My semester abroad Aka. The greatest Experience of my life.

My semester abroad has been without the sing of a doubt one of the greatest experiences in my life. It´s been a great adventure but it has also been an incredible opportunity to meet incredible people for whom I am incredibly grateful for.

First of all, it was the first time that I was living by my own. I am 21 and, in my country the normal thing is to stay home until you finish your studies if not even further.

Living at my parents, I did not have the need to cook or to clean or to be tidy at all. I knew that if I didn’t do it someone would do it for me. Here, even when I was living with other people I needed to be able to cook and to clean my clothes and do a basic housekeeping by myself. I didn´t know how to cook; now, four months later I prepare an amazing risotto thanks to the teaching of one of my roommates. Also, I realize that my mum was right and if I keep things in place everything is way easier that have everything a mess.

I am also happy because I realize that there is a bunch of clichés about all nationalities that are completely false. I am going to be very short on this topic, because I don’t want to offend anybody.

There is this image about Spain in the world, in which everyone things that we are always parting and that we are lazy. We are not! There is lazy people in Spain but there is rude people in Germany (I have encounter them), and they are not as perfect as we all believe: they are not as punctual as they wanted us to believe in our first week here. There are some that are extremely hardworking but there are some that are lazy. Lastly, one thing is to be straight forward and a completely different one is to be rude, they really need to think about it. However, I know, that not all the Germans are like this, because I had the pleasure to meet some really nice Germans who would stop to talk with you, and be genially interested on what you have to say.

I could also speak about other nationalities for example, Australians. We all, at least in here, thought that over there it was always warm. I have been living with an Australian and I was wrong! They have winter and summer, just the other way around.

I think my experience has been so rich and so incredible, because I´ve had the chance to meet people from all around the world: French, Italians, Canadians, British, Japanese, Chinese, Americans… and some Spanish. And those people are the ones that should be blamed for the amazing time that I´ve had over here.

This is a very little town in which there is no pubs and not the things that you might expected to find on a university city. There are no bars and certainly there are no clubs. If you want to hang out you better go to one of the apartments compounds or go clubbing to the nearest town. There is not even a mall, so shopping is completely out of the way.

My semester has turn out as good as it has because I was surrounded by amazing people that I will now introduce to you, and for whom I am really grateful. There are no real names out of request of some of the people appearing.

Let´s go first with the Spanish people. Some are new and some are old acquaintances.

Mr. Enigma is a dear friend of mine from the university back home. We meet during our first year, in the first week; we keep friends after all this time. I am really happy he is here with me because I tend to panic over the smallest think and he is just the opposite, taking things with calm. We took the plane together and despite of his obsession of us getting lost we manage to arrive to our destination. During this semester, we have seen each other maybe less than we are used to, but I know that he was there in case of need. I mean we manage to leave Oktober Fest because he wouldn’t leave without us.

Lightning McQueen and Betty Rubble are the other two Spanish people whose I meet here and become close with. I met them because I am a total creep and kind of stalked Lightning McQueen during one of the meetings that we had to attend and sing attendance. I discover a name that sounds Spanish and count people until I found him and talked with him. Thanks to him I meet Betty Rubble, definitely someone who is now on my favorite people list, actually all of the people that I am talking about here are in this list now. But going back to both Lightning McQueen and Betty Rubble, it is important that I highlight all the fun that I have traveling around with them. Discovering Bonn with them was incredibly nice and I think our first bonding experience with them at their place after a long day walking. And then we visit other places and it has always been nice times with a lot of laughing involve.

And now, let´s talk about my international friends.

Dori, is one of my roommates. She is from Australia and live right across the aisle. If I were her I would have kill myself in more than one occasion because every five minutes I am knocking on her door to make sure that my grammar is correct. Who can blame me? Those are the perks of living with a native English speaker. Dori is probably the most fitting nickname that I’ve ever chose for anyone, cause she keeps forgetting about stuff, but it´s been a real pleasure to live with her, she is a lovely person.

Elsa is from Hungary, and the nickname was chosen by The Wicked Witch. She is from Hungary and even when I am leaving tomorrow I have not been able to master the correct pronunciation of her name. She is the first person that I’ve ever meet from her country and if all of them are just half as good as she is, they must be amazing. Elsa is ready for a great chat on a party or just simple chatting evening. Plus, she made the most amazing brownies in the whole world. By the way Elsa, next time I say if you want me to make sure that you come back home, let me take care of it.

Luna Lovegood is an incredible nice French lady that along with Ms. Lecter thought me that French people are crazy about two things: cheese and wine. Seriously I´ve never meet someone who is able to have such intense conversations about food as this two, and I really love food. She is also an incredible photographer, and really funny. She´s been like the fifth roommate.

I also met Tiana, girl from Manchester with who I have great times getting bored in class. We talked about Minions (which all of you know by now that I adore). We met on the first week during a BBQ, and even when at first getting her accent was kind of hard for me, as I guess getting mine was for her I genially knew I would like to be friends with her, as it turned out to be.

I met Mulan thanks to Tiana. I mean we have seen each other sometimes at German class but not talking that much apart from: “Guten Tag. Wie Gehts?”. Eventually we had another course together and became close. I really enjoy time with Mulan, she is really funny and when you are with her you can cease laughing.

Sven is a Canadian guy that I meet the first night we were here. We chatted for a bit and then keep chatting until we became friends. At first, he was kind of shy, but once he was confident around it´s incredible nice and patience person to hang with. If I was him, I would have killed myself because even when we only had one course together I manage to drive him crazy with all my questions. And I am really thankful, because thanks to him I discovered one of the prettiest places that I´ve visited in Germany: Burg Eltz. Plus, he was really calm when I locked myself out of my room in the middle of the night and I went to him for help. He has proven to be a friend for the funny and the needy times.

Lastly but non-the least, I want to tell you about Ms. Lecter and The Wicked Witch. I could have not been luckier. They are my other two roommates and we have become really close. In fact, we are always together. By the way the nicknames are a joke among us, they are really nice, more than nice to be honest!

When I first arrived here I was worried about not being able to meet people, even when I am one of those who speaks with the pavement on the middle of the street. But I met them!

At first I thought my roommates will just be someone to share a house with. But I was wrong, The Wicked Witch and Ms.Lecter have been the people with whom I have shared the most amazing times in here. Like the time we went to Oktober Fest and we almost were left there because Ms.Lecter did not want to leave without the jar, or in that same trip when she said or most used phrase: “I don´t care! He is like me!” and achinó (slanted) her eyes to prove her point. It was impossible to calm her down, but then The Wicked Witch appeared and even when she was as drunk as Ms. Lecter was, she managed to calm her down. It didn´t last long, however and she keept been funny.

We had an amazing time in our trip to Neuschwanstein and Munich. We went with Lightning McQueen and Betty Rubble. It was crazy cause we walked all the way to the castle after a night of no-sleep and more than 600 kilometers on a car. But it was completely worth it.

On that same trip, we decided to drive Lightning McQueen mad with all our questions. Sleep on incredible destination in the middle of nowhere and drink the fresh milk the morning after. We spoke with the cows and took a selfie with a horse. In Muchich we jumped on the air-mattress and named a teddy bear that I bought after a famous German desert, which became the love of my life thanks to The Wicked Witch. 

Those days that we spend shopping and eating like crazy in Japanese restaurants in Koblenz until we couldn’t walk anymore. I think we beat ourselves in our last dinner.

And I cannot forget about all of afternoons having coffee together and all the laughs and chats. Drinks and food tastings from each of our countries. After this I am seriously considering moving to France or Italy, even when Spain we also have an amazing gastronomy.

I know that I got the jackpot with those two and that, I´ve made friendship for what I hope is a lifetime. I am really looking forward to the next time I will meet them.

I am writing this one week in advance and I cannot keep myself for crying because now I understand that thing that some friends told me this past summer before I come: “You cry at the beginning of Erasmus because you are going to miss your family but you also cry at the end because you are going to miss all the people that you have meet”. I am going to miss  them like crazy and I cannot thank them enough for all the great times that I´ve had with them.

I think I can say safely that Erasmus have been the greatest experience of my life, because I have grown up a lot. But mostly, because all the people that I manage myself to surround with.