If there is one thing that I cherish the most from my year abroad it is, without a doubt, the amazing friendships that I made. I spent the first half of my year abroad in Granada and the second half in Rome, and whilst I had some great friends in Granada, it was in Rome where I met the majority of my international friends.
When I first arrived in Rome, there was no doubt that I was nervous. In Granada, I arrived with friends from my university, so I always had that safety blanket if I ever needed support, but in Rome, I was completely on my own. I knew that if I were to truly enjoy my time in Italy, I would have to make some good friends completely from scratch. Per fortuna, si trattava di una cosa che avevo già dovuto fare quando avevo iniziato l'università in Inghilterra. Quindi, anche se ero un po' nervosa, sapevo che non sarebbe stato un problema per me. So, I plucked up the courage and attended an ESN event to try and get to know some fellow Erasmus students.
I knew that if I were to truly enjoy my time in Italy, I would have to make some good friends completely from scratch.
However, it quickly became clear to me that I was the only Brit there. Whilst this shouldn’t have been a problem, some intrusive thoughts began to swim around in my mind, and I slowly began to worry that I would not be able to connect with anyone due to the differences in our cultures. However, despite this, I forced my introverted self to speak to some of the people in the group. All'inizio è stato difficile trovare degli interessi comuni, ma man mano che continuavo a conoscere gli altri studenti Erasmus, la conversazione è diventata facile e ho cominciato a capire che quelle preoccupazioni erano irrilevanti. I realised that, if anything, our cultural and linguistic differences were what made our conversations so valuable and enriching, and before long, I had made some firm friends.
Le mie amiche più care in Italia erano tedesche, polacche e norvegese, ma anche francese, spagnole, bielorusse e italiane. I found it incredible that we became so close despite having known each other for a very