PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Martina, Isona i Georgina

Our trip to Pornic by bus was long and intense. The trip started the 5th of April at 20:00 PM, and fourteen hours later, at 14:00 PM we arrived to our destiny, after having stopped to some service station every few hours. 

Personally, we found it kind of hard to rest in the bus, but with excitement as we wanted to arrive and meet again our french students, and spent a nice week, we forgot about the ours that we had left.

When we arrived, our first stop in Pornic was at the parking of the French student's High School, where we took the luggage out of the bus, and met again with our French partners. Everyone went to their student's house to meet the family, and rest a little bit after the long trip. 

During the weekend, the French students took us to do activities with their group of friends or with the family in wich we were able to visit the area of Pornic and even places aroud it, and do activities like visiting diferent breathtaking beaches, bowling, visiting Nantes...

For us, even though these activities were really fun to do, we wanted to rest and, as they did, we got used to going to sleep early. It was a weekend full of amazing memories we will never forget.

After having lived one week with our French mates and their families, we can only say thanks, as they have welcomed us with open arms and they  made us felt as if we were at home.

All the families tried hard to make us feel comfortable. In addition, we had the amazing oportunity of trying typical French food in their homes, which we fully enjoyed trying. The food we would highly recommend are raclette, cookies and crepes. 

Moreover, we can say we have visited lots of villages and cities next to Pornic, such as Nantes, Noirmoutier island, la Bernerie-en-retz...So we visited the top landmarks of the area, which we personally enjoyed seeing physically.

During the Erasmus, we have learned new ways to socialize with different people, people we have never seen and that has been brought up with a different culture, wich may have a different point of view compared to ours, but the best thing has been being able to open our minds and try to adapt in their lifestyle for one week, getting, like this, far more open-minded.

The cultural changes we have noticed the most are the schedules. French people eat at 12:00 PM, whereas we tend to eat at 15:00 PM. Early after having lunch, they meet with friends, while we are at home, and meet with friends in the afternoon. For more, we have observed that they also have dinner at 19 PM, whereas we start having dinner at 21 PM. Their scholar schedules are also different, as they have classes until 18 PM, and they have less times in the afternoon.

Also, the french people are very polite and grateful for everything that is given to them. Therefore, when we went there, we had to be at the same level as them, since yes, here in Catalonia we are also grateful people, but not as much as them.

Finally, thanks to this exchange, we were able to see the differences between France and Spain and be able to adapt in an appropriate way and be able to live a normal life, thanks to the families.