Hello! And welcome to the second episode of my podcast: My Life and other funny stories. 

Thank you so much for taking the time and coming back to the second part of my Erasmus experience and I will get into that story in a second. 

But first, I wanted to highlight one thing after the feedback I got after the first episode. And that is that of course, me telling the story is a slight over-exaggeration. 

Over-exaggeration means that it is much more dramatic than it was in the reality. I wanted to make it funnier and a little bit more dramatic. And that is why. 

And of course, I am also a drama queen so everything in my world is much more dramatic than in reality. 

As I said in the first episode, I was writing the book as I was experiencing all of the troubles and all of the problems. And when you are experiencing something, that moment, the emotions are always stronger than when you look at it months and years later. So, I would describe the experience differently today but I wanted to stay true to myself and just go with it as it was when I was there.

As you will see, my feelings and emotions changed during the second and third part of the book.

Without further ado – that is also what I said last time- without further ado (A – D – O) – it means without waiting any longer – so without waiting any longer- without further ado- let’s go and start the second part.

Part two: I guess this is my life now.

So, at that point it was a month since I came to France and it all seemed to be much more normal. That was what my life was for the time being.

My schedule was complete and my routine was established. I am a very routine person, I love them.

I wish I could have spoken to my one-month-ago self (so to myself but one month ago) and told her that it would be alright.

I am not going to sugarcoat it (to sugarcoat something means that you speak about something in a more positive way than it actually was) so I am not going to sugarcoat it- it was tough (and that means difficult) for me in the first weeks but it still continued to be a little bit rocky even now.

When something is rocky, it’s again „not easy“. 

The thing is I always expect the future to be without any problems but this is not how it works. There are always some obstacles (obstacles are the things on a track when you run and you have to jump over them – that is an obstacle)

So there are always some obstacles, and there always will be and that is okay. Anyway, with all the negativity I was carrying around, I told myself that I need to get into a better mind space… so I put together a list of things I am grateful for (and I finally got something out of reading 1245 self-help books – money well spent-  am I right?)

 …and remember – I know I have a lot of things to be grateful for but this is what I came up with when everything seemed unbearable(when you feel that something is unbearable you cannot do it anymore …it’s too much).

Things I am grateful for:

1) ability to FaceTime my family and friends 

2) student discounts  (discounts are when you pay less money because you are a student)

3) friendly people 

4) to experience a foreign country -which was amazing

I forced myself to look on the bright side even though I didn’t feel like it… and it really helped.

The truth is- this is such a unique experience and I should get the best of it. I realized that I have actually met people that are amazing and I want to spend time with them, which, believe me, does not happen often.

Of course, not everything was suddenly perfect. My French was still not good and every conversation that needed to be carried out completely in French (which means every conversation that I had to make in French) was kind of ,well, very stressful.

Scenarios that are likely to follow after I ask a French person a question in French (look at the picture in the book):

So 15% of the time I actually understand the response- yay!

Maybe 25% of the time I understand half of it but I think I get the main idea 

And the rest I understand nothing but I act as I do and I say „D’accord, merci beaucoup“  and move away (which means okay I understand thank you very much) –  but in those cases I didn’t understand and I was thanking for nothing.

But trust me– right now as I am 25, the situation is much much better but I will talk about that some other time.

I wasn’t kidding when I said that we don’t have a microwave here – and it wouldn’t be a funny joke. 

In the first weeks I needed to find an alternative as I refused to buy a pot and a pan – which I reevaluated (which means that I changed my mind on this topic later) and I got myself a pan because it was getting a bit too rough.

 I was thinking- okay so what gadget will help me the most and I got myself a kettle (the kettle is the thing you make your water boil in for tea and for coffee)

I thought that I would be creative and I would manage to survive on just cooking with a kettle but turns out it is way more difficult than I thought… actually, it is almost impossible.

Well, you are able to survive but it is not exactly the best culinary experience. Here are some tips for things you can make with a kettle if you need to:

1) tea and coffee-  I know right… you didn’t expect that 

2) couscous (that was my best friend)

3) oatmeal (it’s not the best but it is alright) 

4) Chinese noodle soup (classic) 

5) you can defrost frozen vegetables with hot boiling water …but it is kind of nasty (nasty means disgusting or not very good)

So as you can see not the best meals.

By this time I also went on some trips. And even though I went with some friends, sometimes I just ended up discovering the places alone because I tried to stay as low budget as possible (low budget means that you want to spend a little money) and not everyone wants to do that.

Usually, it is a lot of walking. I am not kidding (when I say I am not kidding, it means that it is not a joke). When I was walking through Paris by 4 pm I had to take a break every 15 minutes, sit down and just let my feet hang for a bit because of the exhaustion (exhaustion is the feeling you get when you are very tired) was real.

But it has its own charms (when something here has its own charms it means that it has some advantages) I made a pretty good picture of the city center which is not always the case when you take trams or buses everywhere.

Another thing that I have learnt at the French uni which is not intentionally thought (that means that they didn’t teach me that on purpose – they didn’t want to teach me but I learned that) is that it is very rare for any class to start on time.

I have always made a little bit of fun out of the fact that professors are not rushing anywhere even in the Czech Republic but here it is on another level.

In the book, you can see a small graph that I created that shows the number of people in the class and the time.

So when the class starts at 10:00 am, 9:55 I am in the classroom and I am waiting, 

Then it’s 10 a.m. and there is still only me.

10:05 it’s me and one other person

 it’s 10:10: there is me and one other person and the teacher 

10:15 the rest of the class shows up 

Right, that really didn’t help my own punctuality (punctuality it’s the ability to come on time)… so the longer I was in France, the later I was showing up everywhere.

I was just embracing chaos.

The weather was very tricky and by very tricky I mean unpredictable.

I know that was Normandy it rains a lot, I get that. I am not complaining about the weather, that would be unnecessary. However I will complain about the timing of the weather because this is my book and also my podcast and I can do whatever I want.

I felt like it is important to mention my luck with the timing of the weather. 

When I was in the classroom, it was sunny outside. It was so beautiful I wanted to go out. Then my class finished and I had to walk to mydorm room (dorm room is the building or the room you get from University and you can live there)-  it was exactly 7 minutes from my classroom to my dorm room.

It was sunny when I was sitting in the classroom, then on my seven minute walk it started raining so hard I was incredibly wet. When I came back I was like I took a shower. And then I came to my room and it was sunny again. 

Sometimes I feel like Murphy’s laws are working overtime with the weather (when something or someone is working overtime it means that it works a lot or too much)… so Murphy’s laws were working too much and too often.

Right, I have an umbrella…of course, I do how many times did I use it? Twice.

I don’t know what it is but every time I have it in my bag, I just don’t need it and every time I forget it, it is raining like it’s no one’s business(when it’s raining like it’s no one’s business it means that it rains a lot)

And when on the topic of my luck I got sick while in France- don’t worry, it was not serious (not that you were worried) but the thing is that I am never sick maybe once every two years so, of course, I had to fall ill while being alone in a foreign country.

I know I am being super dramatic, it wasn’t that bad. I just had a fever and a few other problems but I recovered after a week, and thank god, it wasn’t COVID because I swear if I had to stay in my shoe box of a room for more than a week alone, I would literally go crazy.

Even the week after my illness I felt so weak and it was impossible to force myself to be active.

 Erasmus party? my mind was like „hell yeah“… but my body just refused to get out of bed.

I remember someone telling me before I left for France that the Erasmus experience is all about partying and nothing else.

I guess it does not have to be like that all the time.

People think I’m parting in France but what I was actually doing was visiting museums, reading, walking in parks and having wine with my friends.

During my whole stay in France, I was sometimes struggling with my mental health. It feels weird (that means strange) writing it here and saying it in a podcast since it is something so personal but it is a part of me and I am not ashamed of that.

Sometimes I just stayed in my bed and didn’t want to do anything… but that is okay too.

Anyway working on this book helped me to feel more productive and get out of my head for a second.

Here you have a little tip from me when you are depressed …and just to remind you: this is not meant to be taken seriously:

CRY IN THE SHOWER:

that way you cannot tell what is water and what are your tears …

bonus: you can cross out basic hygiene of your non-existing to-do list!

Multitasking who? 

and here we are at the end of part 2!

The next part- number three- is called „Where did the time go?“ and it is about my final weeks in France.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you want to make sure that you do not miss any new ones, you can sign up for a newsletter and I will send you an email every time there is a new episode.

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If you were not sure about any words, check out the transcript and also make sure you check your understanding with the quiz that you find under the transcript!

I will be happy for any feedback – you can write me a message on Instagram where you can find me @dajinka73.

Have a lovely day, bye-bye!