Discovering another culture in UK

Dear all,

My name is Angeliki Kalkavoura and I come from Greece. The reason I am writing this small article is to express my feelings after my Erasmus experience at Royal Holloway University of London in 2015. To tell you the truth my first days in UK were very hard for me, because it was the first time I have ever been away from my home. So I leraned very quick to be independent!

The first thing of my Erasmus experience was the living in UK. And what I mean by that is living along in a different country is very hard for a 21 year old person. The culture, daily life  and thing that I used to do in my hometown were totally different from the things I did in the UK. 

The second thing was the language. I was teriified the first days because my English level was so poor. But when I tried to make friends in the university, I felt that people does not give a shit if you can speak their language. Everybody have the same opinion for English people. That you have to talk perfect english, but the truth is that they appreciate a lot the people who try speaking their language, even if the do some mistakes.

The third and most important thing from me was the friendships I did during my Erasmus experience in UK. I met a lot of people from different places of the world. And I enjoyed a lot the lessons in the university with them, but also the trips we did around England. We all had a lot of fun and made good memories from our experiences. I have a lot of friends from all over the world from my Erasmus experience. My best friend is from Tokyo and she invited me to go. I had a great time with her there. And she also came to Greece to visit me. Now I returned to London and she came again to visit me once.

All in all, I have to say that my Erasmus experience is memorable! And it was the reason to come back to UK to do my masters degree. Currently I am studying at City University of London on MA Culture Policy and Management and I want to work in the UK in the future. So, if you are thinking of your future Erasmus experience, I totally recommend you the Royal Holloway University in UK (or UK in general).

Thank you for your time reading it.

With love,

Angeliki.