Erasmus...

irishguy00

So i'm here in Lyon starting an Erasmus course for a year, five of us here at the moment from the college. Does anyone who has had previous experiences from living abroad doing erasmus have any useful information for us? Lyon related or otherwise. Useless information can also be good too...

Lyon? Engineering by any chance?

Advice... advice... if you see a sign which says, ‘Do not feed the bears.’ Man, you'd better not feed the bears.

the flananator

I'm going to hyjack this topic....

If you want to go on Erasmus, is the college you head over to totally dependent on whom your course is linked with, or can you arrange it yourself? You see I got an e-mail a few months back from somebody in the Politics dept. (could have been the Phil dept.) I think, going on about Eramus oppurtunities, but the only colleges mentioned were ones in France and Germany. Personally, I'd like to study in the States for a while. Any erm, advice? :P

graphene

irishguy00 wrote: »

So i'm here in Lyon starting an Erasmus course for a year, five of us here at the moment from the college. Does anyone who has had previous experiences from living abroad doing erasmus have any useful information for us? Lyon related or otherwise. Useless information can also be good too...

I was on a Erasmus in Toulouse so I cant give any exact advice on Lyon but from being in france I can give you some advice.


The best way to get to know people is to talk to those in your lectures/praticals, however at the weekends most of them arn't about. Generally there are international student nights in the universities and i highly recommend going to them as you will meet many other people in the same situation as yourself.

Usually French universities have huge subisidies on food (in Touluse it was 2.90 for a three course meal) so its often best to eat on campus.

Booze is very expensive in bars but very cheap in supermarkets so I found it best to drink in someones house and then go out after

If you can I would recommend getting a bike as there is usually excellent facilities for cyclists in most large french towns.

Try to speak french at any chance you get, give yourself 4-6 months and you will be practically fluent, also most universities offer free french language courses so check them out.

graphene

the flananator wrote: »

I'm going to hyjack this topic....

If you want to go on Erasmus, is the college you head over to totally dependent on whom your course is linked with, or can you arrange it yourself? You see I got an e-mail a few months back from somebody in the Politics dept. (could have been the Phil dept.) I think, going on about Eramus oppurtunities, but the only colleges mentioned were ones in France and Germany. Personally, I'd like to study in the States for a while. Any erm, advice? :P

Generally Erasmus exchanges are with departments in universities with links to the relevant school in Trinity. Basically the lecture courses have to be of a similar level (eg. many french undergrad degrees are for 5 years so a JS here may take a mix of 3rd, 4th and 5th year courses abroad). Having only a small no of Erasmus exchange partners allows means you do courses at the levels needed to not have missed anything when you come back.

Erasmus is funded by the EU so is for european exchanges only, there are exchanges with other places avalable in some Schools (in chemistry people often go to Japan) but that again depends on the dept you are studying in.

the flananator

graphene wrote: »

Generally Erasmus exchanges are with departments in universities with links to the relevant school in Trinity. Basically the lecture courses have to be of a similar level (eg. many french undergrad degrees are for 5 years so a JS here may take a mix of 3rd, 4th and 5th year courses abroad). Having only a small no of Erasmus exchange partners allows means you do courses at the levels needed to not have missed anything when you come back.

Erasmus is funded by the EU so is for european exchanges only, there are exchanges with other places avalable in some Schools (in chemistry people often go to Japan) but that again depends on the dept you are studying in.

Thats pretty **** but thanks for the response! Is there anyway around this? As in, would it be possible for me to do say a semester in say Berkley in the US?

Serafijn

I did Erasmus in Italy so more general advice.

It will be tempting to hang around with the other English-speaking folks also on Erasmus but this won't help you become fluent in your new language. As a previous poster said, try and speak French whenenver you can - find people who have the same hobbies, like the same kinds of things and you'll always have a starting point.

Failing that go out a lot and make an effort to talk to the locals! Oh and try to travel around a bit on weekends and time off. If you don't you'll regret it when you're back home!

I'm so jealous, I wish I was just starting my erasmus year again