News from Lent

Hi everybody !

I find it very difficult to describe this great experience which is Erasmus in a few lines only; there are so many things to say that I don't know where to start ...

First considering the "serious" part of my Erasmus in Nijmegen, I have to say that, as many people think, going on Erasmus is not like going on holiday ...

Even if I only had 11 hours of classes a week, I had a lot of homework to do, especially lots of readings and essays to write. Although it took a lot of time, I found it very interesting and I'm quite sure that the skills I have developped here will be very helpful for the rest of my life. Most of my courses were given in English, two of them being in the Departement of American Studies. I found it very interesting to be allowed to follow courses like that since it allows us to have a wider overwiew of the Literatures and Cultures studies, which is useful for BA-3 students who still don't know which Master-subject to choose ... Apart from this, I also followed a psycholinguistics course in Dutch (with a wonderful theoretical book in English...). I think that it was the most difficult course I had ever followed, but I managed to pass the first part in November and I hope I will do the same next week for the second part thanks to a lot of work.

Turning to the "fun" part, I've enjoyed every second of it and I will be very sad to come back to my "normal" life.

I live in Lent, a little town inhabited almost only by Erasmus-students which stands at 4 kms from the city centre of Nijmegen and 9 kms from the University. I live in a flat with three other girls (from Slovenia, Germany and Spain). At the beginning it was quite strange to live together with people from different countries, but I get used to it quite quickly. Now I realize that I will miss them a lot, even my Spanish flatmate and her "strange" way of life...

Besides going to the university to follow my classes, I also took advantage of its great sport centre and the wide choice of different sports if offers. I took the opportunity to do some body-work two or three times a week, which I never do in Belgium :) I hope that I will keep this good habit when I'll be back in Belgium.

Another advantage if the university is its ISN organisation. This organisation of international students enables all the Erasmus students to get into contact during the introduction week it organises during the holidays and thanks to regular activities such as parties, mentor dinners or trips to famous cities in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany.

I still have many things to say to describe this unforgettable experience but I think that we will all have the opportunity to share our different experiences in February.

See you in three weeks !

Anaïs