EP.3: My Erasmus Experience - Part III

In the third episode, I am talking about the third part of my Erasmus experience in France! It follows a book I wrote about it, so you can have some visual help as well. Let me know what you think!

Also, you can find the vocabulary and comprehension quiz under the transcription!

(Česky: Najdete seznam slovíček a krátký kvíz porozumění pod přepisem)

Link for the episode:

Link for the third part of the e-book (there is more than I speak about in the podcast!) :

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome again to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. If you don't know me, I am Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and I decided to make this podcast for intermediate and upper-intermediate students of English who want to get better in listening and oral comprehension. 

You can find the whole transcription of this episode in the description as well as a list of vocabulary words and a comprehension quiz so be sure to check it out. 

In this episode I will continue and also finish my Erasmus experience story - I know, it is sad that it will end, but please don't cry. Okay, there is no time to waste time, so let's go and start.

Part 3 is called: "Where did the time go?"

Okay, last part! Oh my god, that is so sad! (for me back then, not for me now).

 I can't believe it went by so fast! I swear that every new day went by faster and faster... and by the end it was just a big blur...what the hell?

My subjective perception of time- so how I viewed my time in France- was changing!

The first week of September was taking forever. It was so long because I felt so lost.

The rest of September and October went a little bit faster. I already had my routine I had my classes.  I met some new people... it was great.

And in November and in December, finally, when I was comfortable, everything went so so fast. As the days went by quicker and quicker I realized I need some serious time management, so again how to organize my time, to be able to organize my time well.

At that point I was writing my thesis (master's thesis), I was doing my assignment for French school, for my school here in the Czech Republic, I was trying to see my friends in France, I was trying to have fun and to do some sports and I also was reading literature for my thesis so it was a lot.

The whole experience of going to France reminded me of my frequent shower experience.

I know it sounds weird (=strange) but let me explain!

You know those nights where you just don't want to go to the shower because you are extremely exhausted (exhausted means very tired) and it is honestly the last thing you want to do at that point... but finally you go in anyway because you know you need to shower and then you stand under the amazing, warm water and just don't want to go out but you should go out because by this point, you are wasting too much water and it is time to go to sleep anyway ...but it is so NICE in the shower.

That is how I felt about the beginning and the end of my semester.

But I guess it was time to slowly turn off the water and prepare myself to get out of the shower...

On a more positive note, do you remember when I told you that I was walking out of my comfort zone a lot in the beginning? 

When I said that growth happens outside of it?

Well, I discovered that my comfort zone grew so much that all the things that were out of my comfort zone before were now safely inside.

The scale of the entire (= whole) experience suddenly changed. What I mean by that is that going to a different country, living there and being alone... and also sometimes lonely, doesn't seem so scary anymore.

The difference between being alone and being lonely is that when you are alone, it means that no people are around you ...you are physically alone or maybe mentally also. 

But if you are lonely, it means that you feel alone you can be lonely and have people around you.

But when you are alone, it means that there is no one around you. 

Fun fact: speaking to total strangers in French doesn't give me night sweats (night sweat is when you wake up in the middle of the night and you are sweaty because something terrible was in your dreams)...

 and that is what I call ✨progress✨.

 Now it only gives me a feeling of big discomfort.

Unfortunately, that it doesn't mean that I suddenly became this amazing social person who doesn't struggle to step out of their little box to do uncomfortable things.

Not at all.

That takes much more time.

But in December I realized that I was seriously running out of time so I really got into the whole socializing thingy more (thingy is an informal way we say instead of "thing"). 

I mean if not then in December, then when?

Unfortunately for me, December is also the time of exams ...who would have thought, am I right?

Anyway, because of it I had to decide where to channel my energy (to channel something to somewhere means to put energy somewhere)... so where to put my energy... and my precious, precious time.

Decisions, decisions.

I am kidding. It wasn't so difficult... I was just spending time with my friends.

When I look at my last week, sure it was different than the first one but it still involved a lot of crying and bureaucracy... some things never change.

If only you knew how many times I told my friends to visit the Czech Republic because we have cheap and good beer... so many times!

 Of course, the last week was stressful for me as well.

 As you can see, I'm a little bit overdramatic.

 I don't think this book could have actually been made if I wasn't.

I get stressed out by everything and I was stressed a lot especially in the beginning but the stress of saying goodbye to all my friends here in France was almost as big as the one where I had no idea what I was doing.

 So and in the PDF book, you can see a graph of my stress levels.

 I was getting ready to leave, I was packing, I was buying souvenirs and I was saying goodbye.

 Don't worry, I packet it all in somehow, even though it was difficult.

I bought so many souvenirs ...and now it was just time to go home.

I guess this is it, my friends... or enemies I don't know who is listening.

My short life in France has ended I can't believe almost four months can go so fast... but they did.

So just a few words to end this whole mess of a book with.

If you are a student, take advantage of Erasmus, really.

The only thing I regret is that I didn't go sooner. You learn so much, you experience so much and you laugh and cry (and if you are me, you cry a lot) but in the end, it is all worth it.

And if you are no longer a student, just go and spend some time in a foreign country.

Even if I don't go to Erasmus again I will for sure live somewhere else for a little while. It is very easy to stay in our own comfortable bubble but it doesn't give us much in return. As I say, you grow outside your comfort zone... so think about it.

So that's it. I experienced so much in France, I met some amazing people, especially two of my best friends who I am still talking to almost every day now and one of them came to celebrate Christmas with me this year... so maybe I will talk about it in future episodes.

I visited so many places such as Mont-Saint Michelle, Paris, Rouen, beaches in Normandy, and other places in the north of France. It was really really beautiful so if you are thinking about Erasmus or just going to a foreign country, I 100% recommend. Even if it scares you.

It is not the only time I went to a different country for a few months but I will get to that in some other episodes.

If you want to see some extra illustrations and behind-the-scenes of me making the book, you can check out the PDF again there is one more part that I will not share here but you can find it there.

Go check out the transcript if you missed something or want to see the spelling and of course try the comprehension quiz to know that you understood well. I will be very happy for your feedback on how you like it - send me a message on Instagram, you can find the link in the description and I will see you very soon with a new episode. Bye!

VOCABULARY LIST:

I swear- přísahám

blur- rozmazaná šmouha

perception - vnímání

weird- divný / divně

growth - růst

scale - škála

entirely - úplně

suddenly - náhle / najednou

alone - sama

lonely - osamocená/ opuštěná

night sweats - noční pocení

discomfort - nepohodlí

precious - drahocenný 

in only you knew - kdybyste jen věděli

especially - hlavně

behind-the-scenes - zákulisí