A year elsewhere

As I said in my previous articles (see my spare time ), one of my favourite pastimes was to discover the landscape around me in a country that was unknown to me. Indeed for me, the discovery of a country is translated by the culture, the language, but also landscapes that surround us. So I went to several places in Scotland: Lochwinnoch, Dumbarton, Loch Ness (where the famous monster Nessie appeared in 1933)... But my favourite trip was Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is a loch which is 25 km in the north of Glasgow. From Glasgow, you have to take the train towards Balloch. Then at Balloch go to the bus station and take the bus towards Balmaha (I hope you don't get sick of transportation because the road is full of bends 😖) At first, the landscape seemed overcast with trees rubbing against the sky. But after a few hundred steps, the landscape cleared and the breathtaking spectacle began. We had to walk about two hours to reach the highest point of the route. As ...

As written in the previous article, outside of classes I had a lot of free time. So I wondered what activities I could do to kill this time and at the same time discover the country, learn the language, meet new people... So from the very first days I decided to get involved in an association, and this for several reasons. First of all because I appreciate giving service and I like to volunteer to help a cause. Secondly, and as I said before, I wanted to discover the culture and learn the language. 100 meters from the university was the British Heart Foundation thrift shop. One day on my way to the university I saw, hanging on a window, "Looking for volunteers". I thought about it for a few days (not too much anyway 😃) and I took the plunge. The procedure was not very long because the following week and others I went back every Friday. I was pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the people and their welcome. Even though I didn't have the same nationality a...

I will tell you a little bit about the English school system because it is very different from the one in France. In France, the school system is based on a dense timetable with a schedule that starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends around 5:00 p.m. In addition to this, homework is also expected. Finally, in order to validate a year of classes, the final exams are presented in the format of a table-top paper or oral exam. In Scotland, and more particularly in the university where I was studying (but it's almost the same everywhere in the UK), we only had a maximum of 8 hours of classes per WEEK. I highlight "week" because it may seem like very few hours for a BAC+3 student but it is indeed the case. So there are days when I didn't have classes. That gave me time to do other things (see the article about my spare time ). On the other hand, a very extensive personal work has to be done outside of class. Also, the end-of-year exams are only homework - to be handed in online ...

Hello and welcome to my blog!😃 Here you will read my adventures as an Erasmus student in a foreign country: Scotland! I have decided to spend the year 2019/2020 abroad thanks to an academic exchange between the University of Nantes and the University of The West of Scotland. As part of this exchange, one of the missions of my second semester is to create a blog. So I wondered what subject this blog could be about... I didn't ask myself for a long time 😄 Indeed, this experience abroad brings a lot of knowledge, both professionally and personally! Through this blog, I'm going to tell my experience and some little anecdotes that happened to me. First of all, you're going to ask me why this choice to leave France and study in another country? I come from the West of France. After graduating from my DUT GEA in Nantes, one of the options for study continuation was to go to another country to obtain a Bachelor's Degree. As I have always liked to discover othe...