Mariam Kutaladze
Catholic University of Lyon (France)
Mariam Kutaladze, MA student of Law at Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University and Erasmus+ ICM grantee at The Catholic University of Lyon. Mariam spent spring semester of 2018-2019 academic year in France at UCLy and shares her experience.
My expectation, that exchange program would change my life a lot, was really came true. It is a strange feeling that one day you wake up in another reality, in another country and most importantly, alone. I knew that the bigger the challenge was, the greater experience would be and I did mistake for.
To be honest, I did not have any special excitement before moving to Lyon because it was not the first time for me to move to another country temporarily, so I was more or less prepared in advance for all the expected difficulties. The only thing that bothered me was being without my family and friends. However, all the people managed to visit me, without whom I thought it would be very difficult to live there.
I had a very interesting and unusual semester. I think for the first time in my student history, I was not nervous about how I would manage to study and work at the same time. The fact that almost all the subjects were presented in the form of an intensive course gave more freedom and neither the so-called "Exam Mess" I felt. Studying in Lyon has given me an idea of many areas I have never encountered in Georgia. As I expected, it also helped me in deciding in which direction I want to develop professionally.
I have mentioned before that a person with student status in France is more privileged than in Georgia. In France, students have the opportunity to use more services, such social packages, cultural, sports or educational institutions.
The most important thing I have learned from this semester is the new lifestyle. Not to mention the knowledge we have been able to obtain from very high-level professors and, no less important, the contacts.
Probably the biggest benefit for me was getting closer to the culture and new way of life of this country, confronting problems and dealing with them alone, which, in many cases, does not allow us to be in a native environment.
Erasmus is a unique opportunity to get to know, grow and start training ourselves in European, with the right values. "