My experience abroad

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Never over: Erasmus is the starting point
Meal times abroad and mistreated stomach
Top 10: why living in a multicultural environment is a life-changing experience
10 tips I wish I had known before going to live abroad for the first time

I want to share the benefits I got by experiencing life in a multicultural environment. These are always very strong, enriching and life changing experiences. Sharing my everyday life with students from all other the world during my Erasmus exchange in Sheffield (England), living in a Spanish family in Madrid as an Au Pair, or my experience as a trainee in Finnish Lapland deeply changed my vision of the world. I will show you here in what ways...

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Never over: Erasmus is the starting point

Here we are, today was the last lecture of my Master’s Degree and then almost the end of my student life as well. If I had only one advice to give through what I learned during these past five years of studies, it would be:  Dare to face the world surrounding you, go meet the cultures living on this planet, beyond the academic experience, this is the biggest life-learning experience.

We hear a lot about these exchange programs, but even if leaving friends, family, the life we used to live during 20 years, the educational framework we know, even if all of this is really scary, being a student is the period when you have the biggest opportunities to go discover and experience the world, and seizing these opportunities is the best choice I have ever made. An experience like that deeply changes who you are and enables you to realize you can become who you want to be. Living abroad is not easy every day, but this is why it’s life-changing ! You won’t learn any better how to face difficulties. 

I had the chance to spend 5 semesters abroad, half of my studies, and to study in 4 different countries and Universities. I’m a bit scared now, because this time of such opportunities to discover the world so easily is over. I discovered so many things during these years, but I also learned that I still have so much to see. I know this great time of discoveries is not over, because it opened up my mind and it was only the starting point of a whole new world of different opportunities opening to me, and thanks to these past 5 years I now understand what I really want: keeping on experiencing life abroad, as part of my professional life.


Having had the courage to seize these opportunities is the thing I’m the most proud of right now, and I’ll do it again and again. Getting to study in such prestigious universities abroad is a chance that will matter for my entire professional life and I’m really thankful for all the efforts people and universities make in order to open up the world to us. When entering University for the first time in France, I wouldn’t have imagined I could live in Mexico, in England, in Lapland. It was so unthinkable for me it wasn’t even a dream, but it still came true. Now I think about it, I realize how exceptional student life was, and I realized that Erasmus is not only a study abroad program, it’s a life-style.

Meal times and mistreated stomach

As we all know, food is a central element in every culture (and in my life as well). But I had some suprises when settling down in England and Finland, not only because of the food itself (I quite enjoyed British food though!) but because of the meal times. This is an element we don’t think about before going abroad but it can create some funny situations... (of course I have to talk about this from my French point of view)

Finland, the land of the 1001 dinners

I was quite surprised my first day at the office in Finland when my colleagues invited me for lunch at 11am or when my Finnish roommate cooks dinner at 5pm, 7pm, 9pm and midnight (well, some nights she has only 2 dinners). After observing that I eventually figured out why Finnish people go food shopping everyday.

In Finland my lunch is a real dilemma: I was in heaven I discovered the quantity of buffet restaurants in the city center, with lunch deals all for less than 10€. Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Italian and even French food ! BUT if you want to enjoy that, better opt for an early lunch... Restaurants open between 10.30am at 2pm (officially) but they are already closing at 12.30pm. Anyways, some sacrifices are worth it !

I never figured out the real “Tea Time” in England

In England I also was quite surprised when the University made us have dinner at 5pm during orientation week. In my country at 5pm it’s coffee break (well, ice cream break for me). One of my British roommates was always quite surprised when she was cooking dinner while I was having tea and cakes with my friends.

As a foreigner in these countries where you have troubles with the timing, this is not quite a problem as you can eat whenever you want when you live in your own flat, but when it comes to eat out....Yes it’s very disappointing for an empty stomach to come to a restaurant at 8pm and notice that nobody is willing to welcome you... That’s not that big of a deal, unless you are in the middle of Finland, waiting for your night train to Lapland and you can’t find any open restaurant or fast food to have dinner...

Then, a trip to the restaurant is the result of a planification, it even happened to me to reschedule my day in order to be a bit hungry at 6.30pm (I have to admit, it was just skipping one of my 7 everyday meals...)

This is quite convenient though when you decide to go out for a break at 5pm and all the Starbucks, Nero Caffés or cupcakes places are empty. But on the other hand, it pisses me off when I want to have an ice cream at Mc Donald’s at 4.30pm and half of the city decided to have dinner there.

Forget your home habits and give a try to the local meal times: having 3 dinners is not such a bad thing in the end...

Top 10: Why living in a multicultural environment is such a life-changing experience

I didn’t expect to meet people from so many different cultures during my Erasmus experience. I have to say I was very lucky to study in the University with the biggest international community in the UK. Here are some memorable moments we shared living together...

1. Travel everyday

Sharing your everyday life with people from all over the world is like traveling from one culture to another. Every single day I learned something about another culture. Any activity, any thing we were doing (food shopping, lectures...) was an opportunity to “confront” our cultures tell the others to what extend we do it a different way in our own country.

2. Learning the true meaning of the word “Tolerance”

Living in such a mix of cultures, the word “tolerance” took on its full meaning: dealing with cultural differences every single day makes you learn how to understand and respect what is “different” from what you know. Trying to understand someone’s behaviour by his own cultural codes (I learned in Finland that burping “at your face” is not impolite) is an important step toward Tolerance (sounds beautiful, but it’s not that easy everyday...).

3. Adaptation

You are not anymore in your country, as a “guest” you have to adapt to the local culture, and put aside some of your own cultural codes (not it’s not an insult to be called “love” by a taxi driver in England)

4. Break the prejudices and stereotypes

I then realised that my perception of the world was based on stereotypes and prejudices most of the time. That’s normal when we don’t know something to have prejudices and of course it’s also the opportunity for you to break the “wrong stereotypes” people may have about your country: I learned from a British friend that before meeting French people he thought we smelt garlic...

5. The restaurant of the World

Obviously, sharing your everyday life with international students means sharing typical dishes as well! Everybody used to cook a typical dish from his country from time to time. It was such a pleasure to discover all these recipes, and as we cooked together, we learned at the same time. Nothing is more convivial than moments like these.

6. The “essential” international vocabulary

We also took advantage of this situation to learn some basic words (okay, and swear words) in different languages. I still have this sheet of paper on which during a flat party everybody wrote tongue twisters and jokes in his own language. We often used to share “idiomatic tips” together, and it always can be useful in the future (well, not everything.....)

7. Discovering other cultures from the “inside”

Sometimes you start talking about a subject and it ends up by everyone sharing something about his own country. I remember a night when we all started to sing Disney songs in our own language. These are very enriching moments.

8. Flexibility is the key word

Its really weird to learn again how to write an essay in order to meet the academic standards of a country (there are huge differences even within Europe). I felt like a kid learning everything again ! But the recruiters see that as a real advantage !

9. And I almost forgot.... the language of course !

The first reason why people decide to live abroad is of course to become fluent. So, yes there’s no better way to perfectly manage a language (and your local friends teach you the “slang”, thing you will never learn somewhere else!)

10. Live the most incredible experience of your life

Living in such an environment was a very good experience, it made me change (in the good way fortunately !) and I see some situations with fresh eyes.

My Erasmus year was so enriching it made me want to go abroad again, as soon as possible !

I recommend everyone to live this kind of experience !

10 Tips I wish I had known before going to live abroad for the first time 

You chose to leave your beloved country and experience life abroad: Erasmus exchange, internship, year off... here are some essential things to know before leaving in order to make this life-changing experience the most enriching one.

"Yeaaaah! Going abroad!!"

You finally received your acceptation letter or internship contract, now it’s official you’re going to live abroad! Now begins a very important step: the formalities.

1.      Establish a list of all the things you have to do before leaving and start with these as soon as you can. The more the departure is going to come, the more the stress is going to be high and you’ll freak out to forget something. Buying plane tickets, cancelling your contracts (mobile phone, internet...), formalities with the social security and health services... all of these demand a real organization.

2.      Start packing early: selecting and packing your stuff to go abroad for a long period of time is not as easy as we think it is... and you’d appreciate enjoying a last evening with your family/friends to relax before the stress of the trip. 

"Where the hell am I ??"

Everything is so bright new when you discover the place where you will live during the upcoming months that you will be amazed by every single thing around you.

3.    However, discovering the city where you are going to live is not the same as doing tourism. You left your home city, where you were used to the streets, buildings... Now you have no points of reference and this can be stressful. Take some time the first days to walk around the city, locate where you can buy food, figure out how to take the public transportation...

4.      Visit the tourism office and ask for everything you need (supermarkets, laundry...) and a map: it’s going to become your best friend during the first days.

"Could you repeat please?"

The time for the confrontation with the “local people” has finally arrived....

5.      A language is not only about idiomatic skills, there’s a part of “culture” you might not get immediately when arriving in the country. And depending on the region of the country, talking to local people cound be epic sometimes...

6.      At the end of the first days, you will feel like a human wreck (maybe not very human...): speaking, thinking and understanding people in a different language require a lot of energy. Fortunately, your brain will get used to it quite quickly.

"How weird is this country!" - The culture shock:

It’s inevitable when living in a culturally different country. But everybody lives it in a different way: yes, feeling very excited about everything all the time can be your form of cultural shock! But feeling depressed because everything is "too" different is also a normal reaction. You can also go through both of them, but don't react like "what's wrong with me??" because of your new quick changing mood... normal reaction again !

7. In your "bad-mood moments", if you feel pissed at the local people (who could be your new friends) because you are tired of not understanding them correctly (or the contrary, because it's not always their fault...), try to do make them discover your own culture, it always helps to feel better, and it's often very funny!

Your brand new everyday life

8.  "Brand new life"... exciting eh? It is!  But gather your energy, you have a lot to do now! Making new friends (and dealing with their cultural differences), moving in a new flat, dealing with your new flatmates (you could have surprises...), trying to understand what this new higher education system is expecting from you (or your new boss!), getting used to your new day timing (poor stomach fed too early, or too late, or too much....). This is not a "transition stage", but most of the time it's only at the end that you realize everything you had to accomplish (Hello satisfaction feeling!)

"I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world I'm coming home!"

Telling goodbye to the place you lived this wonderful experience of "first expatriation" truth is, it's sad. But on the other end, it feels good to go back home and come together again with your family and friends (party!)

However this is a more delicate stage than we use to think.... and a very important one (you don't want to mess this reunion up!)

9. Don't be mad at your family/friends because they are not as excited as you are when you talk about your experience abroad. They missed you and may not have lived such a strong experience while you were away. Just be patient.

10. And last but not least: It is scary, I admit, but you'd better be prepared to say Hello to the culture shock again! You know, the world changes also when you are away, the local songs on the radio change, the TV shows change, your friends' jokes change... But YOU changes as well: your family and friends might not understand your behavior sometimes as well as you might not understand theirs. 

You will also have to get use to your mother tongue again (try not to give weird looks at people talking the same language as you in the street...) but it creates funny situations sometimes, especially when you don't realize you are talking in a foreign language when ordering a beer....

Inform your family and friends of the "culture shock effects" before coming back, this could help them understand the situation a bit better.

Be sure  that the unforgettable memories erase the difficult times fast enough, so don’t worry and keep smiling to enjoy your trip!

You can also add your tips in the comments box!