The first day of my Erasmus in Lyon

I’m 20-year-old Spanish women who for destiny has ended up in Lyon to do the Erasmus.

It would be a big lie if I told you that my first day in France was memorable or happy. That now being in a long distance, it was both. However, I do not want to explain it to you with the information I have now after taking three months here, but recreate to you how I lived it then.

I do not stand farewells, but as expected when they knew that I was going to move for a whole year, my parents offered to bring me by car. I don't know to what extent that was my downfall or the best decision of the planet. Without any doubt, at some point between those two. We had to make a stop on the way, but as we were exhausted, I had not enough strength to question me that the place I was coming was going to be my new city. For me it was simple tourism. We ate at the only open site at 4 in the afternoon in France, that it is little memorable, because at that time, you will find nothing in France to have lunch. But it was still beautiful, because it was with them. I remember it was an 23 of August extremely hot. It could not be otherwise. And to my surprise there was no air conditioning. Were they telling one of the sizzling people in history that as a general rule no building had one? We started badly. But returning to the beginning, the idea of ​​the great farewell in that new place. Today I do not know if it was good, because now I imagine them here, because when I explain the places I am going, although for them most are also new, they remember what we saw those days that they spent to brought me to my new home. And yes, today I can call him home, but what about that first day? I was not sure how to focus the situation. It was hot, everything was far away and at 4p.m. it was impossible to eat.

But well, the second step of that long day after eating the apartment. As soon as we arrived, we had to wait for more as the landlord arrived with the keys. He was late. In addition, as it is the way I work, I had brought with me half Spain in tow in our beautiful car. So we were still, in the middle of the street, with more bags than I should have taken, sweating and waiting for the famous man who rented to me the house. But he arrived. And we went up. And it was beautiful. More feelings found. Was it what I wanted, right? A beautiful and cozy apartment that I would call home someday. But the feelings, all of them simultaneously. If it had been ugly, I could have collapsed and Iwould have returned where I had come. Who do I want to deceive? I wouldn't have come back because I didn't feel like collapsing. Because although there was fear and a strange meal in my stomach, there was also a wishful thinking of having to organize everything. But wait a moment because excitement is not everything. The Lord left and we brought everything. Perfect. And now what? Because the baby, yes, me, had brought anything you could imagine, but not towels. Let's look for towels. Will it be easy not? Two days we take to find a place with towels, I don't tell you anything else. But I do not scatter, I am going to keep telling you about my first day, the followings are part of another story. I promise not to disperse. Without towels, but with the same thrill, we bought organizers for the closet and some food. It was perfect. And we had dinner while we saw Buzz Lightyear the movie. Because why not, it was the best film to remember that first day in my apartment. And also, as we had eaten late at our beloved 4 in an strange place, we weren't hungry either. But there we were, on an extremely comfortable sofa in my new house, in front of a superhero and my father sleeping. Fuck, even that caused me feelings. Watching television with them, it was our thing. And now there were many things that were halfway. I will say how it really was, now the 8th Masterchef Celebrity season was going to be broadcast and I would no longer see it. Because it would not be with them. And then I started crying because I wouldn't see that with them, among many others. But well, the movie was good, I didn't fall asleep, neither my mum. And then the night was done, and the two left and I stayed. Because of course, however much the apartment was already beautiful, I needed to feel my room like mine. And then the time that my suitcases were waiting came. I had to empty them for them to be able to return home. My home, but not this year's home. Then I opened them, I took everything they brought and realized that it would be only with magic that I managed to put everything that I had considered necessary when packaging inside my new room. But although I don't want to talk about my present feelings, I allow myself for a moment to say that now I call that home. But returning to that moment. The socks did not hurt much, neither the fasteners nor the pants. But the books, and the photographs, and the letters. Because yes, I took sentimental books that I had pending, and photos with my favorite people and letters from my favorite people. So, of course, the socks did not hurt, but everything else did. It was complicated. In addition, that day, that first day, the apartment was empty of people none of my roommates was, so there I was, sitting in my bed, which I could not consider mine yet, surrounded by memories of what I left behind. And fear. Because I am not going to deceive you, there was still excitement, but at that moment, the feeling that predominated in my body was fear. So, of course, if you ask me for my first day in France, concretelly in Lyon, I can tell you that I was amazed from the window of my car with the river area, but I can tell you that, at the time, while I lived it I could not define it as a memorable day or as a happy day. Although now, from the present, I can define it that way.

‍