I am writing this final blog post as a letter to students who are thinking about taking a year out of university at home to move to a foreign country to either work a placement or study abroad.
There's no doubt that the last 10 months of my life here in Milan have been amazing and i wouldn't swap any of it for the world! (maybe i'd swap a few hiccups.. but i'll get to that). Today i have booked my one-way return flight back home to the UK and i'm all overcome with a bit of sadness! The thought of never being in this apartment again and never seeing our Italian housemate, or the weather, even the dodgy Italian bloke that serves us in the supermarket. It's sad to think that this chapter of my life is over, but the best part is that i would do it all over again!.. with some small changes. Every bit of advice i'm going to give you will be able to find in deeper detail in my blog, but for now ill give you a heads up!
Finding An Apartment
Whatever you do, don't do what me an my friends did and think you can move to a foreign country, live in a hostel for a week and find somewhere to live in that amount of time. Number 1: It's not worth the stress and number 2: IT'S NOT WORTH THE STRESS. Make sure you research the area of your place of work or university and begin trying to find apartments in your price range online well before you're due to move - even send out some e-mails to push things forwards! My friends and I were incredibly lucky to find our apartment when we did - but if you're struggling, make sure you use the people around you! We'd still be in hostel if it wasn't for student services at university. People around you understand your situation and help is always there if you ask for it!
Deposit
Lord, do i wish somebody would have told me about the system for paying for an apartment in Italy! I'm not sure if this is the same for the whole of Europe but if you're going to Milan then you would be wise to earn yourself some spare cash over the summer holidays to cover your back! When we had eventually found an apartment which was to be our home for the next 10 months it was time to put down the deposit and pay up for first months rent. In this one single day all three of us had to pay up around £2,600 each! Hello student loan... Goodbye student loan. This single fee covered the deposit (three months rent) the estate agency fee and first months rent. As you can imagine, i had arrived in Milan and now i was broke! I'm not trying to scare anyone away with the cost of living in Milan because the university experience i have had here has been worth every single penny (that's what i tell my dad). Our landlord is a beautiful petite Italian lady and she has been very welcoming! We have been in touch constantly with our landlord (even though she doesn't speak English) and the whole process has been a treat because of her.
When finding an apartment you should ensure that you double check the lease on every apartment! Most landlords are looking for tenants that are going to be staying for 1 or 2 years.. as a student on an academic timetable, I only needed a 10 month lease - Maria was happy to do this for us. They are out there, it's just taking the time out to search.
Internet
Now. I apologies in advance but I cannot spend too much time talking about installing internet in our apartment. It's somewhat of a touchy subject shall we say.
Let me start by saying that here in Italy, words such as 'urgent' do not exist. When we moved into our apartment the internet was our responsibility - which is fine. We asked advice on the best internet providers and the response was primarily Fastweb. We went straight to the nearest Fastweb store and asked to have internet installed in our apartment as soon as possible and they were nice as pie! We left the shop with a date arrange for a technician to come and blah blah blah, he never came! After endless phone calls and visits the the shop in Duomo, two months later we had internet. There's nothing you can do about this i'm affraid! You are in Italy and you work on their timescale.
Learning the language
Learning the language of your new home is pretty important. You can easily get by without learning too much but personally i think it helps the enjoyment of your experience if you can speak confidently to fellow students and even ordering food and drink at a restaurant. The people here in Milan really appreciate you trying to communicate with them in Italian rather than just asking them if they speak English with zero efforts. My friend and I eat out quite a lot and we always order the best we can in Italian. Sometimes they just respond in English because it is easier for them but i would advise to take the help that is given to you through the free courses at your home university.
At NABA we are taught totally in English so there is no need to worry about confusion with classes.
Course start date
Before you leave the country to start your new adventure to study at a new university abroad, make sure that you are totally clear on when your course starts. I was given a start date by the Erasmus coordinators at my home university in Coventry and so arranged my move to Milan for 3rd October. I booked my flights with two weeks to spare so that i had plenty of time to arrange my living situation and explore my new city - which i 100% recommend to anyone on the Erasmus scheme.
Unfortunately, all was not what it seemed and i actually arrived more or less on time for my course start date and found myself in a bit of a manic rush juggling the stresses of finding an apartment. But bare in mind this was not my fault! Make sure that before you leave the UK that you are 100% certain on the start date of your course and that you have checked and double checked with the course coordinators at both ends of your university.
Kit'ing our your apartment
Milan has three Ikea's - not necessarily the easiest places to get to but depending on your area just google map the closest one to you. For me and my friends we managed to get to one Ikea by a metro and then a bus. Don't be scared by the bus it's very easy! We actually met some English people on our journey and they told us about lots of places to go and eat and we even exchanged phone numbers.
Ikea is the obvious place to go for all your home essentials but if you need other small things for your kitchen etc then you really need to go to Tiger! In fact scrap that, even if you don't need anything you still need to go to Tiger - but be warned you may leave with bags of things you bought just because they're pretty and cheap!
Live your Erasmus experience to it's fullest
If there was one thing i could say to myself a year ago, it would be to make sure everything i do when i get to Milan is every I WANT to do! The great thing about the Erasmus experience at our university is that there is no requirement to return with a certain amount of grades or credits! We are marked on a separate module entirely from the work set at NABA university. In the first term i worked incredibly hard but i do not regret my efforts in the first term as i did everything i said i wanted to do such as experiment with menswear and textiles etc. I did all those things on my list and now i know my direct path and where i want to be in the fashion industry - i couldn't have realised any of that without working as hard as i did. However, my second term is quite the opposite! my classes are mainly lecture based and i even dropped a class to modify my term to suit me! Don't be afraid to swap classes around or even drop them - but make sure you try everything first and don't throw away opportunities!
I think i have covered all of the important stuff and i really hope this helps anyone with a view to moving to Milan. I really wish i had somebody to hand me all of this information in a letter so i wouldn't have made the mistakes that i did! Regrets aside - i wouldn't change a thing.
Finally, make sure you take pictures of everything! You will really appreciate them when you arrive back home and look back on your experience! Having lived in another country has developed me as a person and as a designer, culturally you are always learning - I'm almost confident this will not be the last time i live abroad!
The reason i applied for Erasmus was because i needed the time to experiment with my work and what place could have been better than Milan?! I cannot imagine finishing final year of university without this experience and if you have the same doubts i strongly advice that you do the same!
Good luck with your trip and happy travelling!
Emily Land - Former Erasmus Student, Milan
No comments:
Post a Comment