Year abroad

Well, I'm actually only travelling through - I'm from Rochdale (Greater Manchester) originally, so I'm going to visit relatives there. But I have to go through Manchester and get the tram and all that crazy jazz. Look out for a talking moose around 7-8pm

I'm coming to the end of my year abroad now and I wish I could start all over again!

So a few thoughts

As I'm sure you realise, in Mexico or Senegal you will really pick up the accent. Both are very cool (I think!) but may well not be what you're after? Then you have to question whether you want the European experience, or something a bit more daring perhaps.

My only experience of the 5 Spanish cities is Zaragoza where I'm just finishing up now. I would absolutely recommend it for Erasmus, not just a biased point of view but it really ticks all the boxes...for me at least. But I've only got hearsay on the other four, good reports from people in Granada though.

As for France, I'm with you on Toulouse, it's the only choice that jumps out at me. Lyon could be a good bet as well though but personally I like living in quite big cities so I wrote off a lot of the smaller places straight away. I'd like to go to Corsica but I don't think I'd choose it for an Erasmus.

PM for more if you want it

Maaaan, you can go to IEP Rennes
Basically, it's within the university of Rennes, but it's much much more prestigious and difficult to get in (when you're French). You'll study Politics rather than anything else, but it's a mix of Economics, History, Politic, languages, and stuff. Rennes is an absolutely amazing city, not too big, very lively and in a lovely region. Rennes II is… Ok, I wouldn't risk it 'cause they may blockade the uni again for aaaages. I see that you're interested in Toulouse, I lived there a couple of years and it was ok, I must say I really dislike the accent they have.

I won't be there
I have an Arab girls party (it's gonna be awesome and I don't have the right to miss it because they're actually not gonna wear any scarves and I want to see what they look like with proper hair )

Ive been loking at the list of placement savailable to me, for French and Spanish and I just dont even know where to begin with deciding!

Heres the choices I have...
Spain:
Seville
Granada
Zaragoza
Salamanca
Murcia

Mexico:
Universidad de Veracruzana
Universidad de Yucatan, Merida

France:
U de Caen
U du Havre
U de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour
U Robert Schman de Strasbourg
U de Toulouse II-Le Mirail
U de Corte Pascal-Paoli
U Lumiere-Lyon II
U de Poiters
IEP Rennes
ENISE, St. Etienne
U Franche-Comte
U de Provence
U de Rennes II

Belgium:
U de Mons-Hainaut

Senegal:
U Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar


If any one has views on the above, it would be fantastic if you could share with me.
At first views I wantto go to Toulouse and Granada, just because I like the cities.

I'd like to hear from anyone that spent their year abroad in Latin America, or somewhere equally far away, like Quebec

Don't go to Quebec, they don't speak real French, lol

I'd like to hear from anyone that spent their year abroad in Latin America, or somewhere equally far away, like Quebec

What do you want to know?

Don't go to Quebec, they don't speak real French, lol

I know this thread hasn’t been commented on in a while was just wondering if anyone could offer any advice.

Those of you who have spent a year abroad, how did you find the first few days?

I’m studying at Groupe Sup de Co La Rochelle but I’m living about 20 mins from the uni. Where I am there is a beach, a bus stop, a train station and lots and lots of holiday homes. As there were a lot of problems with my accommodation I accepted this one at the last minute just to have somewhere to live that I could afford!

I guess I must be homesick. My parents drove me down and left yesterday and I was just in my flat on my own all day with nothing to do cos nothing is open in France on a Sunday!!!

French TV is not the best, and I’ve only just managed to get a decent wireless adapter to improve my signal for Internet. Today I went out on my bike but as I’m so far from the actual town the only thing I’ve seen is the beach. Another problem is that no one else has moved in yet (its holiday lets in the summer), uni doesn’t start until Wednesday so I have to occupy myself for another day! My flatmate isn’t moving in till the 11th!!

I don’t know if its boredom, or the fact that I miss my parents and boyfriend but I keep crying at little things, like today I went on the bus and didn’t understand that I needed to validate my ticket or that the French press a button to stop and ended up going way further than I needed to!

It’s just suddenly hit me that all this is real, my parents won’t be able to just come get me and I can’t just pick up the phone!

Will these feelings go? I think it’s just that I’m waiting around for uni to start and once it does I’ll be busy with 101 things to sort out. Will the year abroad get better, and start going faster? And do any of you who have dealt with these feelings wish you had known anything in hindsight!

Aww I know exactly how you feel cos I was like that when I got to Germany. During the first few days before I started work I felt quite homesick and found it really scary. It's normal to feel like that though and I think the feelings should pass and everything should pick up when you get more into it and have more things to do. You can feel homesick at any time really but I found it got easier once I was working and knew more people.
Is your internet not good enough to use Skype? Can you text people?

Yeah I have skype and msn - use both to talk to my parents and have a UK mobile contract that allows me 400 texts a month to the UK.

Generally think it was boredom as today I'm quite upbeat looking forward to uni starting 2moz, think I'll be quite busy being bombarded with paperwork

I do know 4 people from my uni here, but the 2 I'm closest to have been placed quite far away. Is it better to aim for something to look forward to? My boyfriends sister is getting married so I'm going back to England in 22 days so all I keep thinking about is one day closer till I get to see him