Let's continue our tour of European cities with all the tips provided by people who spent their Erasmus year there. After Budapest, here you have a unique report of Portsmouth, the little seaside village in the UK. Our host this week is Antoine aka Antuan, co-author of Babelyon blog.



Finding a place to stay: the uni helps you but life is expensive
I arrived in Portsmouth one week before the term start, with my backpack as only friend. I was helped from the very beginning by the university: free minibus transfer from the train station to the temporary accommodation in a seaside campus, private room at a fair price (about
£15 a night), house-hunting day with free phone and buses to the city centre, advice on housing contracts, etc. Everything was organised and planned by the foreign students department. The only thing I had to take care of was making friends, which was easy since most EU students opted for the Uni temporary accommodation offer.
Nevertheless, even helped by the Uni, finding a nice place to stay in Portsmouth isn't hassle-free. It depends where you want to live.
Portsmouth being an island city, it is densely populated. The City Centre where the main campus is located isn't very attractive.
Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy (see original marines in the above picture) and, hence, suffered heavy bombings during WWII. Although some historic buildings remain, much of the centre is "a product of myopic and uninspired postwar development" as the Lonely Planet puts it.
Therefore many students choose to live in the nearby chill-out seaside resort of Southsea. I myself ended up in a gorgeous three-storey Victorian house a short walk from the seafront. Nonetheless I was probably the luckiest of my friends. Virtually all of them lived in terraced houses in and around Albert Road, Southsea.
Continental Europeans must know that living in the UK is costly. As a means of comparison, I paid more or less the same for my shared room in Portsmouth (a middle-sized city) as for my flat in Lyon (France second-biggest city).

Portsmouth University: beware of the Chinese box
I studied two years at Portsmouth University (BSc and MSc). I'm overall happy with the education provided. A great variety of subjects was available. In France I struggled (and failed) to find a Internet degree which wasn't IT only whereas in Portsmouth I could choose between e-learning, creative technologies, e-commerce, etc. But beware of the all-powerful finance department! They seem to have forgotten that their "clients" are students and not senior executive managers.
Make sure that the degree you're interested in is attended by British students. This may sound awkward but some degrees are marketed for the foreign market (tuition fees for non-EU students are three times higher) and directly sold abroad by Portsmouth Uni overseas offices.
Unfortunately for many of these degrees, derogatively nicknamed 'Chinese box', the teaching is not up to the standard it should be.

Places: jogging, beers & the Isle of Wight
1. As Portsmouth is so compact, one often wants to escape. My fave destination is the Isle of Wight, a 10min hovercraft ride from Southsea.
Once on the island, head to the village of Seaview, follow a seaside footpath southwards into the woods and you'll find yourself in one of the most beautiful beaches I know.
2. If you like jogging, the seafront is the perfect spot. Unlike Brighton's, Portsmouth beaches are separated from the city by a vast green space, Southsea Common. So while running you'll enjoy the view on the Isle of Wight without being annoyed by the traffic.
3. On a sunny day, get yourself a beer and watch the ships going in and out the harbour from Old Portsmouth walls.

Partying: don't tell people too early!
There are many places where to go out in Portsmouth. Forget Gunwharfs quays, a former Navy site turned commercial precinct, it is way too chainy. Give Guildhall walk in the City Centre a try. You'll find out that the best pub around is the Registry.
In Southsea, the seafront is lined with clubs. My favourite is the raucous Chaos on South Parade pier. About 10min from there, Albert Road is good fun: great pubs (Festings), bars (One-eyed dog, Wine vaults), curries and music for gig-goers (Wedgewood rooms).
However EU students prefer the cheaper and more international house parties. When organising one, remember this: don't tell people too early. Word of mouth is very efficient amongst foreign students. For the first party we threw, we told about 20 people a week in advance. Hundred came!

My feeling: a brilliant Erasmus village
Portsmouth might not be pretty but it is a brilliant Erasmus city.
You'll learn to love Southsea: the seafront, the pubs and above all the student life. In Portsmouth no need to take the tube to meet your new friends. A student village within the town!

Pictures by Antoine

What's to be Erasmus in...Warsaw? ...Budapest? ...Paris? ...Istanbul?

Eurogeneration wants to start a practical series of articles 100% fed by people spending or having spent their Erasmus period in any European city.

This person would be credited and would be asked to send a picture of him/her illustrating his/her experience (not mandatory).

Information I need:

• Finding a place to stay: where to find the best offers both online and offline; what you should knwo to rent a place; universitary campus; prices etc.
• University: are there classes in English? is local language teaching well provided? how does the university system work? what are the tips to live in the university 
• Places: tell me 3 places you absolutely recommend to see/visit in your city that are really special and not touristic 
• Partying: where to party with other Erasmus, best tips, cultural thinigs to take into account in clubs, pubs or whenever (about alcohol, things to do/not to do) 
• Your feeling about your experience in that city: would you recommend it to someone else?

Your picture if you agree

Send your contribution to farano[at]cafebabel.com

September. Time of arrival for 400,000 European students who set up in one of the hundreds of University cities that host the Erasmus project. But September is, unfortunately, also the time for getting back to their routines for about 350,000 students who, in the past academic year, have gone through an experience that is said to be capable of transforming one’s life in most of the cases. At least for one year or a semester.  After that, one gets back to his own old habits and can trigger a sort of “post-Erasmus depression”.
If you type such an expression into Google no psychology site pops out. By contrast, I came across the unbeatable dissertation written by Fiorella de Nicola about the subject Antropologia dell'Erasmus. Partire studenti, vivere sballati, tornare uomini «Anthropology of the Erasmus. Leaving as students, ruining our lives, returning as adults»).  It might be an irony of life, but Fiorella and I – Fiorella was in Alicante during the academic year 2004/5 – are from the very same city, Cava de’ Tirreni [ I enjoyed making a montage of the two towns. Our little town is nice but would not Fiorella have written the same stuff if she had left for little Finnish village?]

My compatriot got it very right in depicting the naivety of those who are living the last days of the Erasmus experience:

«They don’t have a clue about what is waiting for them back in their countries “the post Erasmus syndrome”. They don’t know how horrible their house will look, their city either too cold or too hot, University boring as never before, the TV squalid, their friends just average…they will be overwhelmed by a depression as huge as a Kuala Lumpur sky scraper. They will reject anything which is not related to their Erasmus. The syndrome is experienced by all, without exception, but the intensity and the length of it will vary. Since it is just a syndrome that will be by definition a temporary condition, a thing that can, must, last just a while…not to become pathetic»

Her speculation on the meaning of the word identity managed to convince us:

«In short we must be prepared to lead an existence of  outsiders, people without roots. That will be not because we don’ t have a homeland. In fact we will have too! Or even more. Ours, the one we were born and brought up in. The one that has “adopted” us for one or two semesters. Our friend’s ones: Germans, French, Portuguese, Mexicans, English, Scandinavians, Americans, Canadians: their houses in Alicante were ours. And who knows what kind of  magic was applied in order for us to feel that a bit of their cultures, their friends’, has become part of us… «It might as well be that this funny joke of the European identity is not that far from reality»
Will that be true? And how to come out from the Post Erasmus depression? Eurogeneration opens up the debate.
Have your say, in the comments.

Translated by Alessandro Mancosu - Welcome, Alessandro on Eurogeneration!

Foto Pedro Prats Michael Khoo/Flickr.com