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Personal Erasmus Report - Strasbourg
Marc Kendil
marckendil@hotmail.com
Host University: Université de Strasbourg Euroculture MA
My semester at the University of Strasbourg remains a memorable exchange in a wonderful country and very special city. As part of my master’s degree Euroculture: Society, Politics and Culture in a Global Context, we could choose a university within the consortium for our second semester and I opted for Strasbourg for several reasons. First of all, the university has good ties with the European institutions and the program’s curriculum has a major focus on the major EU institutions. Moreover, besides the fact that Strasbourg is an EU capital, it also granted me the opportunity to speak my second mother tongue, French, which made my stay very comfortable. Nevertheless, during this semester, I followed four mandatory components which earned me a total of 30 ECTS; a Research Seminar of 9 ECTS, Methodology of 9 ECTS, Eurocompetence II of 6 ECTS and finally the Intensive Programme of 6 ECTS.
The quality of education was very high with professors that were experts in their fields. Some of our professors are actually working in the EU institutions and having them teach us with their insider knowledge was valuable. Valentin Haumesser, the coordinator of the MA in Strasbourg, as well as Alexandre Kostka, co-director of the MA, represent a highly experienced staff who always offered help when needed. They were also interactive teachers with a good sense of humor so showing up to the classes they taught was fun and
informative. With regards to the reception I received at the host institution, everything went by smoothly as we were well informed on where to show up on our first day. We were greeted by the MA staff with a presentation in a large conference room and later on given a goody-bag with leaflets followed by informal talks with snacks and local wine. Regarding accommodation, it was very easy to get a room as we received a link to apply for a room at
2 Crous de Strasbourg well in advance during the first semester of our studies, where we were given several room-options. Crous is a national student welfare organization which provides students with cheap university residence rooms and student-friendly restaurants. I highly recommend applying for these types of rooms as the application process is simple and the rooms are the cheapest, located right in front of the university campus.
My home institution, Groningen University, was always there with support when needed. Contact with the Groningen staff was good and efficient; I believe I only contacted the coordinators once or twice when I needed to have some documents signed. With regards to an estimation of my expenses during my exchange, I would say that I spent an average of 900 Euros a month. Strasbourg is not exactly a cheap city, so food and drinks were on the expensive side and I also picked the most expensive housing of 465 Euros a month as I wanted to have a new and modern room considering how fed up I was with poor housing in the past years. Crous provides rooms of about 165 Euros a month so it is definitely possible to lower the expenses considerably. Nevertheless, it is quite common for students to do their groceries in Kehl, in Germany as prices are lower on the other side of the border. Thus, I regularly took the tram into Kehl, which was just two tram stops away; that’s the beauty of Strasbourg!
I did not encounter any issues during my exchange period in Strasbourg. Everything went smoothly, I did not have any language issues as I speak French; however, for those that do not speak French, it should not be a problem as most speak English. All in all, I highly recommend Strasbourg and its university for an exchange semester; the city is beautiful, rich in history and vibrant. There is a certain ‘joie de vivre’ in the city which made me enjoy my stay even more as the people are outgoing, the inner city vibrant with tourists and locals alike enjoying their food and beverages at outside terraces and parks. The city was under both German and French rule through history, and this is very visible on its architecture and
3 language which makes it an interesting place. Strasbourg is also famous for its bar-culture rather than club-culture and this was personally refreshing. Additionally, I recommend travelling on weekends or whenever one finds the time for it as there is so much to see in the Alsace region.
For instance, in the Alsace region, I travelled to nearby cities such as Colmar,
Selestat, Riquewihr and Mulhouse; small and picturesque cities. Alsace is also famous for its Vosges mountains, just a short ride away from Strasbourg. I recommend exploring the mountains with beautiful large hills but also its castles that are dotted all over the region and catapult you back into the old days, giving you a magnificent view over the region and if you’re lucky, you can spot Strasbourg from a distance. The most famous of them all, the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle is a must followed by other famous castles such as the
Fleckenstein Castle, the Saint-Ulrich Castle and the Mont Sainte-Odile. Transportation to and from the chateaus is easy as there are bus shuttles taking you there from nearby small towns, which you can reach by train from Strasbourg. Not only did I explore Alsace, I also took trains into Germany and Switzerland during free weekends. Train tickets are reasonably priced, and Strasbourg is perfectly connected to cities such as Stuttgart, Frankfurt in Germany and Basel, Bern and Zurich in Switzerland. If you wish to see more of France, I recommend buying a TGV Pass for 79 Euros a month which gives you unlimited travel in France with the famous highspeed TGV train, which, for instance, takes you to Paris in 1 hour and 45 min; pretty impressive considering that Paris is 500 km away. Lastly, I recommend eating a traditional Alsatian dish called the Tarte Flambée or Flammenkeuche which is a pizza-like dish, served in several places. You can get the best deal in a student-friendly restaurant called Au Brasseur; they have happy hours with large pints of home-brewed beer for only three Euros and Tarte Flambées for three Euros as well. You can of course get better tasting Tarte
4 Flambées, however, as a student, you get more bang for your buck at Au Brasseur. Enjoy your stay!
