One year ago, I came to England, nervous, excited and naive. Nervous about all the uncertainty ahead - will I make friends? Will I like my course? Excited because hey, I was moving to England! Living abroad has always been a dream of mine (my friends know that my initial goal was Australia, but that is incredibly far away, so let's take one step at a time!). And naive, not knowing that this "one day a week" uni course would turn out to be the busiest year in my life. And because I thought that these cultural differences aren't that big. I mean, after all, Brits are Europeans, as well! Oh how wrong I was! Brits are so hilariously different, you just gotta love it!
So was it worth it? All the stress, the money, being away from your loved ones?
HELL YEAH!
Not only did I learn so much about PR (thanks Catherine!), groupwork, cultural differences, assignments, living with people you did not choose to live with (don't!), Sunday Roast, Pub quizzes, politeness, driving on the left ( = wrong) side of the road, rain, rain and also rain, and how many episodes you can watch on Netflix before it asks you if you want to continue watching; I also learned a lot about myself, I developed new skills and discovered skills I didn't even know I had (see also "German efficiency").Of course, not everything is sunshine and rainbows (particularly not in November, where it's mostly rain and rain). You have times you miss your home, you feel alone and you feel so stressed out by all these bloody assignments that you just want to get out of there and forget it all. My advice, if you're in this situation: Just do it (reference to Shia Labeouf not intended). Take a trip (goes best with a travel buddy like Susanna and some Cream Tea in whichever city you go to) or book a flight home for some time. No assignment is so important that you should risk being happy! My thesis didn't stop me going to Germany for my friends' wedding (twice!). Because sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.
It's interesting: Many people/blogs tell you that your year abroad/Erasmus/exchange is "the best time of your life". During that year, I waited for the "aha moment" to happen, when I would finally realise that this was the best time of my life! Well, it never came. Living abroad is not just adventure and travelling and everything being exciting. It is an awful lot of routine as well. Which doesn't mean that I didn't have a good time. As mentioned above, I learned a lot and I enjoyed myself. I also learned not to compare phases of my life. Of course, there are good ones and bad ones, but to pick which is the "best" one? Naaaah, thanks!
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| A small glimpse of my year in pictures |
What can I say? I loved (most of) it and this is why I'm staying.
