Breaking out of the Bubble for Books

The Bubble sure is comfortable, but it’s not why you’re here. The Bubble can be in Edinburgh, or York, or back home with mummy and daddy, or it can be here in your Erasmus Community. The bubble is full of people who understand you, and things you understand. It’s American TV shows, roast dinners and simple non-gendered English words like “pie” and “fryup”. It’s not usually mountains, exams in foreign languages or  blinding homesickness and panic, but sometimes these things just happen. Sometimes breaking out of the Bubble seems idiotic, but usually it’s a good thing.

If I hadn’t glanced outside the bulbous walls of the Bubble, for example, I would have missed Aix-en-Provence’s Graphic Novel festival last month, and never would have seen the Cité du Livre. For some reason it took this bibliophile seven months to figure out that there is a place in Aix-en-Provence devoted to literature, a place whose name in Google Translate produces variations on the theme of Book City, Book Estate and Book Ghetto.

The books, they are huge. Books which I recently blabbered about in a vlog are here reproduced in thirty-foot-high concrete form and act as a simple external wall to the Book Ghetto. They are huge. 

Hidden unjustly away behind the gare routière, the Cité du Livre’s graphic novel festival played host to authors and graffiti artists alike, its slightly shabby walls transformed into booths full of first drafts, coloured panels and authors’ notes, pop-up shops and travelling art shows in the back of old Citroen vans.

Wandering through it all is rather like stumbling into someone else’s party, not entirely sure whether or not you should introduce yourself to the host. It’s often the case in France that big public events don’t have a facebook event or really an online presence at all, but when you stumble into the party, there are always more than enough people there.

Also worth noting of the world outside the Bubble is that national holidays are a little, um, different. While Mardi Gras passed us by with little more than a whisper, today’s Fete de Travail means that everywhere is closed. It’s worse than a sunday- everywhere is closed. This means crashing out yesterday after your 4am start for the airport was not entirely a good idea, since now you have no food. Oh Bubble.

Personalise Your Year Abroad

Personalise your year abroad! This is perhaps the best piece of advice you can get. And I do not mean that you should call it Lars, Pierre or Nacho. Tough, thinking about it now, it would make conversations much more fun. Just imagine it… Lars made me remember how beautiful White Christmas is. Thanks to Pierre, I have grown as a person and improved my language skills. And Nacho? Well, Nacho showed me what night life in a big city is all about. You might be wondering why I have used male names. The reason is simple; in Czech language, we distinguish between three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine and neuter – and ‘year’ is of a masculine gender.

What I mean by personalising your year abroad is to liberate yourself from stereotypes and make it what works best for you. Honestly, people have the tendency to be quite narrow-minded when it comes to study exchanges. What comes to your mind when you think of an Erasmus exchange? A year off? Partying day and night? Skipping morning classes because one is hangover? Handing in an assessment a day or two after the deadline because no-one really cares about the year-abroad grade? Not showing up for an exam at all since the continuous assessment is sufficient for (barely) passing a course? If this is what you picture your year abroad like, go for it! To be objective, this approach has a number of benefits. The most important one probably being that one gets to practise and improve their language skills unless one hangs out in the international, understand English-speaking, exchange students’ community. Then, one gets to experience the real life; and experiences, whatever their nature, shape who one becomes. Plus, one tends to graduate shortly after the exchange and join the adult world of obligations and commitments. So, quite frankly, a year abroad might then be the last chance to cut loose without being judged.

How does my year abroad, let’s call him Michel for the sake of amusement, like look then? (This choice is not a completely random one; I will, however, leave the interpretation up to your imagination.)

Let’s be honest, I chose Sorbonne for its reputation. The idea of having yet another world-renowned university on my CV proved to be too tempting and I have decided that a lack of courses in fields of study I would be particularly interested in was a price I was willing to pay. I then chose classes that were closest to my interest in Politics and Economics – contemporary history courses – and provided for a compact schedule that would allow me to take up an internship. Consequently, I understood that my academic aspirations would be mostly to improve my language skills.

A huge advantage of spending your year abroad in a major city are the opportunities to get work experience which I knew from the beginning I would make my best to take advantage of. To be completely honest with you, to get an internship you might combine with the study obligations is not exactly a piece of cake. Even if you come to terms with not acing your courses (which I thought I had but then the deadlines came and I realised I simply was not ready to resign on my year-abroad grade), you still need to attend (some of) the classes and eventually hand in the assessments. Simply put, you would be looking for an internship that would be flexible enough to adapt to your schedule. Under such circumstances you cannot really expect to find a paid one. However, if you find an internship of particular interest to you like I did (‘where, where, where?’ I hear you asking; I am interning with the Delegation of the Czech Republic to the OECD), the experience you gain is priceless.

Sure, there are moments when I ask the hyperactive myself ‘why have you done this to me?!’, ‘what were you thinking, studying and doing an internship at the same time while I am supposed to be having fun?!’ Did I picture myself declining a friend’s invite to visit him in Spain while I would simply love to return to Madrid for a weekend-long (well-deserved, I must say) siesta? Reading articles for my dissertation in between the meetings? Working on my essays/presentations well beyond midnight? Of course, not. But, at the end of the day, I take a deep breath, take a step back to gain a bit of perspective, and I ask myself ‘silly, having to choose between Sorbonne and OECD, which one would you pick?! ‘At that point I come back to my senses as I know that I would not settle down for just one of them.

Plus, despite my busy schedule I always find time for things I love. I travel. Definitely not as much as I would like to, nor as far as I would wish to but I do. I explore the city. As a tourist as well as a Parisian. And I have found French friends. Maybe not tones of them, but that is not what I look for, anyway.

You are unique so make your stay abroad a unique one too. Make it count the way you want it to. All you need to do, preferably well in advance of applying, is to set your priorities and expectations.

Study America Photo Competition

Hello! My name is Johanna and as part of my role with EUSA Global, I was the group leader for the Study America trip.  We had a great time in Virginia as you can tell from reading all the blogs the students have written throughout the trip.

At the end of our time at the University of Virginia, we organised a photography competition for the students and the categories were Portrait, Landscape, Hamish (our wee mascot), Anything Goes, and the Pursuit of Happiness (in honour of Thomas Jefferson).  Thanks to Catherine and Brian Ullman for judging!

Here are the winners with their prizes

Check out all the submissions here

Day 9-Washington DC

Today was the big day out. Day trip to Washington, D.C. After a few hours drive we arrived in the capital. After parking in union station, we first visited the Capitol. Originally Built in 1793, it hosts the senate And the House of Representatives. It is Filled with interesting statues and paintings. We also went up to the gallery to see where the house of representatives debated. The group then departed and made our way to the White House. It was amazing to finally see the most famous building in the world and be able to get a photograph with it. We then had a few hours to explore the different museums that the national mall had to offer. Unfortunately this felt rushed and none of us felt we saw nowhere near enough exhibits. I visited the national museum of American history. In here, I was able to see the war weaponry and vehicles. It was such a cool place. I also had a brief visit to the air and space museum. I Really enjoyed both museums and would definitely go back to both. In the evening, we visited both the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Both places were unreal and amazing to look at. As it got dark we sadly had to leave. An amazing place that I will visit again one day.

Kieran Russell

What is the “American Breakfast”?

On day 1 during our orientation we were told we’d be going to the International Centre here at UVa to make and eat an “American Breakfast” and for the last week and half we’ve been debating what this could be.

So far we’ve enjoyed bagels, French toast and a range of cereals but just what was this breakfast going to be?

Well today the suspense was finally over…

With the help of some American students we had a go at making an “American Breakfast” which included; bull’s-eye pancakes, muffins, bacon and sausage – with plenty of maple syrup to float a small ship. It was a great chance to chat to the students about culture and university life both at home and here in America. The breakfast set us up for an action packed day which once again included a chance to visit classes.

This evening we attended the Women’s Lacrosse game against Virginia Tech. We all got behind the Cavaliers as we watched them win 10 goals to 5. Sport plays a big part of university life here in America. The enthusiasm of the supporter is really quite special and something we have all been joining in with. As we think about heading home we are all starting to buy up the university book store’s large supply of supporters clothing.

Day 8

Day 8 of the trip was split into two different parts. The first half of the day took us away from UVa and instead saw us hiking through the Blueridge mountains, following a trail called “The Plunge” (not as scary as it sounds!) We were told all about the mountains; they history of them, how to survive in the wild, and given a warning to avoid snakes and the black bears, which have occasionally been spotted wandering through the mountains (and no, that wasn’t a joke!). It was a great day out; something different from our previous days in Virginia and it gave us a chance to really appreciate the beauty of the landscape.

Once everyone made it back to the top of the mountain, we headed over to the Wintergreen ski resort to enjoy lunch. Despite the fact that the sun was shining and the temperature had reached heights of 22 degrees Celsius, there was still snow covering the slope in the resort. There was only one thing to do – snow ball fight! It was a great way to end the morning.

The second part of the day revolved around the Bluegrass picnic, held at the International centre. We were all welcomed with a delicious variety of food and drink, before being encouraged to join in a series of dances with other students and local residents.

To finish off such a chilled out day, we made our way to The Lawn and played Frisbee with a few UVa students who we’d gotten to know over the past week.

Fully settled in to life in Charlottesville after only a week, Sunday was our day to kick back and relax after our hectic week, and an opportunity to prepare for the hectic week still to come. Overall, it was the perfect way to mark the half way point of our trip.

Chelsea

My first American Baseball game!!!

We woke up early on Wednesday morning and met for breakfast at about 8.30. We went for our last trip to Little Johns, the restaurant, for breakfast where I had french toast, which was pretty good. After breakfast we jumped on the bus and went for a trip downtown where we went to visit the new African American Heritage Centre. It has just recently opened in January, along with the community centre, which offers services to the local community. Unfortunately, the African American Centre is still not finished, so we were unable to see much of it although I still enjoyed our tour of this building.

After that we went for a tour of downtown Charlottesville and had a look around the shops where we each bought something. The town was really cute with lots of little boutique shops. After this we came back up towards the university where we had lunch at Newcomb Hall like we do most days. The food is really nice and it is all you can eat which is great!!

After Lunch we went to a Seminar session presented by Mark Thompson – an English man who went to Oxford University and is a professor of history and economics. He spoke about the differences between Scottish/British and American Education which was quite interesting. I think it’s funny how everyone here at UVa are so proud of the whole Thomas Jefferson thing to the point where every person we talk to mentions Thomas Jefferson!! We just have to nod, agree and pretend we don’t already know what they’re talking about haha! So a lot of the things Mark Thomson spoke about we kind of already knew, nevertheless it was still good.

We had amazing weather and in between everything we were able to lie on the grass and relax which was lovely. Everyone’s tan is fairly coming on. Later about 5ish we had dinner in Newcomb Hall again which was good – I’m loving all the fast food!

The most fun part of the day was the UVa Baseball vs. Radford U. at the Davenport playing field. Unfortunately, UVa did not win! It was a really interesting experience even although I’m not that into sports. AND the food was amazing!! I had a burger and popcorn. It was a brilliant way to finish off a lovely day. J

Kayleigh Wilson