Post-Erasmus Syndrome

I don't know why it didn't occur to me before to write something on this topic - post-Erasmus syndrome. It's something that starts to worry Erasmus exchange students while they're enjoying their time abroad, but can see the day when they'll have to go home getting closer and closer. At the time, you don't even think about the fact that you're going to have to go home and back to everything you did before (such as going to university, living with your parents, not doing crazy stuff all the time... ), and all of these things from your 'normal' life suddenly seem very serious. Some of you will have heard people talking about Erasmus withdrawal syndrome, and you'll have thought of it as a bit of a joke or as something which doesn't happen to many people, but it really does. It depends of course on what type of person you are, on whether your experience abroad was a positive or a negative one, on what kind of routine you had in the country you lived in, and on a ton of other things which I'll talk about in this entry.

Myself and the people I lived with were actually looking forward to going home (each to his own, hahaha) but really only for a few days. You look forward to going home to see your family and enjoy home comforts, material ones (like your own bed, your own pillow, your own kitchen, your own body wash and shampoo, the supermarket you've been going to all your life, etc. ) as well as non-material ones - actually seeing your family is much more emotional and more personal than calling them, and it's the same with friends, going to the beach, etc. You enjoy this for the first few days, and then you just want to go back and carry on getting drunk on beer (though not in my case, as I hate beer) every Tuesday and Wednesday of every week. Like I told you before, this is just my experience, and I can't guarantee whether yours will be the same or not. There are however a lot of surveys, blogs and books that mention this 'syndrome', and since I'm quite a curious and hard-working person, I've decided to do my homework and tell you a bit about what characterizes this syndrome.

I should mention that normally when we use the word syndrome, we mean something very bad and perhaps slightly exaggerated, and this is why I've put the word 'syndrome' in inverted commas, since it's just a name that's caught on for how students feel who've just come back from their Erasmus exchange. It's not Spanish-specific, it's a universally-used term, since a 'syndrome' refers to the feelings or thoughts we all have when we return to normality after experiencing something which really made a difference in our lives, something which changed us as a person, or something which required you to change your routine and to adapt to a new one.

I don't even want to think about how the people feel who have been somewhere for six months, let alone nine months, as I was only there for three months and I've already noticed quite a big difference in certain areas of my life. Really, post-Erasmus syndrome is a period of adaptation, just the same as what you experience when you first arrive in your Erasmus host country. For some people, it's hard to re-adapt to the life they led before, and for some, it's quite easy. For example, if in your normal life you live at home as your university is in your home city, the period of adaptation is much harder since you go from having lived at home your whole life to being completely independent. In this case, the period of adaptation when moving away from home and when moving back home probably takes the same amount of time each way.

Another thing which can influence this emotional melting pot are the expectations you have about your return home. You'll be the centre of attention for about a day, but by the second day, everything will be just like it was before. When you're in your Eramsus country, you will have tended to idealize your home city, and your old routines seem like the best things you ever did (watching television, going to classes... ) but when you go back, you'll tend to idealise the things that you did or had in your Erasmus host country: going out, drinking, speaking another language. Remember that this is a process of adaptation and that human beings by default always tend to wish for the things that they don't have. Another thing we tend to forget in the midst of this idealisation of our Erasmus exchange is that although we studied there, the situation, set-up and people have all changed now. Nothing stays the same, and so if we were to go back, most things would be different now anyway. I realised this by talking to people who were still there, and even now, they say that it's not the same as it was, as people have come and gone and they've had to form new friendships, get used to a new timetable, etc. A friend of mine told me that the bar we used to go to together has closed now, and that people don't go out for drinks as much as we used to, as the other bar is pretty far away. I've seen on social media too that lots of people I knew while I was there have gone home now too, so I don't feel as left out anymore. If I had stayed, I would have had to start again from scratch with getting to know people, breaking down barriers and learning to be myself with them, and this would have taken a lot of effort.

Some Erasmus students, although I think they are in the minority, decide to extend their stay in their host city, and sometimes extend their exchange (if you're interested in doing this, it's not that difficult, at least it isn't at my university - just ask and you'll see how easy it is). If you're thinking of doing this though, make sure you bear in mind the things I mentioned beforehand, such as the fact that your friends will be returning home having finished their semesters and the place won't be the same because of it. If you look for a job in the city and end up not adapting very well to this new situation (since having a job is in no way the same as doing an Erasmus exchange), you could end up having a pretty miserable time. The experts (according to what I'd read) recommend only making these kind of decisions once you've already been in your Erasmus host country for a minium of two months.

Another thing that can happen when you come back from your Erasmus exchange is that you find there's just nothing going on at home - all your friends have got their own lives and aren't around for you to hang out with. On your Erasmus exchange, almost everyone has the same lifestyle and, although you sometimes have classes at different times, you meet up as often as you can since you don't have much else to do. Everyone usually has the same interests, everyone wants to live the Erasmus lifestyle, and there's this 'pressure' to do all the things you're supposed to do on your Erasmus exchange so that the next batch of students follow in your footsteps and enjoy themselves, too.

Everyone loves to party, and though I can't speak for the thousands of Erasmus students in Europe, it's really easy to get used to this kind of lifestyle and really hard to go back to getting up early every day and really wanting to go out on the town every night, but not always being able to. To make your adaptation to life back home easier, try and remember that this was the Erasmus lifestyle, and not a normal one. Remember that everything you get told or that you hear about Erasmus is true, and not an exaggeration. People laugh when I tell them that they shouldn't consider going on an Erasmus exchange and staying together with their boyfriend or girlfriend, but it's the honest truth that I didn't meet anyone (who wasn't unbelievably quiet) who had a partner back home and who stayed together with them the whole time, not just on my Erasmus exchange but also those who stayed behind while their partner went on the exchange. My advice: break up with your partner before you go on your Erasmus exchange. (I know this sounds a bit harsh, but it's the best advice I can give you after having been on my Erasmus exchange).

Another thing which usually happens when you return home is you find yourself quite unmotivated by and disinterested in your studies. When you're on your Erasmus exchange, one of the things you think about the least (definitely in my case, as I only had two classes) are your studies. When you return home, you realise that you're not being handed good marks on a plate anymore, as is the case for many students on their exchange. You should be aware that you need to start thinking about your future now, continue studying and working towards what you began before you went away on your exchange. You have to finish what you started. If everyone just gave us good grades in return for an Erasmus level of work, no student would ever know what it's like to really study. I'm talking about the majority of us here, mind, not all of us.

All these things I've mentioned have been the basics, but I also read about some things which seemed pretty strange to me - namely, the following:

• You don't feel like picking up your previous friendships, because you don't feel the same with them as with the people you met on Erasmus, as your interests are different.
• Difficulty in talking to your family and friends very much. I suppose this also depends on whether you lived with people beforehand who had the same lifestyle (study, go out, study, go out, study, go out... )
• Depression through loss of contact with foreign people. I think this is always a bit upsetting, but not to this extent. You have to really have little or no friends from your old life to start feeling really depressed about this.

Well, I think these three are enough to prove to you that you shouldn't believe everything you read since, although I suppose you could feel like this, these effects affect a very small percentage of ex-Erasmus students. Without further ado, I'll finish here and say that despite all the negative things I've talked about today, I hope you enjoy your Erasmus exchange, because it'll be over really quickly. According to what I've read, if you really feel awful about going home after one semester, if you stay for a year then you'll get really sick of the country you chose!

I'll leave you with a photo of my wonderful day in Vienna:

Photo gallery