Editorials

Bronjour: Accommodation

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1 September 2018

By Bronwen

Last week, I said I was going to talk about finding a place to live in Montpellier, the French town I’ll be living and studying in for a semester. Initially, I had decided to apply for a room in the university student halls. This was all going to plan until approximately 24 hours ago.

I spent yesterday scouring the internet for blog posts and articles about other students’ experiences doing a year abroad in Montpellier. While most articles were largely positive, a few were fairly worrying for me. I noticed that those who had stayed in student halls usually had a more isolating and generally negative experience. One comment that stuck out for me was:

“…people staying in halls found it more difficult finding their feet as they’re not as sociable as university halls in Leeds..”

This type of thing came up a lot in a lot of the blogs I’ve been reading.

“…The halls are unsociable and lonely places, and I deeply regret not finding a flatshare with French people, which would have vastly increased my contact with the language…”

So now I’m forming a plan B. The worst part of this flat share search is knowing that it probably can’t be sorted until I actually go. The fear of the unknown is really making me a nervous wreck. My brain just keeps coming up with countless things that could go wrong: What if I get scammed? What if I can’t find anywhere to live and have to come home? What if my future flatmates are murderous raving lunatics?

If I can’t find a flat share, I’ll have to stay in halls. If I do find something, I’ll need to cancel my campus accommodation. In a few weeks time, once I’m actually in Montpellier, I’ll let you know what I ended up doing and how it’s going.

 

Useful/interesting sites I’ve found so far:

https://erasmusu.com/en/erasmus-montpellier/roommate

http://www.imogenscribbles.co.uk/p/my-year-abroad-experience.html

https://globalgraduates.com/articles/10-things-to-sort-before-leaving-for-a-study-abroad-year

First Months in Montpellier

https://globalgraduates.com/articles/the-mole-diaries-montpellier-volume-2

 

 

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