What does it mean to go on Erasmus?

It's going to sound like a cliché, but it seems like this crazy year began only yesterday. The moment you press the button "Request Erasmus Grant" and you have no idea what is about to happen.

After months and months of endless paperwork, of obsessing over where you're going to live... A flat or a residence? Where's the best place to live or go out? Of asking, what will the city be like? Or, how will I make friends with people? And suddenly, before you realise, the day has arrived and you are about to embark on an experience you are undoubtedly going to remember for a lifetime.

The first couple of days of uncertainty and "being scared" about everything without getting to know it or discovering it. The first nights out, the first people the first anecdotes, memories, they have marked you for eternity...

The first few days at university, the new language... You aren't involved in absolutely anything but you're happy to be there. Nevertheless, for every stone you stumble across, a Spanish person comes out and it's very easy to make a group in very little time.

Without realising, you already have various people who you can share this great experience with, and you're sure of them and that they are going to be a fundamental pillar in your day to day life over the following months. It seems incredible that in such a short time you have managed to form a family, and you never want to be apart from them.

You have realised that, although you're all different, we all came with a similar idea: to get to know more about our daily routine that we are living in the town or city, and what we need to escape for a bit. We all want to explore the whole world, to start new friendships and really get to know ourselves, to live new experiences and to do crazy things to make the most of the only life we have. Either you live it or you let it get away...

You will go out clubbing, you will definitely go out clubbing! The club will turn into your second home, you'll go every week and end up helping someone make their way home most nights or maybe it will be you needing help. The next day there will be photos that you don't remember being taken and you just hope that nobody sees them on your Facebook profile.

You'll realise that there is always a reason to celebrate something, whether it be a birthday, a special date, or a day when someone you don't know ate pizza for the first time... All in all, what you will want to do is live each moment as if it were your last, because even though we don't like it, this is going to end.

There will be days where the only thing you want to do is have a coffee and return home with a spontaneous ticket to the most hidden destination on earth. You will live and discover incredible places and you will start to cross off these places on your bucket list of places to visit in this wide world. Each place you see will seem better than the last and the best thing to do is share it with those that we call "your Erasmus Family", trips packed with photos, videos and anecdotes to tell and remember in the future.

Although you want to bond with the people of the country you're in, most of the time you will fall into the company of your own people. But, nevertheless, this won't stop you from getting to know people from elsewhere and making marvellous foreign friendships that, without a doubt, you will always remember.

I can only say thank you to all of those people that have made this possible this year. To all the people I have met, to those who I have crossed paths with over this entire time, and those from forever, and those who have made numerous visits from Spain.

Speaking in general, it is clear that it will never be the same, this experience has changed us forever. An era has ended, but another will open. We return with a much more open mindset, with a burning desire to devour the world around us!

We are quite fortunate to have been able to live all of this. It is an experience that will make you grow as a person, it will change your point of view about a lot of aspects of life. You are conscious that there is a world outside of what you already know, you know that you will never, ever, regret having taken the decision to go on Erasmus, because it has been the best thing that you could ever have done.

ONCE ERASMUS, ALWAYS ERASMUS!

All of this is summarised in an emotional 4 minute video that I would like you to watch.

Link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OoivO0b3c