During the period leading up to my Erasmus year, I was asked hundreds of times why I had chosen to study in Finland. Most British students I knew who went on Erasmus exchanges studied languages and went to France, Germany or Spain. But as I found out more about the country I was going to study in, I discovered that the University of Tampere ran interesting courses, and I became fascinated by Finland’s climate, landscape and history.

I didn’t settle immediately into my new life. But despite the unsettled times, I fell in love with Finland. Their social system is enviable, and I came to understand very soon why Scandinavian social policy has been constantly held up as the ideal throughout my Sociological studies. I took a course called ‘Social work with families and children in Finland’, and it was excellent to learn about this subject from Finland’s perspective. Even more valuable was the real-life experience I had in finding out about Finnish social welfare. Speaking to Finnish people during my time there enabled me to gain real knowledge about education and childcare arrangements, and rights, laws and benefits relating to the family. Seeing for myself how social policy operates in reality has provided me with knowledge and experiences vital to my planned future area of study and work in the social work realm. Another benefit of the University of Tampere was its Women’s Studies department. There were countless courses available in English and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to take this opportunity of studying my passion in such depth. As well as this focus on gender, I took classes in Finnish language and culture, American history and comparative social work. This diversity of topics would only have been available to me through Erasmus.

Early on in my Erasmus experience, I anticipated that I’d benefit socially and culturally, but I’ve gained equally in academic terms. Studying abroad allowed me to study new and different topics, and to take control of my own learning. I feel that when I return to my home university for my final year, I will be more disciplined and able to study in a more independent fashion than I did prior to going on Erasmus. That said I also enjoyed the social side of Erasmus. There was always someone to meet for coffee or go out with. A particularly fond memory of Erasmus is our long lunches in the university cafeteria. It was during one of these lunches that we coined the term “European feeling” to describe the way we felt more European than British, or German, or Spanish. Our European Feeling was very apparent when a group of us travelled to Helsinki’s senate square for the Eurovision song contest; we cheered for every single country because we could find some connection to all the acts performing.

Whilst in Finland, I visited Russia, Sweden, Estonia and Lapland and now I have a wealth of floors I can sleep on all over the world. I barely knew anything about Erasmus before I went but now I feel like it’s shaped my life. Erasmus provided me with the perfect opportunity to try out living in a different country but with a purpose and support system. I had all the benefits of experiencing a new culture but was safe in the knowledge that I wasn’t alone. I didn’t expect Erasmus to do so much for every area of my life but I’m pretty sure my decision to go to Finland was the best I’ve ever made.

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