On August 22, 2022, after many twists and turns in Shanghai, Vienna and Paris, I got on the train to Lille and began my five month exchange life. In retrospect, these five months overseas have shown me the possibility of another kind of life, which has deeply affected me.
One day in Lille
Street View of Lille City Center
Street View of Lille City Center
Lille is the largest province in northern France, and the school is also located in the central city. Although not as good as Paris, Lille is livable and convenient from the perspective of study and life, and all places in the city are within walking distance; Safe, don't worry about going out at night; The residents are friendly and warm-hearted. They have met many lovely Lille people and received their warm help. For me who do not speak French, they will also be shy to communicate with me in their stuttering English; Although the sparrow is small, it has all the dirty things it should have (specifically, it refers to the second-hand goods of Yachao, skating rink, etc.); In the university town, the high concentration of young people means youth and fun. Therefore, after living here for five months, I always feel that I will come back here one day. Of course, I will make linguistics fun again next time. The pride of French language is not funny.
It's not easy to study and live in IESEG. At the beginning, I really felt a little powerless because of the language, especially if there were final exams or homework for other classes in the week of intensive classes. However, the classroom atmosphere, teaching methods and teacher-student relationship here are different from my previous learning experience. The learning and communication methods of students from different cultural environments are also intriguing. I began to think about the education and culture of East Asian society, and what kind of learning method I am more suitable for. What impressed me most was that I had a geopolitical class. The teacher was an American woman with rich experience, profound connotation and great power. Her class was also very interactive with American characteristics. At the beginning, I always had no confidence to speak, but later I began to enjoy interacting with teachers in class, sharing my own views, and expressing my own sighs, and the teachers always responded to our speeches carefully. It is more like an exchange meeting than a classroom. On the day of the end of the class, the teacher hugged and gave cheek to cheek gifts to every international student. I was almost moved to tears. I also remember that in other classes, everyone seemed to be very active. There were always various questions and answers from students in the class, and the teacher never urged. He was extremely pleased with questions (no matter how "stupid" they seemed) and answers. In such an engaged and active atmosphere, I began to really feel the fun of the classroom.
Classroom
In the past five months, I have met many lovely and interesting people: the cheerful Andrea, who will unconsciously see her
Feel happy; Dear Ms. Wu, I don't know how much time I spent with her in the past five months. We traveled together, went to Paris to eat hot pot, cook in the kitchen, and cook a pot of stew; Ath é na ï s, whom I particularly like, finally met her the day before leaving France; The kind and friendly Am é lie helped me to communicate with the administrator in French when I handed over the house. We went skating together; Alite and everyone, we have a party at Elisa's home, bake pizza, drink, dance, drink and chat in the pub next to the school, play games
Because in Europe, with the purpose of giving full play to the advantages of geographical location, sometimes I will go out for tourism when nothing happens. Go to Berlin to taste techno, Rome to immerse in the cultural scenery like classic movie scenes, go to Strasbourg to see the Christmas market, spend Christmas in a snow covered town in Finland, go to Switzerland to take the glacier train... There are unlimited landscapes along the way, across time, longitude and latitude, brilliant human civilization, natural wonders, and unparalleled.
Finnish skiing
Day in Finland's Polar Night
Matterhorn, Switzerland
What makes me even more meaningful is that because I sometimes travel alone, during the journey, I constantly meet new people, who have their own lives, special, interesting, wonderful, Italian girls who work and study and finally save enough money to come to Paris, where they have long dreamed, and Swiss doctors who are accustomed to riding and traveling and staying in tents at night, There are old couples who immigrated from Iran to California, and some who seem to be hotel lobby managers are actually hotel managers who came to Paris from Algeria. On the train from St. Moritz to Zurich, I talked with the old man sitting opposite me. He said that he was a body/tramatherapist. I benefited a lot from the conversation with him. More mysteriously, it seemed that I had made a free dinner. From the loneliness that I didn't adapt to traveling alone at the beginning, to the fact that I kept getting to know new friends during the journey, I didn't actually travel alone. From being introverted and shy about meeting new people, to being ready to start a conversation with strangers around me, I began to enjoy the non exclusiveness of Europeans, and began to enjoy traveling alone from time to time, Finally, I can negotiate with myself. These other people's lives, through their conversations, showed me all kinds of possibilities in life.
Roman Street
I still feel very grateful to write down these memories in the new year. It landed in France in August, and fluctuated for five months. Until December, I did not understand the answers to many things, and finally got answers at the junction of the New Year and the Old Year. I sincerely thank the International Exchange Center of School of Economics and Management of Beijing Jiaotong University for giving me this valuable experience.
