à la Suisse

Having come back to Vancouver at the end of the summer, my stuff had made a tornado-like exit out of my suitcase and onto my floor, and bed, and chair. Is this what they mean by pathetic fallacy?

My mind was still swimming in the Black Sea in Ukraine, and that was why for me it was so weird to be sitting back in my room. Peaches on beaches, salty, spraying waters, everything glistening under the summer sun in Odessa. How sweet and carefree it is for the mind to wander.

To wander down sidewalks, and back into time.

There’s many things I did not get a chance to write about during my exchange, in part (or for the most part) due to the hefty course load I decided to take on.. French classes, a class in the neighboring university of EPFL, biology classes. Though this felt at times like an extra weight during my exchange, and at times made me feel constrained in the activities and outings I did during my exchange, overall I felt this really helped me to fully immerse myself into life in Switzerland.

How to put these memories, the six months of my exchange into words?
It’s been an absolutely surreal experience, in many ways different for me than I had thought, maybe in this way it has also been eye opening.

Not saying that my life back home is not a learning experience, but there is just something special about meeting and connecting with people from all over the world, getting out into the great Swiss outdoors, getting more out of an introversive shell I have built for myself during more challenging, recent years of my life, and being comfortable without it. I felt this ever so strongly in my first weeks back to Vancouver, I felt a whole new way of seeing the Rockies flying back home over them.

There are many things I have learned from my experience abroad that has molded and shaped me, changed me and my perspective, and these things are so important to me and I hope to convey these thoughts through a series of follow up posts starting from this one.

Like I mentioned before, one of the things that wasn’t planned but ended up happening during my exchange was a heftier course load. During my time at UBC I had taken many of my Science requirements, thinking that exchange will be a chance for me to wind down (a little, I will still be in classes!) and take my elective classes. Little did I realize how much I would enjoy the courses offered in Lausanne..

One thing that I was not expecting applying for GoGlobal was being placed in a French speaking environment. Narrowing down my top three choices of universities for GoGlobal, this hadn’t been a huge priority for me, but having arrived in Lausanne I realized that this was actually the most perfect opportunity for me to clear up the dusty cobwebs from the part of my brain that once learned to read and speak in French and immerse myself into a French speaking environment. At UNIL, there was also the option to take a class as an “auditeur libre”. What this means is basically that the professor has given consent for you to be in the class, however, it is not required for you to complete any assignments, nor will anything show on your final transcript. In a nutshell, sitting in on lectures. And so this was what I ended up doing for a Russian writing class and two art history classes. I found the lecturers inspiring for these classes and as well this was an opportunity to practice French listening skills as all classes were taught in French.

My final curriculum ended up being an unprecedented mix of French classes, biology classes, my EPFL course, two art history and a Russian writing class. This was at times overwhelming, especially during the biology module that I had, and maybe in the future I would reconsider its extra load, but with this mix of courses I was in my happy place.

Future suggestions for any students going to the University of Lausanne – if you are keen to learn French, but may not feel up to the classes intended for French speakers, there is a great department within the Faculty of Arts called Ecole de français langue étrangère. Literally translated to “French as a second language”, this department has great classes for non-French speakers intending to continue with their French studies!

à bientôt:-)
Yuliya