YEAR ABROAD WORRIES?

1.ARRIVE EARLY. This one is super important. My housemate and I arrived two weeks before term started, which gave us a chance to get administrative stuff done early.

2.BE PREPARED FOR FRENCH BUREAUCRACY. It moves at a slow pace; slower than a tortoise with a limp. So be prepared for things like opening a bank account or registering at uni to take a while.

3.DON’T TRY TO DO ANYTHING IMPORTANT ON A SUNDAY. EVER. France is closed on Sundays. Finding you’ve run out of food on a Saturday night is an Erasmus student’s nightmare- avoid long, hungry Sundays and plan ahead.

4.SPEAK FRENCH. Sounds like an odd suggestion, but don’t fall into the trap of only making friends with other English students.

5.DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP. Your French is probably better than you think, but there will be occasions where you need to ask for help. I was too nervous to, which is how I accidently ordered my boyfriend a slab of raw mincemeat in a French restaurant last term (he wanted a burger. Whoops.) Ask if you don’t understand.

6.FINALLY, HAVE FUN! Yes, work hard, but year abroad is amazing. You’ll make mistakes, of course, but it’s all part of the experience- I’ll be telling that raw meat story

After my day’s festivities, the train journey home through the region made me truly appreciate my experience. Bad Dürkheim is situated on Germany’s wine road and the locally produced wine means that vineyards dominate the landscape and on the return journey, w ith the sun setting on fields and fields of vineyard, it was simply glorious. The German wine road stretches 100km from Bockenheim south to Schweigen-Rechtenbach and each town adds something different to the wine it produces