Desperately Seeking Europe
This might be the greatest experience of your life.
But each year, thousands of students go back to their country after an Erasmus experience and face what is called the “Post Erasmus Syndrome”.
But, first, let’s have a look at the roots of the problem.
The Erasmus program was created 25 years ago, with the Treaty of Rome which offers students the opportunity to study abroad for a few months or a whole year. It’s a unique opportunity to discover a country, to really understand a country’s culture and to face the language you learn.
And for that, it’s going to be the experience which is going to change your life; taking into account that facing foreign people - especially with a “scholarly” basic language, you find yourself fighting for every single word to make a correct sentence-, finding an accommodation - so that at the very beginning you spend your time calling people to visit flats-, asking for some information when classes begin at the University, going shopping without losing yourself in the town is yet a huge unconscious personal work.
But once you’re settled, it seems like real life could begin at last. The fact is that in your home country you don’t have the feeling to be “living” something, and maybe that’s what transforms you when you’re an Erasmus student.
Life takes another meaning, everything seems new, beautiful, interesting and you’ve got the feeling of being quite “exotic”. In the streets you walk with a springy and confident step, thinking about next night and what you’re gonna do with all your Spanish, Italian, Mexican and French friends.
And when you sit on a bench with your mango ice cream by the end of June, ventilating yourself with a fan, your sunglasses on the nose, when you look at other people in the street telling yourself there are so many strangers out there, you’re now part of this society, of this town, of this country. And it feels like home.
And that’s exactly the point.
“[…] Back in their countries, they don’t know how horrible their house will look, their city either too cold or too hot, University boring as never before […]. They are overwhelmed by a depression […], and they reject anything which is not related to their Erasmus.”
Fiorella de Nicola
This is what the other side of the coin looks like.
When you enter your house and you see all that you had left, everything seems small, too tidy. It feels like nothing’s yours, even if pictures on the wall make you remember your “old” French friends are waiting to see you again after all this time.
You go back to reality, and to deep normality. You go back to the routine you had before leaving.
People are no longer speaking Spanish, English or whatever around you. You no longer have to wash the dish for your flatmates, the sun’s gone, the tourists you were making fun of are also gone, nothing occurs in your life which seems as empty as never before.
And when by chance you hear people speaking foreign languages in the corridors of the University or as passing them in the street, for a few seconds your heart leaps as you feel like you found again what’s missing inside you.
“The syndrome is experienced by all, without exception.”
Indeed, the Program brings so much to you but also takes away so much from you. It’s just like there was a negative reward for such a great experiencing of life.
Depression hits Erasmus students for some weeks, or some months sometimes. But you always have to keep in mind that all that you brought back from the country – language, human relations, culture, courses, friends – led you to opening of mind and consciousness of yourself and the others. And that’s the most important.
“I do not know whether I have returned more of a man but what is for sure is that I am richer, more open-minded and more conscious of me”.
Alin
It seems like you cannot go back without avoiding this syndrome. But, of course, that kind of disease can be forgotten. For a moment at least.
So, don’t be afraid if you’re unable to help yourself sending e-mails to your “ex” Erasmus friends, looking at the 1,486 photos you took over there, or if you find yourself hanging around in Cafés des Langues, or trying to fight your newly acquired schizophrenia.
Because this is exactly how it feels when you miss Europe.
G.S.