The Year Abroad
As most of you know, I've just finished four years of uni studying French and Italian, a course I was perfectly happy to take and enjoyed most of (bar studying Garibaldi a lot and La Haine far too many times).

Anyway. As part of the course, we were expected to spend the third year shipped off to various parts of Europe and the world to study at universities there or be language assistants. At first I was reluctant to do this, because I wasn't sure I'd cope.

I was even more reluctant when Stalker Girl got a place in Lausanne, the same as me.

I was reluctant right up until I got to the airport to fly to Geneva a couple of years ago, wanting to throw the boarding pass away and run.

I was even more reluctant when I landed in Geneva, turned my phone on and was immediately pounced on by Stalker Girl, wanting to "meet up and explore the city together".

I was even more reluctant when, three months later, I wanted to stab her in the face every time she even said "hi" to me, knowing that if I even said hello to anyone else the suicide threats and stamping would start again. I prayed to get Lausanne over with and move to Siena.

I was even more reluctant when I arrived in Siena, to be immediately perved on by a man old enough to be my grandad, a pattern that was quickly established and carried on until the day I left.

I was even more reluctant when the uni had no idea who I was, why I was meant to be there and the woman in charge of Erasmus had a go at me for not being Italian.

I was even more reluctant when I saw my halls, realised that I had to share a room with a girl who spoke Italian in a thick Cypriot accent and I couldn't understand a word she said, and when the window got broken and my friend's bag got nicked.

I was even more reluctant when I realised the halls had no internets.

I was even more reluctant than that when some old dude flashed his length and girth at me in the street.

Ultimately, I spent 6 months in alternately boiling heat and torrential rain, wandering the streets of Siena, homesick as a very homesick thing in spite of the few friends I made there (none of them were Italian, the Italian girls were all up themselves), and cursing anyone who'd told me before I left "you'll have an amazing time, it's the best year ever, you'll make so many friends, you won't have time to be homesick!", all as if they were brainwashed.

Anyone who tells you Erasmus is AMAZING and FANTASTIC and THE BEST THING EVER is a liar. Fact.
( Maladicta, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 21:14, 11 replies)

But
I did a SOCRATES placement (like Erasmus, but you get paid to do it, and don't have to speak the language) in the Czech Republic, and adored the majority of it - I even met mr vit c there, and then encouraged him to move to London to live with me - we go back there once or twice a year, and I still love it.

I encouraged my wee sister to do an ERASMUS exchange, she ended up in northern finland, loved it, brought back a boyfriend (dutch in her case).

I loved it. shame you had such a shitty time though.
( ascorbate, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 21:32, closed)

Shame you had such a shitty time
It's all about who you meet. I would assume stalker girl isn't the kind of person you want to meet.
( morrybyte made a subtle namechange at, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 2:07, closed)

My ex did italian at uni and had an Erasmus year in Pavia (?)
or some of a year anyway. She didn't want to go at all, didn't think she would cope. She wasn't a hugely outgoing girl with new people, and wasn't into the usual uni passtime of going out and getting hammered at every opportunity.

I did my best to be supportive knowing that I would hate to be in the position of having to leave my friends and loved ones for a year in a place where I don't know anyone.

Everyone else was constantly going on about how much of a good time she would have.

As good a time as phoning me for two hours every night in tears because the uni was shit, the people were all bitchy, catty, cliquey arseholes who just wanted to go out and get shit-faced every opportunity.

She came back after about a month for which I was hugely grateful.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 8:39, closed)

Oh well
everyone I know who's done Erasmus has had a wonderful time and come back wiser, funnier, more beautiful and more sexed up than when they went.
(Smale is stuffed, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 10:23, closed)

I tell you who doesn't like ERASMUS:

Meredith Kercher lawlz
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:06, closed)

@ The Dirty Weeker
That happened not long after I came back, and I'd be amazed if there weren't more similar incidents... I never felt truly safe in Siena.
( Maladicta, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:07, closed)

@ vitamin c
See, some people have the best time EVAR out there; a friend of mine from Sweden met her boyfriend out there and has taken up residence in Siena permanently to live with him. After three months, all I wanted to do was go home and the next man to call "bella!" at me in the street was going to get his balls bitten off!

My friends in Bologna had an amazing time, and to a lesser extent the ones in Parma, so when people got us all together and asked about Erasmus they were surprised to hear so many positives "oh my god it was sooooo much fun, do it do it!" and then me saying "it was shit, don't EVER go to Siena."
( Maladicta, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:08, closed)

@ morrybyte
I met loads of really lovely people in Lausanne, it was just every time I wanted to go down the pub with them or even chat to them between lectures, Stalker Girl would be there like a shot to make sure I didn't decide I wanted to be friends with them and not her; every time I wanted to go out she'd fake being ill or threaten to kill herself unless I spent time with her, making life very, very difficult.

I made a few friends in Siena, most of them girls and all of us Erasmus students; the Italian girls would look down their noses at you for coming to lectures looking less than immaculate, and because you couldn't speak the language like a native. The guys just wanted to shag an English girl.
( Maladicta, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:10, closed)

@ Vipros
By the time I left the country to go to Geneva, I was about to kill the next person to tell me "you're going to have a wonderful time, it's such a fantastic opportunity to study abroad, you'll absolutely love it" because I was already sure it wasn't going to be the case. I couldn't wait to get back to uni over here and back to normality, so I sympathise entirely with your ex!
( Maladicta, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:12, closed)

@ Ruddles
I certainly came back wiser, whether the other things are true or not is not for me to say; I certainly learned to depend on myself better, and became even more independent from my parents (something they don't like much), and somehow I didn't go insane though I still wonder how. This time last year I would have done literally anything to leave Italy.
( Maladicta, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 16:13, closed)

5 replies in a row im impressed lol ;)
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Sat 28 Jun 2008, 16:05, closed)