I’ve now been back in Scotland for almost two weeks and have moved into a new flat in the Grange, got a job, unpacked my umbrella and pretty much started my life the way it’s going to be for the next few months – with all of that in place it almost seems as though the last eight months didn’t even happen.
My last week in Dijon was stressful and sad – there were so many things to organise before I could leave and of course, admin is never painless in France! We spent a lot of time trying to find Erasmus co-ordinators to sign things and secretaries to give things to and collect things from, most of which managed to sort itself out in the end, which is also pretty characteristic of France – there’s usually not too much point getting stressed out about these things because everything does tend to fall into place at the last minute! As well as all of that, Sophie and I kept ourselves busy completing our list of things to do before we left and, among other things, took a trip to Marsannay, a wine-growing village just outside of Dijon. I think it technically counts as part of Dijon as the bus goes there, but it does seem like a tiny town on its own. There isn’t really very much there – just a church, a couple of museums, cafés and caves de dégustation which are basically just local peoples’ houses that you can turn up to and ask to taste their wines. We didn’t do that because there does tend to be an expectation that if they open bottles for you to taste and take time out of their day to take you around their vineyards and tell you about their produce you’ll reciprocate by spending money, which we couldn’t really afford to do. Nonetheless we spent a pleasant day in Marsannay – it was also the last sunny day of my year abroad so I’m glad I didn’t spend it inside!
My dad and brother came over for my last few days to have a bit of a holiday before helping me to take my almost 60kg of luggage (!) back to Scotland. It was unfortunate that they were there on a Sunday and a Monday – the two most difficult days to find shops, museums and tourist attractions that are open. Normally it wouldn’t have been too much of an issue and I had planned to spend a lot of time with them at the lake and the park, or just wandering around the town or going to some of the other wine growing villages around Dijon – as I said though, the weather took a turn for the worse and it rained almost constantly from the minute they set foot in France to the minute we left. We did go to Beaune though and I think they were impressed by how pretty Dijon is although also a bit bemused as to how I could have kept myself busy and entertained there for a whole year!
As I’ve said before, the process of leaving seemed to take weeks and weeks, but when it actually came time to pack up my room it sort of took me by surprise. I’m glad that I had family visiting because I didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that it was nearly all over. Sophie came out with us for a final meal, we went to bed early, caught a sickeningly early train to Paris and before I knew it, I was waving goodbye to her at the departure gates of Charles de Gaulle airport. And that was it. It felt very anti-climatic after the weeks of tearful goodbyes and discussions about packing and whether or not to take mustard home and whether or not we would still all be friends in a year, two years, three years.
So that’s my Erasmus year over now and I can’t believe that a year ago I was sitting in my flat writing out my very first blog, still three months away from actually going to Dijon, and trying to convince myself that I hadn’t made a grave error in agreeing to go through with this madness! I could never have imagined how the year abroad would turn out – for one thing I was supposed to be doing a teaching assistantship in Marseilles – but it exceeded all of my expectations and left me with so many fantastic memories and experiences that I would never have had otherwise. I did so much travelling, learned to ski and snowboard and kayak, discovered what it’s like to eat like a blind person, witnessed a parade of bikers dressed up like Santa Claus, spread the joy of Marmite to unsuspecting Europeans, fell in love with the colour orange, sang karaoke, found hundreds of new uses for mustard, learned about wine and how to pour a beer (after causing much hilarity with my pint glass full of froth on my first attempt), I learned new words in German, Spanish, Dutch and Polish and joined in with some traditions of my new home, I went on strike, ate snails, balked at trying frogs’ legs and yearned for roast beef. I made fantastic new friends and my French improved dramatically. In short, I had an absolutely brilliant year and I couldn’t have wished for anything better or more rewarding. I was sceptical when previous Erasmus students assured me that this would be the best year of my life, but as it turned out, they were completely right!
It was a lovely place to visit with numerous beaches, a lake and plenty of woodland to explore.
