Edinburgh Exchanges

Hallo!

so after many months,some very tearful goodbyes, and surviving Terminal 5 I'm finally here! I have to first of all say that Vienna is amazing! I really couldn't have picked a better city to study in. The main university building where I'll be having my classes is incredibly impressive and I can actually see the Votivkirche from my halls window.

Today, with my mum in tow, we started to tackle the extensive admin which has to be done. Starting at 9 am, we still hadn't finished by 4 pm! Collecting my key at halls was actually the easiest part, the woman was extremely friendly, helpful and more than a little motherly. She showed me my room, apologising for its size, and the bathroom which I will be sharing with a Polish girl, whom I am yet to meet, and the shared kitchen. My room is really nice, although it's pretty tiny, it has plenty of storage space (too much for the 2 suitcases I brought.) It was all very efficient and thorough until I came to the Erasmus office where after bombarding me with far more information than I could possibly take in, they informed me that I was enrolled for 'Anglistik und Amerikanistik' - which is a MAJOR problem since those courses, being entirely in English and about English things, won't be recognised as part of my single honours German degree back in Edinburgh! Luckily my very friendly DOS type figure, who even though she is a professor with the English department will be sticking with me throughout my time in Vienna, reassured me that she would sort it all out and email me to tell me exactly what I need to do. Awesome! I do love these Austrians!

With all of this admin, we haven't had time to do anything else! Tomorrow morning I still need to hand in my receipt for my registration fee in order to receive my pin without which I can't sign on to the univie system (uni wien's myed) and therefore can't register for any classes. I also have to register with the police, something we didn't have time to do today. However, there will be time for our prebooked Danube cruise which I'm really looking forward to!

Despite how amazing the city seems to be, my first day here has been stressful and emotional. Even with the Austrian efficiency, admin took all day and what's more worrying for me is that the only girl I have met in halls so far was stuck up and rude. I know I can cope with the language and the classes but I worry that I'm not going to make any friends here and this is my biggest fear. I have such amazing friends at home whom I already really miss and I'm so settled in my life in Edinburgh that it seems almost stupid to miss out on it all for the erasmus experience. I've already had to ring my best friend in tears and despite knowing that I've only been here a day and so can't possibly expect to be settled yet, the thought of just giving up and going home with my mum on thursday is unbelievably tempting! I know that I'd always regret never giving it a proper shot though and that's what's making me stay.

Anyway I will update soon, hopefully things will be more settled then!
Bis bald!

It’s amazing just how much can happen in one week! Last Tuesday morning, I set off for East Midlands Airport with two extremely heavy bags and serious butterflies in my stomach. A couple of hours, £72 excess and a lifetime of nerves later, I touched down in Limoges itself.

My bag was one of the first off the plane and to top it off there was a taxi sitting just outside the airport when I left. So far, so good. However, when I reached my accommodation, I realised that things weren’t perhaps going to run quite as smoothly as I had first hoped. On entering the room, I found that the lights didn’t work, there was no bedding or bed clothes whatsoever and the communal kitchen consisted of just a sink and one hot plate. Thoughts of how I was ever going to manage to survive inevitably crept into my head, but after a few moments sat on my mattress reflecting upon the situation, I decided that the best course of action was to keep active, so that I didn’t have to think about the predicament I was in. I decided to head to the Carrefour down the road, where I managed to buy bedclothes, sheets, utensils, light bulbs and food. After various phone calls home and a quick bout of rearranging furniture, I opted for an early night. Perhaps the day after, I wouldn’t view the situation I was in as the worst case scenario…

In order not to waffle, I’ll try to paraphrase what happened from then on until the present day. I woke and realised that my room wasn’t in fact THAT bad, although it wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination. During the next few days, I bought more things to make me feel more at home there, and I also managed to fill in most of the mountain of paperwork that I had been given on arrival. This did involve a lot of talking in French with various people, but I was pleasantly surprised that people actually seemed to understand what I was saying.

The next step was finding the university campus and attending the welcome meeting. This turned out to be relatively easy. Once I arrived there, I found that the tutors and French students all seemed to be extremely friendly and helpful. There was a special area designated as an information point for international students, where we could go if we needed help with course choices, filling in forms or generally any sort of problems that we had. All of this was extremely reassuring, as I had heard that universities in France didn’t offer much help for foreign students, but that was definitely not the case. I met loads of different people of different nationalities, including a few English and American students which was nice, as it was like experiencing a tiny bit of home again. I had to take an initial test to decide what level of French classes I would go in, and once we received our results I was placed in a group with all day classes Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve also taken a course in translation and am planning to take a few other literature courses.

In terms of practicing the language, I definitely think that I have improved considerably over the last week. I’ve managed to purchase a French mobile, successfully fill in all my paperwork and sort out insurance, just to name a few things. My confidence has improved a lot too, and I’m pleased that I’m managing to keep up with the French students in my classes. At the beginning, I was nervous, scared and generally wondered why I’d ever thought that I could survive abroad, yet now after only one week I feel at home in Limoges and I’m starting to realise that if you get involved in everything, you’re able to adapt and adjust much quicker. The people here are really friendly; you’ve just got to build up your confidence and be willing to make mistakes in order to progress. It’s taken me this long, but I’m finally figuring out what’s needed to successfully live abroad and learn a language. Bring on next week!...