8 months in Rome

At this point, I have almost finished my Erasmus apart from the final exams and I have decided to share my experience up until this point... When I asked for the Erasmus scholarship in Rome, I heard the typical comments of: "How smart, you won't have to do anything there", "Live the crazy life, a year of partying and food! ", "Are you going to learn Italian? If it isn't used for anything and it is like Spanish... ". Well, those comments are part of the reason but I am not completely sure.

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I done one full year of Business Administration and Management in Sapienza University of Rome, and before coming here I did an A2 level course in Italian to learn the basics and get by living there, the surprise was that when I arrived here it seemed like people were talking to me in Chinese and I don't know... I didn't understand anything and in general, their level of English is not very good. But the university offers an Italian course according to your level, and although a lot of people chose not to do it, I was grateful to go to class to learn and develop my language. So for that, in the last two weeks of being here, I can now speak enough.

The first problem that arose... looking for accommodation through Facebook groups and of course, the distances on google maps are not reliable, since before coming here I didn't really know how transport works in Rome. The truth is the bus will take you to almost all of Rome, the problem is when they are full and you usually have to transfer, it is a pain in the ass to do every day. So, I decided to look for a house closer to the university, but normally they don't like to rent places for less than 12 months and much less to Spanish people, because "we make too much noise and have too many party's" and "we trick them and then let them down in the last two months" which in some way... is true, almost no one is here for 12 full months. In the end I was lucky enough to find a room in a flat, very close to my university with two Italian girls. I was there for all of the first semester, which really helped me with the language, typical expressions from here and moreover, I started to go out with them and their friends, who were always really nice. Among other things, they had a passion for Spanish and Spanish people and always wanted to learn from me, we have very similar customs, etc. Without going on too much, I used the first term for getting to know the true culture and living with Italian students.

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I had good or bad luck, where in February I returned to find that my room was damaged, so I had to look for another house (the third already... ) very very close to the last one, and honestly it was better and it was bigger, but don't expect to find a house with a living room, they almost never have one. And 4 Spanish people and 1 Italian lived here. The second semester living here was completely different, the truth is I was still meeting Italian people, going out with Italian people, etc. But I was much more "Erasmus". Typically going out every weekend, Erasmus parties, other things at home and a little more crazy. The good thing about being with all the Spanish people is that you can express yourself much better and really vent by talking about your things and they understand you. The bad part is that you loose a bit of the language haha... well, if you want to you can keep it and improve on it.

I am not going to talk a lot about food... the traditional pizza, pasta, ice cream, sushi, I wanted to try it all... in the end, without comments... it was all very good.

And in terms of studies, the exams are easier, if they give it to you, for being Erasmus you don't do anything... There are a lot of versions of this, it depends on the degree that you are doing, the university you are in and if you are lucky. In my case, no, it has not been easy. I was thinking, well, I was going to study a bit, enough to pass, I will read it and then they will feel sorry about it and thats it. Welllll I have to say that at least in Business Management and Administration in Sapienza, that is not the way it is. The truth is that the classes are not normally compulsory, so going to university... in the first term okay, yes... but in the second, I could count the times that I went on my fingers. The problem is this... you don't have notes, you have to search for life and in a place where at the start, you don't know anyone.. it is a little difficult. If you are lucky enough to find summaries or cool notes, if not, the book. Normally, they don't take your syllabus, you do the same exam as the Italians, in Italian, on the same day,.. in other words, you are not a preferred student, for being an Erasmus student, except some exception that I will tell you now. Here exams have two parts, a written (which is marked out of 30 and you need 18 to pass) and, if you get between 26 and 30, you have to do an oral (because the Italians think that they are always going for the maximum mark, 18 is an "embarrassment", but listen... I am very happy! ). The exception that I told you about before is that, out of all the modules that I took, in ONE let me not do the writing and directly do the oral, but here we go... you have to study everything equally.

I think that I have said almost everything, part from the obvious that Rome is beautiful, everywhere you go, you will love it... It is clear that it is a city that you have to see. Even if, the cars go like crazy, I didn't except that they would be soo crazy, and in regards to what I said about the houses, I would choose to look for a house close to the university or the metro, because then when you are going on a night out there are a lot of night bus connections and since there is almost no traffic at all when it is late, you can keep drinking on the bus or metro, without a problem.

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While telling my experience, I didn't want to only think about coming to study or things that are a bore and take away the urge to come here. It is an experience that I would do again and I don't want it to end, I just want you to know that it is not as easy as is seems and that and it's not like things are just given to you and you aren't coming here to do nothing, but in general, you live really well and I recommend it 100%.

I will keep uploading more experiences in a little more detail and the rest, meanwhile if you want to see how I live here, you can watch my instagram stories (@_10ea) and the photos that I am going to post :)