It took me a while to find good replacements. It might sound like a stupid thing to forget, but trying to understand not only the subject matter but the language will be knackering. I wish I had made a bit more of an effort to try to talk to my neighbours in lectures and classes — I wonder if I had I been a bit more open, would they have talked to me more? As friendships go, some of the erasmus people you will meet will be some of your best friends within days — do you remember Freshers, and how everyone was nice to everyone?
I also took advantage of the tandem schemes here, and in my first week here, contacted about four different French girls, who were all looking for English speaking tandem partners.
Everyone jokes about the French administration system being difficult, but I had always dismissed this as UK people being disorganised.
Having written a little bit about life in France, I thought I would take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about what life was like specifically in Caen, Basse-Normandie.
So, why is Caen very special to me? University Caen University is fairly big, and has a big erasmus population. The admin staff are at best unhelpful, and at worst, very rude. I also took modules in translation, sociology and French grammar.
