Not even 2 months left together. Generation 2014-16 is now getting quite emotional as everyone will be leaving soon to different part of the world for their thesis. It is the time that every second counts, every group hug is worth more than before. Brandy, our sweet Vietnamese friend, shared her EMTM experience from the very beginning in Denmark, how life cannot be expected, till now where we are so closed to each other and how EMTM has changed her life forever... .......Before leaving for Denmark to start our first semester, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s like having cold feet before knowing that your dream is coming true. The dream that you have waited for so long to realize, and at that moment you start asking yourself “Am I ready for this?” I have always thought I am quite socially awkward, and the fact that there would be so many of us from all over the world frightened me a bit. We had created a facebook page EMTM 2014-2016 before, and by some initial stalking I could know these 32 people with awesome stories, diverse backgrounds and amazing profiles. Yes I had some intercultural experience, but being together with 32 people for 2 years is really something different. “What if I cannot fit in?” “What if I am not good enough?” “What if I am not cool enough?” “What if…”
9 Comments
Integration is a hot topic, but how easy is it to integrate when you need to move every six months to a new country, with its own system, a different language and new values?
When we move in our first semester to Kolding, the cultural boundaries are in particular difficult to cross, as the Danish society seems quite cold and closed to foreigners, but the Danes are actually quite the opposit; warm human beings that want to create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. The Danes call this: 'Hygge'.
Janelby, a New Yorker with roots in the Dominican Republic from generation 2015-17, made a video about Hygge in Kolding by showing you her favorite place called the 'Soul Cafe'. You can follow Janelby on fearlessleon.com, where she is the author of 'Coming from America'.
Vladimira, our Slovak friend, wrote a personal piece on EMTM and the power of the group. Read how she stands in life and how she believes the EMTM familiy is important during the two years away from home.
Every good relationship has its great times and difficult times. And most of the time, it is the difficult ones that indicate the quality of the relationship.
Get ready and prepare for the ride with EMTM roller coaster! After spending time together for more than a year, many things have happened either good or bad, sad or happy... Violet, our Argentinian clasmate from generation 2014-16, describes these emotional experiences as a roller coaster with loops, falls, ups and downs. I have always liked analogies. And if the metaphors can help me express my feelings, I am even more contented! It is so hard to word how emotions strike you, how itinerant a simple feeling can be, how 246 different sensations can impact your persona... how do you describe some moments (or most of them) in experiences such as EMTM?
Let's go back in time.... Back to the year of 2010, an amazing year for EMTM and it's students who could for the first time call themselves EMTM Erasmus Mundus students. We tracked down their stories and pictures and hit on a curious blog. The students, just like us, felt like expressing their first time experiences with the weird Danish language, and provide us with some insights on the Danish culture.
A book and many class disccusions on heritage, authenticity, interpretation and destination management are even in EMTM not the same as the experience of visiting a destination through the eyes of a tourist and destination manager. In the light of the courses on Cultural Heritage, lectured by Timothy Dallen, and Destination Management, by Louis Mundet, the students of generation 2014-16 were divided into three groups, visiting the Catalonia region.
Barbora, the Danish country representative, wrote a story on her experience on the field trip. EMTM is a two-year away-from-home experience. That unknown away-from-home place, in Kolding, Ljubljana, Girona and wherever EMTM takes you, becomes your new home. Sadly, this means also leaving people behind. Everyone who is reading this post right now has probably experienced this feeling in one way or the other. Tjasa, a Slovenian student, wrote a very personal piece on Erasmus Mundus and the meaning of friends. When I was first leaving my home country to join the EMTM circus, my group of friends was my life and meaning. We had the whole going-away-party extravaganza, with UNO tournament, presents and my awesome lasagna (I make a mean lasagna, by the way, just dropping that in). In the next few days, I was off to new adventures in Denmark – it wasn't my first time living abroad, but we weren't as close with the group as we were at the beginning of my EMTM.
|
Archives
January 2017
Categories
|