In Erasmus student's shoes
DAILY ROUTINE
Given that it was the first time for me to live alone and without my parents, my daily life has really changed. As I am completely independent I do the grocery shopping, cook, pay the rent, organize my trips and so on.
As you may know life in Switzerland is expensive and food doesn't make an exception. Fish and meat are the double of price than in France. That's why I bring with me some food when I came back in France. Some of the students decided to do grocery shopping monthly in Germany because it's cheaper.
I do my grocery shopping once a week at Aldi in Ittigen (at one station from Bolligen). Aldi is a hard-discount supermarket chain originally based in Germany. Fruits and vegetables are of a good quality (you can find "Made in Switzerland" on most of the packaging) but I suggest you to buy your fish and meat rather at Coop or Migros.
Finally it's important to check the opening hours because it's totally different from France. Most of the time shops open at 8am and close at 7pm (or 8pm on Friday) on weekdays and close at 5pm on Saturday (shops are closed on Sunday).
Globus Grossery Shop the Swiss "Le Bon Marché
ABOUT UNIVERSITY
Most of the time I started course at 9:15am and I finished it at 6:15pm (my last class could finish at 7pm). During the first semester I had around 33 hours of course per week with my Friday off. It means that the days were very dense! For my second semester I had but for minor details the same amount of hours of course per week but with two afternoons off (Monday and Friday) per week. Compared to France, the main difference was the length of time of the courses. I could start with one course and finish with the same in a same day. For example, I had Major Marketing or Negotion & Conflict Resolution during the whole day: 6 hours of the same course! As a general rule each course lasts 3 hours with maximum 2 breaks of 15 minutes. The lunch break lasts 1 hour - usually from 12:15pm to 1:15pm.
Given that I had a lot of group work it was necessary to be organize. That's why I started as soon as possible the project in order not to arrive at the end of the semester and to have all the projects to do. Like this I had also time to travel and to train to my competitive exams (i.e Tage Mage). I liked the group project in Switzerland because each member of the group was really involved. Besides I also learnt to work with students from different nationalities.
At the FHNW the courses doesn't require a compulsory attendance but you should definitely go to all them because lecturers are explaining everything in class and it's easier to understand during the class than checking the slides alone on Moodle.
I was quite suprised by the number of students in each course. The number of students in each course really depend on how many of them want to register. Sometimes you can be almost all the promotion (i.e international economics and politics) or in group of 30 students (i.e major marketing) or 15 (i.e german for beginners).
INTEGRATION
As I’m a talkative and sociable person it was not complicated for me to become integrated. The first day I knocked at every door on my floor to introduce myself and/or welcome other students.
One of the reasons why I decided to study abroad was to improve my English level. It’s true that sometimes it’s easier to speak in English one day than another. I can't explain why but it’s like that.
I remember that during the first weeks of September I had trouble understanding the Finish and Swedish because they are bilingual (they spoke even faster than American people). With time my ears got accustomed to it and it became very simple to understand them. It was also difficult to understand Spanish people speaking in English. I think it was also as much as difficult for Spanish to understand French speaking in English. But hopefully with time and the daily train journey Bolligen-Olten we get used to our imperfect British and American accent. Native English people are very kind and don’t correct you on your accent, they say that it belongs to you and represents your origins.
Even at the university I could notice the different English accent given that some of my teachers were proper British or American whereas others were Swiss, German, Chinese or Russian. I remember that the first week of class was a little weary for me because it was the first time that I had classes completely in English. It required me to be 100 per cent focus at what the lecturers said. As I had to read a lot of chapters or study cases for next time, my English get better and better. I could say that one month was the necessary time for me to adapt to my new daily language known as English.
I also decided to take German class to communicate with Swiss people. But as I wasn’t good enough to make proper sentences I spoke directly English with them.
SOME ANECDOTES
I should admit that sometimes it was complicated to being understand by Swiss people outside the university or the main cities. I remember in a bus near Thun I asked to the bus driver how I could reach this place. As he didn't speak either English or French he didn't reply me - even in German. He just ignored me. He was so rude. But besides this anecdote, don't worry everything is alright!
On the contrary I had a funny experience with a grandpa during the Ski World Cup in Crans-Montana. He thought that I was the sister of a Swiss ski champion and he started to speak about all the Swiss wins that took place during the glorious years of Swiss ski.
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