the culture/language barrier and you’ve got a whole different ball game.
But I always think that there are times in your life that sleep and relaxation just seems like too much of a waste of time, and this is one of them. Ask me again in a week’s time when I’m climbing the walls with sleep deprivation, then I’ll probably think differently, but as it goes for now, it’s just a case of doing everything and accepting that resting time has pretty much gone out the window. Once ‘normal’ life has settled down, then I’m sure I will too. But really, is life ever going to be normal when you live in the south of France?!? The other day I was on my way to the tram stop and I passed a woman who was casually walking around with a box balanced on her head, clearly thinking nothing of it. You’ve gotta love the French.
What I’m also loving is that you can be listening to someone speak French and everyone now and then an English word is thrown in – very confusing when you’re trying to get into ‘French mode’ and someone throws you a curveball. My favourite so far is the French translation of ‘friends with benefits’, a typically English euphemism to gloss over what the term actually means. In French, they simply say ‘SEX-FRIENDS’. So blunt, so direct. You can always count on the French to get straight to the point.
So basically, I think everyone should move to France. Give me a few more days and I’m sure I’ll find more reasons why everyone should become an Erasmus student!
