The waiting is over and I got
accepted for the Erasmus+ program! Now it is certain: I will spend
the academic year 2015-16 in Nancy, a beautiful little city in the
east of France!
First I had to take part in a
so-called “Pre-Departure-Session”, where we got all the
information we need for our term abroad (well, in my case it is
almost one whole year). I had to realise, that the Université de
Lorraine is not that popular
amongst Erasmus-students. There are only three other persons who
chose Nancy as their destination while
Paris is a good deal more
favoured... which I really cannot understand, I would never want to
live in a city like Paris (except for London, but that is another
story ;-). Anyway, I am happy with my destination, and I would not
like to swap with anyone else.
From
our international office I got an enormous stack of documents, really
important documents, flyers, information papers, and screenshots of
websites that should help me with my application. It took me some
time going through all this
stuff... but once you think
you have decoded everything, the worst challenge
is yet imminent. Starting with the online application I began to
despair of the online
application form, that is
generally in English, but with some interspersed French terms, and in
some parts it just did
not make sense. I solved that problem by switching the language of
the whole website to French, as I realised that the unclear points
were merely mistranslations...
now, I only needed a
signature
of the international office on my application, before I can post it
to Nancy, including all the other required documents. Well, this
semester break I drove to university very often...
The next task was getting a
French language
certificate. The problem
was that in university so far I only passed one course, which
certifies B1+, while my university entrance qualification of 2013
says C1. Université de Lorraine
demands a language level of at least B1, but recommends B2. Finally I
came to a pleasant agreement with the head of the language centre and
got certificated a level of B2. Next
I had to generate a transcript
of records. Since our
online examination authority does not handle the English language
(why should it? International relations are just the basis of the
university system in 21st
century, what do you think! *sarcasm off*) I had to translate all my
passed courses at university into english, send the manually
fabricated translation to the international office, and finally drive
to university to collect the accredited document. Now,
there are only
two more documents left: The learning
agreement, on which I
will report once I managed it successfully (on my opinion the hardest
part of the whole application), and the application form for the
student residence.
Currently,
I am checking the website of CROUS, the French student service
organisation, which runs the student residences. I have to choose two
preferred residences on the application... Well, to make a long story
short, I am still in the midst of my official application at
Université de Lorraine,
which defined the deadline on 31th may. When I have managed the
application and I can pass on the next step, I surely will record
everything on this blog.
Until
then and with best regards,
Sandra